Word: racketeering
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Narcotics. "It is openly alleged in Boston that Charles ('King') Solomon is head of the dope racket ... is the chief source of supply for all wires, runners, peddlers and addicts in New England . . . has reaped unbelievable profits...
Bootlegging. "Largest and best paying racket in Boston." An annual $60,000,000 is spent in Boston's 4,000 speakeasies or paid to 5,000 Bostonian bootleggers. The liquor ring is bossed by a onetime policeman who on the side dabbles in a trucking business, restaurants, cigar stores, pool rooms, an amusement arena, prize fighters...
Last week the Department of State was moved to issue a public warning against a new international racket. By smooth-tongued "agents," many U. S. citizens have been convinced that they are heirs to large British estates ?the buccaneering gold of Sir Francis Drake, the "Blake millions," the "Townley estate" et al. To get these fortunes out of "Chancery," the "heirs" were duped into paying the racketeers thousands of dollars in "legal fees." Letters from some 300 would-be inheritors have swamped the U. S. Consulate in London...
JUNE MOON?Ring W. Lardner and George S. Kaufman's ludicrous treatise on the songwriting racket...
Last fortnight bleachers had to be erected in a New York courtroom to accommodate 86 defendants in a poultry-selling racket (TIME, Oct. 21). Last week the New York authorities started action against another, similar game, common to all big cities-"coöperative" selling of loose (unbottled) milk. The New York milk racket was notable and illustrative by virtue of its central figure, a lank, loose-knit individual named Larry Fay. First taxicabs, then night clubs were Larry Fay's game, the latter in collaboration with famed Mary Louise ("Texas") Guinan. Loose night clubs are crowded...