◆ SpookStack

The terrible truth that the bloody hand of Gang- land had struck below the belt this time came upon those who saw the two beautiful little chil- dren of Jake Lingle as they tried to play in the sunshine on the front lawn. Big Shots from the upperworld came to pay respects to Jake—Arthur W. Cutten, the stock broker who could ‘Tose715 ‘million in a day, and Qscar_E. Carlstrom, the attorney general, and Samuel A. Ettelson, the corporation counsel, whd was said to be the power behind the throne in Chicago municipal affairs, and a small army of the toilers from the staff of the Tyibune where Jake had worked far eighteen years. iliam Russell, commissioner of police, headed fhe pallbearers. Jimmy Murphy, veteran reporter, lifted his hands to the casket as it was borne out of the flower-filled room, as did Eddie Johnson the ace “photog” for the Tribune. The long funeral cortege formed at Garfield Park and Central Park Avenue and moved impressively down Jackson Boulevard to Our Lady of Sorrows church. Pageantry of flags. Muffled drums! Ah! Let Gangland see this and tremble! The casket bearing Reporter Jake Lingle was lifted from the hearse and borne into the church. Attention! The detachment of Illinois naval reserves led by Capt. Edward Evers and Lieutenant Commander Elmer Carlson stiffened! So did the Legion units, the Peoples Gas, Commonwealth Edison, Board of Trade and Medill-Tribune posts, each in brilliant uniform. The Very Rev. Jerome Mulhorn, a close friend of this reporter whose friendships were end- less celebrated the requiem high mass, and when the services were over the military escort again formed. Led by the mounted police the escort marched again down Jackson Boulevard to Garfield Park to disband. The funeral cortege proceeded on the Mount Carmel, where the sailor Alas! Alas! The better element this time had given a racketeer a funeral—and the swellest of them all! It seemed incredible and yet the facts elo- quently told that it was true. In less than three years the sixty-five-dollar reporter—a sal: com- HHENSUPEYE With Tis ability. hie neWspeper said y. his newspaper said— ad deposited to_his_personal_account- approx id_deposited to his personal account approxi- ately $60,000. An appalled and fascinated public =Tascinated because it was felt that now the mystery of Gangland was about to be dispelled— saw, under those headlines, the amazing story of the murdered reporter’s frenzied stock market speculations—how, in 1929, he had run up a paber profit_of $85,000. “His stock market flights wit) commissioner, William ussell! . . . The diamond belt—a gift from Al Capone. Could it be fen of the Big Fellow? Well, well, well! Now there was the time during the McSwiggin case when they had the Big Boy in custody over there in ‘the state’s attorney’s office, and the Big Boy would take no food—except what Jake Lingle went out and got for him. Of course he was a friend of Capone. A great moral outcry! Imagine a newspaper man, working for a nominal salary, on assignments necessitating association day after day, week after week, year after year, with men whose pockets were stuffed with money, who could betray his newspaper, who could fall before temptation. Oh, well, the moralists have it! As an aftermath of this discovery that lads, standing at the grave of Jake Lingle, the reporter, fired a salute. A naval bugler sounded taps, and that was the burial of Jake Lingle—re- porter. Reporter? Yes, indeed a reporter, but what else? The clods of freshly turned earth on Jake Lingle’s grave had scarcely dried and crumbled to dust when Jake Lingle, the reporter, scrutinized on page one, began to turn into Jake Lingle, racketeer. Tragically enough, it became increasingly appar- ent that suave Jake Lingle, for eigh- teen years a reporter in the shadowy realm of Gangland, had himself been stouched by the shadows. That “martyr” funeral had been held too soon—three days too soon. It_ goon became apparent gs the finan- cial affairs of the sixty-five dollar a ‘week police reporter were spread out inder_the big headlines that Jake Tingive funeral belonged to Gangland. Fehal. sn {nvestigation has disclosed that he was murdered, aot because he (63) Lingle was buried a martyr. Since the funeral was & reporter, but in spite of it,