Who are the actors in the court drama which begins today?
There is the prosecutor, Tom Dewey, New York's dark-haired dapper 36-year-old District Attorney whom some people say may one day oe Governor, even President.
There is the man in the dock, soft-spoken white-haired Jimmy Hines, a Tammany district leader for more than a quarter of a century, charged with taking over the "policy" racket after Schultz was murdered by rival gangsters in a Newark cafe towards the end of 1935.
There is the star witness, suave J. Richard ("Dixie") Davis, once legal adviser to "Dutch Schuliz;" originally charged with complicity in the racket; now, it is understood, to give evidence for the prosecution.
Dewey's rise has been meteoric. Just three years ago, Governor Lehman appointed him Special Prosector to try and clean up the rackets which infested New York.
First man to be indicted by the new Prosecutor was Charles ("Lucky") Luciano the man who turned prostitution into big business. He went "up the river" for a term of 30 to 50 years.
Dewey turned next to the "loan harks," extortionate moneylenders who used strong-arm men to collect money due for repayment. He pro-secured 36 men for usury and other serious charges. He secured 36 convietion.
Last November, Dewey was elected District Attorney.
He had announced, in his ca eign, that he intended to lay bare "20-year-old connection between Tammany, and crime." That is what ge is trying to do today.
He has charged Hines with running a lottery—that is, "Policy." He had already indicted Davis. He has named three others as having taken "ribes from Hines—his own predecessor, William C. Dodge; Hulon Cap-shaw, a magistrate; and a former magistrate, the late Francis Erwin—all Tammany men.
"Dixie" Davis is a lawyer too, but is now disbarred. He first came to New York in 1920, a shy pleas youth from the little village of Tanjnersville, in the Catskill Mountains, where he played the violin solos at [church social gatherings.
After a few tedious and unprofitable years as a lawyers clerk, he [launched out on his-own, defending prisoners charged with "policy" gambling at the cut rate of £3 a head.
In course of time he became "Dutch Schultz's" lawyer. He survived Schultz [ana went on from strength to strength. He had a penthouse on East 92nd Street furnished in luxuricus modern style, an apportment on Park-avenue, and a suite of rooms at the exclusive Sherry Netherland Hotel. He went to symphony concerts at Carnegie Hall.
His £30 suits and £35 overcoats mere cut with quiet severity by the [test tailors, He spoke an aristocratic [cally correct and unaccented English.
For two years he rode on top of the world; and then, in 1937, Dewey The prosecutor was certain in his own mind that Davis was the brain behind the "policy" racket. The: sids which swept through the city that January night were aimed to ake "Dixie" and his lesser chiefs by surprise. But somehow three of the riggest fish slipped through the neshes of the net.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.