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Blubber & Blabber. Langley was duly elected, and soon confided to Elkins—testified Elkins—that he was going to split the gambling payoff with Gambler Maloney. But Maloney turned out to be a first-class bungler and, said Elkins, the Teamsters sent in another man to help with the Portland racketeering. He was Seattle Gambler Joseph Patrick McLaughlin, alias Joe McKinley. The difference between Gamblers Tom Maloney and Joe McLaughlin was explained to Elkins by none other than the Teamsters' Frank Brewster. Testified Elkins: Brewster once said that " 'Tom Maloney is a blubberheaded, blabbermouthed so-and-so, and I have known him 20 years, and I have put him in business 20 times and he messes up every time . . .' I told him I agreed with that, certainly, and he said Joe McLaughlin would be an asset to any man's organization."
The new combination had some ambitious ideas, among them a scheme to take over the operation of Portland punch-boards for a profit of at least $100,000 a year. Part of the plan, said Elkins, called for Clyde Crosby, the Teamsters' Oregon representative, to persuade the Portland city council to legalize the possession of punchboards. Also, the Teamsters' label of approval would be placed on all the punchboards owned by an Elkins henchman—and places using other punchboards would be picketed by the Teamsters so as to cut off their "beer and bread" deliveries.
Make & Break. But the racketeering coalition failed to last. Elkins decided that he was being doublecrossed by the Teamsters and their friends. Elkins testified that he had been told that a rival gambler had paid Frank Brewster $10,000 and had been given a Teamsters' go-ahead. Elkins went to Frank Brewster's headquarters for an angry confrontation.
"As near as I can remember it," said Elkins, "I came into his room and I first sat down in his little waiting room. Three men came in and looked me over for a couple of minutes and walked out. Then he came in and I went in his place. I am looking around and he said, 'You don't have to be so-and-so afraid of me. I don't wire up my place.' I said, 'I am not afraid of you wiring it up, Mr. Brewster.' He said, 'I am going to tell you to start with I don't like the people you represent.' I said, 'I don't represent any people, just Jim Elkins.' He said, 'Well, I am going to tell you something else. I make mayors and I break mayors, and I make chiefs of police and I break chiefs of police. I have been in jail and I have been out of jail. There is nothing scares me.'
"I said, 'I don't want to scare you. All I want to be is left alone.' He talked a little more and he got red in the face, and he said, 'If you bother my two boys, if you embarrass my two boys, you will find yourself wading across Lake Washington with a pair of concrete boots.' " The two boys: Teamsters' Organizer Clyde Crosby and Multnomah County District Attorney Bill Langley (who is still in office although under indictment for malfeasance in office).