00:00Felder Aide offers vice list to Chief Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, May 27, 1913.
00:05Attorney Carl Hutchison accused Beavers of permitting unlawful houses to operate.
00:09Gambler's plot, says Lanford in hot reply.
00:12Detective Head declares Ring is trying to fix charge of bribery against him,
00:16ignoring the fresh volley of charges made by Carl Hutchison, an attorney,
00:21who offers to cite resorts which are allowed to operate by the city police.
00:25Chief Beavers.
00:27Tuesday morning reiterated his declaration that the entire matter would be laid bare before the
00:32grand jury for decision. Detective Chief Lanford revealed another angle of the warfare when he
00:37declared that the fight being made against him was backed by the gambling ring of Atlanta.
00:42C.C. Jones was named as the leader of the opposition in this fight.
00:45Beavers, in commenting upon Hutchison's charges, declared that they were inspired by Thomas B.
00:51Felder, with whose office Hutchison is connected, and that the attack was not therefore that of
00:56Hutchison, but of Felder and his gang. Hutchison, a young lawyer connected with the firm Felder,
01:02Anderson, Whitman, and Dillon, wrote an open letter to Chief of Police Beavers,
01:07charging him with permitting unlawful houses to operate uncertain city streets,
01:11and promising to give addresses if the Chief asks personally for them within three days.
01:17Beavers to ignore attack. Characterizing Carl Hutchison as of too little importance
01:21to warrant an answer to his charges made against the police force, Chief Beavers declared that he
01:26would ignore him altogether.
01:28I don't care to answer Hutchison's attack, said the police official. Hutchison is too small a fry
01:33to even take notice of. An answer to him would give him too much dignity. This young man is in
01:38Felder's office and is merely being used as a tool of Felder and his gang. Felder prompted him to make
01:44the statement that he did, and so I will pay no attention to Hutchison. This matter is going before the
01:48grand jury and not Carl Hutchison, regarded as reply. On Monday morning, Chief Beavers declared
01:54Attorney Thomas B. Felder had no evidence of police cognizance of immoral resorts, that he never had
02:00had any, and that he was only bluffing when he said he had. Requested to reply, Colonel Felder announced
02:06he would make no more statements except in writing, and that he had nothing to say then.
02:11A few hours later, Mr. Hutchison, a member of Colonel Felder's firm, issued the letter, which is regarded as a
02:17semi-official reply from Colonel Felder. Mr. Hutchison formerly was a newspaper man. Shortly after
02:24taking up the practice of law, he achieved statewide renown by conducting the campaign of William Schlee
02:29Howard, who defeated Representative Leonie Day Livingston, and is now serving his second term in
02:34Congress. Following is Mr. Hutchison's open letter to Chief J.L. Beavers, Scores Vice Crusade, J.L.
02:40Beavers, Chief of Police, Atlanta, Newport-Lanford, Chief of Detectives, Atlanta, in your great crusade
02:46against Sodom and Gomorrah with your immaculate robes of Puritanism. I accuse you in all your
02:51glory with allowing certain houses on Ivy Street, the business of which is to barter in immoral and
02:56indecent practices, to continue in flagrant operation, and you know it. If you do not,
03:01every sensible citizen of this city who knows anything of the world does. If you do not know
03:06these things as is your duty to know, and you should be discharged from your high pedestals for
03:10dereliction. I accuse you of allowing similar houses to operate on certain parts of Spring
03:15Street, and you know it. If you do not, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty. I
03:21accuse you of allowing similar houses to operate in a certain section of Prior Street, and you know
03:26it. If you do not, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty. I accuse you of
03:31allowing similar houses to operate on a certain section of Central Avenue, and you know it. If
03:36you do not, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty. I accuse you of failing to
03:41take cognizance of a certain house in Ivy Street, to which I called your attention several weeks ago,
03:46where young men were inveigled to gamble away their money, the mistress thereof being the banker
03:51and the recipient of these ill-gotten gains, and you know it, and should be removed from office for
03:57dereliction of duty. I accuse you in numbers of your forces with being cognizant of these facts,
04:02and yet you, the great crusade leaders, stand idly by and fold your lordly hands. I accuse you with
04:09allowing even yet low-class hotels in this city to exist, and practices their nefarious games of
04:14lowly gain, and you know it, and should be removed from office for dereliction of duty. If you cannot
04:20turn up these places, there are hundreds of people who can. I can use infantile detective work and
04:25turn up dozens of them within a few days, and you know this can be done, and if you fail
04:30to get busy
04:31and continue to parade your great genius, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty,
04:36charges police protection. I accuse you with protecting these places because of your lax methods
04:41in keeping the houses within our midst closed, and you know it, and should be removed from office for
04:47dereliction of duty. I accuse you of closing Manhattan Avenue and converting our entire municipality
04:52into a red-light district, and you know it, and unless you change conditions at once, you should
04:57be removed from office for dereliction of duty. I accuse you of retaining on your forces men unfit to
05:03protect the decent citizens of Atlanta, and you know it, and should be removed from office for
05:07dereliction of duty. I accuse you of knowing where numbers of houses which exist by immoral practices
05:13are located, and you know it, and you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.
05:18Do you think that the public will hoodwink forever? Do you think that the public is so gullible as to
05:23believe all of this bourgeois about the great work that you are continuing? Yes, you closed Manhattan
05:29Avenue, but what did you do for the remainder of the city? You and your bunch are very sore because
05:34you
05:34were unable to ferret out the Fagan murder, and you know it. When the Solicitor General called in
05:39outside aid, numbers of your hirelings were very much perturbed and became insanely jealous.
05:44That is why all of this patched up and hatched up bunch of lies and slanders have been issued
05:49against Thomas B. Felder, who shoes you unworthy to untie, and you know it. I accuse you of retaining
05:55a large number of leather heads for detectives. Detectives? That is a joke, isn't it? And you know
06:01it, and you should be removed from office for allowing such an army of incompetence to work with
06:05your departments. You know, and I know, that these fellows secure their offices through political
06:10pull and not through efficiency. They are Sherlock Holmeses when it comes to arresting blind tigers
06:15and negro crap players, but beyond that they would now know a clue if they saw it tagged.
06:20In the Fagan case, the newspaper men are the ones who turned up the first clues of any merit,
06:25and you know it, and should be ashamed of that crowd down there to allow the members of the fourth
06:30estate to put one over on you. But you know newspaper men have brains, and brains are required
06:35to make detectives. Now volley forth again your promulgation of purity and tell the people of
06:41this great city what large men you are and how you protect the citizenry of this great commonwealth.
06:46If you haven't the addresses of the houses to which I refer, call at my office within three days,
06:51and I will give you a bunch of them. Friends of mine have advised me against printing this card.
06:56Some have feared for my life, but afraid of you and your crowd? Never. I am not afraid of anything
07:01that lays down its firearms and comes at me like a man in fair play. Now, lay on Macduff and
07:06damn be
07:07him who first cries, hold enough. Carl Hutchison. Atlanta, Georgia. May 27, 1913. Gambler's Plot,
07:15declares Lanford. Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford gave out a sensational statement Tuesday
07:20morning in which he charged that the efforts to fix accusations of bribery and malfeasance upon him
07:25were inspired by a gambling ring, of which C.C. Jones was the head. The cause of the fight against
07:31Lanford had been something of a mystery. Beavers readily explained the efforts to dispossess him
07:36from the office of Chief of Police by his war on vice in the city of Atlanta. Lanford's explanation
07:41reveals another angle of the crusade against a wide-open town. The gambling ring has been after
07:47me ever since I was made head of the detective department ten years ago, said Chief Lanford. No more had
07:52I declared relentless warfare upon all forms of gambling in the city, then I was notified that
07:58the gambling interests were out to get me. Several times it was reported to me that I had been marked
08:03for an attack, and once the gamblers succeeded in carrying out their threats. That was five years
08:08ago. I was reduced from sergeant, which was the designation of the head of the department then,
08:14to service in the ranks. The gamblers were responsible for it. They gloated for nine months.
08:19Then I was raised to my former position again, with the title of Chief. Since then,
08:25I have continued my campaign against them. They have been very bitter. They have threatened me
08:29time and again. Now they have brought these charges against me. Colonel Felder still probing in the
08:35Fagan case. In the news columns of the Georgian yesterday, it was said that Colonel Felder had been
08:40eliminated from the Fagan case. Colonel Felder says this is not true, that he is as deeply interested in
08:46solving the mystery as ever, and that he is lending every energy in that direction. The further
08:52statement in the Georgian that Colonel Felder was believed at one time to be interested in the
08:56defense of Frank was not intended to reflect in any way upon the lawyer. It was simply the gossip of
09:02the street, given for what it was worth. Colonel Felder's own statement that he is working solely for
09:07the public good makes his position perfectly clear, and everybody in the city will hope that he will
09:13continue actively in the case until the great mystery is disposed of.
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