True Crime

Dec. 18, 2009

Peter Rollack

Peter Rollack’s Sex, Money, Murder gang found its niche in running drugs from the projects of the Bronx to North Carolina in the early 1990s. By age 19, "Pistol Pete" was a millionaire and had thousands of "soldiers" in new chapters in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Patterson, Trenton and Philadelphia. He thought nothing of murdering slow payers or snitches, particularly snitches. Snitches would do him in at age 24.

by Randall Radic

Nov. 30, 2009 Special to Crime Magazine

by Ron Chepesiuk

(This excerpt is from Ron Chepesiuk’s new book, Gangsters of Miami, True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hitmen, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City, which Barricade Books (Barricadebook.com) published in November 2009. All rights reserved.)

Nov. 19, 2009

André Bamberski

For 27 years the heartbroken André Bamberski kept an eye on the fugitive serial rapist who murdered his 14-year-old daughter. Then he arranged a vigilante kidnapping to deliver the murderer to the police.

By Marilyn Z. Tomlins

Oct. 26, 2009 Updated March 9, 2010

Treiber Police Photo

Awaiting trial for murder, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Treiber goes on the run and makes the police look like idiots.

by Marilyn Z. Tomlins

By Allan May

Part One: Mont Tennes and the Birth of the Race Wire

After an investigation of mobster Mont Tennes, the Illinois Crime Survey Commission reported, "If the complete life history of Mont Tennes were known in every detail, it would disclose practically all there is to know about syndicated gambling as a phase of organized crime in Chicago in the last quarter century."

Born in Chicago on Jan. 16, 1874, Jacob "Mont" Tennes was the son of German immigrants. Legend has it that one day in the late 1890s he walked into a State Street crap game and walked out with $3,800. Two days later, he was back and doubled his winnings. In 1898, Tennes then used this money to open a saloon and billiard room. His customers were the scions of the old gambler combine, the safe blowers, and confidence men.

By Allan May

M. L. Annenberg and the Growth of the Race Wire

The great Annenberg publishing dynasty that controlled the Daily Racing Form, The Philadelphia Inquirer and TV Guide for decades produced the fortune that allowed Walter Annenberg to establish and endow the prestigious M. L. Annenberg Schools of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California in honor of his disgraced father, a major player in Capone’s underworld.

The Annenbergs came to Chicago via a remote, desolate village in East Prussia where Moses Louis Annenberg was born in 1878 during a period of brutal persecution of the Jews. On Christmas Eve 1881, anti-Semitic feelings reached a height in nearby Warsaw when several hundred Jews were beaten to death by Christian mobs claiming revenge on "Christ killers." Moses’ father, Tobias, had seen enough. In 1882, he took the small savings he had and traveled alone to America with plans to send for his wife and eight children later. He settled in Chicago and rented a storefront building on State Street where he opened a small grocery store. By 1885, Tobias Annenberg was able to send for his family.

By Allan May

Part Three: Ragen and McBride and the End of the Race Wire

U. S. Sen. Estes Kefauver once called the Continental Press the nation’s Public Enemy Number One. "In my opinion, the wire service keeps alive the illegal gambling empire which in turn bankrolls a variety of other criminal activities in America."

When Moses Annenberg, under pressure from Capone, disbanded Nation Wide News Service in 1939, Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride established the Continental Press. Born in Chicago in 1888, McBride had a long career in the newspaper business. Recalling an incident as a child, he said he once purchased 50 newspapers for 50 cents, "I sold the batch of papers for $1, and I’ve been making business deals ever since." McBride learned the newspaper circulation business by working for William Randolph Hearst. In 1911, McBride became Hearst’s circulation manager for the Chicago American which took on the Chicago Tribune in a bitter circulation war.