Camden Evening Courier – January 20, 1928
Statement Will Set Forth Facts of G.O.P. Club Murder, Attorney Says
With Joseph “Mose” Flannery at liberty under $3000 bail, a statement setting forth his part in the Sixth Ward Republican Club affray which resulted in the slaying of Joseph Cimini last Saturday, was promised today by his attorney, Samuel Orlando.
Orlando said he had not discussed the case fully with Flannery, but expected to do so today. Flannery had no statement to county detectives or to County Prosecutor Ethan P. Wescott, although he is generally regarded as holding the key top certain mysteries circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.
Meanwhile, the text of statements made by other witnesses to the slaying were still being awaited at the Camden courthouse. Copies of these statements were promised to newspapermen early this week and on each day since. Today. However, it was declared by William McDonald, court stenographer, that transcription of the statements had “little more than begun.”
Release of Flannery and of Russell Sage, another witness to the shooting, leaves only Joseph “Polack Joe” Deven in jail. He is awaiting grand jury action on a on a charge of murdering Cimini, otherwise known as Joe Gannon, He has admitted the shooting, according to Prosecutor Wescott, but claims that he fired in self defense after Cimini struck him with the butt of a revolver.
Flannery, in addition to being held as a material witness, was charged with being an accessory to the crime, carrying concealed deadly weapons, attempted robbery, threats to kill and assault and battery. The three latter accusations were made in connection with other cases in which County Detective Howard Smith brought in an Audubon policeman and a Kaighn Avenue cafe proprietor who identified Flannery as the man who had attempted to hold them up.
Sage was similarly accused. Statements from witnesses of the Sixth Ward Republican Club slaying are said to agree that Sage, a taxicab driver, accompanied Flannery and Cimini to the clubhouse on the morning of the fatal shooting. Bail for Sage was set at $2,000 and was furnished by Alfred Schlorer [Note: This was potentially misidentified. The correct person may have actually been John Adam Schlorer. –ed], a Camden meat packer.
Flannery’s $5,000 bail bond was furnished by his brother, James, who lives at 1123 Princess Avenue. Other material witnesses, including Charles “Chick” Hunt, who is declared by detectives to have been the intended victim of Flannery and Cimini when the entered the clubhouse, were at liberty under bail of $1,000 each.
Prosecutor Wescott fixed the bail bonds yesterday afternoon after Orlando had made application. Judge Samuel M. Shay signed the orders for bail and the two prisoners were immediately released.
“The $5000 bond was set because, of the charge of carrying concealed deadly weapons,” Wescott said later.” There exists no right to hold a material witness without bail, nor does sufficient evidence exist against Flannery in connection with this case to warrant refusing him bail. So far as Sage is concerned, he plays a very minor part in the case.
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