STATES & CITIES: The Lady & The Tiger

(See front cover)

There was a young lady from Niger,

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside,

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Three weeks ago, a racketeering young lady from Manhattan named Benita Franklin Bischoff alias Vivian Gordon was taken for a ride in Van Cortlandt Park, was later found in the shrubbery, strangled (TIME, March 9). When it became known that five days prior she had gone to court with frameup charges against a New York City detective, her murder was regarded as a crowning outrage in the long series of revelations about the city's bench and police force. A storm of bitter indignation from New York's citizenry wiped the deprecatory smile from the face of the Tammany Tiger.

Up to last week the Police Department, smothered with a plethora of "leads," was unable to produce a single clue to the woman's death. Meantime, enterprising newspapers were able to print "true stories" of the whole case with only a few names omitted for libel's sake. When the wheels of justice seemed incapable of budging in the Bischoff case, conscientious citizens began to think that the legal machinery of their town had been allowed to grow rusty with disuse, that it was high time that an investigation be made higher up. Fortnight ago, the City Club, a potent civic organization, petitioned Governor Roosevelt to remove Thomas C. T. Grain, New York County's aged little District Attorney, because of "inefficiency, incompetency, failure to enforce the criminal law and malfeasance in office."

Crain. The nomination and election of Mr. Crain in 1929 were commonly regarded as a feat of window-dressing by Tammany Hall. Chief qualifications of Mr. Grain for his job were that he had a reputation for austerity on the bench, was a Tammany sachem, had been a jobholder for 33 of his 70 years and was a prominent Episcopalian. It is Tammany precedent to nominate a Protestant district attorney lest the ticket be too topheavy with Roman Catholics.

Assuming office Jan. 1, 1930, Sachem Grain proceeded to set an impressive record for ineffectuality. He has not yet made known who shot Gambler Arnold Rothstein (TIME, Dec. 24, 1928) or Racketeer Jack ("Legs") Diamond (TIME, Oct. 20). He was lax in prosecuting unscrupulous bondsmen, dock racketeers and ambulance chasing lawyers. He failed to obtain an indictment in the case of retired Magistrate Ewald, suspected of buying his judgeship for $10,000, which was later thrice tried unsuccessfully (TIME, Feb. 2). Of 623 grand jury indictments for grand larceny sent to his office, only 32 were tried and convicted. From this ecord it appeared that instead of diligently executing his trust, Sachem Grain had merely been a placid front-row spectator at the Scandals of New York (1930-31).