J. Edgar Hoover was still two decades away from admitting that organized crime even existed on a national scale.
Oh, sure, it was a problem, a local problem: a serious local problem, but a local problem nonetheless. The FBI was helpless to intervene. Local people were on their own. What was needed was local willpower.
…an aroused public opinion, which will act on a local level through local law enforcement authorities.
J. Edgar Hoover, January 1951
The FBI was largely devoted to tracking down stolen automobiles.
The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, along with the killing of a reporter, had mobilized public opinion across the country. And a New York lawyer, Thomas Dewey, was appointed by the Governor.
For twenty years, the underworld has preyed on our people, and robbed them, and then frightened them into silence. But now, the day of the fear of the gangster is coming to an end.
Thomas Dewey, 1935
He went after crime figures with a ferocity that surprised pretty much everyone, especially gangster Dutch Schultz.
The degree and immediacy of the personal danger experienced by Dewey has been largely unrecognized. But Schultz made it recognizable to Dewey and his family. Research by the History Channel documented one incident.
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