Chief and a uniformed officer.
“Mr. Puskis,” the Chief said brightly, “we’d wondered where you’d gone. Why doesn’t Riordon here give you a ride back to the Vaults. I understand the boys have sent quite a bit of work over for you.” The Chief put a massive arm gently around Puskis’s shoulders and guided him out of the Transcribers’ Room and into the hall. The uniform pulled the door shut as they left.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Excerpt from Van Vossen, A History of Recent Crime in the City (draft):
While the details of the Birthday Party Massacre are no doubt familiar to anyone interested in crime in the City, it is important to elucidate the pivotal role that this episode played in the cessation of the mob war between the White Gang and the Bristol Gang. In fact, it can and has been said that without the Birthday Party Massacre, the conflict had no prospects for a terminus.
It was an accepted truth among the officers of the Force and the City’s criminal underworld that the pursuit of justice for violence and homicide committed against criminals by criminals would not be pursued with the vigor that equivalent crimes against law-abiding citizens would. In this way, until the early to mid-1920s, there was a consistent and accepted attrition rate among members of the White and Bristol gangs and their associates. Around 1923, however, a marked increase in homicidal attacks between the gangs was observed. The period between 1923 and the Birthday Party Massacre in 1929 witnessed an increase in both the number of homicides and the lack of regard for public order on the part of the gangs. Thus, Eddie Peguese was murdered in front of a crowd of hundreds at the Independence Day parade in 1926, Piers DaCourt was ambushed by gunmen in front of the Opera House in 1926, and Justice Davies was pulled from his car during midday traffic in 1928, never to be seen again. These are but examples from the litany of outrages perpetrated by the White and Bristol gangs and their criminal cohorts.
But even against this ghoulish standard, the Birthday Party Massacre proved an act of such moral turpitude that the public, the Police, and Mayor Henry agreed that a new policy had to be pursued. The White Gang, as the perpetrators of the Birthday Party Massacre, were savagely eviscerated through the combined might of the Bristol Gang and the police force, especially the newly reconstituted Anti-Subversion Unit. The degree to which the ASU and the Bristols coordinated their assaults upon the Whites was a matter of some dispute in the newspapers and pubs of the City. While no conclusive evidence has ever been provided, there was, at minimum, a tacit understanding that the Bristols would not be prosecuted for crimes against the Whites. . . .
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The Gazette’s library maintained a copy of each issue going back the thirty-odd years of its existence. Lonergan, the librarian, was small and slight, wore his hair unfashionably long, and sported a neat goatee. As far as Frings could tell, Lonergan’s sole responsibility was to retrieve newspapers when so requested by Gazette reporters. It was hard to imagine an easier job. Panos had told Frings, with a laugh of disbelief, that he understood that Lonergan spent his free time in the library writing a philosophical treatise. Frings wanted to talk to Lonergan about this—his curiosity was part genuine interest and part amusement—but Lonergan was not approachable and Frings decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Lonergan’s invaluable talent was his ability to recall with startling accuracy the date of even minor events. So when Frings asked him for the Gazette’s coverage of the murder committed by Otto Samuelson, Lonergan was instantly able to narrow the date down to within a week’s span. He retrieved all the newspapers for that week and the following four weeks and turned them over to Frings, who carried them down a flight of stairs, stacked them on his desk, and began to learn about Otto Samuelson and the murder of a small-time hood named Leto.
Cy Leto had been a runner for the White Gang. He collected on gambling debts, picked up protection money, and, on occasion, braced someone who had transgressed in some way against the Whites or, occasionally, against Leto himself. He had been a small man, according to the newspaper reports, but quick to anger and apparently with few qualms about perpetrating violence upon his fellow man. The second article about his murder mentioned a prior conviction for pushing