USA > Illinois > Williamson County > Complete history of southern Illinois' gang war : the true story of southern Illinois gang warfare > Part 5
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Gus Adams, brother of Joe, declared that he knew no one by the name of Elmer Kane and nothing of the transactions which were declared to have taken place in his home in connection with the aerial bombing of Shady Rest.
At the opening of the trial many witnesses pointed out Hyland as the man who drove a Chrysler automo- bile to Joe Adams' home just as he was killed.
Birger was drawn into the case during the testi- mony in the afternoon of the 16th when witnesses told of the gang leader having openly threatened the life of the West City mayor. Waddell True, who said he operated a barbecue stand and sold home brew at West City, and Gus Adams, supplied the first direct testi- mony against Birger, when they told of the gang leader announcing that "I am going to kill that dough bellied and all the law in Franklin county can't keep me from it."
True said Birger came into his place with a num- ber of men, all heavily armed, and ordered him to in- form the officers that he (Birger) was going to kill Adams.
True said he told Birger that he would carry no messages, but that when Birger "jammed his machine gun in my guts and said 'yes you will,' " he agreed to carry the message.
True also told of overhearing a telephone con- versation between Birger and Adams, in which Bir- ger told the corpulent mayor he was coming over to
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get him. He said Adams protested, asking Birger what it was all about and urging him to "let's fix this up."
As True related the incident when Birger's machine gun changed his mind about carrying Birger's message, Birger laughed with the crowd, evidently appreciating as much as anyone the situation in which True told of having been placed.
Gus Adams told of Birger and his men visiting the Adams home one day and with a gang of men keeping Adams covered with rifles cursed the mayor and said they would kill him.
Mrs. Marshall Jones, a tall, straight woman who sat stiffly in the witness chair despite her 61 years, held the courtroom motionless for thirty minutes while she told of the slaying of Adams, her son. She was in the Adams home when the mayor was shot down at his front door.
Her story was one of fear. She told of spending the night of December 11 at the Adams home in company with her husband, their daughter, Adams, his wife and their daughter. They sat up all night she said, because they were afraid to go to sleep.
"Joe" had been threatened by Birger, the bad man from Harrisburg.
When dawn came they felt relieved and Joe and his father-in-law lay down to sleep. "Joe" had been ill and spent the day in bed, although he did not un- dress. The day was uneventful until 4 p. m.
Then there was a knock at the door, and her daughter-in-law answered it. Two young men with a note were outside. They asked for Adams and he was called out to see them. "Joe said something to them," Mrs. Jones said haltingly. "I didn't catch what
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it was. Then he started to read the note. When he took his eyes off them they shot him." "Joe fell and they ran."
Mrs. Jones said that the mayor was a man hound- ed by enemies against whom he had shown no cause for enmity and forced to sit up at night to guard his home. Much pity for the elderly lady was shown as she tendered the last statement regarding the passing of the mayor of West City.
When word was received in Franklin county of the confession of Elmer Kane who said he bombed the Birger roadhouse from the air. State's Attorney Boswell of Williamson county wired the officials in Iowa who were holding Kane to release him. Boswell said he was not worrying who bombed the hut and would not play into the hands of the defense in Franklin county. Boswell said that if he wanted to question Kane they would pick him up again after the trial in Benton was over.
Rado Millich's attorneys at this time were work- ing hard to raise more funds to carry an appeal to the supreme court for Millich. If this should fail Millich was to hang on October 24, 1927, a year from the time he killed Ward Jones.
Attorney Robert E. Smith, chief counsel for Bir- ger and his former henchmen's defense, only July 18, tried to weaken the evidence of the state by a rapid cross examination of David Garrison.
Garrison, a youth doing time at the reformatory at Pontiac, told from the witness stand of an attempt on the part of Birger to hire him and Alva Wilson to "go to the door of a West City man and shoot him."
Garrison told a clean-cut story of the incident on the occasion of one of four visits to Shady Rest,
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where he stopped, the witness said, to "get a shot of liquor." Garrison said Birger told the boys he had a plan for them to make some easy money.
"What do you think I am-a damn fool," Garrison said he replied to Birger's offer of $100 for the kill- ing."
Smith opened with rapid fire thrusts. "You are a member of the Shelton gang, aren't you," he tore into the witness that brought back a line of rapid-fire re- sponses from the witness.
"You were driving a stolen car when you went to Shady Rest, weren't you?" Smith shouted at Garrison.
"Yes," the witness shot back, without a sign of un- easiness.
"How do you know that it was on December 8 that Charlie Birger made you the offer which you have just told ?"
"Because I pulled a job at Albion the next night, and got caught. That is why I am at Pontiac."
The witness did not deviate from his story during the grilling cross-examination. Alva Wilson told the same story as Garrison of the offer made by Birger. He told Birger he would steal but not kill.
On July 19, 1927, Harry Thomasson, star state witness, was called to the witness stand. He took the stand after a delayed conference of defense attor- neys and admitted killing Adams for Birger. He told the story as Newman and others against Birger told it. The state expected to finish their case'soon after.
The testimony of Harry Thomasson, the killer of Adams, was the most damaging of the entire group of witnesses for the state. As his story progressed the judge had deputies move near him and the very tenseness of the court room could be felt. As he told
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his story there was a silence so still as to be almost, audible. He went through the entire story without a quiver and when cross examined did not falter at any time. It seemed as if the noose was drawing near to Birger, Hyland and Newman. The testimony of Thomasson was damaging to all three defendants.
Following the testimony of Thomasson, Sheriff Pritchard and other witnesses testified and the state rested its case. Defense attorneys were at a loss, it seemed, to decide what they would do. The court was surprised when defense attorneys asked for a new jury. This appeal was denied them.
The gangland trio it was rumored would take the stand in their own defense. Then came the startling episode. Defense attorneys came forward with the statement that the defendants would not take the stand nor would any other witness for them take the stand. The defense attorneys said they would argue the case with the state attorneys, make their pleas and leave the rest to the jury. The general public thought the noose much nearer to the gangsters. The case was then rested.
The statement of Newman. that he would not tesi- fy came as a surprise. His decision caused expressions of astonishment on the faces of Birger and Hyland. Then came the decision that none of them or their witnesses would testify.
Following the decision of the three defendants not to take the witness stand in their own defense the at- torneys for both sides made their concluding pleas. The attorneys for the defense pleaded for mercy and tried to lessen the weight of the evidence given by star state witnesses.
State's Attorney Roy Martin and his assistant
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pleaded for the death sentence for the three defend- ants. The plea made by Martin was a great one and following it the judge instructed the jury and it retir- ed to the jury room for a verdict. The jury seemed indifferent all the way.
CHAPTER 15.
Chapter 15 Deals with the Result of the Trial of Birger,
Hyland and Newman.
After deliberating 22 1-2 hours, the jury in the Adams mudrer trial at Benton, Ill , returned their ver- dict to Judge Charles H. Miller.
Charlie Birger was sentenced to hang for the crime, being found guilty by the jury and his punish- ment fixed at death. He took the sentence stoically and seemed little perturbed. However, his sister show- ed signs of emotion.
Ray Hyland was also found guilty of the charge and his sentence fixed at imprisonment for the rest of his natural life. He seemed little shaken and was evidently glad that he was not to be hanged. A woman in the court room said he was her son who had been missing for years. She went into hysterics when the sentence was read. Hyland turned pale but said nothing.
Art Newman received the same punishment as Hyland, life imprisonment. He showed little concern over the verdict. The general public was pleased with the verdict. Attorneys for the defense said they would appeal the case for new trial and if not granted would go to the state supreme court.
When the case went to the jury Hyland said to Birger, "The end is near," and Birger affirmed the
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statement with a nod of his head. Hyland then said, "It looks like a necktie party for someone." Birger remained silent.
After the verdict and sentences were read it was learned that at one time the jury was in favor of death for all three with the exception of two votes, the vote being 10 to 2. The decision that all three defendants were guilty was gained early. The remain- der of the time was given' to affixing the punishment.
CHARLIE BIRGER.
A slender strip of a man, 44 years old and en- dowed with a magnetic personality, has caused the people of the state of Illinois more nights of sleepless worry and the citizens of the lower half of the state more damage than any one individual has ever caused a commonwealth.
Seemingly unconscious, and at the least unworried by the turmoil he aroused, he has gone about his ne- farious mission of settling his troubles and imaginary grievances by the enlistment of what he calls "a gang of punks," arming them with machine guns, placing them in armored cars and sending them forth to defy his enemies and the law.
But he has come to the end of his rope. He had gone as far as he could. He had finally discovered the law is bigger than any man, and that those who come or remain after him will laugh at his folly rather than praise his daring. Charlie Birger was done for- after the trial for the killing of Joe Adams.
Where to class Charlie Birger is a problem diffi- cult for those who know him best. Those who did not have his personal acquaintance could easily class him
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as a heartless killer, void of a conscience or the least regard as to the value of human life.
But acquaintance with the wary gangster seems to change these opinions in a marked degree. Re- membering that he is a hardened criminal who has killed and robbed and looted, there is something back of it all that tells one that perhaps somewhere there is a good trait or two, not enough to overshadow the baser things if his life, but something unexplainable that touches in a spot, that will, if you are not careful, temper your opinions.
This "unexplainable something" has made him a leader of men. True the men he has led have been a type that were of inferior breeding and intellect, but it is not unreasonable to believe that if he had directed his mind and ability toward a legitimate business career, there is no limit to the things he might have accomplished.
But he chose a different route. Some would call it the primrose poth. He elected to exert his energies toward the establishment of a little kingdom of his own. He placed himself on the throne, he named his ministry, his captains and his lieutenants and declared himself to the world.
Birger, his attorneys say, was born in or near New York, and came to St. Louis when quite young, growing to manhood there. He served in the Spanish- American war and was a pensioner of the United States government, he told newspaper men.
He came into Franklin county and landed in Christopher where he was known as a gambler. He went to Harrisburg where he built up a wide acquaint- ance among gamblers, bootleggers, touts and criminals.
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Business men, professional men and people of a re- spectable class were his acquaintances and friends.
His name first came into prominence in southern Illinois, when he "shot it out" with Whitey Doering, a St. Louis gangster, at a joint at Halfway in Williamson county. Doering died, but Birger recovered.
While he was fast to make friends and acquaint- ances, he made as many enemies. He soon had men gunning for him and he was gunning for them. But those things were little thought of. Those were per- sonal grudges of the underworld that rarely came within the pale of the law until one of the men fell a victim of the other's vengeance.
Birger moved on in this channel. Gambling and bootlegging, going and coming in the element with which he felt most at ease. People generally heard but little of him, and knew less.
Then he conceived the idea of a chain of road houses. He saw an opportunity to "clean up" at booze running and operating slot machines. He might or might not have had some understanding as to the kind of protection he would have from the law. At any rate he began operations.
He acquired a tract of some sixty acres of land on State Highway No. 13, midway between Harrisburg and Marion. There he erected a small barbecue stand, cleared the rubbish and underbrush from a wooded plot nearby and erected an enticing sign near the en- trance: "Sixty Acres of Free Camping Ground."
This free camp came to be the site of the infamous cabin that was known throughout the United States as "Shady Rest," the palace of King Birger, the capital of gangland-the eyesore of a nation.
No one will ever know whether or not it was
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Charlie Birger's plan to raise an army and declare a state of gang war when he laid out that camp site and built his cabin.
He might have only had an idea of a place to make his headquarters for his chain of road houses. Or he might have had in mind just the thing that resulted-a stronghold and fortress where he could surround himself with gunmen and issue his defiance of the law.
Birger, luring the days following his first arrest, talked freely of gangland, and his version then of what constitutes a gangster leaves the intimation that he has a certain horror for the warriors in his army, detesting their criminal instincts, but yet catering to their whims so that he might use them to whatever advantage he saw fit.
"A man who will get into a gang is just a no-good punk," Birger said then. "The men who came to me were ignorant, uneducated, lowbred scum. If they hadn't been like this they would never have been gangsters."
Then there is another question. What drew these men to Birger? His personality of leadership prob- ably had its part and the desire to be a "bad man" like Birger, drew some. Others came for protection from the law, and some saw possibilities of easy money and little work.
Women had their part in helping to recruit the Birger army when some bitter rival made it so hot for the man who was winning the affection of his "sweet mama" that the protection of the cabin was paid for by the sacrfice of the rights a man has to call his soul his own.
Rival gangsters drove others to the protecting
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portals of Birger's cabin, and each new day saw some new face within the circle of men who banded them- selves together by a code of the underworld.
The daily and nightly parades of armored cars and highpowered motor cars bearing every implement of modern warfare led thru a half dozen southern Illinois counties. Pillaging, burning, robbing, killing, the gang went on, gaining in power and offering a new red-lettered page for the history of Little Egypt for each new day.
Driven to the protection of Birger, Art Newman, former friend of the Shelton gang, came to be one of the trusted lieutenants at Shady Rest. The diminutive soldier of fortune who resents the name "Gangster," was a crack crapshooter, gambler, high-powered boot- legger and whiskey runner, before he took up with the Shady Rest outfit.
He admitted his shrewdness with the dice and is believed to have harbored the secret ambition of some day leading a mutiny that would place him on the throne of Birger.
Any way he went along. He helped in the plan- ning and the execution of big and little jobs and as a result he was picked up and tried with Birger for the murder of Joe Adams. He blames his luck and pleads the story of Old Dog Tray for having landed in the "clutches of this horrible gang." But he is there.
Ray Hyland came to Birger's hut, more as a lark or adventure. He didn't know what he wanted to do, nor didn't care much. He was a happy-go-lucky, care- free man who had nothing at stake and was willing to take what came.
They called him "Izzy the Jew," but he tells you he is no more Jew than Irish, and laughs it off. They
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wanted him to drive the Thomasson boys to the scene of the Joe Adams murder, and he did. Perhaps he was compelled to do this to save his own hide, or perhaps he displayed a willingness to have a part in the "bumping off" of the corpulent West City Mayor.
The murder committed in Franklin county was the beginning of the end. The threats that the "damn- ed little Franklin county law" couldn't keep them from killing Joe Adams proved true enough. But that same little law has put a stop to their further mur- derous activities for all time to come.
They made one false step too many. They failed to reckon with Roy Martin, later heralded as the state's most fearless prosecutor. Martin answered their dare with a warrant that held Birger for the death of Adams because someone testified at an inquest that they knew of Birger making threats against Adams.
Anxious days passed and after overcoming many obstacles thrown in his way, Sheriff James Pritchard succeeded in landing King Charlie in the Benton jail. At that time it would have been a weak case, but Mar- tin was not satisfied to go before a jury with that evidence-that is not his style.
He began a more thorough investigation. With the big chief in jail people talked more and more. They were less afraid of his machine gun and his armored truck. Slender threads were picked up here and there by the prosecutor and before long, and before anyone was aware of what was going on, a new grand jury had been called, a new indictment had been re- turned, and Birger, who had been liberated under bonds in the sum of $42,000 on the first charge was picked up again, before he knew what was coming.
He was placed in jail again. Then his jet black
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hair began to turn grey. More of his confederates started talking and the net tightened inch by inch on up until the time of the trial, when the mass of evi- dence piled up by the "damned little Franklin county law" proved too great for him to attempt to overcome by offering any evidence in his own defense.
Newman hasn't stood hitched since he has been in the toils of the law. He has told a lot of things on his former chief and would probably have told more on the witness stand if he had not been afraid that Birger would have unloaded on him.
It has been different with Hyland. He has never had the happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care smile taken from his face. He has joked with reporters about the probability of his having his neck stretched, but he did not break with his chief. He offered his neck as a target for the hangman's noose if it be necessary.
In the words of his attorney who pleaded for mercy in his closing arguments to the jury: "He is willing to die with those who have been his friends."
Since the arrest of Birger his gang has scattered and gone. Many of the members are too in the toils of the law, and most of the others are fugitives from jus- tice. The army that stood by him in his defiance of the law has left him like rats leaving a sinking ship.
Freddie Wooten, Riley Simmons, Rado Millich, Danny Brown, Harry Thomasson, Clarence Rone, Har- vey Dungy, Art Newman, Ray Hyland and Birger himself have all felt the arm of the law, and have either been sentenced or are awaiting trial for some crime or another.
Steve George, Elmo Thomasson, Ward Jones, Shag Worsham and Jimmy Stone have been knocked
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off and their deaths are being cleared up by the de- velopments following the arrests of gangmen.
Connie Ritter, Frankie Schorer, Leslie Simpson, Jack Crews, Oklahoma Slim, Ernest Balleau and others of lesser importance are at this time in July, 1927, still at large.
Charlie Birger is regarded by some as a shrewd man, but he has not demonstrated it. With the cun- ning he has displayed in dominating the gangsters of his realm, he surely knew that he could not go on for- ever defying every law known to man.
Was he too engrossed with the idea of putting his enemy gangsters out of the way to take heed of the law, or was he so enamored of his own power that he thought the law would never bring him to justice ?
The way he press-agented his plans of killing his enemy Carl Shelton and others who had crossed his path gives rise to the belief that his insane desire to spill human blood overpowered his faculty of reasoning that the law would eventually have its way.
After the Adams trial several papers stated that attorneys for the three defendants said that the gang- sters admitted to them that they were guilty. The attorneys and gangsters denied every bit of it.
CHAPTER 16.
Conclusion Telling of Sentence of Birger. Reward Offered for Connie Ritter.
Judge Miller denied Birger another trial in the circuit court and sentenced him to hang on October 15, 1927. Birger's only hope left was an appeal to the supreme court of Illinois.
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Following is the sentence placed on Birger by the court :
"It is the sentence of the Court that you, Charlie Birger, between the hours of 10 o'clock in the forenoon and 2 o'clock in the afternoon, on Saturday, the fifteen- th day of October, be hanged by the neck until dead, and may God have mercy on your soul."
These remarks by the Court prompted Birger to change his mind and make a statement. His state- ment will follow shortly in another paragraph, conclud- ing this narrative of the greatest gangster known in southern Illinois and one of the greatest the United States has ever known.
Along about this time, late in July, 1927, the law in Franklin county renewed its search for Connie Rit- ter, also indicted for the murder of Joe Adams. Ritter, it was rumored, had gone south and then had crossed the ocean into Europe. Ritter was the "sporty guy" of the Birger gang and was paymaster for Birger. He was said to have paid the Thomasson boys and Ray Hyland for their part in the Adams murder.
The supervisors of Franklin county offered a re- ward of $1,000 for the arrest of Ritter. He was also a figure in the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Price of Mar- ion, it was rumored.
When Judge Charles H. Miller sentenced Birger he made a very beautiful speech to the gang leader and following it and the reading of the sentence Birger made a five minute talk to the court.
Following is the court reporter's record of Char- lie Birger's remarks to court upon being sentenced to death :
"Your Honor, that was a very nice talk and I have
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listened to you. You have the impression on your mind that I wanted to be chief.
"When I was marked up to be killed since eight men drove up in a Cadillac automobile and were look- ing for me, and asked for Charlie Birger.
"I called on the state's attorney for protection ; and called in State's Attorney Boswell, of Williamson county for protection and also on the Sheriff of Sa- line county for protection. I was by myself and had to go out and get three negroes to help protect me.
"It never was in my heart to kill anybody. I want the public to get a different impression on it. I wanted to keep down the robbing and stealing. I took care of the boys around there-my meat bill ran from $130 to $140 a month.
"This man Newman, I wouldn't believe at all. There is a man that was the cause of a woman's death. For myself I don't care-just for my two children.
"Mr. Martin cannot deny that I called on him for protection.
"I laid out in the weeds for nights and days-at one time for seven days and nights I did not have my clothes off. It was never in my heart to be chief, or to kill anybody. I don't want to kill. There is a man, John Rogers, that came to my house. Him and New- man has conspired and condemned me. If I had been on the jury trying any man in this courthouse, I would have given anybody else the same verdict the jury gave me. Mr. Martin knowns down in that evidence that lots of it was framed up. I never did make any confession. I have been shut. I haven't said anything.
"There is a woman, Mrs. Newman that was the cause of Mrs. Price's death. I will tell you more of it and tell you who killed those people. As far as the
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cabin that was blown up. I was in Dowell and this was the first man (points to Newman) that brought this news to me. I know who blowed up the cabin -- two men and two women that stayed at Mt. Vernon, the night the cabin was blown up. I will give Martin credit for one thing-that he has brought justice. I don't want to go down in history and be blamed for it. The night that Price was killed I can prove this man Newman was intoxicated and throwed a gun on me. I can prove all this. He was not scared of men, or no other man. I was in Herrin with him one time and he took nine guns from 60 men. He was as busy as a bumble bee in that crowd and came to me and handed me the nine guns. I can prove that by 20 people. I don't want to go down in history as a chief. After I was marked to die, Carl Shelton and I got together and shook hands. I don't want any sympathy because I did not leave the country-that is the mistake I am going to pay for."
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