Organized Crime

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 8, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 48.

The words of the apostle are that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” It is a common thing to read in the newspapers of “the carnival of crime.” For instance, in the New York World of November 8 there is the statement that a regular organized gang of horse-poisoners exists in New York City, who practise a deliberate system of blackmailing. Ten thousand dollars, it declares, has been paid in the last three months by owners of horses in order to gain immunity from the dread “Arsenic Club.” During that same period 500 horses have been killed; and the 500 horses were worth much more than the ten thousand dollars. The owners had refused to pay the price of the “Arsenic Club,” and they have suffered in consequence. Dr. H. Stark, veterinary

surgeon, of 321 East 3rd Street, declares that within the last few years more than 2,000 animals have been poisoned. For instance, an expressman received a letter signed “The Black Hand,” ordering him to pay $500 or suffer the loss of his animals. And he was calmly told “the business of getting money from horse-owners who do not want their animals poisoned is so good on the East Side, that we expect to extend it over the whole city.” And while the reporter was talking with the doctor, word came that two horses belonging to a dairy company had fallen dead, making forty horses that had been lost by that dairy concern within three weeks. The name “Arsenic Club” has been given to it by the doctor, because that is the poison they always use, mixing it in the form of a cruller or biscuit, and place it in the feed-bag or throw it into the stall. Sometimes the poison is placed in an apple. In one case seventeen horses were poisoned at one time. The doctor thinks that a good many of these crimes are done by confederates employed in the different barns. Then follows a list of eight different owners who have suffered in this manner.