Word: ellenburg
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...subordinates. Recently, Stokes chose his third police chief and second safety director. The mayor was roundly applauded for picking as safety director retired Air Force Lieut. General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the highest ranking black military officer in U.S. history. But when Stokes chose as police chief William P. Ellenburg, a retired Detroit inspector with 27 years on the force, he hatched a new controversy...
...Ellenburg, 50, had no sooner accepted the job than it was revealed that he allegedly had been on the Mafia payroll until 1963. Last week, after only ten days in office, the new police chief resigned. "I categorically deny the accusations," he said. In accepting the resignation, Stokes said: "To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Ellenburg is the victim of unproven accusations...
Received Money. What seems incredible about the Ellenburg affair is that Stokes had not heard about the accusations earlier. For the past two months, ex-Mafia Attorney Lawrence A. Burns has been talking with Michigan authorities and newsmen about his dealings with gangsters and cops in Detroit. He claimed that Ellenburg had been receiving bribes for years from mobsters to protect the numbers racket and from Burns himself to protect an abortion clinic. Burns also fingered Thomas Cochill, another former Detroit lawman whom Ellenburg had brought to Cleveland as his personal aide...
Before naming Ellenburg, Stokes claimed he had made extensive inquiries about his appointee's character. But Detroit Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy says: "I was never contacted, and I know of no one who was." Stokes finally went to Detroit last week and questioned Former Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, who had recommended Ellenburg to Stokes. Cavanaugh said that it might be the result of enmity between some of the Michigan police and himself. But when Stokes turned to Michigan authorities for information about Ellenburg, none was willing to reject flatly Burns' stories...
...week's end Stokes replaced Ellenburg with Cleveland Police Inspector Lewis Coffee, the fourth chief in 28 months. Since Stokes just won a second term in office, the Ellenburg controversy is unlikely to have any immediate political ramifications. There is, however, growing dissatisfaction among civic leaders with his performance. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which had supported Stokes in his campaigns for office, printed an editorial last week signed by Editor-Publisher Thomas Vail. "Time is running out," wrote Vail. "The people of Cleveland will not stand for another fiasco in public safety...
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