Ex-Convict Jailed Here; Numbers Writer Fined

Camden Courier-Post - February 19, 1936

Police Judge Lewis Liberman yesterday sent one man to jail for violating the city criminal registration ordinance and fined another for being a numbers writer.

Arrested in a raid on a South Camden house Saturday, Willy Smith, 25, colored, of 220 Washington Street, was found to have served a term in state’s prison. Although he declared he had failed to register this fact with the city police because he didn’t know about the law requiring registration, he was sentenced to 60 days in the county jail.

Dominic Vespe, 35, of 419 Grant Street, was ordered to pay $200 fine when he pleaded guilty to being a numbers writer. Vespe testified he had been in the numbers business but two weeks and that he turned daily receipts over to a man named “Frank” at Fourth and Cherry Streets.