THE RUNNER/SCREENPLAY - BRIAN R. LUNDIN (read an ebook week .txt) 📗

per week to the police. The more than 200 handbooks working in the area paid $150 a month. Jerome channeled the money to politicians, police officers and the Chicago Outfit. Every month Jerome distributed a list to the police with the names and location of members of the “Club.” The policy wheels, stations and bookies on the list were safe from arrest or raid. In 1963, a white owned local newspaper dubbed the policy wheel owners as Policy Kings and described Bronzeville as the Monte Carlo of the Midwest a veritable hotbed of vice, graft and corruption. The newspaper estimated that blacks in Bronzeville were wagering over $18,000,000 a year with the 38 policy wheels and only two percent was paid out. The paper condemned the Policy Kings for cheating the poor out of their money that was needed to buy food, clothing and other necessities of life, the poor was gambling away their relief money on policy. However, the typical attitude among the policy players and the Black Press was that people liked to gamble and they argued that policy provided over 7,000 jobs and the money stayed in the black community. The Defender argued that the Policy Kings supported legitimate black businesses in the black community and responsible for the establishment of a fair number of quasi-legitimate but colorful enterprises such as lucky number candles that came with a piece of paper contained three lucky numbers from 1 to 78. A fraudulent math professor sold supposedly, sure-fire gig books that guaranteed the winning number. Black businesses provided the paper, printing press and ink used to print the policy slips and the people purchased automobiles from black dealerships when denied an auto loan from white dealerships. Black owned restaurants, taverns and stores could get a loan from the Policy Kings to open or expand their businesses, when the major banks refused them and were large contributors to black church and food kitchens. In addition, numerous shoes shine parlors, candy stores, barbershops, beauty parlors, cleaners, grocery stores and laundries all benefited from increased street traffic from policy players. Although policy gambling was illegal, it was wide open, with the policy runners throwing the drawings on the stoops of the policy stations. The Policy Kings very seldom had any problems with the police who they were paying off. On occasion’s uniformed police officers anxious for an assignment to the Vice Unit arrested bookies working for the Outfit and policy runners. However, most of the uniformed officers had very little knowledge of horse racing or policy gambling and when they appeared before Judge William A. Arnold, the sitting judge at the “Wabash Court,” they had to explain what the numbers on the slips meant, most of them couldn’t and the cases were dismissed. The judge often criticized overly aggressive police officers that raided policy stations and arrested the patrons and the writers who were generally older people. He would summarily dismiss the case for some legal reason and would tell many of the officers that his parents sent him through college and law school, on money, they had earned writing policy. Jerome was likable, charming and had charisma. He also had developed a basic leadership skill-he knew how to listen, and he had the triple aphrodisiac of charm, money and power. Jerome would visit his stations daily and sit around drinking coffee, interacting with his customers, or listening to their problems. Everyone came to Jerome with their problems; a single mother about to be evicted, a father whose son had been illegally arrested and beaten up, the ward alderman who needed cash contribution, the drug addict who needed money for a fix and none were refused his help. He made no empty promises or excuses if he could help he would, he did not ask for any type of repayment from the supplicants. At many of the other policy stations if a bettor was lucky enough to catch a gig, especially if it was a big gig, maybe $50.00 or more, he might not be paid, because the owner of the station had booked the bet himself and did not turn the bet into the wheel. The owner of the station was making enough money to pay off the bet, but out of greed, they would not. When the word got out that the station did not pay off, the people stopped coming and the station had to close. The owner of the station, who was very seldom known to the player, merely moved the stations a couple of blocks away, fired the old writers, and hired new ones. The cheated player would go to the new station and not knowing that the new station owner was the same owner who cheated or “stiffed” them before. The McLemore brothers never stiffed any player on a winning bet, although they did book many of the bets themselves they had the resources to pay the winner, by booking the bets the McLemore’s triple their income from the stations. The success of the McLemore’s family policy stations operation was due mainly to the honesty of the stations, but Jerome’s easy and charming manner also helped.

FADE-IN.

The 2nd District Police station located at 4800 South Wabash Avenue was one of the oldest police stations in the city and was called the Wabash station and was also the most corrupt district in the city. The main entrance was on 48th Street between Wabash Avenue and State Street. A high wire fence surrounded the building and at its rear was a fenced parking lot. Written in large black block letters and attached to the fence was a sign that read, “CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT, PARKING PERMITTED ONLY FOR CHICAGO POLICE VEHICLES AND EMPLOYEES. UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES WILL BE TOWED”


INT: WABASH DISTRICT POLICE STATION –DAY

The “Desk” was the heart of the station. Two or three uniform officers and a sergeant manned the desk. The desk officers routed phone calls, to the other units in the station. The Vice Room, Youth Officer Room was down the short, drab hall painted white and brown from the desk. An Interrogation Room contained a table and three hard-backed chairs, and restraints cemented into its pea green walls, all over the walls of the room; prisoners had scratched their street names or used black ink from fingerprints to write their names or gangs. The Roll Call Room was where the officers gathered, inspected and received their assignments when starting their tour of duty. The Watch Commander’s Office in the rear of the Roll Call Room was Spartan in appearance with the furnishing selected for functionality rather than style; it had a desk and file cabinets. The lockup was in the rear of the building and its door opened into the rear parking lot and purposely kept dark to intimidate the arrestees. Each cell was six by five feet, with a metal bed and a combination water fountain/toilet. The second floor contained lockers, the Commander’s and his Vice Coordinator offices. Down a long hallway was the 28th Municipal Circuit Courthouse, commonly known as Wabash Court. The district boundaries were 3100 south to 6100 south, its east boundary was Cottage Grove Avenue, and west was to Federal Street. Most of the residents of the police district were black and poor and it encompassed “Bronzeville.”

The 2nd Police District had one of the highest crime rates in the city and it played by its own rules, which often was in conflict with official Chicago Police Department Policy, DISTRICT COMMANDER ROGER HARNESS was an Irishman and did not try to control his men or hide his contempt for the black community and he was a hard bargainer, his “Fees,” for being allowed to operate in his district was doubled that of the other districts. Although he was not Italian he loved Italian food and he, his wife and three teenage boys were often treated to a lavish Italian dinner at some expensive Mob controlled restaurants and he sometimes, for a nice bonus, acted as a bodyguard for some of the “Outfit”caporegime for it was unheard of for anyone to gun down a police officer and especially a police captain. The toughest hoods had to stand still if a lowly police officer decided to slap him around. There was absolutely no percentage in killing cops because all of a sudden an arrestee would be killed attempting to escape or resisting arrest. In additions the commander had other concerns; his eighty-two year old mother had Alzheimer and the private nursing home was expensive, his two oldest sons were attending Notre Dame University and his youngest was in an expensive private school he needed money and lots of it furthermore, what was wrong with a little clean graft. The white police officers could do anything they wanted except shakedown policy men and the mobs operations that belonged to the commander. The mob controlled most of the bookies and whorehouses in the district and a few taverns where they hired black managers if any citizen complained about being beaten up, robbed by the prostitutes or their pimps or shook down by the white police officers, more than likely they would wind up in jail where they were sure to get a good beaten.

RICHARD HOLLIS fifty years old was a World War Two veteran and a twenty-five years police veteran. Hollis was a tough no-nonsense police officer. He was 6’2’’ tall and weighed a muscular 205 pounds, which he maintained with lifting weights and jogging two miles in the morning and two miles in the evening. He was light brown-skinned, with intelligent dark eyes and a deep voice. He wore his hair short and had movie star good looks, Hollis married his high school sweetheart Joan Honeywood in 1930 and they have one daughter, Zhafara.

BACKSTORY:
In 1941, Hollis father MARCUS had worked as a doorman at the Allegro Hotel for ten years. The Allegro Hotel was on the North side of the city and was the home of many mob members and influential people including politicians. One morning ALDERMAN ROY BONITO, his wife and their two children that lived in the hotel, was standing outside waiting for his car. Bonito and Marcus were talking when a speeding car suddenly jumped the sidewalk and headed towards Roy Bonito wife and children. Marcus saw the car first and pushed the children out of its way, however, the vehicle struck Marcus and broke both of his legs, but he had saved the children’s life. The alderman, rumored to have ties with organized crime was determined to do something for Marcus, but Marcus did not want anything for himself but requested that he help his son, Richard gets on the police department. Two weeks later, Richard received a letter from the city department of personnel informing him that he was to report to the police academy the following Monday. Richard was one of the first black hired by the police department and did not have to take any tests. Later that year, the United States Army drafted Richard and he served as a cook with the United States Army. Richard returned to the police department in 1945, after his discharge and was assigned as a patrolman in the 2nd District. During that time, the majority of the police officers assigned to the district were white and Irish and they totally misused the people whom they had sworn to serve and protect. They saw nothing wrong with making a little extra on the side because their pay was minimal. They would roll drunks, shake down traffic violators, demand money and sexual favors from the prostitutes who worked 43rd and 47th street, shakedown taverns and do anything else they wanted to do. But Richard was different he was a good and brave cop unlike some of his co-workers who hustle everything from shaking down taverns that had barmaids to ignoring garbage violations.