dnb. Rom, 20. März –
Die anglo-amerikanischen Luftpiraten führten, wie Stefani aus Tunis meldet, vor kurzem einen besonders heftigen Terrorangriff auf die kleine mohammedanische Stadt Mersa durch, die bekanntlich dem Bey von Tunis und seinem Hof als Sommerresidenz dient. USA.-Bomber warfen Tausende von Brandbomben auf die Wohnhäuser und Villen und verursachten mehr als 100 Tote unter der Zivilbevölkerung.
U.S. Navy Department (March 21, 1943)
South Pacific.
On March 19: Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas) and Wildcat fighters (Grumman F4F) attacked Vila in the Central Solomons. Fires were started.
On March 20:
Dauntless dive bombers and Wildcat fighters again attacked Vila.
Dauntless dive bombers and Wildcat fighters attacked Munda on New Georgia Island. A fire was started.
On the evening of March 20, Flying Fortresses (Boeing B-17) and Liberators (Consolidated) attacked Japanese positions on Kahili in the Shortland Island area.
The Pittsburgh Press (March 21, 1943)
OPA to announce point values Wednesday; ‘runs’ started on unrestricted food
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Three U.S. divisions ready to push on Gabes
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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Northern operators notify President of stalemate; Southerns appeal
By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent
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Underworld shows excitement, federal officials prick up ears at lawyer’s charge
Chicago, Illinois (UP) – (March 20)
A posthumous charge by Capone mobster Frank Nitti, that he was only the front man for the real gang lords of Chicago, caused excitement in underworld circles here tonight and made federal officials prick up their ears.
The charge was spoken by E. Bradley Eben, attorney for Nitti and other Chicago hoodlums indicted at New York yesterday on charges of labor racketeering. Mr. Eben was the last person known to have talked to Nitti before the gangster drank himself into stupefaction and then shot himself through the head.
Mr. Eben told newspapermen:
Now that Frank Nitti is dead, I can say that he told me he never was the Chicago gang boss. I am not easily convinced, but I assure you that I believed him when he told me he had nothing to do with the New York extortion case.
Mr. Eben quoted Nitti as telling him:
I was a little guy. I never was the big shot. People built me up as the big boss after Capone went to prison and the guys in the racket began looking up to me. I made a lot of money. I invested my money and the income was enough to keep me going.
I knew Brown and Bioff [George Brown and Willie Bioff, leaders of the Motion Picture Operators Union convicted of extortion from movie magnates]. I used to walk with them and have lunch with them. That was a mistake. I never shook down anybody.
Mr. Eben said he talked to Nitti by telephone at 11 a.m. yesterday shortly after the indictments of Nitti and eight others in connection with the $2,500,000 labor extortion plot was announced.
He said he suggested that Nitti come downtown and talk it over, and Nitti replied:
Sure, I’ll be there at 2 o’clock.
Seemingly not drunk then
The attorney added:
Frank did not appear to be drunk then, and he was not a drinking man.
About an hour later, Nitti, staggering drunk, put the pistol to his head and quashed the government’s case against him.
At an inquest into Nitti’s death, Charles Caravatta of Pullman, Michigan, the dead man’s brother-in-law, testified the gangster was mentally unbalanced.
Caravatta said:
He wasn’t acting in the full powers of his mind and seemed to be temporarily insane. He did a lot of queer things.
Checks with old stories
Caravatta also said Nitti was not a drinker.
What might have sounded like a trapped gangster’s natural self-defense received unusual attention from authorities because it checked with the story that always was told – but never proved – that not even Al Capone in his heyday was the real power. There have been many and conflicting whispers about the shadowy character who issued the orders to Capone and lesser leaders, took the lion’s share of their plunder, and allowed these limited intellects to bask in the front-page notoriety, the nightclub adulation and eventually the government witness box.
Hint implicates politicians
U.S. District Attorney J. Albert Woll hinted today he was going after this character of characters. He planned to call a federal grand jury within 30 days to start where the New York jury left off, and he intimated that supposedly legitimate businessmen and politicians might be implicated.
U.S. Marshals started out with warrants this afternoon for the other Chicagoans involved – Paul Ricca, Louis “Little New York” Campagna, Phil D’Andrea, Frank “The Immune” Maritote, Ralph Pierce and Charles “Cherry Nose” Gioe.
But they had little hope of nabbing them, because gangdom’s doors were locked and its inhabitants were “undercover.” Mr. Eben reportedly discussed surrender of some of these clients Monday if suitable bail arrangements could be made.
There were empty tables at some of the North Clark St. joints tonight.
Chicago, Illinois – (March 20)
Deputy U.S. Marshals went searching today for seven Chicago underworld figures indicted at New York on racketeering charges. Their reports:
PHILIP D’ANDREA: His home in suburban Glencoe burned down a year ago. He left no forwarding address.
FRANK DIAMOND: His listed address is a vacant store.
PAUL RICCA: His wife said he hadn’t been home since Wednesday.
RALPH PIERCE: Unaccounted for since he was questioned early this week about a murder and released on $100 bond.
LOUIS CAMPAGNA: Whereabouts unknown since he saw his attorney yesterday.
CHARLES GIOE: Left his hotel at 7 a.m. today, three hours earlier than usual.
FRANK NITTI: Warrant returned unexecuted. Fugitive dead, by suicide.
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) – (March 20)
For the first time in the North African campaign, a carrier pigeon has been used to transmit a dispatch from the frontlines.
United Press correspondent Phil Ault, who was an eyewitness to the capture of the Axis base at Gafsa, wrote a dispatch on Wednesday night and sent it by pigeon to a forward teleprinter base which relayed it to Allied headquarters.
It took the pigeon 50 minutes to reach the teleprinter base from the frontlines.
Vast steel mill is inferno of fire, smoke, action and victory
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‘Come home to die,’ she happily plans summer wardrobe
By Evelyn Peyton Gordon, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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