Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland by Donnelly Robert C

Author:Donnelly, Robert C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295802480
Publisher: University of Washington Press

MCLAUGHLIN: Show that you've been gathering, trying to get all this evidence and the like in regards to this stuff. So it's just protection for you.

LANGLEY: I can threaten Peterson…. I won't hesitate if that spy tells me one of ‘em [is] going. I'm going to call up Peterson and tell him: “What do you want, a grand jury investigation here over prostitution like [Attorney General] Thornton had over the liquor commission?” … Well do you think the reason they want the sporting houses to go and nothing else is because they got leases on the buildings?

MCLAUGHLIN: That's right.”32

The accusations against Chief Purcell were not unfounded. According to an Oregon State Police informant, Purcell was in the pocket of James Elkins, who paid Mayor Peterson $100,000 to appoint his man chief of the police bureau. As a police officer, James Purcell had a reputation for being friendly to the city's after-hours clubs and had at one time been a co-owner of the Penguin Club, a gambling establishment off Sandy Boulevard. After his appointment as chief of police, Purcell allegedly lowered the Penguin Club's monthly payoff to the police bureau.33 When the Seattle group began to move into Portland's rackets, however, Chief Purcell would not cooperate because of his close association with Elkins.

Perhaps Chief Purcell wanted a bigger payoff for himself than the group was willing to pay. “Now supposin’, uh, now supposin’ you get rid of Purcell,” Langley proposed to McLaughlin in August 1955, “and get, and get what's-his-name in there, this Dave … it's gonna be better off if he's [Purcell] not gonna go on this 100 percent…. That Jim Purcell's so goddamned hungry for money that he wouldn't even go to his dad's funeral if it meant making a few bucks. I'm telling you … he's a money crazy guy.”34 Setting up the rackets would have been easier for the Seattle group with James Purcell out of the way, James Elkins later admitted.35

Thus, the conspirators set out to get rid of Police Chief James Purcell. Thomas Maloney approached John Bardell Purcell, a former Portland vice detective, inspector for the Portland Boxing Commission, and brother of Chief James Purcell.36 Maloney, John Bardell Purcell later claimed, “suggested I speak to my brother, Jim Purcell Jr., the chief of police, about allowing some illegal activities to operate within the city.”37 There is no evidence that John Bardell Purcell spoke to his brother, but District Attorney Langley suggested that Portland Teamsters official Clyde Crosby could convince the mayor to replace the chief of police: “Suppose that they [the Teamsters and Crosby] convinced Pete [Peterson] … that the labor people can't go for Pete as long as Jim Purcell is in there.”38

In the fall of 1955, Crosby paid Mayor Peterson a visit. Peterson later admitted to the Oregon State Police that he “lunched with Crosby quite often.”39 At this particular meeting, Crosby informed the mayor that “[Seattle Teamsters’ officials Frank] Brewster, [John] Sweeney, and I talked this over and I have been instructed

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