# The Washington Daily News, 10 September 1928, page 4: the Philadelphia grand jury in its fourth week

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/clippings/clip-washington-daily-news-1928-09-10-p4/

United Press and staff reports on the Philadelphia grand jury inquiry into bootlegging and police graft, including a detective captain's suspension and testimony naming Max Hoff as a buyer of machine guns and vests.

Page 4 of the Washington Daily News, 10 September 1928. The lead story, headed "Former High Official of Philadelphia Said to Be a Suspect," reports on District Attorney John Monaghan's grand jury inquiry into bootlegging and graft as it entered its fourth week. Mayor Harry Mackey had suspended Detective Captain Charles Beckman after the grand jury called him unfit for municipal office. The dispatch mentions a "former high official" as a suspect without naming him in the part read.

The page reports that Edward S. Goldberg, "proprietor of the Military Sales Co., has confessed he sold scores of machine guns and bullet proof vests. He named 'Boo Boo' Hoff, reputed millionaire bootlegger, as the purchaser of three machine guns and seven of the vests." Under the subhead "Hoff Quizzed Nine Times" it adds that Hoff, "who until the current inquiry was known to the public only as a fight promoter, has been called before the grand jury nine times, but Monaghan refused to divulge the nature of his testimony." It dates the inquiry's start to three weeks earlier, after members of two rival gangs had been murdered.

The words "reputed" and "confessed" are the newspaper's. The page reports claims and testimony from a state grand jury, not a finding.

## Sources

- Library of Congress, Chronicling America: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016181/1928-09-10/ed-1/?sp=4
- Library of Congress OCR text of this page: https://tile.loc.gov/text-services/word-coordinates-service?segment=/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_fink_ver02/data/sn82016181/00529045992/1928091001/0130.xml&format=alto_xml&full_text=1