Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 50

THE DETROIT FREE PRESS -SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 1932 England Have Their Own Queer Code nri icarjs at uie dici vv 1111 linear ui Eternal Vengeanceand Then (for jC'-w the Pretty Ones) Whirlwind Mt Remarriage and an Mr MOT1 JM- Understanding with Hip fe the. Undertaker Jltf'hs I Stmt ti tMfm mi Vf Above', in the Vv) circle, i. on. of ff v' th. photo- j- I 1 vt- I graph, of the i'A' BsrSss 1 -v '3 I 1 't hu creer in If' kJ il I i 11 At right, the del.

jksrV roommj hou.e ic.te 'AB 1 recently, both iike face of Ann. -'tU iJKjtr I'ij." I hi. wife, at Lonergan Lovett A I -JZj6 7 Wt Martin, hi. IVV brother nna iwo nu.oana. -a T5 I heart, right, hav been mur- 4 I wore venge- dered, the latter lit Mr 1 .7.

i and Anna Lonegraa Lovett-Martin. Xlct 7" 'f I "how career uem auperficlally ture of "Bad Bill" I i f). 0 Similar? Jmu TIo altort Pve- Lovett. Anna'i I and Anna Lonegran Lovett-Martin, whose careers seem superficially so similar? possessed a dozen. 1 Anna was born where both of tier husbands were killed in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, where IS successive dock-gang overlords have been murdered while the law remained help was rumored about that the throne-room was not big enough for both Murphy and En-right and that Big Tim had solved the problem by the simple expedient of importing four gunmen.

But the Murphy luck held, and Big Tim beat the rap. The verdict was popular, for by this time Tim's less to punish the killers. Anna's father died a violent death. Her mother was held, but acquitted. The father been a drunkard, a roaring, fighting drunkard.

His death caused little sorrow. When Anna was 21, her dark, slim, girlish beauty attracted "Bad Bill" Lovett. He was then head of the dock loaders' gang on the Brooklyn water-front. His was the rule of the fist and the gat. His dominance sprang from the fear which his fighting prowess roused in the 1 a A till 1 Leg" Lonergan.

On Christmas Day, 1925, "I'egLeg" was drinking in a South Brooklyn speakeasy. AI Capone was there, too. Loner-gan's gang didn't like the Italian gangsters and the feeling was mutual. There were words, then shots. The upshot was that 'Teg-Leg" and two fellow "Red Onions" were killed.

Martin was found dying outside a Ue-Kalb Ave. speakeasy a few weeks ago. He was bleeding profusely when (two "coppers" found him. "Who shot you. Matt?" one of them asked.

In spite of his pain, Martin looked up with a grin a grin of contempt. "Al Capone's brother-in-law," he answered. The policemen knew it was a gag, but they couldn't get any more out of him. At Matty Martin's bedside, his wife Anna was much more talkative. But Martin went to his death with bis lips sealed, and thereafter Anna's threats vanished Into thin air.

Gangland exacts a tribute of silence, and gangland's rode had been respected. Let's shift the scene to Chicago. The calendar turns back to 1911. James "Pipes" McDermott had been elected to Congress from the back o' the yards district. One of his most loyal campaigners had been a good-looking, twenty-seven-year-old lad, with Irish eyes.

He stood six-feet-three In his socks and his name was Tim Murphy. To get this lad a Job In Washington shaped up as a shrewd political move for McDermott, so he pulled strings and brought his protege to the Capitol as sergeant-at-arms to the House. At about the same time, a sixteen-year-old Virginia girl applied for and found work In the office of Representative William J. Carey of Wisconsin. This girl's name was Florence Dlggs, and she was very pretty.

I ir A I hearts of his gang. Tradition had it that the generalissimo of the White Hit riders and the Red Onions must be very tough. The dynasty to which BUI Lovett had succeeded was not one which held out privileges of luxury to Us leader. The hrone The camera caught Lottie Coll at the moment learned that her hu.band, Vincent Coll, the "Mad Dog of Har. lem," had been mowed down by fifteen whining Cho.t photo of Vincent at right.

Above, adorned by an expensive fur neckpiece, i. Florence Murphy Obera, former Virginia girl, twice widowed by Chicago gangland Directly above thi. caption, Big Tim Murphy, her fir.t hu.band. In the other circle, "Dingbat" Oberta, who went on the after he ub.tituted a wedding gown for her mourning habit. TWO men who lived liv I lie gnu met ilcatl) flftor 1 he manner of all gunmen and went to their graves only a few lavg apart.

Ilnlh were married. When Vincent Coll, "the Mad Dog of Harlem." wan rulilted out in downtown telephone lioolh aN his bodyguard fled, his young widow, Lottie Kriesberger Coll. rushed to the scene and blurted out "1 loved Vincent more than life, and if I rind out who bumped him off I'll kilt him myself." When Matty Margin, ace of the Ked Hook sang and "Ilildago of the Docks," was dying a lingering death In a Brooklyn hospital, his wife, Anna Lonergan Lovett Martin, cried: "If Matt dies. I'll tell. And what a story I can tell! I know I'm already on the spot, but I'll get them with the law's aid and before they get me.

I'll turn In every one of the yellow rata. I can identify them. It's going to be a war to the death between those mobmen and mo-one woman against a whole rotten pack-but I'm not frightened of them!" Brave words. But were they words of bravado? Sincere threats? Or aimply hysterical ravings? The answer to those questions lies locked In the hearts of Mrs. Martin and Mrs.

Coll. But both of these personable young ladies are simply sisters In sorrow to hundreds of other women thrown into mourning by gangland vengeance during the past 12 years. They often threaten to "squawk," but they don't. It's gangland's code. To Btudy the reactions of the underworld moll and widow, we have the cases of Mrs.

Alice Diamond, for instance, widow of the notorious "Legs," 'Klkl" Roberts, who was bis sweetheart and soul-mate of this same clay pigeon of the underworld; Mrs. Florence Murphy-Oberta, widowed twice witbln 20 months by the withering fire of Chicago gangland niachlno-gun slugs. And scores of others. Without exception, these women have vowed vengeance. privat'My or publicly, over the biers of their men.

But far from carrying out their throats, these same women, almost without exception, quickly buried their sorrows. Some of them stepped into fields of notoriety. Mrs. Malt. Martin, for instance, had promised upon the death of her first husband, "Bad Bill" Lovett, to apprehend his murderer and kill him herself.

One of the men strongly suspected of killing Lovett was Matty Martin. Less than a year after Lovett's death, however, the erstwhile sorrowing widow became Martin's bride! This same apparent yearning for a seiond widowhood sent Florence, the baxom widow of "Big Tim" Murphy, into the arms of "Dingbat" Johnny Oberta, young Chicago racketeer-politician, less than 12 months after the affable and colorful Tim had been mowed down on the lawn of his North Side home. And at this writing the two women who loved Jack "Legs" Diamond, his -2ow and the exotic "Kikl." are appearing In vaudeville and burlesque apparently willing to let his killers go their way. lp to now, at least, intimateo have not been able to detect any emotion of revenge in either of liiese two women. Lottie foil, who is said aiier Vincent's dealb thai she would go baek to A Chicago dome.tic scene before Big Tim Murphy, politician, racketeer, bank robber, Robin Hood and devoted hu.band, wa.

rubbed out by underworld Murphy i. at left, darning Little Dorothy, their S-year-old adopted daughter lie. on Big Tim', Big Tim i. credited with coining thei word "Racket." THE close of Congressional busi ness in June, 1913, the dark-haired gangdom horoscope of Ixttie Coll, Alice Diamond and "Klki" Roberts. These three women are si ill young, still easy to look at.

"Kiki," in fact, has lost very little of the beauty hich placed her, a few years ago, In Ziegleld's Follies. Will they fall in love again, and pligh' second troths in the submachine gun realm? Who can tell? Perhaps not eNen they But whether they marry in or out of gangland they will probably continue to hold to gangland's code: "Don't squawk!" (Copyright, lfWJ, KiiiK fralurr. Syn.Ji'-ali'. Im- charities were famous. No man in need ever asked his assistance In vain.

But when tie was found red handed with ,140,000 alter the Dearborn Street Station mall robbery, Big Tim 'had to take a rap. So he went to Leavenworth for three years. His power was waning, lie didn't know It, but he was definitely slipping. A little later It dawned on him, and he told Florenco that they would buy a farm, and live on it peacefully. One night his doorbell rang.

He opened the door and no one was there. Ho stepped outsido, to Investigate. Before he could escape a low-slung sedan came purring down the street, a machine-gun spat fire, and Big Tim, darling of the back o' the yards, fell dead. "I'll get them." Florence said then. "Oooh my Tim my." was not In any ornate hotel suite, and the king could know nothing at all about tropical estates, yachts and powerful cars.

As waterfront czar, Lovett worked his eight and nine hours a day as a longshoreman with the others of his gang. But it -was he who had to say who could and could not work on the docks, he who dictated terms to shippers, he who handled the union funds. No more hidebound monopoly ever existed than that of the Red Hook parcel-loaders, and it was to the perilous job of leading it that Bill Lovett fell heir. Just as be was accustomed to having his way with men, so he was accustomed to having his way with women. He was leader among the only men Anna Loner-gan had a chance to know.

She was the belle of the district. So they were married. Anna prevailed on Lovett to quit the gang and buy a quiet home over in New Jersey. "I'll go straight, Anna," he told her, "so sure as my name's Bill Lovett." He had been in trouble with the police since he was a small lad. But they moved over to New Jersey, and for three months Jived blissfully.

Then, one day, Lovett left the house in the morning. He evidently bad meant It when he promised to "go straight," but nine years in the racket couldn't be shaken off so easily. He went over to his old haunts to pay a friendly call on his eron'es and they found him the next morning Bhot to death in the rear of a store in the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge. Anna Lonergan Lovett swore vengeancebut that was In the winter of 1923. August, 1924, she married Matty Martin.

Anna bad a brother. He had only one good leg. But he wa3 as much a polite problem as he could have been if be had her original wort as dress model. She has Bhrouded her past In mystery. She admitted to police that her name was not Kriesberger (as she swore when she was marrying the youthful-looking killer only a month before his death).

She refused to tell her real name. But police laugh when Lottie Coll says she will break away from the underworld. They say that twice before Vincent's death she was bereaved by gang guns. Asked about this, she said nothing. She simply cried: "I loved Vincent.

Our home life was so happy. I enjoyed so much doing the cooking and what little housework there was In our little apartment. He was always kind to me. He was wonderful. He was the only one who ever gave me a wedding ring." LOTTIE COLL, in appearance and in beating, does not conform to ordinary specifications of a woman in the uuderworld.

Samuel Leibowitz, New York lawyer, who successfully defended Coll in his "baby killing" trial for the murder of a five-year-old boy last summer in the congested upper Kast Side of Manhattan, told a reporter for this newspaper: "Ixittie Coll Is a fine, upstanding girl of evident refinement. She had the misfortune to be in love with a man who for one reason or another was cordially feared and hated by forces within and without the law. I don't believe she knows who killed her husband. I don't believe she has any knowledge at all of the secrets of the underworld. Obviously she did not belong in the underworld and is not a part of It.

"I heard her turn down an offer of $7,500 for her life story just after Coll death. Her answer was that she could not Be bought; that she would not sell her soul for a mere sum of money. That's the kind of a girl Lottie is." But of Florence Tlmmy and little Florence Dlggs had been around a lot. And when Tim proposed, In his ever-ardent way, there was only one answer. They were married, and Tim proudly brought his bride back to Chicago's South Side.

Spurred on by Florence, Tim decided to run for the Legislature. A powerful, plain-spoken figure, he adopted a slogan which made him Immediately famous "Vote for Big Tim Murphy He's a Cousin of Mine" and was victorious. After this taste of powder, he camo back to the South Side two years later with a yearning for more and more influence. He loved the adoration of the populace, and reasoned that the greatest political power could be found, not in office, but out of office. The gas house workers were drawing down low wages.

An organizer, Tim figured, could get those wages up. So Tim organized them, took over the leadership of their organization, and raised the rate of pay. In a speech shortly thereafter he said with eloquent gestures: "They shouted around that I was a tough guy and a gunman, but that only made, the eggs pile Into the union faster!" Shortly thereafter Big Tim organized the Street Sweepers Union and the Street Foremen's Union, naturally drawing down a suitable compensation from them. In 1920, Tim got into trouble over the murder of Maurice "Mossy" Enright, who had been one of h's ambitious lieutenants in the labor organization work. It EAXWHILK, a new link belween M' politics ami the underworld had Coffee Battles Tea for Britain's Favor LONDON (U.

Britishers drank i wo and a quarter billion fewer cup' of tea than in and almost six billion fewer than in 1923. But it cannot be said that the tea drinking habit Is decreasing rapidly. Consumption in still averaged approximately eight and a half cups daily for every man, woman and child In the United Kingdom. The habit of drinking at least one cup of tea before rising in the morning still lingers and rare is the home, or office, which does not have its tea regularly every afternoon. While consumption of tea is decreasing, coffee Is becoming more popular.

Coffee consumption in 1931 was pounds, an Increase of about 1.500.0U0 pounds over but still representing onsiilcra'. ly less than one pound per person for the year. been growing to power. He was Johnny "Dingbat" Oberta. He was a pallbearer at the Murphy funeral.

He was seven or eight years the widow's junior. But he gently pressed hc-r hand. About 10 months later, Mrs. Murphy had become Mrs. Oberta.

Just as this nutch increased "The Dingbat's" political prestige. It lessened his years. Ho loomed as a menace to other influential factions. So it was not long before "The Dingbat," once handsome and pink-cheeked, was erased. Florence Biggs was a widow again.

Once more she promised to "squawk." But she didn't. TerlKips it Is rarly yet to read the I.