Gambling legalized

Gambling: The Copout with the Cops

Another story of police corruption that was, of course, related to gambling.

Scandal broke out once again in 1931, and While this was a broad investigation of municipal government, the police department was one of the main targets.

Corruption was discovered, as usual, to center in the vice squads dealing with gambling and prostitution.

One patrolman, James Quinlivan, was found to have deposited $31,000 in five years, and his frugal wife to have banked $57,774.67.

A plain-clothes officer, Robert E. Morris, had saved more than $50,000. When called upon for an explanation, Morris stated that he had won $10,000 in gambling and that his Uncle George had given him some $40,000. Unfortunately, Uncle George was dead and could not verify his nephew's statement.

The Seabury investigation was the most sweeping expose in New York's history. It involved even city hall and brought about the resignation of the then mayor, James J. Walker.

It resulted in another fusion reform administration, the administration of Fiorello H. La Guardia. La Guardia's term of office, from 1934 through 1945, is generally regarded as an era of unparalleled integrity in New York's municipal history.

Nonetheless, corruption continued to flourish in connection with the police effort to curb gambling.

In the early 1940s, an investigation conducted by Special Prosecutor John Harlan Amen in Brooklyn revealed that gambling was widespread and led to the dismissal and forced resignation of scores of police officers, many of whom held high rank.

A highlight of this investigation was photographs of police officers openly taking bribes from known gamblers.

In 1943, the New York City Department of Investigation raided a store in Harlem. For three years prior to the raid, the proprietor of the store had been conducting a policy (numbers) game as a incident to the operation of a grocery business.

A ledger, which became known as as the 'little black book,' was seized during the raid.

The little black book contained entries of bribes paid to police officer or officers, and a symbol to denote the payment, which varied in amount according to the ranks assigned to the police commands having jurisdiction over the store appeared in the ledger.

And in 1950, the city was, once more, rocked by police scandal arising from the enforcement of gambling laws. The testimony of a bookmaker, Harry Gross, led to the indictment, conviction, dismissal, and resignation of scores of police officers of all ranks - easily the greatest shake-up in the city's police history.

The investigation did much to discredit the administration of William O'Dwyer, a distinguished mayor who, contrary to popular impression, had personally worked more diligently than any of his predecessors to curb the corrupting influence of gambling on the police department.