Charges that a prominent member of Poultry Slaughterers’ Union Local 440 threatened him with a revolver were made by Joseph Schlapin, member of the Vaad Shochtim Oifes, a rival union, yesterday at the second session of an investigation being conducted by Arthur Simon, special Health Department investigator, into alleged racketeering and abuses in the slaughtering of kosher poultry.
Schlapin testified under oath that coming home from work one day he was stopped by two men, one of whom he named as a leader of Local 440. “This man,” Schlapin said, “showed me a revolver and said, “showed me a revolver and said I’ll kill you if you continue working at slaughtering poultry’.”
Nathan Perlman, counsel for Local 440, revealed that Schlapin had made the same charge a year ago and that the union member had been acquitted in Federal court. Thereupon Isidore Levine, secretary of the Vaad Shochtim Oifes, said he was prepared to show that witnesses who established the alibi for the alleged intimidator perjured themselves. Levine declared that he would produce members of Local 440 to prove that the person was in the city if Simon would afford them protection.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
