Bowery Murder, page 22
“Oh, you guessed that, huh? Well, it did. She must have went through there in a hurry. I checked on the shawl. Irene almost threw a fit when I insisted she get the shawl out. But the hairpin, young fellow, belonged to Rose O’Neil. She went through there fast too. She uses a hairpin on each side of her head where she sweeps those bangs of hers up.”
“They’re not bangs,” I corrected.
“Well, I never went to college, and I’m not up on hairdressing, but it was her hairpin,” he insisted.
“Rose admitted to me that she came in and went out through the secret entrance to the bar, so that the hairpin simply checks on that. How about those cigarette butts you found?” I asked.
“They belonged to Ratkowsky. He smokes the same brand. There’s not another bird on the Bowery uses that particular cigarette. They’re hard to buy in New York.”
“So Ratkowsky was in the bar too?” I suggested, hoping to get a story.
“He was in that passageway, anyhow, and smoked a lot. He was nervous about something. Now, what I want to know is why Rose was down at his joint, why his gun was turned in, and how come Rose’s gun killed Woodward. Answer that for me and you’ll have a good headline. Maybe Rose is a dope.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “Don’t be crazy, Inspector.”
“Well, they’ll fool you sometimes. But I’m going to get the answer out of that Jew down in the Tombs if he had anything to do with killing Woodward and what he knows about Rose O’Neil. I still maintain she fired that little lead pill into that big bum.”
“McDermott doesn’t think so,” was my answer. “Let me read you a bit of copy that’s coming out to-morrow in the first edition of my celebrated sheet, obtained exclusively by its celebrated reporter detective.”
I had visited McDermott two hours previously and had obtained an interview with him. What he said had already been ’phoned in and was on the press, and I had a proof of it. The text follows:
District Attorney McDermott this evening reiterated his belief in Watts Gordon’s confession and ridiculed the statement of Miss O’Neil that she killed Woodward.
“Regardless of Woodward’s connection with opium dives, I believe Watts Gordon killed him. Miss O’Neil, if she told the truth, would say that she saw him fire the fatal bullet. Her present story can be demolished on the witness stand in five minutes. I understand the Police Department has found a pistol belonging to her which corresponds in calibre to the bullet that killed Woodward.
“That means nothing. I can produce such pistols. My ideas are not based on hearsay. I was in the Bowery Bar on a matter of duty within ten minutes after Woodward was killed. I went there to tell O’Neil that it was going to be my duty to prosecute him on a bribery charge. The charges of the Post were known to me that evening for the first time. O’Neil was a friend of mine, and I went to urge him to confess, to turn State’s evidence and let us have the evidence that would make conviction certain for the others.
“I have not divulged all I know, unlike the police commissioner, who seems to think that if he makes enough arrests he may get the guilty party. That party is already in the Tombs.”
“What do you think of that statement?” I asked Carr when I finished.
“Bunk! He’s getting virtuous now and is going to prosecute on those graft charges. He finally admits he was at the Bowery Bar. But he doesn’t say he was there before the murder too, does he? And what did he see? Was he in the back room when the killing was done? And he wasn’t down there on the graft business, take that from me. I don’t know what his game was, but if he was urging Pete O’Neil to turn State’s evidence O’Neil would have kicked him out on the first suggestion.”
From the Morning Herald-Tribune, Wednesday, May 2, 1928
WOODWARD STRUCK BY TWO BULLETS, SAYS UNDERTAKER
Shropshire Gives Opinion that Second Bullet Scratched Woodward
NOT NOTICED BY POUCE
A Bare Scratch under Arm Made by Second Shot
J. Henry Shropshire, the Cornish undertaker to whose establishment Woodward’s body was taken after he had been shot, broke a three weeks’ silence yesterday and admitted to the Morning Herald-Tribune the startling disclosure that a second bullet had struck Woodward. Apparently the police had not noticed this slight wound, or, knowing of it, have refrained from disclosing their knowledge.
The second bullet struck Woodward under the armpit, making a slight wound which was not visible except when his arm was raised from the body. Shropshire states that he had not noticed it at first but during the embalming process he found the scratch. Had it been three inches farther in the bullet would have passed just over the heart, and would probably have inflicted a fatal wound.
Woodward died from a bullet which passed through the body just at the juncture of the throat and the shoulder and which severed the large artery which passes through the neck. This bullet was found—lodged in the wall of the room. The second bullet encountered practically no resistance and made a bare nick in the tendon of the armpit.
LITTLE BLOOD ON BODY
“There was very little blood on the body when it was brought to me,” said Shropshire. “There had been a couple of doctors working over him, so I wasn’t surprised at that. Maybe when he was first hit he bled very badly. I should suppose so. That would make it hard to find this second wound, because it didn’t amount to much and was sort of hidden except when you raised the arm up. But it was a bullet crease all right. I’ve seen them before. I bury most of the boys who get hit down here in gang fights, and they generally have three or four such marks where machine-gun bullets just barely nick them.”
DID NOT TELL POLICE
He was asked if he said anything to the police about his find.
“Well, they didn’t ask me anything, and I figure the best policy is not to put your nose in other people’s business. They told me to keep quiet about his death in the beginning. That was all right. I’ve seen them shot, embalmed, and buried down here without anything getting in the newspapers, so there was nothing unusual in that.
“The reporters certainly bothered me at first. I had two funerals to do and had to let them go to competitors. No paper ever offered to pay me my lost profit on them. And I might have collected a big reward, too, from one of the papers if I had opened my mouth.
“The only person that ever offered me good money on this murder was some Chink who came down here a week later and said he’d give me $500 if I’d give him some dope on the calibre of the bullet and if there was more than one wound. I kicked him out. I’m a good Christian and don’t cater to the heathens.”
STORY MAY BE NEW CLUE
While Shropshire’s evidence does not seem to be of great importance in view of the fact that this second wound may have come from the first accidental discharge of Woodward’s weapon in his struggle with Gordon, it does bring up the possibility that more than one bullet may have been shot at Woodward, It is believed that more than two pistol shots were fired and that they were not all from the same weapon.
The police attach considerable importance to the story, however, as it may account for the second shot fired from Miss O’Neil’s pistol. It is reported by attachés of police headquarters that Police Medical Examiner Mastine, who examined Woodward’s body, was called to Commissioner Howard’s office late last night, after the commissioner had been informed by this newspaper of Shropshire’s statement.
From the Daily Tabloid, Noon Edition, Wednesday, May 2, 1928
CHARLIE WHANGO MURDERED IN TOMBS
Mayor of Chinatown, Woodward Witness, Mysteriously Slain in Cell
A new mystery entered the case of the Bowery Murder when Tombs keepers this morning found the cold, stiff form of Charlie Whango stretched out in his cell, a bullet through his heart. During the night a silent, mysterious shot forever closed Whango’s lips from revealing whatever he may have known of Woodward’s death.
Surrounded by five-foot walls, watched by guards, in a separate cell, locked and bolted, seemingly in the most secure place possible from an assassin’s bullet, Whango met his death during the night. His body was discovered when keepers tried to awaken him this morning from what they thought was a deep sleep.
And it was a deep sleep, one that will last forever. Charlie Whango has served his last opium pipe to Woodward’s clients. His black slit eyes will never again peer out of a narrow wicket to appraise the character of those seeking entrance to his dives. And what he might have had to say about the murder of Thomas Woodward will never be known.
NO ONE HEARD SHOT
Not a guard, not a prisoner, not an official of the prison heard a shot or saw a flash, according to the answers they gave detectives to-day. Yet a bullet entered Whango’s heart during the night. No mystery of such deep proportions has ever confronted Tombs officials.
Every cell on the same tier as Whango’s was thoroughly searched, together with the prisoners, but no weapon of any kind was found. Guards on duty in the corridor were subjected to a long grilling but could give no clue as to who fired the shot.
RATKOWSKY’S CELL CLOSE BY
On the same tier and facing Whango’s cell at an angle are cells in which are confined three Chinese attendants of Whango’s gambling and opium establishment, alleged to have been owned by Thomas Woodward.
Fartherdown the corridor is the cell occupied by Max Ratkowsky, Whango’s Bolshevik overlord, who hired Whango as manager, and who reported, according to Ratkowsky’s own evidence, direct to Thomas Woodward. While these men were immediately suspected, the police have not found any clue connecting them with the murder of Whango.
WHY WAS WHANGO KILLED?
The police suspect that Whango’s death has some connection with the murder of Woodward, although the Chinese gambling master was not apparently a witness in the Woodward case, nor was he directly concerned with it. Ratkowsky had already given details of Woodward’s connection with gambling hells in Chinatown.
Whango was being held on a narcotic charge and had not been booked as a Woodward witness. There may be unrevealed facts, however, which indicate that Whango knew a great deal about who killed the notorious gambler.
SILENCER USED
The police believe that some prisoner in a cell which faced Whango’s fired the bullet from a gun equipped with a silencer. The bullet was of .25 calibre and entered almost directly upon the heart. Its angle was very slight, but since it is not known in what position Whango stood when he was shot, little deduction can be made from the angle, according to the police.
The belief is that some prisoner fired the shot as Whango looked out of his cell door, and the pistol was afterward disposed of in a secret manner. There is no possibility of any outsider having got into the Tombs to commit the murder.
POLICE COMMENT
“In my opinion,” said Acting Inspector of Detectives Carr, “Whango was killed by some prisoner. There are four or five right there on the same corridor who have been in close contact with him in the past, and they may have had reason to do so. I can’t understand why the Tombs guards could let anybody get away with a killing like this and not know about it. There’s something rotten in the Department of Correction when a prisoner can be shot in his cell and his death not be discovered for five hours.”
LOBALLY TELLS CARR TO “MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS”
Herbert K. Lobally, Commissioner of Correction, when informed of Carr’s statement, curtly remarked that the police officer should mind his own business and find Woodward’s murderer before he began to criticize other city departments.
“I am making a personal investigation to determine who killed Whango and expect developments within the next few hours,” the commissioner said. “We aren’t supermen. Whoever planned this murder was clever and probably had everything arranged so that his guilt could not be found except after a long investigation. The gun used was unquestionably a silent one. I should say a powerful air pistol. The guards are all men of integrity. I feel sure that no one connected officially with the Tombs had any hand in Whango’s death.”
From the Morning Herald Tribune, Thursday, May 3, 1928
NEW DEVELOPMENTS HEIGHTEN MYSTERY OF WOODWARD DEATH
Ratkowsky, Dive Owner, Now Held As Accessory. Sought Woodward in Bowery Bar
ADMITS PRESENCE BUT DENIES GUILT
Met Rose O’Neil, Irene Williams, and McDermott in Secret Passage After Shooting
To the four men and women now held in the murder of Thomas Woodward the police have added Max Ratkowsky, the notorious and picturesque gambling-den keeper who was already under arrest on other charges.
Last night Acting Inspector Carr of the Police Department obtained positive information that Ratkowsky had used the secret passage into the Bowery Bar just after Woodward was shot. This, coupled with the fact that his pistol was found in the bar, led to his arrest as an accessory to the crime.
After two hours of interrogation at Police Headquarters, he confessed that he had entered the Bowery Bar by the secret entrance and was standing in the back, hall just as Woodward was shot.
He did not see the room, according to his statement, but heard three or four shots. He immediately went back into the passageway, intending to rush out, but changed his mind, fearing arrest if he ventured onto the street.
MET MCDERMOTT IN PASSAGE
He hid himself in the cellar corridor connecting the Bowery Bar with 39 Bayard Street. In about fifteen minutes he heard someone approaching and then saw Miss Irene Williams come along the tunnel accompanied by District Attorney McDermott. They recognized him, and McDermott told Ratkowsky to keep his mouth shut about what he had seen or heard. The district attorney then accompanied Miss Williams to the other end of the passage and returned to talk with Ratkowsky.
A few minutes later Miss O’Neil came hurrying along the passageway. She carried a pistol in her handbag, according to Ratkowsky’s confession. McDermott and Miss O’Neil left, and within five minutes Ratkowsky took courage to make an exit to Bayard Street, where he was seen and recognized by Dixie Blake.
CLAIMS HE WAS UNARMED
Ratkowsky states he carried no pistol and had no knowledge of what occurred in the back room of the Bowery Bar, except for the pistol shots, of which he counted three or four. He had gone to the Bowery Bar to make a new offer to Woodward for the gambling and opium dive which he claims was owned by the former and operated by himself.
The police, in obtaining this startling information connecting District Attorney McDermott directly with the killing of Woodward can be congratulated upon clever detective work. It was learned some time ago that Woodward and Ratkowsky had quarrelled in the Doyers Street dive just previous to Woodward’s death. In searching the secret passage Acting Inspector Carr found a cigarette butt which later proved to be Ratkowsky’s. The latter was seen by Dixie Blake, who talked with him on the corner in front of the Bowery Bar about the time of the murder. Miss Blake, whom Ratkowsky accused of giving him Lila Carroll’s $250,000 jewel, disappeared several days ago and was only relocated yesterday. She was taken to headquarters and is now being held in the Tombs as a material witness.
DIXIE BLAKE’S EVIDENCE
The police took exception to part of Dixie Blake’s previous testimony and questioned her again. She talked willingly and was evidently, etc., etc.
Compiler’s Note
I find that the news account of the foregoing developments are inadequate in describing the various events which led up to Ratkowsky’s direct association with Woodward’s death. Carr’s story, coupled with my own previously unprinted observations, is a far more detailed and interesting account.
“We had lost Dixie,” Carr told me, “and there was no news of her until one of the inside men in the Tombs found a note concealed in a sugar bowl which was on a tray of food being taken in to Ratkowsky. I had suspected that Ratkowsky was getting information in some way, and as prisoners being held before trial are allowed to send outside for food I suspected that Ratkowsky might be using this as a means of getting notes. I also figured that the gun that killed Whango might have been sent out of the Tombs concealed on a tray. Trays are gone over when they come in, but often there is no inspection of them as they leave. I put a man especially to work on the tray end, and we found a note in cipher. Here it is. Let’s see how good you are.”
Carr turned over to me a sheet of tissue paper upon which was typed the followed jargon:
“General—Locomotive 5000 P. D. No schmoos. Headlight damned lie and you know it. You took subway. Don’t kid me. Spring is close. 179. Sunrise. 46XX. dx.”
I read it with wonderment and turned to Carr.
“Somebody was evidently threatening our revolutionary friend. What’s the answer?”
“Well, if you walk in the snow you can’t hide your footprints, and when I got that note I saw somebody was leaving regular elephant tracks all over the landscape. First, I learned that Ratkowsky was known to his intimates as ‘General.’ In fact, Gordon told me that in one of the interviews I had with him. The Jew ranks in such grade over in China.
“Gordon had said about the gun business, ‘Inspector, you can’t hang Woodward’s death on the General.’
“I asked what he meant by that, and he explained about Ratkowsky. The rest of the note is simply words that mean things related to the words some way. It’s an old trick in crook writing.
“For instance, ‘Locomotive 5000 P. D.’ is easy. A ‘dollar’ is an iron man. I don’t have to let you in on that secret. From an iron man to an iron horse and then to locomotive wasn’t hard for the underworld. So a ‘locomotive’ means eight bits, a greenback, a dollar, cartwheel, or anything else worth one hundred cents.
“‘P. D.’ don’t mean Police Department but is just a quick way of saying P. D. Q., which means somebody wants five grand pretty damn quick.
“‘No schmoos’ is straight slang for ‘no bunk’ or ‘no back talk’ about sending it.
“‘Headlight’ must mean that $250,000 sparklet, then,” I suggested.
“Right as a church,” he responded. “Ratkowsky’s story about Dixie giving him the headlight must have been plain apple sauce. Now the rest wasn’t so easy. ‘You took subway’ had us all fooled down at headquarters for a while until I figured that it meant Ratkowsky took that Bayard Street entrance into the Bowery Bar that night. It’s an underground entrance, and I found out later that that’s just what they all called it, the ‘subway ’ into the Bowery Bar. So I saw then that someone knew Ratkowsky was in the tunnel that night. This checked with my cigarette butt which I had found out was his favourite smoke.
“They’re not bangs,” I corrected.
“Well, I never went to college, and I’m not up on hairdressing, but it was her hairpin,” he insisted.
“Rose admitted to me that she came in and went out through the secret entrance to the bar, so that the hairpin simply checks on that. How about those cigarette butts you found?” I asked.
“They belonged to Ratkowsky. He smokes the same brand. There’s not another bird on the Bowery uses that particular cigarette. They’re hard to buy in New York.”
“So Ratkowsky was in the bar too?” I suggested, hoping to get a story.
“He was in that passageway, anyhow, and smoked a lot. He was nervous about something. Now, what I want to know is why Rose was down at his joint, why his gun was turned in, and how come Rose’s gun killed Woodward. Answer that for me and you’ll have a good headline. Maybe Rose is a dope.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “Don’t be crazy, Inspector.”
“Well, they’ll fool you sometimes. But I’m going to get the answer out of that Jew down in the Tombs if he had anything to do with killing Woodward and what he knows about Rose O’Neil. I still maintain she fired that little lead pill into that big bum.”
“McDermott doesn’t think so,” was my answer. “Let me read you a bit of copy that’s coming out to-morrow in the first edition of my celebrated sheet, obtained exclusively by its celebrated reporter detective.”
I had visited McDermott two hours previously and had obtained an interview with him. What he said had already been ’phoned in and was on the press, and I had a proof of it. The text follows:
District Attorney McDermott this evening reiterated his belief in Watts Gordon’s confession and ridiculed the statement of Miss O’Neil that she killed Woodward.
“Regardless of Woodward’s connection with opium dives, I believe Watts Gordon killed him. Miss O’Neil, if she told the truth, would say that she saw him fire the fatal bullet. Her present story can be demolished on the witness stand in five minutes. I understand the Police Department has found a pistol belonging to her which corresponds in calibre to the bullet that killed Woodward.
“That means nothing. I can produce such pistols. My ideas are not based on hearsay. I was in the Bowery Bar on a matter of duty within ten minutes after Woodward was killed. I went there to tell O’Neil that it was going to be my duty to prosecute him on a bribery charge. The charges of the Post were known to me that evening for the first time. O’Neil was a friend of mine, and I went to urge him to confess, to turn State’s evidence and let us have the evidence that would make conviction certain for the others.
“I have not divulged all I know, unlike the police commissioner, who seems to think that if he makes enough arrests he may get the guilty party. That party is already in the Tombs.”
“What do you think of that statement?” I asked Carr when I finished.
“Bunk! He’s getting virtuous now and is going to prosecute on those graft charges. He finally admits he was at the Bowery Bar. But he doesn’t say he was there before the murder too, does he? And what did he see? Was he in the back room when the killing was done? And he wasn’t down there on the graft business, take that from me. I don’t know what his game was, but if he was urging Pete O’Neil to turn State’s evidence O’Neil would have kicked him out on the first suggestion.”
From the Morning Herald-Tribune, Wednesday, May 2, 1928
WOODWARD STRUCK BY TWO BULLETS, SAYS UNDERTAKER
Shropshire Gives Opinion that Second Bullet Scratched Woodward
NOT NOTICED BY POUCE
A Bare Scratch under Arm Made by Second Shot
J. Henry Shropshire, the Cornish undertaker to whose establishment Woodward’s body was taken after he had been shot, broke a three weeks’ silence yesterday and admitted to the Morning Herald-Tribune the startling disclosure that a second bullet had struck Woodward. Apparently the police had not noticed this slight wound, or, knowing of it, have refrained from disclosing their knowledge.
The second bullet struck Woodward under the armpit, making a slight wound which was not visible except when his arm was raised from the body. Shropshire states that he had not noticed it at first but during the embalming process he found the scratch. Had it been three inches farther in the bullet would have passed just over the heart, and would probably have inflicted a fatal wound.
Woodward died from a bullet which passed through the body just at the juncture of the throat and the shoulder and which severed the large artery which passes through the neck. This bullet was found—lodged in the wall of the room. The second bullet encountered practically no resistance and made a bare nick in the tendon of the armpit.
LITTLE BLOOD ON BODY
“There was very little blood on the body when it was brought to me,” said Shropshire. “There had been a couple of doctors working over him, so I wasn’t surprised at that. Maybe when he was first hit he bled very badly. I should suppose so. That would make it hard to find this second wound, because it didn’t amount to much and was sort of hidden except when you raised the arm up. But it was a bullet crease all right. I’ve seen them before. I bury most of the boys who get hit down here in gang fights, and they generally have three or four such marks where machine-gun bullets just barely nick them.”
DID NOT TELL POLICE
He was asked if he said anything to the police about his find.
“Well, they didn’t ask me anything, and I figure the best policy is not to put your nose in other people’s business. They told me to keep quiet about his death in the beginning. That was all right. I’ve seen them shot, embalmed, and buried down here without anything getting in the newspapers, so there was nothing unusual in that.
“The reporters certainly bothered me at first. I had two funerals to do and had to let them go to competitors. No paper ever offered to pay me my lost profit on them. And I might have collected a big reward, too, from one of the papers if I had opened my mouth.
“The only person that ever offered me good money on this murder was some Chink who came down here a week later and said he’d give me $500 if I’d give him some dope on the calibre of the bullet and if there was more than one wound. I kicked him out. I’m a good Christian and don’t cater to the heathens.”
STORY MAY BE NEW CLUE
While Shropshire’s evidence does not seem to be of great importance in view of the fact that this second wound may have come from the first accidental discharge of Woodward’s weapon in his struggle with Gordon, it does bring up the possibility that more than one bullet may have been shot at Woodward, It is believed that more than two pistol shots were fired and that they were not all from the same weapon.
The police attach considerable importance to the story, however, as it may account for the second shot fired from Miss O’Neil’s pistol. It is reported by attachés of police headquarters that Police Medical Examiner Mastine, who examined Woodward’s body, was called to Commissioner Howard’s office late last night, after the commissioner had been informed by this newspaper of Shropshire’s statement.
From the Daily Tabloid, Noon Edition, Wednesday, May 2, 1928
CHARLIE WHANGO MURDERED IN TOMBS
Mayor of Chinatown, Woodward Witness, Mysteriously Slain in Cell
A new mystery entered the case of the Bowery Murder when Tombs keepers this morning found the cold, stiff form of Charlie Whango stretched out in his cell, a bullet through his heart. During the night a silent, mysterious shot forever closed Whango’s lips from revealing whatever he may have known of Woodward’s death.
Surrounded by five-foot walls, watched by guards, in a separate cell, locked and bolted, seemingly in the most secure place possible from an assassin’s bullet, Whango met his death during the night. His body was discovered when keepers tried to awaken him this morning from what they thought was a deep sleep.
And it was a deep sleep, one that will last forever. Charlie Whango has served his last opium pipe to Woodward’s clients. His black slit eyes will never again peer out of a narrow wicket to appraise the character of those seeking entrance to his dives. And what he might have had to say about the murder of Thomas Woodward will never be known.
NO ONE HEARD SHOT
Not a guard, not a prisoner, not an official of the prison heard a shot or saw a flash, according to the answers they gave detectives to-day. Yet a bullet entered Whango’s heart during the night. No mystery of such deep proportions has ever confronted Tombs officials.
Every cell on the same tier as Whango’s was thoroughly searched, together with the prisoners, but no weapon of any kind was found. Guards on duty in the corridor were subjected to a long grilling but could give no clue as to who fired the shot.
RATKOWSKY’S CELL CLOSE BY
On the same tier and facing Whango’s cell at an angle are cells in which are confined three Chinese attendants of Whango’s gambling and opium establishment, alleged to have been owned by Thomas Woodward.
Fartherdown the corridor is the cell occupied by Max Ratkowsky, Whango’s Bolshevik overlord, who hired Whango as manager, and who reported, according to Ratkowsky’s own evidence, direct to Thomas Woodward. While these men were immediately suspected, the police have not found any clue connecting them with the murder of Whango.
WHY WAS WHANGO KILLED?
The police suspect that Whango’s death has some connection with the murder of Woodward, although the Chinese gambling master was not apparently a witness in the Woodward case, nor was he directly concerned with it. Ratkowsky had already given details of Woodward’s connection with gambling hells in Chinatown.
Whango was being held on a narcotic charge and had not been booked as a Woodward witness. There may be unrevealed facts, however, which indicate that Whango knew a great deal about who killed the notorious gambler.
SILENCER USED
The police believe that some prisoner in a cell which faced Whango’s fired the bullet from a gun equipped with a silencer. The bullet was of .25 calibre and entered almost directly upon the heart. Its angle was very slight, but since it is not known in what position Whango stood when he was shot, little deduction can be made from the angle, according to the police.
The belief is that some prisoner fired the shot as Whango looked out of his cell door, and the pistol was afterward disposed of in a secret manner. There is no possibility of any outsider having got into the Tombs to commit the murder.
POLICE COMMENT
“In my opinion,” said Acting Inspector of Detectives Carr, “Whango was killed by some prisoner. There are four or five right there on the same corridor who have been in close contact with him in the past, and they may have had reason to do so. I can’t understand why the Tombs guards could let anybody get away with a killing like this and not know about it. There’s something rotten in the Department of Correction when a prisoner can be shot in his cell and his death not be discovered for five hours.”
LOBALLY TELLS CARR TO “MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS”
Herbert K. Lobally, Commissioner of Correction, when informed of Carr’s statement, curtly remarked that the police officer should mind his own business and find Woodward’s murderer before he began to criticize other city departments.
“I am making a personal investigation to determine who killed Whango and expect developments within the next few hours,” the commissioner said. “We aren’t supermen. Whoever planned this murder was clever and probably had everything arranged so that his guilt could not be found except after a long investigation. The gun used was unquestionably a silent one. I should say a powerful air pistol. The guards are all men of integrity. I feel sure that no one connected officially with the Tombs had any hand in Whango’s death.”
From the Morning Herald Tribune, Thursday, May 3, 1928
NEW DEVELOPMENTS HEIGHTEN MYSTERY OF WOODWARD DEATH
Ratkowsky, Dive Owner, Now Held As Accessory. Sought Woodward in Bowery Bar
ADMITS PRESENCE BUT DENIES GUILT
Met Rose O’Neil, Irene Williams, and McDermott in Secret Passage After Shooting
To the four men and women now held in the murder of Thomas Woodward the police have added Max Ratkowsky, the notorious and picturesque gambling-den keeper who was already under arrest on other charges.
Last night Acting Inspector Carr of the Police Department obtained positive information that Ratkowsky had used the secret passage into the Bowery Bar just after Woodward was shot. This, coupled with the fact that his pistol was found in the bar, led to his arrest as an accessory to the crime.
After two hours of interrogation at Police Headquarters, he confessed that he had entered the Bowery Bar by the secret entrance and was standing in the back, hall just as Woodward was shot.
He did not see the room, according to his statement, but heard three or four shots. He immediately went back into the passageway, intending to rush out, but changed his mind, fearing arrest if he ventured onto the street.
MET MCDERMOTT IN PASSAGE
He hid himself in the cellar corridor connecting the Bowery Bar with 39 Bayard Street. In about fifteen minutes he heard someone approaching and then saw Miss Irene Williams come along the tunnel accompanied by District Attorney McDermott. They recognized him, and McDermott told Ratkowsky to keep his mouth shut about what he had seen or heard. The district attorney then accompanied Miss Williams to the other end of the passage and returned to talk with Ratkowsky.
A few minutes later Miss O’Neil came hurrying along the passageway. She carried a pistol in her handbag, according to Ratkowsky’s confession. McDermott and Miss O’Neil left, and within five minutes Ratkowsky took courage to make an exit to Bayard Street, where he was seen and recognized by Dixie Blake.
CLAIMS HE WAS UNARMED
Ratkowsky states he carried no pistol and had no knowledge of what occurred in the back room of the Bowery Bar, except for the pistol shots, of which he counted three or four. He had gone to the Bowery Bar to make a new offer to Woodward for the gambling and opium dive which he claims was owned by the former and operated by himself.
The police, in obtaining this startling information connecting District Attorney McDermott directly with the killing of Woodward can be congratulated upon clever detective work. It was learned some time ago that Woodward and Ratkowsky had quarrelled in the Doyers Street dive just previous to Woodward’s death. In searching the secret passage Acting Inspector Carr found a cigarette butt which later proved to be Ratkowsky’s. The latter was seen by Dixie Blake, who talked with him on the corner in front of the Bowery Bar about the time of the murder. Miss Blake, whom Ratkowsky accused of giving him Lila Carroll’s $250,000 jewel, disappeared several days ago and was only relocated yesterday. She was taken to headquarters and is now being held in the Tombs as a material witness.
DIXIE BLAKE’S EVIDENCE
The police took exception to part of Dixie Blake’s previous testimony and questioned her again. She talked willingly and was evidently, etc., etc.
Compiler’s Note
I find that the news account of the foregoing developments are inadequate in describing the various events which led up to Ratkowsky’s direct association with Woodward’s death. Carr’s story, coupled with my own previously unprinted observations, is a far more detailed and interesting account.
“We had lost Dixie,” Carr told me, “and there was no news of her until one of the inside men in the Tombs found a note concealed in a sugar bowl which was on a tray of food being taken in to Ratkowsky. I had suspected that Ratkowsky was getting information in some way, and as prisoners being held before trial are allowed to send outside for food I suspected that Ratkowsky might be using this as a means of getting notes. I also figured that the gun that killed Whango might have been sent out of the Tombs concealed on a tray. Trays are gone over when they come in, but often there is no inspection of them as they leave. I put a man especially to work on the tray end, and we found a note in cipher. Here it is. Let’s see how good you are.”
Carr turned over to me a sheet of tissue paper upon which was typed the followed jargon:
“General—Locomotive 5000 P. D. No schmoos. Headlight damned lie and you know it. You took subway. Don’t kid me. Spring is close. 179. Sunrise. 46XX. dx.”
I read it with wonderment and turned to Carr.
“Somebody was evidently threatening our revolutionary friend. What’s the answer?”
“Well, if you walk in the snow you can’t hide your footprints, and when I got that note I saw somebody was leaving regular elephant tracks all over the landscape. First, I learned that Ratkowsky was known to his intimates as ‘General.’ In fact, Gordon told me that in one of the interviews I had with him. The Jew ranks in such grade over in China.
“Gordon had said about the gun business, ‘Inspector, you can’t hang Woodward’s death on the General.’
“I asked what he meant by that, and he explained about Ratkowsky. The rest of the note is simply words that mean things related to the words some way. It’s an old trick in crook writing.
“For instance, ‘Locomotive 5000 P. D.’ is easy. A ‘dollar’ is an iron man. I don’t have to let you in on that secret. From an iron man to an iron horse and then to locomotive wasn’t hard for the underworld. So a ‘locomotive’ means eight bits, a greenback, a dollar, cartwheel, or anything else worth one hundred cents.
“‘P. D.’ don’t mean Police Department but is just a quick way of saying P. D. Q., which means somebody wants five grand pretty damn quick.
“‘No schmoos’ is straight slang for ‘no bunk’ or ‘no back talk’ about sending it.
“‘Headlight’ must mean that $250,000 sparklet, then,” I suggested.
“Right as a church,” he responded. “Ratkowsky’s story about Dixie giving him the headlight must have been plain apple sauce. Now the rest wasn’t so easy. ‘You took subway’ had us all fooled down at headquarters for a while until I figured that it meant Ratkowsky took that Bayard Street entrance into the Bowery Bar that night. It’s an underground entrance, and I found out later that that’s just what they all called it, the ‘subway ’ into the Bowery Bar. So I saw then that someone knew Ratkowsky was in the tunnel that night. This checked with my cigarette butt which I had found out was his favourite smoke.
