The Gang's Still There

American tourists often have to explain to moviegoing Europeans that Chicago is no longer the free-for-all shooting gallery that it was in Prohibition days. Well, not quite. In the past 17 months there have been 25 unsolved gangland-style killings in Chicago, which is well below the record of 76 in 1926, but still in the classic spirit.

At least one of the 25 may yet be solved, although Chicago cops have scarcely covered themselves with glory in the case. Last October, John A. Kilpatrick, 55, international president of the United Industrial Workers of America, was gunned down in his car. The FBI moved in, two months later grabbed a Detroit hood named William G. Triplett, 37, and his uncle, Dana Nash, 41. Triplett confessed and fingered Nash as the gunman. But a couple of weeks ago, Triplett and two accomplices overpowered four Cook County jail guards and escaped; the feds nabbed Triplett again three days later, in New York.

Meanwhile, the gang harvest mounted. Two days before Triplett's escape, two bodies stabbed and beaten beyond recognition turned up in the trunk of one car.

Last week, Cicero Bookie Peter J. Bludeau, 50, was found stuffed in the trunk of another--his own 1959 Cadillac. He had been strangled with a wire, stabbed, kicked and beaten; he was left lying face up with a penny on his throat and his pockets turned out--standard gangster ceremonial for a stoolie. A fellow gambler, Harry A. Polay, 64, who was scheduled to testify before the Cook County grand jury, presumably to blow the whistle on syndicate gambling, has been missing since March 26.

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