"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Friday, August 22, 2008

Diamonds weren't Harry's best friend

10:00 p.m. tonight will mark the 78th anniversary that Greene County, NY inn-keeper Harry Western received a phone call from Legs Diamond. The celestial gods have worked it out that the calendar for 1930 is the same as that of this year. So it was also a Friday. I love when things work out like that. Anyhoo, Legs was in the process of trying to monopolize the Catskills beer and alky racket and Western just wasn't playing ball. Western was at his inn, called the Chateau, near Lake Katrine when the call came saying get on over to Acra (Legs's house) pronto. Harry got in his car and headed over. Nobody ever saw Harry again. They saw his car with some blood in it, but nobody ever saw Harry again. One of Diamond's associates went to jail because he was caught with the car, but nobody ever saw Harry again. Authorities and the public both knew that Harry was killed by Diamond, but nobody ever saw Harry again. Nobody ever paid for what was done to Harry because no body no case. But some of the old timers say, especially after a few Ballantines, that some nights, especially August 22nd's that land on Friday, some people have seen a spectral figure wandering the cat roads of Greene County looking for his car. But the way I figures it, it can't be Harry cause nobody ever saw Harry again.

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