[ Page 8
Five Miners Lived Nine Days On
A Slice Of Bread
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1988
SECRET SOCIETIES III *******
Murder Is Big Business
ONE of the most amazing coal mine rescues in MID-MORNING was not a busy time in
the present century was at Redding Pit, Falkirk, Scotland, 35 years ago this month..
Ninety-two men and a boy brought renewed hope. The men were working In the mine knew they were close to death
October 3-nearly nine days
early on September 25, 1923. A and even wrote farewell notes. lot of water had accumulated But they never despaired in abandoned mine werklags. continued to pray for rescue. Nearby was a "foult," or break
Slowly but surely, the resTUENS in the coal vela, which the were binsting their way from management regarded as the "Gutterhole." By 10 pm, on natural barrier akainst any Booding.
after the blooding-the rescue But al 4.30 a.m... the water fender had an uncanny feeling broke through. As soon as the that the night would have n newn spread to the pit village, happy ending. Ten perspiring hundreds of people-many of miners worked hour after hour them still In their night to blast a tunnel through the clothes-athered at the pithead, rock,
the barber's shop of the plush Park- Sheraton Hotel in New York. In one of the chairs, a plump but impeccable man was being shaved.
Then two men, their grey cloth caps pulled over, their eyes, strode into the mirror-walled salon. For a moment they looked around. They brushed aside an assistant who had gone forward to greet them.
waiting for news of their TC. At about 2 am, they paused Thus on
latives and friends.
Twenty-six mes and the boy ali right, got to the surface But 00 others were cut off.
Forty of these were drown- rd. There was one posable way of escape for the other 20. It was an ancient circular shift, called the "Gutterhole which had been closed up in 1919. One mon below managed to telephone to the surface and was told 10 about #p.m try and get as many of
to the foot ot the comrudes shaft ng possible.
Like A Tomb
The atmosphere was foul and ther shat contained dreaded gos. But rescue "bluckdamp" effects went on without a stop and not long after midnight, 21 men were brought to the sur- face, Neighbouring collieries sent help and the dangerous thek- damp was cleared.
mon
Meanwhile, five other had almost reached the shall when they were swept away by the floods. Later they tried make their way back but lest themselves in the maze of ner- row funnels. For tline the water was up to their nierica_but they climbed to higher levels and crawled on hands and knees in darkness,
Then they found a current of fresh air, and buddled together noar
In a damp, tomblike IL, niche.
Their ol lamps
would
not
Together, the two men walked over to the man who was being shaved, drew guns from their shoulder holsters-and riddled him with bullets,
October 28, 1957, cd — a risk too big for the for a moment-and heard the ended the tre of Albert organisation to take. sound of distant volces, strong || Anastasin," "Lord High Execu- and cheerful. They could hardly
Anastasia had been an ex- tloter" of Murder Incorporated, believe their cars, but they rent
pensive item in the ledgers of up for more help, and worked Anastasin, for many years in this vicious criminal society. He on even harder,
charge of "exterminations" for had stood trial, recused of evad- Murder Inc., had fallen victim ing income tax to the tune of to the very system he had so 11,742 dollars. successfully explotted,
Young Alexander Hill wriggled through a two-feet wide tunnel, and again heard voices and knocking. He tapped on the walls of the tunnel, and heard topa In answer. A few yards further on, he found the niche and gave a shout. 11 vnico was recognised by Andrew Thomsan, one of the Entoinbed men.
"Is that you, Sandi?" Jie ruled out, choking with en-
170:76, Yrs.
that ひなます。 Antrono?” replied Hill. He and other rescuers climbed into the There were handshakes niche. all round, but the rescued men were advised to keep atti.
Ho had been rentenced to At the first hearing the jury death at a secret rial held by had failed to nigree, the bosses of Amerlen's gigantie
A crime organisation, The Syndi ente, for whom Murder Inc. operated.
He had died because The Syntiente considered hit "too Ital,"
second
was
hearing Planned, The F.B.1. had three to testify against witnesses Anastasia.
The
authorities believed they hud "water Their tight" case against him, alm was lo pul Anastasia in gnol. Once there, they would De able to learn more about his secret organisation,
Since 1855 Abustosta hød been under constant police surveil- lance.
Day and night, picked detectives watched his "every But two of the vital witnesses At intervals, he was mysteriously disappeared. The window. arrested, questioned for a few third "fell from a below
Anastasia remained a free man hours, and then released.
until his own kind decided his fate.
Oxygen was given to them by a doctor who had gone with the reseters. Be allowed the men a put or two each of the only cigarette the rescuers had left, There was standing room for only two in the small served as a lift, bucket which and each rescued man was sent up with a rescuer.
Only Robert Ure showed signs of real exhaustion, John Miller walked unlded to a hall where preparations had been made receive the survivors,
10
None of the grimy, bedraggled men could believe that they had been imprisoned for nine days. Their, Best thought was lo dès- to their farewell letters and to burn and they had only get to their homes without delay. slice of bread between them. They suffered later from shock But, strangely, they did not feel and rheumatic or bronchial acate hunger. What they missed trouble. But they gradually more were their pipes, after they covered their strength, had shared one sinal place of tobacco. They had to be content with chewing matches and little lumn of coal.
Young John Miller talked of his 11-weeks-nid baby, and the older men described their ex- perlences in World War I. Then they discussed football for hours. But they slept only in ful dozes, and lost all reuse of time. Suddenly came the sound of blasting, high Above them. Robert Ure found a email can and dropped a stone inte it.
A week later, there were KJ stones in the can. Each shot hud
10-
Five other miners had sur- vived in almost exactly similar circumstances In April. 1877. They had been imprisoned for ning days by a flood in Tynewydd Pit, near Pontypridd, Wales. And all they had to eat was a little grease from a candle box.
Both groups examples of the powers human endurance.
of man were
of
By James A.
move.
After two years of this kind treatment, The Syndicate calculated it was enly a matter
of
It was one day in 1940 that of time before Anastasia crack the police first learned the full
DARTWORDS START
TODAYS Dartwerd HERE
Journey starts t GIBRALTAR ond
end at DELES. YOU Bud your way by re stranging all the other words fü the 50-word eircis in such a wẬT that the relationship between any word and the one next to ji governed by one of six rules.
RULES: (1) The word may be an anagram of tag word
codos
(2) It
may be synonym of the wor that procedee it.
1311 mas de touna by adding one Teller to, or abtracting on
Gar from
clianging one lecter la cas preceding word,
TARIAPES
TIGIBR
CARPA
BELLS
hu Samey
How softly - spoken Frank No method of killing was new The organisation was bound story of The Syndicate—a secret conclave that held, and still Costello, who controlled gam- to it.
by a code of behaviour and of- holds, the power of life and bling rackels all over the U.S., Guns, ice-picks, rope and fences against it were punish- death over every member of had first mooted the idea of knives were its usual tools. But able by death. America's underworld.
uniting all the ganglords back the more bizarre methods of Searface Al Capone, the man Anastasia's chief Beutenant, in 1929. How The Syndicate, killing, like dropping the victim who adapted the terror tactifs Kld Twist Reles, walked into run on big business lines, hold into quick-lime, burying him of the Mafia—-Sicily's
dreada 1 Brooklyn District Attomey's regular board meetings to co- alive, or roping him up. In such "Black Hand" society and made office and
dollars u announced that he ordinate its multi-million dollar way that he strangled himself it into 70,000,00 wanted to tell all he knew about
year "protection" racket, 1 Botne 200 murders that bad
credited with having inspirea puzzled the department
the creation of Murder Inc. years.
During the Hext ten daye Rcies related the history of many cold-blooded killings, in- cluding details of the dozen he I had committed himself.
for
The loe-picked corpse in the | boot of a stolen car two
vinder
By-
Rex Lawrence
monopoly of ezima in America, in his offaris to escape, were
How
these little Caesars not overlooked.
Capone was one of those con- vineed that the warring gong- lords needed to unite against organised law,
of
He had argued that the tok- ings from the rackets--dope, the underworld allocates finds Dozens of ruthless, killers were
extortion. for the cultivation of people in on its.
black- prostitutes, pay-roll.
They were nail, the union rackets would high places, for lawyera ex- gald a regular wage from the bodies found, stripped and full penses, for buspita) billsand funds provided for the purpose wercase, and be safeguarded,
department of bullet boles in a deserted for murder.
4 centralised by the parent organisation, The killers took care of the elimina- karugo....the cremated "back- RES OR & TREat lot, the hold court, to settle disputes by
The Byndicate also met Syndicate.
tion of interfering elements. They killed an orders from the hacked-up body
The police knew all about the arbitration- to pass swift ganglords. bridge....
Murder was by ro existence of Murder Ine. Bút and irrevocable scrteney en tainer. A killing was a "con- Keira' evidence was their first Reles supplied the details that those it considered dangerous, izs«t,” violint a "hit,"
D
real chance to break it. linked these brutal murders.
someone in San Francisco
The star wliness was locked It was the work of Murder were carried out by its own had to be "wiped off," a killer up in a hotel room.
A strong Me.. the Extermination Depart- executioners-Murder Inc.
from New York might be sent police guard watched over him ment of The Syndleate, Reles
depart to do the job. If the condemned day and night. The door was told the police. He would be ment of the biggest organisation man lived in Detroit, his execu- kept locked. willing to stand in a court of of erline in the world had its toner Was Bent from Los STS A BARɔ HARɔ Bata pa so low and point the finger at the headquarters in Brooklyn, New Angeles or Kansas City. The On the eve of his appearance juɔkog uɔzod a prag daqui a que poddoladera of the organisation. York. But it operated all over killers rotely knew their victim in court, Reles fell to hla death.
UBULLDO innow Janują sadeur
Reles told all,
the United States.
from a sixth floor window,
(4) It may be warniated with the preceding, word in a saying. simile, metaphor, or escoition or mban
(6) It may form with the pre- ceding word a nomy Of G WEI- known person, place, or thing jo
or action,
Tac
10) It may be associated with
lockley soitv quali
Relax with
VULCAIN
cricket
Alarm
wrist watch
the preceding word in a titis or in the action et à book, play, ar other composition
A. Lypical secession of worda mizni be: Dismissed. Pirea Pripa DIN CHE Cua toviha Lowing Owing Owaing.
Solution
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
YOU WERE MANDRAKE HYPNOTIZER NÅRDA ~~~WHAT -BUT YOU LEDUSTO HAPPENED!
THE THIEF-1
YOU WERE HYPNOTIZEP, BY RADO-THRU THIS AMAZING LITTLE
RADIO.
sentences denth Syndicate's
This death-dealing
THIS CLEARS
Bersonally.
By Lee Falk and Phil Davis
THE ONE MAN IN UP THOSE CRAZY / THE WORLD WHO MYSTERIES! COULD HAVE CAUGHT
MET HAD TO RUN
INTO HIM?
LIKE ALL
CRIMINALS,
SEND A
HYPNOTIST
HYPNOTISTḤ
YOAJ GUT TOO, TO CATCH A
SMART-
NEXT WEEK: THE EMPLOYMEN
SHEAFFER'S
SNORKEL"
PENS
JARTING FUND.
JOHNNY HAZARD
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WELL, HI, THERE, GULLET!
| FANCY MEETING YOU IN
SANTA MONICA! WE WERE JUST ON OUR WAY HOME...
THERE CALLED
-BALLPLAYERS
MEANWHILE
1'M A BIG FAILURE, LONG-SHOT! THAT SCREWBALL LEFT- MANDER WEVER GAVE
TORRIP TESSIE A TUMBLE...
BUT HE TAKES ONE LOOK AT A SKINNY HTTLE CBR-HOP AT A DRIVE-IN AND FALLS SO HARD HE LOSES HIS
APPETITE!
By Frank Robbins
-HE
WHAT?!
Skrip
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AUSTIN
for
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