Big Tim

At tough preparatory schools and colleges, big boys sell the radiators, fire-escapes, bedroom crockery, etc., to smaller boys. In Chicago, big boys sell small boys the privilege of staying in business. Chicago's "rackets," as they are called, developed out of the Prohibition graft system, where Federal agents extort money from blind-piggers for protection. One of the most profitable "rackets" in the Chicago underworld is in the cleaning and dyeing industry. The profits reach $1,500,000 per annum. Credit for bringing the "racket" to its Chicagoan perfection belongs largely to Timothy D. ("Big Tim") Murphy--who last week became the late Timothy Murphy. A towering burly who relied largely upon his fists in his hard-shooting environment, he rose to be a political power through the railroad labor unions. Then, with gunmen at his command, he pursued the "racket" of organizing other unions. Percentages of the dues kept "Big Tim" and his pretty-doll wife in style. But evidently someone else needed the percentages from the cleaners and dyers, because one night last week, after "Big Tim's" doorbell had rung and he had answered it, an automobile rolled slowly by in the dark street, spitting a mechanical stream of fire and lead. "Big Tim" died where he stood. Accustomed to gangster funerals in Chicago, the United Press issued a laconic bulletin on the Murphy ceremony before it took place. "A cortege a mile long, with scores of automobiles bearing floral tributes . . . etc., etc." But the U. P. guessed poorly. Chicago is changing a little. The Chicago Crime Commission, under a small, fearless, 76-year-old lawyer, named Frank J.Loesch, has set out to clean up the crime capital of the U. S. beginning at the top with Chief of Police Michael Hughes. In the old days it was a mark of distinction to be seen at gangster funerals, but during the Loesch prosecutions, probably not even U. S. Senator Deneen of Illinois would care to be seen near the bier of a "racketeer."* Behind the Murphy bier, instead of the United Press's "mile long cortege," were just 20 automobiles, no crowd, no color.

Said the hard-boiled Chicago Tribune: "The burghers will be inclined to, rejoice. . . . That is the short view. The man who killed O'Banion was tougher and more resourceful than O'Banion; the man who killed Hymie Weiss was tougher than his victim; and the man who killed Murphy was a harder egg than Murphy. As one gangster is killed off he is succeeded by an-other who is less restrained by the standards of civilized society. The progression is from fists to bombs, to pistols, or to machine guns." The Murphy murder quickly reverberated in Brooklyn, N. Y. Frank Uale, alias Yale, dressy gangster and racketeer, friend of Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone of Chicago, was cruising comfortably in his shiny Lincoln sedan. Another car (with Illinois license plates) slid up behind. Four men opened fire at the back of Uale's head, then drew alongside and shot off the side of his face. The Lincoln careened off the street, through a hedge, against a brick stoop. The Illinois car vanished.

*Last Spring Senator Deneen attended the funeral of "Diamond Joe" Esposito, famed thug and Deneen supporter (TIME, April 9).