Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 December 1951 — Page 15

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In Indi olis By Ed Mlianapelis :

“SURE, I believe in Santa Claus—Mr, and Mrs. Ridge.” ; Twelve-year-old David Ridge, 234 N. Devon Ave., put aside a toy ping-pong ball rifle, straightened his Confederate hat and smiled. - I had just spent a bruising.couple: 6f hours watching" youngsters talk ‘to Santa Claus in de-

| partment store toy departments and felt about 4

years old. David's answer, so casual and sure, When do kids stop believing in St: Nick? > © : THIRTY feet away wére 100 believer fidgeting with excitment, talkative, turning their heads to look for their mothers and fathers. It was a big moment to walk up to the man with the white whiskers. In fact, the moment was so big for some, they lost the power of speech. There is much to see and it's a toss-up whether the parents or the children offer more to a sensitive soul to appreciate. A carefully rehearsed speech to Santa goes haywire and Mamma breaks into a slow smile and lowers her head. When the little rascal rejoins her, she can’t shut him up. For weeks little Johnny has been straining: at the leash to talk to Santa Claus. His Dad has his hands full keping him .in line. When the time comes to. step up and say his piece, Johnny has to be pushed by an assistant. Then he stands with his hand in his mouth, . petrified when the Christmas idol puts his arms around him. ob. THERE are the toddlers who pull on the whiskers, talk mile a minute, won't leave when Santa feels he’s had enough orders. Shy .or frightened, bold or talkative, each child experiences the thrill of a lifetime, even if the tears are rolling down chubby cheeks.

And you watch and feel envious of parents and children alike and then ask a young man in a Confederate hat if he still believes in Santa. David Ridge, too old to believe in a wonderful fairy tale and too young to appreciate what fantasy means to the spirit, speaks his mind. : S$ S RONNIE CONDON, also 12, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Condon, 1333 Shannon. Ave. David's buddy, tells you he found out ‘he score about Santa when he was “about 7.” Are you going to talk to Santa?” I asked we Ronnie-adjusted-his Yankee hat and chuckled. “I see him on television every day.”. Ah, but this gophisticated youth.

was in line with her two daughters, Micheal, 8, and Pat, 5. (The names surprised me, too.) Micheal came along for the ride. She was checked out about Santa. Pat was the one who still “hung her stocking with care.” > & »

MICHEAL knew, she couldn’t say exactly why, that Santa doesn't come from the North Pole on Christmas Eve and leave toys for good boys and girls. There were too many Santas around, too early. OH.

By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Dec. 4—1 got up very early— for me—to go down to Supreme Court to see whether Schnozzola Durante owns three words, “That's My Boy.” It'd have been funnier if Jimmy'd been there. He could have opened court singing “Inky-Dinky-Doo.” ; There were just some lawyers and Justice Denis O'Leary Cohalan. And not one lousy joke! : : . “Umbriago” was made famous by Jimmy. Also “Goodnight, Mrs. Kalabash, wherever you are” (whoever she is). But Schnozz was trying to stop the showing of the movie, “That's My Boy,” because, his lawyers say, he made the expression famous. Whenever Jimmy walks down the street, people rush up and greet him with “That's my boy,” argued his attorney, Mr. Michael -Halperin. So picture his dejection when Martin & Lewis made a picture for Paramount, produced by Hal Wallis, called, “That's My Boy.” oo < oe UP STEPPED that glib and polished coungelor, Mr. Louis Nizer, attorney for Paramount, who was thoroughly astonished at Mr. Halperin’s narrow attitude. “rite” and “stale” were among the adjectives he flung at the expression. Schnozz's huge nose and Ynkly-Dinky-Doo, possibly, were his trademarks, but not three simple words, said he. Helen Kane, he brought out, once sang a

song that had “Roop-boop-a-doo” in it. Somebody brought out a “character called ‘Betty Boop.”

Miss Kane tried to stop “Betty Boop"—but the court refused. » Still another sought to protect “Hubba hubba,” and couldn't. Mr. Nizer finally said Schnozzola was insulting his own talent when he claimed three words were. so important. ~ : 9 ONCE MORE arose Mr. Halperin. “Irving Berlin owns ‘God ‘Bless America’ and

’

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Dec. 4—1I feel that the subject of Samia Gamal, the dancer whose name means noble beauty, is too much a part of our history of fabled love to be lightly consigned to the circular file, now that she has become Mrs. Sheppard King of Houston, Tex., and love on the Nile has been consecrated by Moslem law. I was somewhat slighting, I fear, in a former reference ‘to the lady, and have heen taken sharply to task by an old Egypt hand who knew her when. According to Larry Babcock, my correspondent, Beth of “Little Women” had no patch on Samia as a paragon of all the virtues. To avoid a future hoss-whippin’ at the hands of the greatest lover since Mark Antony, I expect I better get or the hook on Samia. “GALLANTRY . and a passion for truth” writes Mr. Babcock, “bring me to the defense of Samia Gamal, whom you so recently besmirched. No Rita Hayworth, she, no Bergman. When 1 knew her in Cairo she was an obscure dancer fn a joint whose name I have forgotten on the Sharia Malika Farida-—and about as honest and admirable a female as you'd be=likely to find among the Bedouins or in Back Bay.” Our correspondent says that Samia was “illiterate fluently in three languages, and had been fll-used by an MP sergeant nicknamed Irish, who jilted her for a girl from Alabama, and at the mention of whose name she would shed. tears

the size of plastres.” oll

IT SEEMS that Samia unwisely loved the sergeant because, of all the odd denizens of Cairo, he was the only one who never smoked, drank or cussed, and who shared her passion for going to the movies, Our correspondent took her’ to the flickers, one night, to stem the tide of tears, and he says her chaperone handed out baksheesh and bangs on the head to all the beggars in their path. . There was a duplication of tickets, so the charitable Samia left the: duplicates at the box office with instructions that they be given only to American privates. “I never detected a trace of venality in Samia,” our friend writes. “During my long and innocent griendship with her all she ever asked of me outgide of mandatory dance-hall fees was a war correspondent’s shoulder pin. Her one wish was to ‘see America and die’ Now that this girl has made the grade, and is in. point of fulfilling a dream she may have dreamed in a Bedouin tent, be a sport and make amends when she finally arrives. §. “Since she has married below the MasonPixon line she will have trouble enough with-, out your high moral indignation.” As an old suth'n gentleman I feel our friend is right, although I did detect a trace of cad in him when he mentioned Samia’s figure.

' . : hate

Lit idinalt iis Eh ; p dts Ne Es n

Mrs. William E, Walter, 3435 N. Drexel Ave,’

It Happened Last Night

1)

When Santa’s Gone. We'll | Turn

To Ice

REAL SANTA ?—Certainly, it takes a. hee liever to know that and Ol' Nick has one in his arms. ) /

Older children, in town by themselves, had answers that would make the ol’ boy's whiskers turn red. “Aw, there ain't no—such thing as a Santa Claus. That's a lot of stuff.” “I don’t believe in Santa Claus. was a Santa once and got money for it.” along, boy.

My uncle Run

oN

"" »

BUT THE SEARCH goes on and a miracle happens. Mrs. Floyd Wilson, 4537 College Ave. is holding the hands of two believers, Margaret Ann, 8 and Larry, 2. The family recently returned from Bangkok, Siam, where Mr. Wilson was the American adviser of the YMCA. Margaret Ann was born in Europe. The past 41; years of her life were spent in Bangkok.

Now she is home, in her country where there is.

a Santa Claus and she was going to talk to him.

"Big deal? ‘ Santa Claus was it for Margaret Ann and Larry. The department was crowded

and the air stuffy and people were shoving -from-:=

all sides. Did it matter? No.

& oo oe

. "

_ ACTUALLY, great big, ‘fluffy white snowflakes were falling. Christmas trees, hundreds of them, were all around us. Each tree was covered with candy canes, paper chains, popcorn balls, icicles, sparkling trinkets. There was music in the air, soft music, angel music for Margaret Ann and Larry.

Santa Claus is real. Little children love him and will continue to love him. When they're gone, Santa Claus will be gone and the world will be

all ice. »

‘Sehnozz’ Puts Up A Legal Battle

Rodgers & Hammerstein own ‘South Pacific, ” said he. Justice Cohalan stirred. “I don’t think even Irvin Berlin would suggest Irving Berlin owns ‘God Bless America’. It would fall on deaf ears as far as I was con-. cerned,” His Honor said.

Well, they were given another week to file more papers, and. that's where we left them.

“Bb

THE MIDNIGHT EARL . .. The kidnap or “snatch” racket. will be revived, it's whis- # pered, by gamblers, bookmakers, etc, who now can’t make a living gambling. Rich wide-ly-publicized’ Cafe Socialites would be the victims. A big man in police uniform strode to the bar in Toots Shor’s, slapped down a paper, and announced, “I'm locking this place up tonight!” As he rushed out, the crowd realized

ge

the cop was practical joker : Pat O’Brien in a uniform he'd Miss Swanson

been wearing at a TV rehearssal. Winston Churchill's due the first two weeks in January ... Betty Dodero and Alan Curtis expect “to divorce early in '52 . , . Gloria Swanson wanted Jose Ferrer to doctor her play “Nina.” But his asking price, $3000-a-week and 3 pct, was deemed too high ... A famous store found that a famous lady clothes horse who charged everything expected it free. Now she has to pay cash. S&S 0

YW "e’

THE NEW B'WAY TALE is of the two marijuana puffers who were ‘really flying.” As they talked, a policeman sprinted after a burglar, right between them. One smoker said to the other, “Man, I thought they'd NEVER leave” . .. That's Earl, brother.

Bob Feels He Might've Slighted Dancer Samia

He. too, as far back as 1944, feared she would have a little trouble arotind the plimsoll line. That is the tragedy of some dancers, no matter how pure the mind or innocent the aim. They do have a tendency to thicken in the thwartships, possibly from undue activity of that region in the fulfillment of their art. . But I will endeavor to make my amends, and give the girl a rousing salaam aleikum when she comes to Miami to fulfill her night-club engagements; because I expeet that in addition to the Mason-Dixon line, she already has trouble enough in her new spouse, Mr. Sheppard Abdullah Bey King, who does not appear to have enough chin to guarantee a permanent constancy comparable: to Romeo's enduring yen for the balcony kid: I HOPE the.pair will be enormously happy, biimping aldng on their camels in the moonlight, and I hope that Samia will get along well with

the other three wives Sheppard Abdullah Bey, suh, is allowed under Moslem law. Yallah! Trouble. I can read it in the sand.

But I also hope that when he embraces multiple bliss, he brings only one at a’time home to meet Ma. They got strong feelings about bigamy down yonder in the land of Oily Canaan, and I wouldn't want to see this idyll wrecked by anything so severe as a necktie party. v But in the meantime I cry aloud, in the voice of the Muezzin, Bismillah, Hamdulillallah, Inshallah and Emshi Besselemah. Also Kismet, El Mektoub Mektoub. This means roughly that they should all live a” thousand years and wear it in good health. Bob Bey, an old Nile boatman himself, has spoken,

Dishing the Dirt

Bu Marauerite Smith Q—I have a gloxinia plant covered with little" white fleas. When I. touch the plant they fly to other plants, then return. What should I do? Mrs, R. Steinmetz, Southport. (Also answering Mrs. Holloway.) A—The white fleas are called white fly. They're hard pests to control. If you really want to do battle with. them, use a nicotine sulfate spray

Read Marguerite Smith's Garden Colum in The Sunday Times .

(Black I.eaf 40) and soap. Unless the plant is véry impartant to you, discard it and start with " clean plants, for you will need to spray repeatedly and carefully. Be sure to get the spray on undersides of leaves. One suggestion—try spraying “first in the usual warm room where flies are ac-

E,

he Indianapolis Times

PAGE 15

CHAPTER 2—

MURDER, INC.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1951

To.

By BURTON B. TURKUS and SID FEDER THE NATIONAL crime ring deals in rackets big and small. There are gambling and vice on a national scale; dope peddling, national and international. A loan-shark extortion operated from a Brooklyn-De-

" troit axis. More damaging, the

mobsters tear at the heart of honest business with industrial rackets and labor union extortions. Hardworking laborers have been forced to pay kickbacks from their day's wages. The parasitic pirates hire out either to foment strikes or to break strikes. They have even hired out on both sides in the same dispute. The crime ring is, in short, a powerful drain on the economy of the country. n ” n IN AN operation of such magnitude, murder was necessary, at times, to prevent in-

terference with “business.” That is where the Brooklyn branch came in. With its

special talents for killing, this was the Extermination Department for. Murder, Inc. These killers were not for hire. Their services were limited exclusively to the Syndicate, for use when business required. It was not at so much per throat-cutting or icepicking or bag job. It was murder

those gangs in the organization which used the service.

_ It was murder by contract:

murder by retainer. "Not that these mobs did not have their own staff killers. But, as often as-not, it was desirable to import out-of-towhers for such matters. =n ” : on

e THUS, one of the combina-

tion's slaughterers could be— and frequently was—brought into Cleveland or Boston or Hollywood to do a job, and then depart. No one would even know he had been around. Except, perhaps, the victim—and he would be very dead. ° The boys in the town where it happened, benefiting from advance information, would have iron-bound alibis set up. , Yet, during my entire investigation and prosecutions through all the drawn-out legal tricks by which the seven convicted killers tried every .court and

- the wie pearsroundifiato fee frome

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is the documented story of or ganized crime in Amgrica today, told by the country’s most successful prosécutor of underworld criminals. Burton Turkus was known as “Mr. Arsenic” to the bosses of gangland,” when he sent seven notorious killers to the electric chair. Mr. Turkus shows how Murder, Inc., still flourishes. Sid Feder, who collaborated with Mr. Turkus in this series, was for 17 years a newspaper“man, now the well-known author of magazine articles and books. These articles are excerpted from the book, MURDER, INC, just published by Farrar, Straus & Young.

appeal to avoid walking that last mile—and through the 10 years up to now—Murder, Inc, has been irritatingly labeled a Brooklyn production exclusively, like the baseball Dodgers or sardine-packed ' beach at «Coney. Island.

ams fond

It was no more peculiar to

Brooklyn than the hot dog. ” 8. "5

IF A traveling salesman lives" in New York and has a sales territory in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, his business would hardly be classed as a New York operation. In just the same way, the Brooklyn triggermen were the traveling salesmen of the national crime cartel. Harry Strauss was one of them. They called him Big Harry and Pep and, mostly, they called him Pittsburgh Phil, because he was the dandy of the outfit. Pittsburgh Phil would fairly purr when you referred to him as the Beau Brummell of the Brooklyn underworld. To the others, homicide was purely business; to Pep, it was practically ecstasy. He reveled in manslaughter; delighted in death. : .

a 9

PITTSBURGH PHIL—gl® Harry Strauss, murder was practically

ecstasy.

“Like a ballplayer, that's me,” he explained his enthusiasm once to an associate. “I figure I get seasoning doing these jobs here. Somebody from one of the big mobs spots men. Then, up to the big leagues.” ” o ” HE WAS vicious as a Gestapo agent, as casually cold-blooded as a meat-grinding machine in a butcher shop. He had such a lust for bjoodletting that he

THE ROKS . . . REAL AND WILLING . . . NO. 7—

By JIM G. LUCAS

would volunteer to handle “contracts” even when it was not his turn to work. : He was such an eager and capable killer that when out-of-town mobs had special traveling salesman ‘‘commissions,” he was the first choice, in most instances, to be sent out. In the course of our investigation, various of the mob informers “sang” of the exploits of Pittsburgh Phil, It was quite

One Gunman Kills 30, but Assassination Is Incidental to. Gambling, Dope, Extortion

an aria, for Phil killed more than 30 men in more than a dozen cities. : He took on assignments in Boston and Chicago, Philadel. phia and Miami and Detroit.

ONCE, the worst killer in the Brooklyn troop, with the un-" killer-like tag of Dandy Jack, was paid $35,000 to go to Minnesota and blast a hole into a prison through. which two murderers ould walk out. The payment was made by a top New Jersey boss, close friend of Buggsy Siegel, in a cabaret in Little Ferry in northern Jersey. : ' Efficient as he is, Dandy Jack was not .that capable. The two killers are still in the Stillwater (Minn.) penitentiary. It has always been a mystery ‘to me how so little of the gigantic cross-country outline of crime was actually presented for public understanding, since

it was all there to see for those who looked. Not too many grasped the coast-to-

coast architecture of assassi~ nation and, rackets.

2 o =

ONE OF those who quickly spotted something considerably larger than a purely old-home-production was the late ¥ Feeney of the New York World-Telegram. Harry was a round little Irishman - who could smell a story a mile off. On the very first day of the investigation, he pointed up the nation-wide connections. On the second day, he came up with the inspiration for the name that has stayed with the cartel to this day—Murder, Inc. I remember his animated conversation with his assistant city editor (now city editor), Bert MacDonald, as he and the other reporters phoned in their stories from the D. A.'s office. “It’s just like Bethlehem Steel,” he emphasized excitedly. “It has a board of directors, a treasurer—that's the bagman— and runs like a big syndicate.”

{Copyright, 1051 by Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder.)

TOMORROW: Don’t blame it all on Brooklyn.

South Korean Army Needs Leadership

Scripps-Howard Staff Writer

SOMEWHERE IN KOREA, Dec. 4—Leadership is the major difficulty of the South Korean army. Leadership is difficult to define. The military tradi-

tion in the U. S. Army provides an intangible but powerful

incentive to uphold the national and unit honor at all costs. - South Korea—because she’s only three years old and never had an army be-

fore — sometimes lacks that spirit.

But some South Koreans are acquiring it. The South Korean Ma- § rines, fighting & alongside the U. S. Marines, have it. Because they're small —only one regiment—the Séuth Korean Marines have inherited the clannish belligerence ‘and pride and “don’t let the other fellow down” concept of -their American friends. The Americans on the other hand, have found real satisfaction in watching their Korean friends develop. In fact on more than one occasion in bar room fights U. 8. Marines and Korean Marines have fought side by side against U. 8. soldiers or Korean soldiers. The Korean Marines have—and never fail to éxpress-—the traditional

Jim Lucas

..I.eatherneck contempt for fight-

ing men of any other service of whatever nationality.

" s -

AS FAR AS THE ROK Marines are nothing lower than a ROK dogface. 2 Many factors determine the Korean soldier's attitude and outlook and—far too frequently —we're failing to provide help and encouragement. “The Koreans at the top are patriots in the real sense of the word,” an American officer, a very troubled young man, told me recently. “They detest communism and hate the North Koreans and Chinese. They

concerned,” theye’s--

Leadership is a problem, but undoubtedly it will develop in the ROK army. American advisers are drawn out on this theme in today’s installment of Jim Lucas’ series on the reinvigorated armed forces of South Korea.

don’t want to end the war. anywhere short of the Yalu River and—given an opportunity—I [imagine they’d sabotage - a cease-fire. “On the other hand, the average South Korean soldier has never Mad much contact with communism and I doubt—from my relationship with them— they'd have any real feeling about it one -way or another. Perhaps if they knew more

* about it they would feel differ-

ent but few of the men of my battalion are global thinkers or overly concerned about the academic differences between Communism and democracy.

“WHAT DOES CONCERN them—deeply—is the condition in which they and their families find themselves. This war is increasingly distasteful to them and for a personal reason. Take my battalion commander. He's. tormented daily by the “knowledge his wife back in Seoul is ‘gradually selling off" everything they own-—clothing, furniture, heirlooms—simply-to get money to eat.

“The Colonel makes 42.000 won a month. With that they could -buy enough rice to feed the family, if they had no other expenses. But he has other expenses and they're mounting. He doesn’t know how his wife will eat when everything has been sold. And .you can be mighty sure that's as much on his mind as what the enemy will do next. “The colonel before him was

THE SONGS OF CHRISTMAS

ake

tive. Then move plant to cooler, spot. Keep plant there for several days, spray” again before -returning to warm room, . °° °°

Il The 1 in the "viewed

A DEEP CONCERN—How through this?

court-martialed. We captured some rice up north and he sold part. He claims he sold it to buy other food items for his men. I think he used at least some of that money to support his family. They busted him, and he was one of the best officers the ROKs had.” The American paused a moment. ” ” ” “IT WOULD TAKE so little, really, to make friends with these poor people,” -he said.

“I am not going to be sentimental; I don’t think I like them. But I think we ought to. If we had to maintain them in our. way. of life it might cost too much. But they can get along on so little we would never notice,

“A few dollars well spent here and we would boost the morale of the ROK army so high nothing could stop it. I am a married man with children. If I knew my family was suffering—starving, as probably are the families of some of these enlisted men who get 50

story goes that St. Froncis én Christos Su presered 6 otis Lp nn i glen bp dani the scene. Friars song new songs, clarifying the meaning of.the In-

\

HN he oo : ¥ ’ ®

many South Korean soldiers wonder if their children are going

cents a month—I don't know what I'd do.”

I FOUND THAT true everywhere I went among the ROKs. An ordnance officer in the South Korean Army, one Colonel Ahn, makes $8 a month. It isn’t enough to rent a oneroom apartment in Taegu for Mrs. Ahn and their two children. The Colonel was forced to peddle an occasional load of firewood to make ends meet. It is too much to expect him to devote all his thinking to ordnance when he knows his family is in need. - There's little the Koreans can do about this. They're spénding $22 million to support their armed forces. By our-standards that’s not much. But by theirs it's a great deal. For some reason we contend that feeding the Korean Army is a Korean responsibility. : , ” un 2 EVEN 80, the average Korean soldier fights well—when properly led. “They held the line while the United Nations

mustered enough power to push back the Red invaders. The Korean GI loves his homeland and family. He's intensely individualistic. He wants to see Korea unified and free. In one degree or another, he bears a grudge against those who started this war. He would like to devote full time to settling that score if he didn’t have so many other things worrying him,

Undoubtedly Teéadetship will coro

develop. Three hundred young officers—the most promising in the ROK army—have been sent to the U. 8. for training. Others are being trained at home. “Leadership is bound to be a problem for the South Koreans with less than three years’ history as an independent republic,” says Brig. Gen. C. E. Ryan of Boston, head of the Korean Military Advisory Group: “But don’t overlook the fact they've already turned out some highclass leadership in this war.”

Tomorrow—Korea will be a tinder box for a long time; and how we're planning with that in mind.

lllustrated by Walt Scoti-