Bowery Murder, page 9
“There were several reasons for that. I am now sorry we did so. Certain of Woodward’s associates in the stock market heard of his death within two hours after it occurred. In view of the chaotic closing of the Exchange on Wednesday, they asked that announcement be withheld until some arrangement could be made to take care of the stock.
“There were thousands of innocent people involved in the crash, and it was felt that the news of Woodward’s death would precipitate another panic. We could not, furthermore, at the time believe that a reporter would have killed Woodward. We felt there were others involved, and we wanted time to investigate before making the news public. Incidentally, District Attorney McDermott was one of those who suggested that the news be withheld.”
GORDON REMAINS SILENT
The latest developments in the case were sent in to Watts Gordon, the confessed murderer of Woodward, by a Tombs messenger. He is stated to have read them and replied that he had no statement to make. Efforts of this newspaper to secure Gordon’s personal recitation of the events which led to the killing of Thomas Woodward have met with his refusal. It is known that a morning newspaper offered him a large sum for a signed statement and met with the same declination.
“HOWARD TRYING CASE IN PRESS”—McDERMOTT
Commissioner Howard’s statement was given to District Attorney McDermott over the telephone. McDermott replied as follows:
“The police commissioner is evidently going to try the Woodward case in the newspapers. He is taking upon himself the role of public prosecutor as well as police head. His allegations concerning my presence at the Bowery Bar will be answered in due course.”
It will be noted that the district attorney did not enter a denial of Howard’s presentment, and for this reason it can be reasonably presumed that the latter’s charge stands confirmed until such time as the district attorney cares to clear up the matter.
Compiler’s Note
Inspector Carr’s comment on the phase of the Woodward case just discussed may be of interest at this time. I asked Carr how Commissioner Howard learned of McDermott’s presence in the Bowery Bar at the time of the murder. This was never brought out by the newspapers. I also wondered, as the reader will undoubtedly do, how the district attorney expected to keep his presence unknown and suggested to Carr the foolishness of the former’s action in trying to conceal the fact. Carr replied as follows:
“McDermott got excited and thought he could do a lot of things that wouldn’t be found out. It’s the same way with crooks as well as all of us. They plan every detail of a crime and make allowances for all kinds of contingencies except the simplest ones. Take the instance of the commissioner going down to Shropshire’s to look at Woodward’s body. We thought we could keep that secret, and we would have, except for that old harp, Biddy Mulvaney, having a toe ache and being up looking out her window. Those are the things you can’t figure. She knew Howard from having lived alongside of his family years before.
“It was the same thing with McDermott. Woodward was shot, according to the evidence, at twelve-forty-five in the morning. He died in Solbuiger’s office close to one o’clock. The report came to headquarters at 1:50 A. M. Captain Quinlivan stated he arrived at the Bowery Bar just after Woodward was shot. He should have notified us within ten minutes at the latest. I was at headquarters that night, and as soon as I got the flash I beat it down to O’Neil’s, calling the commissioner on the ’phone first. Woodward was a big mug, and I felt the commissioner should know right away that he had passed in his checks.
“The Bowery Bar was closed when I got there, and there was a cop on guard. I found Gordon had been taken to the Elizabeth Street Station. I rushed down there and got Quinlivan’s story and Gordon’s confession, which was written on the back of a letter addressed to Gordon. He was in a cell. I had him brought out but couldn’t get a word out of him. He said he had signed a confession and that Quinlivan had all the facts. They were the same as those we gave out to the newspapers. I threatened to use pressure on him, and he said to go ahead and try any third-degree methods.
“‘What the hell more do you want than a confession?’ he asked me. I couldn’t exactly answer because I didn’t know what I wanted, except that the whole business looked cuckoo to me.
“I got Quinlivan on the carpet and asked him why he had delayed in letting headquarters know. He gave me a lot of apple sauce about realizing the importance of the case and how O’Neil wanted to keep it all quiet and started to say something about McDermott. Then he tried to change his words.
“‘What has McDermott got to do with it?’ I asked him.
“‘Nothing, except he’s a friend of O’Neil’s and Pete wanted to get in touch with him first.’
“Now Quinlivan was a pal of Pete O’Neil’s. He owed his job as captain to O’Neil’s influence and, choosing between the Department and O’Neil, Quinlivan would make a play to Pete. You can’t ride two horses with one saddle. I would have let his answer go at that if he hadn’t acted queer after first mentioning McDermott’s name. I let it rest for a moment and went back to the Bowery Bar to check up. Woodward’s body had been taken away and I talked to Solburger. His story seemed straight enough. Then I got hold of O’Neil. He tried to run a bluff on me and not give me any dope. Said he had told Quinlivan everything and wanted to go to bed.
“I didn’t give a damn for O’Neil and his influence. I was in bad already with his gang in the administration, so was the commissioner—but we knew we were safe. The mayor couldn’t afford to fire Howard, so I gave O’Neil the works in a reply and got some more details. Finally I took a chance and asked him:
‘“Why did you let McDermott know about this first?’
“He looked at me like he was going to plaster me one, and then said, ‘Who in hell said I let McDermott in on this?’
“I took another chance and replied that Quinlivan had tipped me off.
“O’Neil cursed Quinlivan and said, ‘The hell he did! I’ll call him up and see.’
“Pete O’Neil was always hard to bluff, and after he got Quinlivan on the ’phone he turns to me and lets out a squawk you could hear all the way to the Battery, telling me I was a liar, that McDermott knew nothing about it, and that it looked like we were trying to frame the district attorney. I let him rave on—just putting in a word or two to keep him excited—hoping to get some dope. The idea in my dome was that McDermott knew about the case and there need have been no reason for letting the D. A. in on it unless there was something phony.
“Then the next day I did some gum-shoe work and finally located a Nedick’s Orange stand attendant a block down the street from O’Neil’s who said he had seen McDermott at the Bowery Bar at twelve-thirty. This guy—and it’s funny how these things always come up in big cases—used to run an elevator in the office building where McDermott had his law offices. He had got fired and had taken a job with Nedick’s. That night he was going home and had stopped in at the Bowery Bar for a glass of beer—funny too, after serving out orange juice all day. He saw McDermott come out of the door that leads into the stairway going upstairs and hurry into the back room. Mac wasn’t in the bar for more than a second and kept his face turned away.
“This orange-juice bird tells me also that he heard some women’s voices in back as the door was opened.
“That’s how I got the dope on the D. A. being there. I tried to pry some more information out of the bartender, Tim McLarney, but it needed a set of burglar’s tools to get anything out of him except the story he gave in the beginning. I didn’t want to tip my hand to O’Neil, so I didn’t press Tim too hard. It was a cinch that if McDermott was mixed up in it there was a chance for good publicity for Howard in exposing his connection.
“A taxi driver told me later that he had driven McDermott away from the bar about one-thirty in the morning. Mac thought he could cover up his presence. He was too busy to think very much about it, and once started on a story he decided to take a chance and keep to it. Once you hop on a tiger’s back you can’t get off. He thought, too, that he could bring sufficient pressure to bear on Howard to keep us dicks from getting the right dope. There McDermott made a mistake. He didn’t figure that the police would be independent of his suggestions. Howard got a decided hint in high quarters to let well enough alone and not go into the Woodward case, but he knew he was out of a job when the new mayor came in and decided that the Bowery Bar homicide might be a chance to make himself mayor.
“We knew, too, about the connection between the O’Neil girl and young Gordon and that Woodward had been chasing after her too. I wanted to know why Woodward went down to the bar that night and thought that Rose might have been the reason for it. Of course, we figured that Woodward was having a coffee-klatch with O’Neil over the franchise vote, but the killing might have come over something else. I went up to the Royal Theatre and found out that Gordon was a sweetie of the girl and that Woodward was a rival of his. We also dug up the fact that Woodward was the guy in a Rolls-Royce who had pushed Gordon in the face several nights before. The newspapers got busy at the same time and found out those facts.
“I couldn’t locate Rose O’Neil though. She had just disappeared. Nobody knew where she was. As you know, she was staying at the North American Hotel on West Twenty-eighth Street most of the time, but I didn’t know it then.
“We had several motives for the murder by Thursday morning: first, that it was exactly as given to us by Quinlivan and O’Neil—a quarrel between Woodward and Gordon over an interview. It seemed O. K. Second, that it was a row between them over some jane. Third, that Gordon hadn’t gunned Woodward at all, but that some woman had, and he took, the blame. Fourth, that some big political mug had shot Woodward in an argument, and that Gordon, for an unknown reason, was pleading guilty. Gordon refused to talk, and his confession, obtained by Quinlivan, made no mention of motive or events that led to the killing. It looked like Gordon was letting a situation develop for him. McDermott coming into the picture certainly made it seem as if there was politics involved. I couldn’t get the right answer out of what I knew.
From Broadway Briefs, Sunday, April 22, 1928
WOODWARD CASE BECOMES “TRIANGLE”
Begins To Look Like Cross-Word Puzzle. Three Separate Triangles
When authorities disagree the dirt begins to come out of the official linen. The Woodward case was all nicely settled by the arrest of the confessed murderer when Bingo! it develops a dozen new angles through the rivalry of the police commissioner and the district attorney for the mayoralty nomination.
Each of these important officials sees a chance to win an election by appearing as public prosecutors. McDermott has the advantage in being the only person who can try the case. The police commissioner, realizing this, is trying to make the headlines now before it becomes entirely the district attorney’s duty to prosecute. It has been known for some time that there is no friendship lost between Howard and McDermott. They disagreed several years ago in the important case of Steinmetz and McGary, who were tried for the murder of Josie King, a Broadway butterfly. Howard, although an appointee of the mayor, is seeking the mayoralty nomination without the mayor’s support and against the wishes of the whole downtown Organization. O’Neil is known to favour McDermott, and the fight between these two important city officials has threatened the usual calm that pervades Fourteenth Street.
If Howard can in any way discredit McDermott in the Woodward case there is no question but that he will do so. It is beginning to look as if “Red-haired Mac” had made a mistake somewhere in the Woodward case. Broadway Briefs strongly suspects that when all the dirt comes out it will be found that the death of Woodward will have ruined more than one political reputation.
It learns that young Gordon has a whole notebook full of decidedly interesting facts concerning the alleged briberies of officials and aldermen in the last endeavour to secure passage of the franchise. It is not beyond the doubt of good reasoning that Gordon may have obtained additional information which he will trade off for his release.
In the meantime his interest in Miss O’Neil, which had quite escaped the usually keen eyes of Broadway Briefs, coupled with Woodward’s interest, will, if followed through, bring out more motives for the murder than a mere quarrel over an interview—an alibi which Broadway Briefs has suspected from the beginning.
We wonder, however, how long it will be before the police or the district attorney couple the names of several other ladies of Woodward’s acquaintance with the incidents which took place last Thursday morning.
From the Morning World (New York), April 21, 1928
FRANCIS K. DRAKE REMOVED FROM HOME TO SANITARIUM
Woodward’s Partner in Omnibus Crash Taken to Up-State Resort
TOO ILL TO BE SEEN BY PRESS
Health Ruined, Fortune Lost, Financier Retires from Business to Seek Recovery
On Wednesday two men in partnership engineered the greatest stock corner and subsequent crash of ten years of Stock Exchange history. Thousands were caught in the debacle and their fortunes wiped out. The savings of years were lost in an hour, and the aftermath will last a lifetime for many of those who failed to sell in time.
Of the two men who were responsible, one made a huge fortune and was killed in a Bowery saloon twelve hours later. He is being buried to-day in a town far removed from New York, and there will be few to mourn the passing of his bier, because the interment is to be secret.
The other, Francis K. Drake, broken in health, his hair white, his heart barely pulsing, impoverished in fortune, with but a small fraction of his former wealth, is to-day being taken to a private sanitarium in the Adirondacks, where he will try to nurse back a part of the mental and physical vigour that was his Wednesday morning.
Drake was a victim of his own trap. Woodward, according to Drake’s statement, double-crossed him and let him lose a fortune while Woodward made one. Drake denies any responsibility for the crash. He still believes in United Omnibus, but he is through with Wall Street. He sees only his doctor, his nurse, and his wife, who is accompanying him with their only child. His fortune is gone, and he has nothing to show for it, not even the stock certificates for the thousands of shares he owned Wednesday morning. They were held on margins, and as Omnibus fell his stocks were sold. Ten million dollars is the conservative estimate by Drake’s friends of the amount he lost in three hours.
The trip to the upstate sanitarium is being made in a special automobile especially fitted for the transportation of invalids. Dr. Horace V. Crowley, Drake’s personal friend, is accompanying him and will remain with him for the next few days. Dr. Crowley has been in constant attendance since Wednesday noon, when Drake was carried away from Woodward’s office in a fainting condition. Reporters asking to see Drake last night were met by the doctor who said:
“Mr. Drake cannot see anyone, much loss discuss the market action which resulted in his collapse. He was not involved in the matter except as a speculator, and he lost his entire fortune in attempting to keep Omnibus up. He holds Thomas Woodward alone guilty. Mr. Drake is quite conscious and knows of all developments. He cannot, however, see visitors until his heart action improves, and cannot be submitted to any questioning.”
Francis K. Drake has long been known in Wall Street, etc., etc.
From the American (New York), Sunday, April 22, 1928
An Editorial
“The Wages of Sin is Death.”
Faith affirms this Scriptural passage. Ethics discusses it, agnosticism questions it, atheism denies it.
The heart and intelligence of men INSTINCTIVELY AFFIRM IT.
Mr. McCay’s powerful cartoon, showing a rich man, pressing a vintage from the purses of the city’s poor with servants piling away his ill-gotten wealth while Death and Oblivion stand behind him, ready to take him, should stimulate earnest and useful thinking in the minds of the millions that see this picture and read this page.
The rich crook who rigs the stock market and robs widows and orphans of their savings will foolishly say, “That’s all the BUNK. I can get away with this like hundreds of others have done.”
But Can He? You can go back over the history of the world and follow the careers of the men who have transgressed religious and moral laws, HOW MANY HAVE LIVED TO OLD AGE, respected and esteemed, HAPPY IN POSSESSION OF LOVED ONES? HEALTH AND HAPPINESS? Very few. And in contrast how often we find among the poor, among those who have lived their lives according to the Golden Rule, that ripe old age with blessings comes most frequently.
On Wednesday Thomas Woodward deliberately betrayed a great trust and caused thousands upon thouands to lose their fortunes. He brought untold misery into thousands of homes, and he made a fortune for himself. He sinned against the faith of those who thought Woodward to be sincere in his buying of Omnibus stock, BUT HE WAS RIGGING THE STOCK MARKET deliberately. And on Thursday morning this man, whose word twelve hours before had been proved to be false as a paste jewel, was cold in death in a Bowery undertaking establishment and his name was anathema to the whole city. WHERE HAS BEEN HIS PROFIT?
And his partner, duped finally like those thousands of others, but hoping to make a fortune at the expense of the poor fools who trusted them, where is he? AT DEATH’S DOOR, enfeebled in vigour, confessing himself a pauper, scorned by those who on Wednesday fought and struggled to get a word from him concerning the stock market.
The power that rules the universe is no playing child; but is Eternal Justice. The men in high places who sin against the laws and ethics of justice may scoff at the idea, but the greatest fool among them cannot deny that an underlying cosmic power shapes the destinies of men, ACCORDING TO THEIR DESERTS.
From the Daily Tabloid (New York), April 22, 1928
ROSE VISITS GORDON SECRETLY AFTER SENDING FLOWERS
His Cell Bright Spot in Tombs
Making a conspicuous spot of beauty within the cold gray walls of Watts Gordon’s cell in the Tombs is a jar of carnations which deaden the clammy fetid odour characteristic of prisons. It is but one of the several boxes of flowers that have been sent to Watts Gordon by Rose O’Neil, whose faith in her lover remains true and steadfast despite his confession of guilt. That he is in the Tombs for having defended her honour is the suspicion of many who claim to have an inside knowledge of the case. Nothing has been brought out that would indicate this, but it is supposed that the killing of Woodward came about through more than a mere quarrel over a reporter’s interview.
