April 19, 2022 • 30 mins
A wormhole in Philadelphia? Gangsters are on the forefront of Detective Vollten's investigation and Karen follows their leads down a rabbit hole to find out if the Car Barn Murders were a gang hit.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So she sold that ship. But it doesn't then how
(00:21):
to feel. This is the fee, this is the new
Great Depression. Not long after prohibition. They're worrying about bootlegging
gangs because some professes told him that the car could
(00:42):
be found in a garage owned by former Ducy Ulcer
named Greek. It was a huge deal. It was headline news.
I don't want a single word written about that day.
Do you understand there's the possibility it could be solved
one day? Welcome back to Shattered Souls the Carborn Murders.
(01:10):
I'm your host, Karen Smith. This is episode five. This
podcast may contain graphic language and is not suitable for children.
Previously on the Carborn Murders, Lead after lead wound up
in dead ends and the detectives were working twenty hour
(01:31):
days trying to find the killers of James Mitchell and
Emery Smith. Weeks went by with nothing to show for
it except for the forensic analysis of the shell casings
and bullets recovered from the ticket office and from the victims.
They were looking for a beat up three cold thirty
(01:54):
two caliber semi automatic used in the murders, as well
as a stolen Green Buick and anyone who could provide
solid information. Nobody was coming forward, and it seemed like
they were running out of options until a confidential informant
gave them a tip. The informant told detectives Bolton and
(02:14):
Brass that two men, Lawrence Pettitt and George Bruffy, were
planning a robbery of the Main Office Carbarn in Georgetown,
a few weeks before the Carbarn case. The informant initially
declined the offer to join them, thinking that a broad
daylight robbery sounded like a suicide mission. Brass and Volton
(02:37):
convinced the informant to team up and get as much
intel as he could from Pettit and Bruffy to see
if either one of them mentioned the Carbarn case. At
a lunch room downtown, the informant met with Pettit and
Bruffy and asked if a friend of his from Baltimore
could get in on the job. They agreed. The informant
(02:59):
said he'd go along with them on the Main Office robbery,
but he didn't want to be part of a senseless
murder like the Chevy Chase job. Lawrence Pettit looked at
the informant and said that was all a mistake. Forget it.
George Bruffy kicked Petted under the table and said, shut up,
you talked too much. The informant brought that information back
(03:24):
to Voulton and Brass, who put Pettit and Bruffy at
the top of their suspect list and went full speed ahead.
The following day, Officer Jerry Hobbs, a rookie cop from
Montgomery County, was brought into the precinct to go undercover
as the informants buddy from Baltimore. Officer Hobbs had less
(03:46):
than a year on the job, so his face wouldn't
be familiar to anyone on the street. He was smart
and had good instincts, so Bolton and Brass put their
trust in him. They all had a talk and the
informants said that Officer Hobbs would work out just fine
with a little coaching. Later that day, Hobbes and the
(04:07):
informant met with Pettit and Bruffy to make introductions and
work on plans for the heist. Voulton and Brass went
to Georgetown to the top floor of Mr Stevens, the
superintendent of transportation for the Capital Transit Company. They told
Mr Stevens what was going on behind the scenes and
(04:28):
asked him if the information that Pettit and Bruffy had
about the armored truck, the times and locations were accurate.
Mr Stevens said they knew the set up perfectly. While
they were talking, Detective Volton looked out of the window
to m Street below and he saw Officer Hobbs get
out of a car. Three men approached him from all sides.
(04:52):
Alarm bells went off. Had Hobbs already been made as
a plant? Before Bolton and Brass could run down airs.
Another Metropolitan Police officer approached the car and started to
talk to all of them. One of the men was
Lawrence Pettit. That officer was questioned later on and he
said that he was just checking the car registration, which
(05:15):
was legitimate. Officer hobbs cover wasn't blown after all. The
following day everyone met up and the informant and Hobbs
told them that Pettit, Ruffie and one other man were
still hell bent on the main office hold up. For
the next eleven days, Volton and Brass shadowed the group
(05:36):
and found out the third man's name, Richard Boyle. Officer
Hobbs reported back every night, and on that twelfth day,
he said their plans had changed. Now they planned to
rob the ticket office at Fourth and T Street overnight,
then the main office the following morning. With that information
(05:58):
from Hobbs, Detective Volton went to Captain Thompson of the
d C Police and told him everything that Hobbs had
found out. Captain Thompson ordered Volton and Brass to arrest
everyone immediately. He didn't want to wait any longer and
possibly have another murder on his hands. Officer Hobbs advised
(06:18):
them where the final meeting was going to take place.
Volton and Brass made their surprise visit and everyone was
taken into custody. Pettit and Bruffy were questioned and they
were told that Officer Hobbs had been working undercover all along.
They knew they were busted fair and square on the
robbery conspiracy, and they copped to it. When Volton asked
(06:41):
about the car barn case, both of them clammed up
and demanded a lawyer. Not to be deterred, Volton took
Pettit and Bruffi's mug shots in a photo spread to
the Chevy Chase ticket office to see if anyone recognized them.
He spoke with Wilmer Moore the evening Clark. Moore said
that about three months before the chevy Chase murders, he
(07:04):
saw a white man sitting on a bench outside the
office at around one thirty in the morning. He described
the man as around thirty five five ft eight hundred
and fifty pounds. At around two fifteen that morning, a
sedan drove by, going southbound on Connecticut Avenue. When it
got in front of the office, it slowed to a crawl,
(07:25):
and Moore said it appeared as if the man on
the bench waved it on to keep going. He said
the man stayed on that bench all night long, and
he last saw him there at around six o'clock in
the morning. When will Were Moore looked at the photo spread,
he told detective Bolton that he couldn't be positive, but
George Bruffy did resemble the man on that bench. Bolton
(07:48):
pressed for a positive identification, but Moore said he wasn't sure.
It had been so long ago. No other witnesses came
forward about Pettit, Bruffy, or Boyle being at the off
us or being involved in the murders, with no solid
witnesses or forensics to put any of them there. That
part of the case stalled once again. The grand jury
(08:11):
convened and with Officer Hobbs testimony, Lawrence Pettit, George Bruffey,
and Richard Boyle were all indicted for conspiracy to commit
armed robbery. It was Valentine's Day. More leads in the
form of official memorandums were left in a stack on
Volton's desk. One of them regarding a suspicious car, took
(08:35):
Brass and Volton to some of the seedier establishments downtown
that were frequented by the underworld. Detective Brass had been
working the rackets for years, and he used some of
his connections which led them to Carlton Williams alias Cody Williams.
Williams had been arrested on January nine, along with thirteen
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other people, including three women, for an enormous kidnapping, robbery,
and murder plot. The story at the Washington Post on
January twenty one, the same day as the Carbarn murders.
Here's what the article said. Throughout last night and yesterday's
early morning hours, members of the new police pick up squad,
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armed with rumored reports of the widespread plot descended on
pool rooms, rooming houses, and other known under world haunts
to round up nearly a score of suspected gangsters with
confiscated evidence of planned violence. Officials finally singled out four
men as the suspected ring leaders. In their possession were
(09:41):
weapons and implements used to aid in crimes from safe
cracking to kidnapping. These suspects are held in communicado. They
were arrested at a downtown restaurant. Lying beside one of
the men seated at a table, was a leather bag
that contained four revolvers, a large roll of adhesive tape,
sheets of sandpaper, a pair of cloth gloves, an assortment
(10:04):
of bullets, and several keys. Inspector Frank Burke, detective chief,
described the four men as dangerous and up to no good.
Cody Williams and the others were planning to kidnap and
kill a well known DC area gambling kingpin and take
over the district. The kingpin's name was conveniently left out
(10:27):
of the Washington Post article, which was something I found
to be habitual as I continued my research. Several of
the suspects were released with their promise to get out
of town, but Cody Williams was held and questioned about
some of his cohorts from Washington and Baltimore. Detective Brass
had arrested one of Cody Williams friends years prior on
(10:49):
a bank robbery charge and found out that he had
been staying at Cody Williams house, supposedly along with another
notorious gangster named Tone mek Gino a k a. Tony
the Stinger. That name Tony the Stinger was synonymous with carnage.
(11:10):
He had quite the resume and was wanted in three
states for killing seven people, including a Philadelphia police officer
and a New York City detective. He had eluded police
for two years and was still on the run. Hearing
this information from Cody Williams, Volton and Brass put Tony
(11:32):
the Stinger on top of their list, even though nobody
thought that the Carborn case was the work of an
organized gang. Tony Congino alias Tony the Stinger grew up
in Brooklyn and started out with the Augae Gang when
he was a teenager, along with other thugs named Guinea Faced,
Louis Slats, slat Co, and Blink. They were into gambling,
(11:55):
bootlegging and small time heist. But Tony the Stinger had
bigger plans. Things quickly got out of hand. The Aggie
Gang didn't want the heat brought down by Tony the
Stinger because he was way too violent. He took delight
in torturing his victims by slitting their tongues, pulling out
(12:18):
their fingernails, and burning people over and over again with
his cigarette. The Aggie Gang kicked into the Curb and
Stinger went up to Detroit and joined the Purple Gang,
which was one of the most violent criminal gangs in history.
They were so violent, in fact, they had a spoken
understanding with al Capone of Chicago because Capone wanted to
(12:42):
avoid the massive bloodshed that would occur if he tried
to take over the Detroit rackets. After a short while,
Tony the stingers raging temper and brutality got him ousted
from the Purple Gang. He killed his fellow gang members
and women with impunity, anyone who he even remotely suspected
(13:02):
of being unfaithful. He was a psychopath of the highest order.
After leaving Detroit, he moved to Chicago and was briefly
a part of al Capone's crime family, but the boss
quickly realized that Stinger was unmanageable, brutal and bloodthirsty, not
(13:23):
the type to keep a tight lid on things. Capone
told Stinger to get the hell out of Dodge. Surprisingly,
Tony the Stinger he did that advice, and he moved
to Philadelphia. In Philly, he hooked up with Robert Mayis
and Walter Legenza and became the de facto leader of
the try State Gang. Walter Ligenza's psychopathic behavior gave Tony
(13:48):
the Stingers a run for his money. They were vicious.
The try State Gang committed a series of robberies and
murders across Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. UH detectives Volton and
Brass wanted to get to Tony the Stinger after they
got the intel from Cody Williams. If Stinger had been
(14:09):
in d C during the time of Mitchell's and Smith's murders,
they could credit themselves with not only solving their own case,
but with getting a multi state mass murderer off the streets.
Finding Tony the Stinger co Gino's hideout was the first
step to give an idea about the kind of information
that the detectives from d C and Montgomery County had
(14:31):
to work with when they went on the hunt for
Tony the Stinger. This is an unsigned letter from a
confidential informant from the case file quote Tony co Gino
accompanied Tony Lazone at the Hotel Latasca eight and Fitzwater.
This connection made through Guinea Faced Louis, who lives on
Woodlawn Avenue and has a telephone and a hat store.
(14:54):
Also a fellow named Blink who lives in the thirty
block of Wharton Street. Tone Burns on Mulberry Street runs
a pool room or at least part of a pool
room on the first floor with phone calls received from
d C slats Slatco. A Philadelphia gangster wanted for murder
is living on seventy two Street, but his exact address
(15:16):
is unknown. In Washington, d C. The angle is Ernie Mills,
who runs a crap game and has a hangout for
numbers men. The detectives would have better luck at finding
a specific flee on a camel's ass than finding those men.
In downtown Philadelphia, there were tens of thousands of gambling, prostitution,
(15:38):
and bootlegging places hidden all over Philly. Forget it. Ernie Mills,
the d C guy who ran the crap game. Like
everyone else, he used an alias, so that went nowhere.
Sergeant Robert Barrett of the d C Metropolitan Police tossed
his hat in the ring with confidential information he received
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from an informant that Tony the Stinger had been in
Dacy recently with a man named Bill Cleary. The informants
said both of them were currently up in Baltimore. Sergeant
Stewart Deal from Baltimore piped in and said that he
had an old informative his own up in Philadelphia that
could definitely tell him the current location of Tony the
(16:20):
Stinger Congino. Everybody wanted in when they heard that Tony
the Stinger was on the board as a potential suspect.
They got off on a tangent, but the possibility of
bringing down Stinger was too promising to pass up. If
they could arrest him, it would mean commendations an advancement
up the ranks for all of them, So they took
(16:41):
another road trip, this time to the city of Brotherly Love.
Volton and Brass met with Philadelphia Police Captain James Malone,
and they explained the details of the Carbarn case. Captain
Malone said it sure sounded like the work of Tony Congino,
and he did have relatives in d C and Baltimore.
(17:03):
While they were in Philly, Fulton and Brass discovered that
Bill Cleary had been arrested and was currently being questioned.
Cleary was the associate who had been in d C
with Stinger, according to Sergeant Robert Barrett's information. Sergeant Stewart
Deal headed off on his own to find his informant
and see if he could ascertain Stinger's current hideout. While
(17:25):
Deal pounded the streets, Bolton and Brass went to the
thirty six Precinct to interview Bill Cleary. Cleary readily admitted
to knowing Tony the Stinger and said they had been
in d C, maybe in January, maybe in November. He
wouldn't give exact dates who they met or where they stayed.
(17:47):
Cleary toyed with the detectives he knew the game too well.
He stopped short of admitting anything useful, making it impossible
to place Clearly or Stinger in d C at the
time of the Carborn murders. But detectives had an ace
up their sleeve. Or so they thought. They brought a
witness with them. The witness had positively identified Bill Cleary
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from a photo spread as the suspect in another robbery
back in the district they wanted clearly extradited back to
d C, which would be one hell of a feather
in their caps. Maybe once they got him back in
familiar territory in their own interrogation room, they could break
him and get Tony the Stinger's location. But there was
(18:31):
a problem. Once the witness was face to face with
Bill Cleary, his memory suddenly got muddy. Now he couldn't
be sure that clearly was the man who committed the robbery.
The witness was scared out of his wits and he
backed off the I D when he realized that Bill
Cleary now had a positive I D on him. The
(18:55):
witness got a free trip to Philly out of it,
and he was put on the train back to d
d C. Now, with the lack of direct eyewitness identification
on the d C robbery and with no director forensic
evidence in Philadelphia to hold him, Bill Cleary was released
from custody. Meanwhile, Sergeant Stewart Deal found his informant and
(19:16):
told Bolton and brass that he had information to provide
about Tony the Stingers whereabouts. They met with a detective
from the Philadelphia Racket Squad who said that Sergeant Deal's
informant was completely unreliable and would parrot whatever the police
wanted to know directly into Tony the Stinger's ear and
tip him off, which is likely exactly what happened when
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Deal met with the informant and said that d C
and Baltimore investigators were hot on his trail. The Philadelphia
detectives had their own informants, and we're working the angles
on Tony the Stingers movements on their own. They didn't
need Washington d C and Poe DUNC Montgomery County detectives
meddling in on their business, especially Lee when they had
(20:00):
a double homicide that was getting colder by the day
with no solid ties to anywhere but Maryland and d C.
Before they called at quits and headed home, they made
one more attempt to get information on the location of
Tony the Stinger Cojino. They met with a Philadelphia patrol
officer who said he'd known Stinger since they were kids
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back in Brooklyn. He said that Stinger's wife had been
living at ninth and McKee, but that was a while ago.
The last he heard, Stinger and his wife had been
staying at the Colonial Tea House in Prince George's County, Maryland,
and he was likely responsible for the mass shooting that
happened there back in nineteen thirty one. Nineteen thirty one,
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this information was obviously really outdated. The Colonial Tea House
shooting happened around Thanksgiving. Fourteen people were lined up on
a kitchen wall and robbed. Six people were shot and
one died. The Tea House was a well known gambling
and prostitution den on the outskirts of the district in Bladensburg, Maryland.
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It was run by a former taxi driver from Baltimore
who now worked for one of the Philly Mobs. A
rival gang wanted dibbs and the profits because the Tea
House was doing mighty good business as a white slave
operation that rotated women from New York, Philly and other
East Coast cities. The rival mob busted in and shot
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every one who didn't move out of the way in time,
including three of the women. It was thought that Tony
the Stinger Cougino was the master mind behind the takeover,
but nobody, including the victims, ever talked to the police
Before Volton, Brass and Deal hit the road back to
d C. They took the bullets and casings from the
(21:52):
Carbarn murders to the Philadelphia forensic Lab and asked that
if any matches were found to a gun in Philly,
that they be cont acted as soon as possible. They
headed back to the district crestfallen with nothing to show
for their efforts except a long list of overtime requests.
When Detective Bolton got back to his office, he found
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a stack of messages with leads. Some of them were
weeks old and listed names that had already been interviewed
and cleared, but there were a few new names that
needed to be followed up. Two names that got his
attention were Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson. Somebody had called
in and said that Arthur and Luke had been out
(22:34):
all night on January They lived just two miles north
of the Carborn office in Kensington. It was all hearsay,
but since Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson were not strangers
to the Montgomery County Police, they brought them in for questioning.
Luke Johnson was interviewed on March ten. He lived on
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Jones Mill Road, which was a short distance from the
murder scene and less than a mile from the Connecticut
Avenue Bridge over Rock Creek. He'd been living there for
about a month after a fire had destroyed his previous place.
His wife and his kids had left him and went
to go live with her mother. Luke was forty four
years old, mostly out of work, and he was staying
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in a ratty cottage in the woods with holes in
the floor big enough to toss a cat through. Luke
had a rough life after serving as an army infantryman
during World War One. The Depression had made things especially
difficult to find honest work, and with a wife and
kids to support, at least until recently, he settled for
part time manual labor for the Public Works Administration three
(23:40):
days a week on new roads and pipelines being installed downtown.
Luke Johnson barely made enough to keep food on the
table and coal in the stove. During Luke's interview, the
focus wasn't on him, but rather on Arthur Waugh. Arthur
was his nephew by marriage, and he lived at Luke's
(24:01):
cottage most days of the week. Luke said that Arthur
carried a gun, and when asked what type, Luke said
it was a rifle that Arthur took his payment for
helping a friend move. He said that Arthur might have
a handgun that he didn't know about, but he didn't
allow guns in his cottage. The detectives focused on the
night of January to twenty one. Prodding Luke's memory of
(24:25):
both his and Arthur was whereabouts. Luke said he was
at the cottage all night long because he had to
be up early Monday morning to fix some wicker chairs
at his mother's house. They asked about Arthur and specifically
if Luke had seen him at all that night. Are
you sure that Arthur Wall did not stay at your
cottage on Sunday night. I'm almost positive that he didn't
(24:49):
stay there on Sunday night. We only had one bed
and I slept in that myself, and he sat in
a chair by the fire. I told him when he
came there that I had no place for him to sleep,
and he said he'd sit the fire and keep it going.
Luke said that he did see Arthur on the morning
of January one at around nine o'clock. Volton asked him
if Arthur mentioned anything to him about the murders at
(25:11):
that time, and Luke said no. They didn't discuss it
until later on that night. The detectives pressed Luke on this,
since a double murder in Montgomery County that happened right
down the road from his cottage seemed like a topic
that wouldn't be that readily dismissed. Luke said that on
Monday morning, he and Arthur just passed by each other
(25:32):
in the front yard and he was in a hurry
to get to his mother's house. Later that night, when
they did talk about it, Luke said that Arthur seemed
shocked to hear about it. The word shocked piqued Bolton's attention,
and he interrupted for clarification. Well, I'd say he was.
By the way he spoke. He seemed surprised when he
(25:52):
heard it. It would have been a surprise to anyone
when they first heard it. I remember I said to
him that it was coming to the point where it
was dangerous for a man to even stay in the
house if he had any money, And he said that
if anyone had to know if he had any money
before holding him up that he'd be safe. That was
Luke's awkward way of saying they were both broke. Detective
(26:12):
Volton asked Luke how he felt when he first heard
the news. I was very much disturbed and sorry, maybe
I'm not expressing myself right. Maybe I don't know exactly
what you mean by shocked. I haven't got as much
education as you detectives. Volton followed up and got to
the point. He asked Luke if he thought Arthur Wall
(26:33):
was capable of committing the murders. I think he'd do
anything he thought he could get by with. If he's drinking.
I don't think he'd hesitate to snatch an automobile or
something of that sort. Volton asked again, do you think
he'd go in on a hold up of this nature? No, sir,
I don't. Volton and Brass pressed Luke numerous times on
(26:56):
his view of the murders and what he thought happened.
He said he didn't know, but he would provide any
information he had in order to help Luke. Johnson's interview
was four and a half single space typed pages, one
of the longest in the entire case file. Bolton and
Brass were nearly two months into the investigation and they
(27:17):
were getting desperate. They had arrested and interviewed dozens of
potential suspects only to come up empty. Luke Johnson's information
didn't sway. His answers were lengthy, but seemed to be
honest and stayed the same throughout the interview. It didn't
seem like Luke would be considered as a suspect, but
they still had to interview Arthur Waugh and see if
(27:40):
his story aligned with Luke Johnson's. Arthur Waugh was interviewed
the next day, on March eleven. From the notes, it's
pretty obvious that Arthur had ants and his pants and
he was extremely nervous to be talking to the detectives.
He was twenty nine years old, out of work and desperate.
(28:00):
He had been couch hopping from Luke Johnson's cottage to
his brother's houses. They all lived within a couple of
blocks of one another. Arthur seemed like the type to
quickly wear at his welcome at one place, then begged
to stay the night at another. He was a drinker
and would frequently stay out all night in d C.
But nobody seemed to know what he was up to
(28:21):
when he went on a bender. His answers to the
detectives veered all over the place, from one subject to another.
It was a virtuoso of verbal vomit. Chief Garrett joined
Volton and Brass for Arthur's interview. At first they treated
him with kid gloves, just trying to get his work
history and where he was living. Arthur pinned from one
(28:44):
subject to another. At one point he went completely off
topic and talked about Luke Johnson's trip to get milk
for his children. He was all over the place and
the detectives did their best to pin Arthur down as
to his whereabouts on Sunday night, January twentie to morning
of Monday one, but he never gave a straight answer.
(29:04):
He said he was at drill at the Armory, but
that was on Tuesday. He said he never left Luke's house,
but couldn't remember exactly what Daisy went out. He was
at his brother's house, then his other brother's house, then
back at Luke's cottage. At one point Arthur said, I
don't remember that morning any more than I would fifty
years from now. If there's anything I can do to
(29:26):
help the police, I'd be glad to It's a wonder
I can remember anything at all. His interview was a disaster.
The detectives were getting really tired of his KG answers,
and they cut to the chase on a subject that
Arthur couldn't evade. They asked him about Emory Smith. Is
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it a fact that in at least two or three
occasions at night you've stopped and talked with Emory Smith
at the car Barn and Chevy Chase. Yes, I stopped
at the car barn and he asked me to He
asked me to go over. He wanted to talk to me.
Arthur law knew Emery Smith quite well because Arthur had
(30:08):
married Emery's first wife, Myrtle
So she sold that ship. But it doesn't then how
(00:21):
to feel. This is the fee, this is the new
Great Depression. Not long after prohibition. They're worrying about bootlegging
gangs because some professes told him that the car could
(00:42):
be found in a garage owned by former Ducy Ulcer
named Greek. It was a huge deal. It was headline news.
I don't want a single word written about that day.
Do you understand there's the possibility it could be solved
one day? Welcome back to Shattered Souls the Carborn Murders.
(01:10):
I'm your host, Karen Smith. This is episode five. This
podcast may contain graphic language and is not suitable for children.
Previously on the Carborn Murders, Lead after lead wound up
in dead ends and the detectives were working twenty hour
(01:31):
days trying to find the killers of James Mitchell and
Emery Smith. Weeks went by with nothing to show for
it except for the forensic analysis of the shell casings
and bullets recovered from the ticket office and from the victims.
They were looking for a beat up three cold thirty
(01:54):
two caliber semi automatic used in the murders, as well
as a stolen Green Buick and anyone who could provide
solid information. Nobody was coming forward, and it seemed like
they were running out of options until a confidential informant
gave them a tip. The informant told detectives Bolton and
(02:14):
Brass that two men, Lawrence Pettitt and George Bruffy, were
planning a robbery of the Main Office Carbarn in Georgetown,
a few weeks before the Carbarn case. The informant initially
declined the offer to join them, thinking that a broad
daylight robbery sounded like a suicide mission. Brass and Volton
(02:37):
convinced the informant to team up and get as much
intel as he could from Pettit and Bruffy to see
if either one of them mentioned the Carbarn case. At
a lunch room downtown, the informant met with Pettit and
Bruffy and asked if a friend of his from Baltimore
could get in on the job. They agreed. The informant
(02:59):
said he'd go along with them on the Main Office robbery,
but he didn't want to be part of a senseless
murder like the Chevy Chase job. Lawrence Pettit looked at
the informant and said that was all a mistake. Forget it.
George Bruffy kicked Petted under the table and said, shut up,
you talked too much. The informant brought that information back
(03:24):
to Voulton and Brass, who put Pettit and Bruffy at
the top of their suspect list and went full speed ahead.
The following day, Officer Jerry Hobbs, a rookie cop from
Montgomery County, was brought into the precinct to go undercover
as the informants buddy from Baltimore. Officer Hobbs had less
(03:46):
than a year on the job, so his face wouldn't
be familiar to anyone on the street. He was smart
and had good instincts, so Bolton and Brass put their
trust in him. They all had a talk and the
informants said that Officer Hobbs would work out just fine
with a little coaching. Later that day, Hobbes and the
(04:07):
informant met with Pettit and Bruffy to make introductions and
work on plans for the heist. Voulton and Brass went
to Georgetown to the top floor of Mr Stevens, the
superintendent of transportation for the Capital Transit Company. They told
Mr Stevens what was going on behind the scenes and
(04:28):
asked him if the information that Pettit and Bruffy had
about the armored truck, the times and locations were accurate.
Mr Stevens said they knew the set up perfectly. While
they were talking, Detective Volton looked out of the window
to m Street below and he saw Officer Hobbs get
out of a car. Three men approached him from all sides.
(04:52):
Alarm bells went off. Had Hobbs already been made as
a plant? Before Bolton and Brass could run down airs.
Another Metropolitan Police officer approached the car and started to
talk to all of them. One of the men was
Lawrence Pettit. That officer was questioned later on and he
said that he was just checking the car registration, which
(05:15):
was legitimate. Officer hobbs cover wasn't blown after all. The
following day everyone met up and the informant and Hobbs
told them that Pettit, Ruffie and one other man were
still hell bent on the main office hold up. For
the next eleven days, Volton and Brass shadowed the group
(05:36):
and found out the third man's name, Richard Boyle. Officer
Hobbs reported back every night, and on that twelfth day,
he said their plans had changed. Now they planned to
rob the ticket office at Fourth and T Street overnight,
then the main office the following morning. With that information
(05:58):
from Hobbs, Detective Volton went to Captain Thompson of the
d C Police and told him everything that Hobbs had
found out. Captain Thompson ordered Volton and Brass to arrest
everyone immediately. He didn't want to wait any longer and
possibly have another murder on his hands. Officer Hobbs advised
(06:18):
them where the final meeting was going to take place.
Volton and Brass made their surprise visit and everyone was
taken into custody. Pettit and Bruffy were questioned and they
were told that Officer Hobbs had been working undercover all along.
They knew they were busted fair and square on the
robbery conspiracy, and they copped to it. When Volton asked
(06:41):
about the car barn case, both of them clammed up
and demanded a lawyer. Not to be deterred, Volton took
Pettit and Bruffi's mug shots in a photo spread to
the Chevy Chase ticket office to see if anyone recognized them.
He spoke with Wilmer Moore the evening Clark. Moore said
that about three months before the chevy Chase murders, he
(07:04):
saw a white man sitting on a bench outside the
office at around one thirty in the morning. He described
the man as around thirty five five ft eight hundred
and fifty pounds. At around two fifteen that morning, a
sedan drove by, going southbound on Connecticut Avenue. When it
got in front of the office, it slowed to a crawl,
(07:25):
and Moore said it appeared as if the man on
the bench waved it on to keep going. He said
the man stayed on that bench all night long, and
he last saw him there at around six o'clock in
the morning. When will Were Moore looked at the photo spread,
he told detective Bolton that he couldn't be positive, but
George Bruffy did resemble the man on that bench. Bolton
(07:48):
pressed for a positive identification, but Moore said he wasn't sure.
It had been so long ago. No other witnesses came
forward about Pettit, Bruffy, or Boyle being at the off
us or being involved in the murders, with no solid
witnesses or forensics to put any of them there. That
part of the case stalled once again. The grand jury
(08:11):
convened and with Officer Hobbs testimony, Lawrence Pettit, George Bruffey,
and Richard Boyle were all indicted for conspiracy to commit
armed robbery. It was Valentine's Day. More leads in the
form of official memorandums were left in a stack on
Volton's desk. One of them regarding a suspicious car, took
(08:35):
Brass and Volton to some of the seedier establishments downtown
that were frequented by the underworld. Detective Brass had been
working the rackets for years, and he used some of
his connections which led them to Carlton Williams alias Cody Williams.
Williams had been arrested on January nine, along with thirteen
(08:58):
other people, including three women, for an enormous kidnapping, robbery,
and murder plot. The story at the Washington Post on
January twenty one, the same day as the Carbarn murders.
Here's what the article said. Throughout last night and yesterday's
early morning hours, members of the new police pick up squad,
(09:20):
armed with rumored reports of the widespread plot descended on
pool rooms, rooming houses, and other known under world haunts
to round up nearly a score of suspected gangsters with
confiscated evidence of planned violence. Officials finally singled out four
men as the suspected ring leaders. In their possession were
(09:41):
weapons and implements used to aid in crimes from safe
cracking to kidnapping. These suspects are held in communicado. They
were arrested at a downtown restaurant. Lying beside one of
the men seated at a table, was a leather bag
that contained four revolvers, a large roll of adhesive tape,
sheets of sandpaper, a pair of cloth gloves, an assortment
(10:04):
of bullets, and several keys. Inspector Frank Burke, detective chief,
described the four men as dangerous and up to no good.
Cody Williams and the others were planning to kidnap and
kill a well known DC area gambling kingpin and take
over the district. The kingpin's name was conveniently left out
(10:27):
of the Washington Post article, which was something I found
to be habitual as I continued my research. Several of
the suspects were released with their promise to get out
of town, but Cody Williams was held and questioned about
some of his cohorts from Washington and Baltimore. Detective Brass
had arrested one of Cody Williams friends years prior on
(10:49):
a bank robbery charge and found out that he had
been staying at Cody Williams house, supposedly along with another
notorious gangster named Tone mek Gino a k a. Tony
the Stinger. That name Tony the Stinger was synonymous with carnage.
(11:10):
He had quite the resume and was wanted in three
states for killing seven people, including a Philadelphia police officer
and a New York City detective. He had eluded police
for two years and was still on the run. Hearing
this information from Cody Williams, Volton and Brass put Tony
(11:32):
the Stinger on top of their list, even though nobody
thought that the Carborn case was the work of an
organized gang. Tony Congino alias Tony the Stinger grew up
in Brooklyn and started out with the Augae Gang when
he was a teenager, along with other thugs named Guinea Faced,
Louis Slats, slat Co, and Blink. They were into gambling,
(11:55):
bootlegging and small time heist. But Tony the Stinger had
bigger plans. Things quickly got out of hand. The Aggie
Gang didn't want the heat brought down by Tony the
Stinger because he was way too violent. He took delight
in torturing his victims by slitting their tongues, pulling out
(12:18):
their fingernails, and burning people over and over again with
his cigarette. The Aggie Gang kicked into the Curb and
Stinger went up to Detroit and joined the Purple Gang,
which was one of the most violent criminal gangs in history.
They were so violent, in fact, they had a spoken
understanding with al Capone of Chicago because Capone wanted to
(12:42):
avoid the massive bloodshed that would occur if he tried
to take over the Detroit rackets. After a short while,
Tony the stingers raging temper and brutality got him ousted
from the Purple Gang. He killed his fellow gang members
and women with impunity, anyone who he even remotely suspected
(13:02):
of being unfaithful. He was a psychopath of the highest order.
After leaving Detroit, he moved to Chicago and was briefly
a part of al Capone's crime family, but the boss
quickly realized that Stinger was unmanageable, brutal and bloodthirsty, not
(13:23):
the type to keep a tight lid on things. Capone
told Stinger to get the hell out of Dodge. Surprisingly,
Tony the Stinger he did that advice, and he moved
to Philadelphia. In Philly, he hooked up with Robert Mayis
and Walter Legenza and became the de facto leader of
the try State Gang. Walter Ligenza's psychopathic behavior gave Tony
(13:48):
the Stingers a run for his money. They were vicious.
The try State Gang committed a series of robberies and
murders across Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. UH detectives Volton and
Brass wanted to get to Tony the Stinger after they
got the intel from Cody Williams. If Stinger had been
(14:09):
in d C during the time of Mitchell's and Smith's murders,
they could credit themselves with not only solving their own case,
but with getting a multi state mass murderer off the streets.
Finding Tony the Stinger co Gino's hideout was the first
step to give an idea about the kind of information
that the detectives from d C and Montgomery County had
(14:31):
to work with when they went on the hunt for
Tony the Stinger. This is an unsigned letter from a
confidential informant from the case file quote Tony co Gino
accompanied Tony Lazone at the Hotel Latasca eight and Fitzwater.
This connection made through Guinea Faced Louis, who lives on
Woodlawn Avenue and has a telephone and a hat store.
(14:54):
Also a fellow named Blink who lives in the thirty
block of Wharton Street. Tone Burns on Mulberry Street runs
a pool room or at least part of a pool
room on the first floor with phone calls received from
d C slats Slatco. A Philadelphia gangster wanted for murder
is living on seventy two Street, but his exact address
(15:16):
is unknown. In Washington, d C. The angle is Ernie Mills,
who runs a crap game and has a hangout for
numbers men. The detectives would have better luck at finding
a specific flee on a camel's ass than finding those men.
In downtown Philadelphia, there were tens of thousands of gambling, prostitution,
(15:38):
and bootlegging places hidden all over Philly. Forget it. Ernie Mills,
the d C guy who ran the crap game. Like
everyone else, he used an alias, so that went nowhere.
Sergeant Robert Barrett of the d C Metropolitan Police tossed
his hat in the ring with confidential information he received
(15:59):
from an informant that Tony the Stinger had been in
Dacy recently with a man named Bill Cleary. The informants
said both of them were currently up in Baltimore. Sergeant
Stewart Deal from Baltimore piped in and said that he
had an old informative his own up in Philadelphia that
could definitely tell him the current location of Tony the
(16:20):
Stinger Congino. Everybody wanted in when they heard that Tony
the Stinger was on the board as a potential suspect.
They got off on a tangent, but the possibility of
bringing down Stinger was too promising to pass up. If
they could arrest him, it would mean commendations an advancement
up the ranks for all of them, So they took
(16:41):
another road trip, this time to the city of Brotherly Love.
Volton and Brass met with Philadelphia Police Captain James Malone,
and they explained the details of the Carbarn case. Captain
Malone said it sure sounded like the work of Tony Congino,
and he did have relatives in d C and Baltimore.
(17:03):
While they were in Philly, Fulton and Brass discovered that
Bill Cleary had been arrested and was currently being questioned.
Cleary was the associate who had been in d C
with Stinger, according to Sergeant Robert Barrett's information. Sergeant Stewart
Deal headed off on his own to find his informant
and see if he could ascertain Stinger's current hideout. While
(17:25):
Deal pounded the streets, Bolton and Brass went to the
thirty six Precinct to interview Bill Cleary. Cleary readily admitted
to knowing Tony the Stinger and said they had been
in d C, maybe in January, maybe in November. He
wouldn't give exact dates who they met or where they stayed.
(17:47):
Cleary toyed with the detectives he knew the game too well.
He stopped short of admitting anything useful, making it impossible
to place Clearly or Stinger in d C at the
time of the Carborn murders. But detectives had an ace
up their sleeve. Or so they thought. They brought a
witness with them. The witness had positively identified Bill Cleary
(18:11):
from a photo spread as the suspect in another robbery
back in the district they wanted clearly extradited back to
d C, which would be one hell of a feather
in their caps. Maybe once they got him back in
familiar territory in their own interrogation room, they could break
him and get Tony the Stinger's location. But there was
(18:31):
a problem. Once the witness was face to face with
Bill Cleary, his memory suddenly got muddy. Now he couldn't
be sure that clearly was the man who committed the robbery.
The witness was scared out of his wits and he
backed off the I D when he realized that Bill
Cleary now had a positive I D on him. The
(18:55):
witness got a free trip to Philly out of it,
and he was put on the train back to d
d C. Now, with the lack of direct eyewitness identification
on the d C robbery and with no director forensic
evidence in Philadelphia to hold him, Bill Cleary was released
from custody. Meanwhile, Sergeant Stewart Deal found his informant and
(19:16):
told Bolton and brass that he had information to provide
about Tony the Stingers whereabouts. They met with a detective
from the Philadelphia Racket Squad who said that Sergeant Deal's
informant was completely unreliable and would parrot whatever the police
wanted to know directly into Tony the Stinger's ear and
tip him off, which is likely exactly what happened when
(19:39):
Deal met with the informant and said that d C
and Baltimore investigators were hot on his trail. The Philadelphia
detectives had their own informants, and we're working the angles
on Tony the Stingers movements on their own. They didn't
need Washington d C and Poe DUNC Montgomery County detectives
meddling in on their business, especially Lee when they had
(20:00):
a double homicide that was getting colder by the day
with no solid ties to anywhere but Maryland and d C.
Before they called at quits and headed home, they made
one more attempt to get information on the location of
Tony the Stinger Cojino. They met with a Philadelphia patrol
officer who said he'd known Stinger since they were kids
(20:23):
back in Brooklyn. He said that Stinger's wife had been
living at ninth and McKee, but that was a while ago.
The last he heard, Stinger and his wife had been
staying at the Colonial Tea House in Prince George's County, Maryland,
and he was likely responsible for the mass shooting that
happened there back in nineteen thirty one. Nineteen thirty one,
(20:44):
this information was obviously really outdated. The Colonial Tea House
shooting happened around Thanksgiving. Fourteen people were lined up on
a kitchen wall and robbed. Six people were shot and
one died. The Tea House was a well known gambling
and prostitution den on the outskirts of the district in Bladensburg, Maryland.
(21:08):
It was run by a former taxi driver from Baltimore
who now worked for one of the Philly Mobs. A
rival gang wanted dibbs and the profits because the Tea
House was doing mighty good business as a white slave
operation that rotated women from New York, Philly and other
East Coast cities. The rival mob busted in and shot
(21:30):
every one who didn't move out of the way in time,
including three of the women. It was thought that Tony
the Stinger Cougino was the master mind behind the takeover,
but nobody, including the victims, ever talked to the police
Before Volton, Brass and Deal hit the road back to
d C. They took the bullets and casings from the
(21:52):
Carbarn murders to the Philadelphia forensic Lab and asked that
if any matches were found to a gun in Philly,
that they be cont acted as soon as possible. They
headed back to the district crestfallen with nothing to show
for their efforts except a long list of overtime requests.
When Detective Bolton got back to his office, he found
(22:13):
a stack of messages with leads. Some of them were
weeks old and listed names that had already been interviewed
and cleared, but there were a few new names that
needed to be followed up. Two names that got his
attention were Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson. Somebody had called
in and said that Arthur and Luke had been out
(22:34):
all night on January They lived just two miles north
of the Carborn office in Kensington. It was all hearsay,
but since Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson were not strangers
to the Montgomery County Police, they brought them in for questioning.
Luke Johnson was interviewed on March ten. He lived on
(22:54):
Jones Mill Road, which was a short distance from the
murder scene and less than a mile from the Connecticut
Avenue Bridge over Rock Creek. He'd been living there for
about a month after a fire had destroyed his previous place.
His wife and his kids had left him and went
to go live with her mother. Luke was forty four
years old, mostly out of work, and he was staying
(23:16):
in a ratty cottage in the woods with holes in
the floor big enough to toss a cat through. Luke
had a rough life after serving as an army infantryman
during World War One. The Depression had made things especially
difficult to find honest work, and with a wife and
kids to support, at least until recently, he settled for
part time manual labor for the Public Works Administration three
(23:40):
days a week on new roads and pipelines being installed downtown.
Luke Johnson barely made enough to keep food on the
table and coal in the stove. During Luke's interview, the
focus wasn't on him, but rather on Arthur Waugh. Arthur
was his nephew by marriage, and he lived at Luke's
(24:01):
cottage most days of the week. Luke said that Arthur
carried a gun, and when asked what type, Luke said
it was a rifle that Arthur took his payment for
helping a friend move. He said that Arthur might have
a handgun that he didn't know about, but he didn't
allow guns in his cottage. The detectives focused on the
night of January to twenty one. Prodding Luke's memory of
(24:25):
both his and Arthur was whereabouts. Luke said he was
at the cottage all night long because he had to
be up early Monday morning to fix some wicker chairs
at his mother's house. They asked about Arthur and specifically
if Luke had seen him at all that night. Are
you sure that Arthur Wall did not stay at your
cottage on Sunday night. I'm almost positive that he didn't
(24:49):
stay there on Sunday night. We only had one bed
and I slept in that myself, and he sat in
a chair by the fire. I told him when he
came there that I had no place for him to sleep,
and he said he'd sit the fire and keep it going.
Luke said that he did see Arthur on the morning
of January one at around nine o'clock. Volton asked him
if Arthur mentioned anything to him about the murders at
(25:11):
that time, and Luke said no. They didn't discuss it
until later on that night. The detectives pressed Luke on this,
since a double murder in Montgomery County that happened right
down the road from his cottage seemed like a topic
that wouldn't be that readily dismissed. Luke said that on
Monday morning, he and Arthur just passed by each other
(25:32):
in the front yard and he was in a hurry
to get to his mother's house. Later that night, when
they did talk about it, Luke said that Arthur seemed
shocked to hear about it. The word shocked piqued Bolton's attention,
and he interrupted for clarification. Well, I'd say he was.
By the way he spoke. He seemed surprised when he
(25:52):
heard it. It would have been a surprise to anyone
when they first heard it. I remember I said to
him that it was coming to the point where it
was dangerous for a man to even stay in the
house if he had any money, And he said that
if anyone had to know if he had any money
before holding him up that he'd be safe. That was
Luke's awkward way of saying they were both broke. Detective
(26:12):
Volton asked Luke how he felt when he first heard
the news. I was very much disturbed and sorry, maybe
I'm not expressing myself right. Maybe I don't know exactly
what you mean by shocked. I haven't got as much
education as you detectives. Volton followed up and got to
the point. He asked Luke if he thought Arthur Wall
(26:33):
was capable of committing the murders. I think he'd do
anything he thought he could get by with. If he's drinking.
I don't think he'd hesitate to snatch an automobile or
something of that sort. Volton asked again, do you think
he'd go in on a hold up of this nature? No, sir,
I don't. Volton and Brass pressed Luke numerous times on
(26:56):
his view of the murders and what he thought happened.
He said he didn't know, but he would provide any
information he had in order to help Luke. Johnson's interview
was four and a half single space typed pages, one
of the longest in the entire case file. Bolton and
Brass were nearly two months into the investigation and they
(27:17):
were getting desperate. They had arrested and interviewed dozens of
potential suspects only to come up empty. Luke Johnson's information
didn't sway. His answers were lengthy, but seemed to be
honest and stayed the same throughout the interview. It didn't
seem like Luke would be considered as a suspect, but
they still had to interview Arthur Waugh and see if
(27:40):
his story aligned with Luke Johnson's. Arthur Waugh was interviewed
the next day, on March eleven. From the notes, it's
pretty obvious that Arthur had ants and his pants and
he was extremely nervous to be talking to the detectives.
He was twenty nine years old, out of work and desperate.
(28:00):
He had been couch hopping from Luke Johnson's cottage to
his brother's houses. They all lived within a couple of
blocks of one another. Arthur seemed like the type to
quickly wear at his welcome at one place, then begged
to stay the night at another. He was a drinker
and would frequently stay out all night in d C.
But nobody seemed to know what he was up to
(28:21):
when he went on a bender. His answers to the
detectives veered all over the place, from one subject to another.
It was a virtuoso of verbal vomit. Chief Garrett joined
Volton and Brass for Arthur's interview. At first they treated
him with kid gloves, just trying to get his work
history and where he was living. Arthur pinned from one
(28:44):
subject to another. At one point he went completely off
topic and talked about Luke Johnson's trip to get milk
for his children. He was all over the place and
the detectives did their best to pin Arthur down as
to his whereabouts on Sunday night, January twentie to morning
of Monday one, but he never gave a straight answer.
(29:04):
He said he was at drill at the Armory, but
that was on Tuesday. He said he never left Luke's house,
but couldn't remember exactly what Daisy went out. He was
at his brother's house, then his other brother's house, then
back at Luke's cottage. At one point Arthur said, I
don't remember that morning any more than I would fifty
years from now. If there's anything I can do to
(29:26):
help the police, I'd be glad to It's a wonder
I can remember anything at all. His interview was a disaster.
The detectives were getting really tired of his KG answers,
and they cut to the chase on a subject that
Arthur couldn't evade. They asked him about Emory Smith. Is
(29:48):
it a fact that in at least two or three
occasions at night you've stopped and talked with Emory Smith
at the car Barn and Chevy Chase. Yes, I stopped
at the car barn and he asked me to He
asked me to go over. He wanted to talk to me.
Arthur law knew Emery Smith quite well because Arthur had
(30:08):
married Emery's first wife, Myrtle
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