Word: owney
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Last fall, after they bought out Tropical's controlling stockholders (including onetime Capone Henchman John Patton, Bookmaker Frank Erickson and underworldly Owney Madden, who had suddenly been branded "undesirable" by the Florida State 'Racing Commission), Mr. Straus and the Munns had misgivings over the soundness of their venture. The Florida Legislature, seeking to raise $2,000,000 for old-age pensions, voted to increase its 1942 pari-mutuel "take" from 3% to 8%. The track's share remained...
...Most gasp-worthy Winchell phenomenon: "Having been an intimate friend of Owney Madden. New York's No. 1 gang leader of the prohibition era, he became in the short space of two years, the public pal of J. Edgar Hoover, the No. 1 G-man of the repeal era." In 1932 Winchell's intimacy with gangland led to fear he would be rubbed out for knowing too much. In terror he fled to California, returned weeks later with a new enthusiasm for law, G-men, Uncle Sam, Old Glory...
Died. George Jean ("Big Frenchy") De Mange, 47, cagey onetime hoodlum, highjacker and bootlegger, latterly a millionaire Broadway restaurateur (The Club Argonaut, Park Avenue. Silver Slipper); of a heart attack; in Manhattan. As a Hudson Duster, Big Frenchy early opposed British-born Owen ("Owney") Madden's Gophers, later joined Owney in the liquor racket. In 1931 Owney scraped up $35,000 to ransom Big Frenchy when itchy-fingered Vincent Coll kidnapped him and threatened his life. Last week Owney was chief mourner at Big Frenchy's funeral, complete with six cars dripping with flowers...
...Harlem, or that Charles ("Lucky") Luciano, head of the prostitute trust (since jailed), was more than a social acquaintance of Jimmy Hines. He did stay at the same hotel and play golf with Luciano on a junket to Hot Springs, Ark. Another Hot Springs habitue was 'Legger Owney Madden (beer...
Next week, as "a gracious link with the tradition of the old service," Owney, having traveled for the first time in 40 years, will sit in state in the lobby of the Commodore Perry Hotel in Toledo, to greet the successors of his longtime friends and protectors...