Evening star. [volume], February 25, 1940, Page A-13, Image 13

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
. Further Indictments
Indicated in Detroit
Craft Investigation
•& \ i
t Grand Jury Intends to
~ Clean Up County, Says
Special Prosecutor
St tt>* Associated Press.
DETROIT, Peb. 34. — Special
Prosecutor Chester P. O’Hara of the
grand jury investigating gambling
and graft in Detroit said today
“there are other and bigger things
to follow” the indictment of Duncan
C. McCrea. Wayne County prose
cutor, against whom GOv. Luren D.
Dickinson has started removal pro
ceedings.
“The grand Jury intends to go on
with this job and clean up Wayne
County,” Mr. O'Hara said.
Circuit Judge Homer Perguson,
who has been sitting as a one-man
_ grand jury as authorized by Michi
gan statute, petitioned Gov. Dickin
son to oust. McCrea after indicting
him, Fred W. Prahm, deposed De
troit police superintendent; Harry
Colburn, McCrea’s chief investiga
tor; four police detectives and sev
eral other persons. The group is
charged with operating and pro
tecting a $1,000,000 baseball lottery
In Detroit.
Linked to Gamblers.
In the removal petition Judge
. Ferguson charged McCrea with col
lecting money from operators of
disorderly houses and various forms
,of gambling In Wayne County (De
■troit).
Attorney General Thomas Read
eame to Detroit from Lansing today
fto take over “as much of McCrea’s
work as in our judgment has been
made necessary by his indictment
and other circumstances.”
He said the case in which McCrea
Is one of the accused and several
others also would be taken over by
>hls department.
McCrea said today he welcomed
the opportunity “for the first time
to be confronted by my accusers
under oath ”
He reiterated his charge that his
indictment is “dirty, rotten politics
in its lowest, vilest and most con
temptible form.”
The Wayne County prosecutor,
the sheriff and some other officials
are Democrats. The State admin
istration i6 Republican. Mr. O'Hara
and McCrea have been headliners
in a political feud for years. Each
has had the upper hand at times.
Elected Three Times.
McCrea is the only Yawne
County prosecutor in recent years
to be elected three times to that
office.
McCrea said the charges against
him contained in the indictment and
in the separate petition for his
ouster are false. He termed the
grand jury an “inquisitorial tri
bunal.”
“I defy Judge Ferguson or any
one else,” he said, “to show where I
or any of my assistants could in any
way provide any protection whatso
ever to the operators of any illegal
enterprise.”
Upon arraignment yesterday on
the gambling conspiracy charge Mc
• Crea announced he would be a can
didate for the Democratic nomina
tion for United States Senator, con
testing the seat now held by Senator
Vandenberg, Republican.
Calls O’Hara Unfit.
Today McCrea said he had ad
vised the Attorney General that Mr.
O'Hara and his assistants are “un
fit” to act as representatives of the
.State. He accused them of “wanton
abuse of the rights of the people.”
"I've read McCrea’s statement,"
Said Mr. O’Hara. “He’s always do
ing some mysterious talking about
things nobody else can lay their
hands on. I don’t know why any
one pays any attention to his state
ments. There isn’t anything to
them.”
Since the grand jury started its
investigation of charges of collusion
between gamblers and law enforce
ment officials a succession of sen
sational occurrences has followed.
Police officials and an undersheriff
have spent days in jail for con
tempt of court. The police depart
ment has been put through the
most extensive shake-up in its his
■ tory, and numerous arrests have
been followed by the statement that
only “the opening gun” has been
fired.”
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Divorcee's Suicide Brought
Detroit's Graft Indictments
DETROIT, Mich., Feb. 34 (N.A.
N.A.).—It wu the suicide of a 83
year-old divorcee here last August
which initiated the chain of events
leading to grand jury Indictments
that have rocked Detroit with sen
sational charges of police graft and
corruption and brought ouster pro
ceedings against the Wayne County
I prosecutor. Fifteen have been ac
cused.
The one-man grand Jury which
presented the Indictments Wednes
day night came as a direct result of
the suicide of Mrs. Janet McDonald
and the letters she left, accusing the
man she had given her unrequited
iove, William McBride, of being the
go-between for policy house op
eratori and a racket eguad lieu
tenant.
The dieclceuree of police craft that
followed Mn. McDonald’s death are
considered here to have been the
principal cause of the defeat of for
mer Mayer Richard Reading in the
November election and the drastic
shake-up of police executives that
came within a few hours after the
present Mayor, Edward J. Jeffries,
took office January 1,
In the midst of the investigation,
touched off by the Mcponald sui
cide, McBride disappeared and two
months later died in Florida under
circumstances Which his widow
termed “suspicious." The racket
squad lieutenant, John P. McCarthy,
is still under suspension and served
a five-day contempt of court sen
tence Imposed by the grand jury
when he refused to answer per
tinent questions.
Acting on the petition of a group
of citisens and the insistence of De
troit newspapers, the IS judges of
the Wayne Circuit Court selected
one of their number, Judge Homer
Ferguson, to act as a one-man grand
jury to investigate the charges of
police graft contained in Mrs. Me
Donald'# Utters. Chester V. O’Hara,
a former assistant prosecutor, was
chosen to act as the grand jury’s
special prosecutor.
Working in secret quarters and
aided by the pledge of the three De
troit newspapers that names of
grand jury witnesses or their pic
tures would not .be published, the
grand jury began its task within
two weeks after the McDonald sui
cide. Since then hundreds of wit4
nesses have been questioned on every
phase of the gambling situation in
the city and two Indictments hare
been returned.
One' indictment, which may mult
In the Aster at Prosecutor MeCrea
by Ocv Luren D. Dickinson, charges
that MeCrea and police officials re
ceived money and gratuities for
their failure to attempt to stop the
operation of a baseball lottery. The
same charges were made against
four detectives of the special In
vestigation squad.
Row far the grand jury investiga
tion will go In uncovering other
graft and Illicit connections between
the city’s underworld and law en
foreement agencies la not known, but
it la significant that Mr. O’Hara de
clared, when the MeCrea indictment
waa presented:
“This is only a starting gun, and
a popgun at that.’’
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