USA > Illinois > Williamson County > Complete history of southern Illinois' gang war : the true story of southern Illinois gang warfare > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Three years after the shooting, Birger told a news- paper man additional details of the Doering killing. He said that after Doering had called him out, the St. Louis gangster suggested that Birger assist him in robbing the payroll of a Harrisburg mine. Birger told the newspaper man that he became indignant at Doer- ing's suggestion and told him that he would not take part in any such robbery, nor would he permit any one else to prey upon the Saline county mines.
Birger said that while he was denouncing Doer- ing for suggesting the robbery, Doering shot him, and
17
almost immediately through a window in the road house behind him, one of Birger's followers shot Doering down. Birger never disclosed the name of his man who killed Doering.
Birger and Doering had known each other for a great many years, and just what connection there was between the leader of the St. Louis Egan's gangster and the man who later became leader of even a more famous gang was not revealed at that time. Doering died without revealing any of the many gangland sec- rets which he harbored. Birger recovered from his wounds, however, and throughout the remainder of his career runs the adage proven so conclusively in the death of Doering, "Dead men tell no tales."
CHAPTER 7.
Chapter 7 Deals with Birger as Owner of Shady Rest Before the Opening of the War with the Shelton Brothers Gang.
The notoriety attracted to Birger as a result of the shooting fray at Halfway in which Whitey Doering lost his life and in which Birger was wounded, result- ed in suspicion being cast upon Birger as a possible member of the Egan gang which two years before had staged a $2,000,000 mail robbery at St. Louis. Doer- ing at the time of his death was under conviction for the robbery but was free on an appeal bond. At the time Doering was killed, there was considerable rumor that a quarrel had ensued between the two over the division of the mail robbery loot. As a result two days after the killing, Inspector Keefe of the postal depart- ment headed a search of the Halfway road houses in
18
the hopes of finding part of the loot, but the search was unsuccessful.
According to Birger he had known Doering 22 years before at the time Birger operated a coal mine between Edgemont and East St. Louis.
Whatever were the circumstances which led up to the death of Doering, the shooting affray ending in his death, at least, according to Birger, brought about Birger's meeting with Carl Shelton. Shelton was first to become an ally and then an arch enemy of Birger. The two met in the Herrin hospital while Birger was recovering from his wounds.
Later, as Birger put it, the two joined in the "slot machine racket" in Williamson county, owning jointly the machines which were operated in many of the bootlegging joints of the county. The two of them reaped considerable profits for a year or so, until ac- tivities of S. Glenn Young and the Ku Klux Klan be- gan to interfere. Speaking of his connection with the anti-Klan faction, Birger at one time said, "The Ku Klux Klan began to stir things up in Herrin and Shel- ton and I began to tone down some of the Klansmen, although they got a bunch of our men, too."
Throughout the war with the Klan, Birger and the Sheltons remained henchmen up to and including the last fight on the occasion of an election at Herrin on April 13, 1926. Birger denies that he participated in that fight which resulted in six fatalities, but he admits that some of his men took part in it.
A few weeks afterward came the break between Birger and the Shelton brothers, Carl, Earl and Ber- nie. Birger's version of the break was that difficul- ties arose when the Sheltons held up a Harrisburg business man and took several thousand dollars worth
19
of jewelry and money from him. The business man was a friend to Birger, and Birger said he forced the Sheltons to return the money. After the money was returned, Birger says, the Sheltons planned to kidnap the business man and hold him for $1,000 ransom. Art Newman learned of the plot, according to Birger, and it was then that Newman allied himself with Bir- ger by informing him of the plot which was blocked by Birger.
The Sheltons, however, have a different version of the break between them and Birger. Trouble be- tween the two factions began, according to Carl Shel- ton, leader of the Shelton gang, when the latter refused to assist in smuggling some of Birger's relatives into the United States. Shelton said that early difficulties between he and Birger were climaxed by a disagree- ment over the division of the profits in the slot mach- ine business. Shelton said that Birger had collected about $3,000 from the slot machines, and when Shel- ton asked Birger for his share of the profits, Birger declared there were no profits to be divided, claiming that he had expended all the receipts for official pro- tection. Shelton then severed business as well as friendly relations with Birger. When learning of Birger's version of the break between them, Shelton declared that Birger had framed the robbery on the Harrisburg business man in order to make a grand- stand play as the protector of Harrisburg citizens.
The beginning of the gang war found Birger as the wealthy owner of Shady Rest, a resort notorious far and wide. The resort was located in Williamson county just about two miles west of the Saline county line. It was located on a 60-acre tract of land which was mostly covered with timber. Near the state hard
20
*
RAY "IZZY" HYLAND
road in a clearing Birger had erected a log cabin and installed in it practically every convenience of the modern home. In front of the cabin on the state road stood a lunch stand which served the two-fold purpose of a convenience to travelers and of an outpost to protect the cabin against surprise from the authori- ties. Built in 1924, Shady Rest however, was not troubled much with official interference during the rest of that year and the next, during which it ran full blast. On summer afternoons scores of automo- biles could be seen parked at Shady Rest while their owners were at the cabin. It was the most notorious resort in the southern part of the state, and attracted gamblers and others from far and near. There was an arena for cock fighting, while blooded bull dogs, eagles and monkeys occupied various large cages about the place.
Aside from being a popular place where whiskey, good and bad, could be bought, Shady Rest was also a station of a great booze transportation system that ran from the coast of Florida to St. Louis. Whiskey caravans with smuggled liquor from Florida frequent- ly stopped at Shady Rest, according to Birger's own story, to wait during the day time to complete the trip to St. Louis at night.
Birger admitted that he was a bootlegger, but he declared that the Sheltons had him beaten by far in their organization, which he said transported the smuggled liquor. Birger declared that the Sheltons even used stolen cars in their liquor transportation, and got by with it.
The gang war put an end to profits in the whis- key business for both Birger and the Sheltons. Al- though the "battle to death" never took place, attacks
21
and threat of attacks upon Shady Rest as well as the armed crew of some score men which Birger kept there scared his trade away. Patrons became afraid to stop there. Virtually the same thing was true of the Shel- ton joints near Herrin. In the attacks upon Shady Rest, dynamite bombs thrown from automobiles and an airplane were used as well as machine guns and rifles. Armored cars were called in to use by both factions.
CHAPTER 8.
Chapter 8 Deals with the Murders of Ward "Casey" Jones, Mayor Joe Adams of West City and Mr. and Mrs. Lory Price of Marion, Ill.
ALSO THE CONFESSION OF ART NEWMAN,
BIRGERITE.
The body of Ward "Casey" Jones, Birger gangster was found in a creek on October 28, 1926 near Equal- ity, Gallatin County, Illinois. Charley Birger identi- fied the body which was riddled with shot and had Jones buried, paying the bill.
Charged with this murder in a trial held in Wil- liamson county late in June and early in July in 1927 were Rado Millich and Eural Gowan. A man by the name of Rone turned state's evidence and was not charged with the murder. The result of the trial is told later in this book.
Millich was a Montenegrin and had a bullet-shap- ed head. Gowan was a snappy looking boy of 19 and presented quite a contrast in court compared with the dark, ill-looking Millich. Rone was used as a witness
22
of the state in the case. He claimed Millich and Gowan used several means of torture on Jones and then mur- dered him in Shady Rest and then placed the body in a car in which it was hauled to the creek near Equal- ity and thrown overboard. State's Attorney Arlie O. Boswell, a very young man, conducted the prosecution in this trial.
Gowan swore that he was not a gunman but only a flunky and had nothing to do with the killing. At- torneys for Millich said that Millich shot and killed Jones in front of the barbecue stand of Birger's but that it was in self defense. Arlie Boswell said Jones was tortured two days before he was put to death. At this time Charlie Birger was in jail for the murder of Mayor Joe Adams, charged with complicity. While the Jones trial was going on and Birger was awaiting his trial, T. A. King, the builder of the armored car of Birger's, filed suit for $175 which he declared was due him, and got judgment for that amount.
The Murder of Mayor Joe Adams of West City, III.
It was the armored car of the Sheltons that result- ed in Birger's intense hatred for 300-pound Mayor Joe Adams of West City. Birger went to Adams' home at West City and told him he wanted the Sheltons' armored truck, which he accused Adams of harboring. Adams refused to turn it over to him and Birger de- clared he had better deliver the armored truck to him the following morning in order to save trouble. Adams did not deliver the truck, and a few days later two motor cars speeding through West City riddled with machine gun bullets two houses adjacent to the Adams home, which were evidently mistaken by the various members of the attacking party as the residence of the West City Mayor.
23
A week later a dynamite bomb hurled from a pass- ing automobile landed in Adams' front yard, tearing away part of the home. On one occasion Birger called the wife of the West City Mayor on the telephone, and told her to take out plenty of life insurance on her husband.
It was only a few days after that, December 26, 1926, that the West City Mayor was called to the front door of his home and shot down by the Thomasson brothers, Elmo and Harry, employed, according to the latter, by Charley Birger, to do the deed. Elmo Thom- asson burned to death in Shady Rest when it went up in flames.
The Thomassons were but two of the youths at- tracted to Charley Birger. There were many others, among them being Eural Gowan and Clarence Rone, defendants in the trial slated to open in June for the murder of Ward Jones at Birger's cabin. These boys were loyal to Birger, and Birger himself relates the story of Rone's loyalty to him when Rone would have been rewarded for betraying his chieftan.
Birger said that the Shelton boys captured Rone in Marion one night, and knowing his affiliation with their enemy, debated as to his fate. Finally they de- cided to free Rone and to pay him to return to the cabin and signal them when Birger was there. Rone, according to the story, was to display a white handker- chief in one of the windows of the cabin when Birger arrived. Instead, he warned Birger of the plot, and the gang leader was prepared to withstand any sur- prise attack.
During the gang war Birger lived with his wife and children in Harrisburg, seldom staying at the cabin at Shady Rest. At his home a guard was main-
24
tained about the block in which he lived to prevent surprise by his enemies. Birger's wife, Mrs. Bernice Birger, who is pretty and but 19 years of age, is his second wife. His first wife and the mother of his two small daughters, and Birger are divorced.
The separation of Birger and his first wife came in 1925. Late in 1924 Birger was one of the bootleg- gers raided by S. Glenn Young, and he was prosecuted in Federal Court at Danville by the late Judge W. C. Potter of Marion on Youngs evidence. Birger stood trial and was convicted. Judge Lindley fined Birger $500 for possession of liquor, $1000 for selling liquor, $1000 for maintaining a common nuisance, and sen- tenced him to serve one year in the Vermillion County Jail. Just before the Christmas holidays of that year Birger petitioned Judge Lindley for a short parole to spend the holidays with his wife, Mrs. Bee Birger, and their two children. Before the judge had acted on the petition, however, Birger's wife wrote to Judge Lind- ley not to let Birger out, saying that he had threatened to kill her. The parole was denied, and when Birger was finally released from jail he and his wife lived apart. In February, 1926, he married his present wife who cares for his two daughters, Minnie, age 9, and Charline, age 5. Birger's first wife is also said to be remarried.
Throughout Birger's career two characteristics stand out, his facilities for providing alibis to cover his crimes, and his work as a benefactor of the unfor- tunate. It is this latter characteristic of his that earned for him the nickname of "Robin Hood."
Through his charitable actions, Birger won the esteem of many of the better citizens of Harrisburg. He was known to have contributed frequently to the
25
support of widows and orphans. On at least one occas- ion during the winter, Birger made a survey of Har- risburg to determine the number of widows in need of coal, and he saw that they were supplied with fuel. On other occasions he bought food for the unfortun- ates.
Birger and his men visited a place in Herrin one night where some armed bandits were said to have been barricaded. They went with the intention, they said, of taking the armed men and turning them over to the law. But when they arrived at the home and entered they found only an elderly woman there by the bedside of her sick daughter. The couple were destitute. Birger took money from his pocket and gave it to them. Acts of this kind were not forgotten and the recipients always stood up for him afterwards. Birger then went from the home to the Elks Club and called Joe Crizzell, custodian, out in the lobby. "I just went out to a house in your town," he told Grizzell, "intending to shake it down, but all I found there was an old woman and her sick daughter on starvation. I gave them some money, but they've got to be cared for and have some food."
When the gangster had gone, Mr. Grizzell, carry- ing out the charitable program of his order, investi- gated Birger's story and found it true as he had re- lated it.
Birger's work as a benevolent benefactor and as a gunman and gangster went hand in hand, as the for- mer made alibis easy for the latter. The fact that he could readily furnish alibis and divert suspicion was responsible to a great extent for the long delays about his apprehension. At the time of the slaying of Mayor Joe Adams of West City, Birger was in Marion and
26
talked to State's Attorney Arlie O. Boswell. He exhi- bited himself about public places in Marion at the very time Elmo and Harry Thomasson, according to the lat- ter's story, were firing the shots for which Thomasson said they were paid $50 each for ending the life of Adams. Harry was sentenced to life imprisonment for the act.
When Lory price and wife disappeared from their home in Marion all the circumstances indicated that the Sheltons were the abductors. Everything was in Birger's favor. Price was reputed to be Birger's friend. He was thought to have a quarrel with Carl Shelton just a few days before he was taken out of his home and killed. Previous to the Price abduction, the Sheltons were generally regarded as the attackers of Birger's Shady Rest when four of Birger's followers died in the cabin.
And not until the lips of gangland were opened and associates of the gangster persuaded to talk did the authorities actually have evidence that Birger kidnapped the Prices and that he had previously burn- ed his own cabin and killed his own followers. These crimes are alleged to have been committed by Birger. all because the victims "knew too much."
Birger also was the "cover up man" in the slay- ing of Ward Jones. When Jones' body was found in Gallatin county Birger identified the body, gave an Equality undertaker instructions to arrange a funeral with "plenty of flowers" and send the bill to Birger. In the meantime, Birger swore vengeance on the Shel- tons and allegedly set about seeking to punish them as the slayers of Jones.
With Birger brought to bay the one question at the time of his trial was, if convicted of any of the
27
crimes with which he was charged, would he ever speak to clear up the countless other gangland myster- ies of which he doubtless knows much.
The Confession of Art Newman, Birgerite.
Following is a part of the confession of Art New- man, one time a great friend of Birger, as given to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter: About 3 p. m., on January 17, Charley Birger got me to his home in Har- risburg. There were present, beside myself and Bir- ger, Connie Ritter, Ernest Balleau, Leslie Simpson, Riley Simmons, Frank Schrorer, Freddie Wooten and Birger's wife.
Birger asked me if I would go with him to see Lory Price, remarking "he has been talking too damn much to Sheriff Coleman about us and I am going to put a stop to that talk."
We then drove to Marion in two automobiles, my Chrysler coach and Connie Ritter's Buick sedan. We drove around Marion and the hard road in that vicini- ty for about two hours but failed to see Price and re- turned to Harrisburg about 6 p. m., for supper. We started out again for Price about 9 p. m., and drove to his home. Observing that some one else was there we drove around for a while and returned later to find Price gone. We then drove to a barbecue stand just north of Marion where we remained until 11:30 p. m. At this barbecue stand we saw a pet monkey we used to own at the Birger cabin. They told us at the barbecue stand that Price brought the monkey there about 11 o'clock on the night the cabin was dy- namited.
Upon reaching Price's home, we got out and walked to the porch. Birger called Price out and told
28
Letter Lured Adams to Death
East St Louis bet. Jan.
Friend Joe :-
you Can rial
these boys please do it. They are broke and need work. I know their father. C. 3
Comins
Hitter
Above is the letter which Harry Thomasson and his brother Elmo presented to Mayor Adams at his home ir West City and then shot him down in the door of his home
him that he wanted to talk to him and asked him to get down and get in my car. Birger took Price's pistol from him and laid it on the porch and Price said, "are you going to hurt me, Charlie?'' Birger answered, "no, I just want to talk to you."
Price and Birger got in the back seat of my car and Freddie Wooten in the front seat with me. The door was open. Birger started to say something and Price said to me: "Art drive down the road a little way. Let's not talk here." But as I started the engine Birger called to Ritter and the others standing out- side, "take that woman out and do away with her."
Wooten then closed the door and we started to move. Price said, with alarm, to Birger: "Charlie, please don't hurt Ethel." Birger answered: "Oh, never mind," and told me to go ahead and drive around Saline county. I drove around Saline county about an hour, during which time Birger cursed Price in the foulest language and accused Price of having sought to prevent Harry Thomasson from talking about the Joe Adams murder in the Marion jail. He also accus- ed Price of telling Sheriff Coleman about the gang activities. Price denied all these things repeatedly, trying to show Birger that he never had sought to hurt him. Birger then began accusing Price of know- ing who dynamited the cabin. Price denied this and with good reason, for we knew who dynamited the cabin. It was three of Birger's own men.
Birger ordered me to drive to his home in Harris- burg. When we got there he got out and went inside. He came out in a minute and said :
"Schrorer is still in there with that dope head, Crews. I told him when we left to take Crews out and kill him because I did not want Crews to see us
29
leave." Birger then got in the car and ordered me to drive to Rosiclare to the Spar mine. I drove down there and upon reaching there Birger got out, machine gun in hand and said: "Price I have a damned good notion to take you out and kill you and throw you in the pit."
Wooten induced Birger to get back in the car, telling Birger that Price was right and was telling the truth. Birger got back in the car and told me to drive back to Harrisburg, where he told me to drive to the ruins of the cabin. "I want to show this the ruins he has caused."
On the way to the barbecue stand where the cabin used to be Birger got kind of confidential with Price and eased up to him saying: "Price I want you to say that the Shelton brothers blew up my cabin and killed those people because I want the post office in- spector to think that the Shelton brothers were trying to get you and me, to prevent us appearing against the Sheltons at the mail robbery trial at Quincy. If you tell this it will make things look blacker for the Sheltons at Quincy."
Price declared that he did not know who blew up the cabin and Birger cursed him. By the time we reached the barbecue stand it was raining hard. Bir- ger ordered us to get out. As Birger was getting out Price leaned over to me and said: "Art can you help me now ?"
Before I could reply Birger, machine gun in hand said threateningly : "I would like to see some one help you now," and then took Price by the arm and took him in the barbecue stand cursing him and shot him three times in the breast. Price pitched forward on his face. At that moment the other car drove up and
30
I said: "My God, you have killed that man and look where you have put us. I thought you only wanted to talk to him."
Wooten said: "If I had an idea you were going to do this dirty work I would not have come out here." Then the others got out of the car outside and Wooten said: "Now here is that other car with that woman, what are we going to do now?"
Ritter and the others then came in the stand and said not to worry about the woman, that they had killed her. I said: "Where did you put her ?"
Ritter said, "down in an old mine shaft near the Herrin road about 75 feet. We threw her in and heard her hit the water. Then we spent two hours filling it up with corrugated iron, stone, timber and rubbage. We filled it up."
Birger said : "All right. I know an old mine near DuQuoin. I will put him there."
They then put Price in my car over my protest, wrapped in a piece of canvas. Birger got in the car and ordered me to drive. He sat on Price's body, machine gun on his lap. We drove for a while around Carbondale and just on the other side Birger ordered me to stop and he got out and vomited. He said: "I can kill a man, but I can't sit on him. I don't know what the hell is the matter with me, it's not my nerve, but when I kill a man it always makes me sick after- wards. It must be my stomach."
He then ordered Ritter to get in my car and we drove on about 5 miles. I thought Price was dead, but he said, "O Connie, you will live to regret this. I am an inocent man." Ritter poked him with a mach- ine gun, cursed him and ordered me to stop. He got out and called back to Birger, "I have had enough."
31
Then Simpson was put in the car and we rode a little while and he could not stand it under the heavy breath- ing of Price, so he got out. Birger then ordered Woot- en in the car, but he didn't sit on Price's body like the others, but he turned down the front seat and sat on it. We then drove to a mine near DuQuoin. Birger got out but came running back and said there was a watchman there.
We soon came to a little white school house on the left turn of the road and he said he would put Price's body there and burn the building, but it was raining so hard he was afraid he could not have a good fire, so he ordered me to drive down to the spot where the body was later found. Birger ordered me to stop and or- dered Price's body taken out of the car and Birger walked in the field. As they took Price from the car his arm fell on my shoulder and I noticed on his finger was a Masonic ring. He said to me: "O Art, I thought you was a friend of mine." And I said: "Lory, I'll kill that for this."
They then took Price's body over in the field and threw it down and I heard Birger cry out when they let him down "you will never talk against any of my boys again." I heard eight shots and Birger came back with the blood stained canvas in his hand. I said to Birger, "what are you going to do with the canvas ?"
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.