Cops & Robbers: Officer Clare Davis / Gangster Morris Roisner
Two Prohibition-era men. One man was the law. The other man fought it.
Clare Reed Davis (1898–1990)
1928 Parker watch
Clare was a career Highland Park, MI police officer who helped to capture three diamond thieves on April 3,1928. For his efforts, he was awarded with a $100 check and a 14k white gold Parker wristwatch, engraved with the names of the 3 robbers, “Captured - April 3 1928 - Al Bloom - Herman Zeidman - Louis Goldman - by Clare R Davis”
Morris Roisner (1889-1952)
1941 Elgin Money Clip
Morris Roisner (1889-1952) was a notorious Twin Cities Prohibition Era bootlegger, kidnapper, and gangster who served three years at Leavenworth Prison for income tax evasion.
St. Paul and Minneapolis were almost in the same league as Chicago in terms of corruption and crime.
Officer Davis was on a routine patrol on the afternoon of April 3, 1928, when he witnessed three armed robbers holding up a diamond wholesaler who had just left an upscale Highland Park jewelry store.
5The thieves – Al Bloom, Herman Zeidman, and Louis Goldman – forced New York diamond merchant Albert Ginzberg into their car and started to drive away with the victim and $100,00 worth of diamonds.
Davis witnessed the holdup and flagged down two fellow officers in a patrol car. They captured the bandits, rescued Ginzberg unharmed, secured the diamonds, and prevented an angry crowd from beating the thugs.
John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker, Baby Face Nelson were all part of the Twin Cities crime-and-corruption scene. “St. Paul in the late 1920s and early 1930s was known as a ‘crooks’ haven’ — a place for gangsters, bank robbers, and bootleggers from all over the Midwest to run their operations or to hide from the FBI.”
Morris Roisner was a business partner of Louis Gleckman, who (in cooperation with the St. Paul police), ran a huge bootlegging and slot machine operation, with yearly profits of over $1 million.
After his release from Leavenworth, Roisner joined a company that sold Wurlitzer juke boxes (and never reported the income...). In 1941, Wurlitzer presented Roisner with a custom 10k gold-filled Elgin money clip, embossed with the Wurlitzer logo; Morris Roisner’s was beautifully engraved for his own personal use.