The “Negro Policy Racket” in the 1940s-1960s in Rockford was not unlike the one in Chicago, only on a smaller scale. The policy racket gave some hope to poor blacks at the time that they would “hit it big” if they bet as lit
1940 (2)
The Amsterdam underworld knew Dries Riphagen as the Dutch Al Capone, a violent crime boss ready and willing to end your life to make a buck. But when the second World War ravaged through Europe, Riphagen rebranded himself as one of t