CRIME: When is a Criminal?

Last week before the bar of justice in Chicago stood Jack Guzik, notorious gangster, payoff man for Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone. The charge was "vagrancy," a legal excuse conceived by Judge John H. Lyle who issued warrants for 26 "vagrant" Chicago thugs and thereby received national publicity (TIME, Oct. 13). The State set out to show that "Vagrant" Guzik had no visible livelihood.

The defense was simple. Mr. Guzik, it argued, was not a "vagrant." He was a gambler. Do not Vice President Curtis and Governor Emmerson both attend race meetings? May...

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