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10-A CORPUS CHRISTI TIMES, Wed., June 4, 1969COLUMBUS. OHIOGamblers’ Payoffs To Police ChargedWILLIAM BARTONWASHINGTON, to - Federal officials have charged that gamblers in Columbus, Ohio, have “had almost everv member of the city's vice squad on their payroll.”Assistant Atty. Gen. Will R. Wilson in testimony yesterday before the Senate subcommif-tee on criminal laws and procedures spoke only of a “major mid western city” when he said that “low-level officers were reported receiving $250 per month afnd their superiors as much as $500” from local number^ operators.But other federal officials later confirmed Wilson had been talking about Columbus. And the Nashville Tennessean quoted Wilson as identifying the midwestern citv as the Ohio capital.Wilson told the subcam mil-tee, headed by Sen. John L. McClellan, D-Ark, thaft the Justice Department had “uncovered evidence that local numbers operators had almost every member of the city's vice squad on their payroll.” He also said “the Involvement of the police went so far as to include pressure by the chief of the squad put on a dissident gambler to bring him in line with his fellow numbers operators.”make it a federal crime to conspire to obstruct enforcement of local and state criminal laws in order to promote an illegal gambling business.He said there is a need for -such af statute on grounds of widespread police corruption in several major urban areas.Specifically, he named a “major southern city” — the Nashville Tenness-ean quoted him as referring to Nashville —that has had “aft open history of police corruption over the past 18 years.”Police there were being paid off by lottery operators and bookmakers, Wilson charged, “and in 1964 it was learned that two city detectives were actually operating a lottery.“A plan to infiltrate this operation was discussed with the local prosecutor, but he declined to cooperate and immediately disclosed the plan to city officials.”“As a result,” he added, “plice payoffs were made with a grea't deal more care and enforcement efforts correspondingly made more difficult. Efforts at cooperationcontinue to be made sporadically but unsuccessfully. In one of the latest joint raids, the lottery operators told the searching officers they wereexpected.”In Columbus, Capt. Robert Taylor, vice squad chief, denied any connection withcrime figures.“I am absolutely not taking any money from anyone. I do not want to dignify their charges, I cannot speak for anyone else. But if an officer Is taking he will be prosecuted,”Mayor Maynard E. Sensen-brenner called for a full report from Columbus SafetyDirector Fred Simon and Police Chief Robert II. Bans.I've got confidence in my police department and my safety director,” Sensenbren-ner said. “If i find any evidence of wrongdoing on the. part of the police, we’ll get rid of them.In Nashville, the Tennessean quoted Henry Petersen, head of the organized crime section, as saying Wilson’s testimony referred to the situationin the past and did not reflect on current Nashville officials.Gilbert S. Merritt Jr., who resigned recently as U.S. attorney for the Middle Tennessee District, told the newspaper that “there is no question” that “the old Nashville City Police Department in the early 1960s was corrupt,”“But as the result of a number of federal cases against police officers — one of whom was a former police chief — and a number of cases against casino gambling houses, the situation has been vastly improved,” Merritt said,20th of '69 Dies In Philadelphia Gang ViolencePHILADELPHIA. HI-Ihil-adelphia's teen-age gang violence claimed its 20th victim this year last night.Garfield Peacock, 19, was shot and killed and six others were wounded in the latest encounter.All were members of the 12th and Oxford Street gang, which battled with the Marshall and Master gang, police said,Members of the Oxford gang were given a $13,000 federal grant last June to help form a film company after they had produced “The Jungle,” an award winning movie on teenage gangs.The wounded were reported in fair condition at St. Luke’s hospital today.Police said the two groups had been feuding for sometime.WASHINGTON, IP) — Sen. J. V. Fulbright said today the system of budget priorities that puts 10 times the amount into military spending that is invested in educating and training young Americans is “cockeyed.”Fulbright, the A r k a n s a s Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a Senate-House economic subcommittee:“The greatest threat to peace and domestic tranquility is not in Hanoi, Moscow and Peking but in our colleges and in the ghettos of cities throughout our land,”“I believe there would be far less unrest and divisiveness in our society today if theWilson appeared before the subcommittee on behalf oi President Nixon’s proposal tor
Newspaper Details
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Wed, Jun 04, 1969
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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