"It Don't Mean Nothing,Honey"

"It Don't Mean Nothing,Honey"

A dyer, a law clerk, an architect, a theatrical manager and eight other average citizens, sitting as a Federal jury in Manhattan last week, found Jack ("Legs") Diamond, New York's pasty-face, shot-riddled gangster guilty of conspiracy to violate the Prohibition law, and of operating a still. For four days they had listened to witnesses detail Diamond's beer-running activities in the Catskills. The verdict was Diamond's first major conviction in a career of 25 arrests for everything from petty larcency to murder.

His bravado gone, Gangster Diamond faced a maximum sentence of four years, a fine of $11,000. Presiding at his trial was U. S. Judge Richard Joseph Hopkins of Kansas, the militant Dry whose appointment in 1929 caused a political rumpus between Attorney General Mitchell and Senators Capper and Allen of that State (TIME, Dec. 30, 1929). After the verdict an investigator for the Diamond defense was seized in court, held by Judge Hopkins on charges of attempting to tamper prosecution witnesses.

As the jury brought in its verdict a Fire Department band across the street played "Wabash Moon'' and big, blonde Mrs. Diamond fell to loud weeping. Comforted her gangster-husband: "It don't mean nothing, honey. We're gonna appeal it, ain't we?"

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