Police Chief John J. O'Connor of St. Paul, Minn, was an extremely practical criminologist. At the turn of the Century he let the word quietly pass around the Midwest's underworld that St. Paul offered sanctuary for crooks who were "hot" elsewhere so long as they behaved themselves decently within the city limits. This easy-going relationship lasted a generation, and the O'Connor tradition did not die when he did in 1924. Such latter-day bad men as the late Homer Van Meter and "Machine Gun" Kelly found the city a comfortable retreat. But the...
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