THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION JUNE 16, 1924 BILL BRENNAN IS SLAIN

BILL BRENNAN IS SLAIN BY GOTHAM GANGSTERS WHO HAD BEEN BOUNCED FROM FIGHTERS CABARET

PUGILIST'S SISTER GRAPPLES KILLER, CAUSING ARREST One State Trooper Shot and Police Lieutenant Beaten in Attempt To Seize Gunmen. SLAYER IS CAUGHT AFTER AUTO CHASE Dead Man Won Fame in Sport World by Staying 12 Rounds With Jack Dempsey _ New York, June 15. - Bill Bren- nan, the heavyweight prize-fighter, was shot and killed in the Tia Juana Cabaret here, which he owned, early Sunday. _ Brennan, whose principal claim to fame has been that he once stayed 12 rounds in the ring with Heavy- weight Champion Jack Dempsey, was talking to a group of friends in the cabaret when two men had been requested to leave the premises ear- lier in the evening insisted that he hear their grievances. _ The big fighter entered the dark hallway in which the men were await- ing him, and in a few seconds later fell to the ground with a bullet in his chest and another in his abdomen. Bren- nan died on the way to the hos- pital. Gunmen Had been "Bounced." _ Two men, who described themselves James Hughes and Frank Rassi, were captured after a chase by the police and are being held. _ James Cullen, one of the group with whom Brennan was talking be- fore he was summoned to his death, was in serious condition in a hos- pital Sunday from the effects of a bullet which the killers fired into his neck as he pursued them after they had killed his friend. Cullen is a New York state trooper. _ The arrested men refused to talk, but police are unwilling to believe that mere pique, owning to the intima- tion given them that their presence in the Tia Juana was undesirable, was the motive for the shooting. De- tectives, who unavailingly attempted to question Hughes and Rassi, de- clare that the murder had been care- fully planned. Brennan Called Out _ Brennan, Cullen and a group that included the fighter's sister, Shirley Sherman, who was an entertainer in the place, were chatting following the end of the Saturday business night when an employee approached Bren- nan and told him that the two men to whom objection had been taken earlier in the evening were outside in the corridor. _ "They want to see you," Brennan was told. _ Smiling an assurance at his sister that he would take care of the men, Brennan stepped into a darkened cor- ridor to meet them. _ Angry words, rising almost to a confusion of shouts, were heard by the group in the cabaret proper, fol- lowed by two reports of a revolver. Sister Grapples Slayer _ Shirley Sherman leaped to the door- way, closely followed by Cullen. Brennan's body barred their path, stretched on the floor. _ Down the hallway leading to the entrance of the building sped the mur- derers and Brennan's sister, crazed by the sight of her brother's body prone on the floor, ran after them. She outran Cullen, and made a fly- ing leap at the nearest of the fleeing gunmen. He half turned, saw him- self attacked by a girl and shook her loose, firing back down the hall as he did so. _ The shot struck Cullen in the neck. Reaching the ground floor, Hughes and Rassi found their way barred by a locked door. They crashed a hole through the window glass comprising the upper part of the door and leaped into the street, straight into the arms of Police Lieutenant John Haggerty, who was passing on his way home. _ Haggerty attempted to arrest the two men, but was beaten into uncon- sciousness and the murderers eluded him. _ Reaching the street, Hughes and his companion commandeered a passing car and ordered the driver to take them away in a hurry Arrest Two Gunmen _ As the car whizzed past a corner two blocks away, two patrolmen saw the drawn guns of Brennan's killers and pursued them in a taxi. They overtook the fleeing machine and ar- rested the two men, who gave their names as James Hughes and Frank Rassi, both of New York. _ A 25-caliber revolver was found on the running board of the car in which the men attempted to escape. It was with a gun of this bore, according to police, that Brennan was killed. Brennan was shot in the chest and abdomen. He died before reaching the hospital. _ Miss Sherman rushed after he: brother in time, she says, to seen an unkempt, disheveled man in a gray suit leaping for an exit. _ This man, who was later identified by Brennan's sister as Hughes, is al- leged to have fired the shots which killed the pugilist. Girl's Act Caused Arrest _ It was the girl's plucky effort to capture Hughes that ultimately re- sulted in his arrest. While he was struggling with her, three of the gang escaped through an open hallway into the street. _ Hughes and Rassi, the latter ap- parently having remained behind to assist his pal, were so frustrated by the unexpected attack from the young women that they did not follow their comrades out of the building. _ Instead, the two made a break for the front entrance and were halted when they reached the street door, which had been locked when the caba- ret was closed to patrons at 1 o'clock. Bill Brennan was born in Ireland on June 234, 1893. He was 31 years old. _ Brennan began his ring career in 1914 by effecting quick-time knock- outs against numerous second-raters. He continued to bowl over such oppo- nents for a couple years and grad- ually worked himself into faster com- pany and two fights with Jack Demp- sey. Brennan's Record _ Brennan stayed 12 rounds with Dempsey in 1920 before he was put to sleep. _ Two years before, he had been knocked out by Dempsey in six rounds. _ The dead fighter's knockout record is lengthy but not impressive. He had decisions over Bob Martin, Bat- tling Levinsky; had drawn two bat- tles and lost a third with the latter and was charged with decision de- feats at the hands of Billy Miske and Harry Greb. _ Brennan fought four times last year. With Hugh Walker he went 10 rounds to no decision, lost to Floyd Johnson in 15 rounds, and was knocked out by Luis Angelo Firpo and Billy Miske in 12 and four _ He is survived by a wife and one child.

BILL BRENNAN IS SLAIN
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