MORE: We continue the story of Al Ritchie and his murder in 1931 in Bradford.

“Besides being intimate with bootleggers and gangs, he was not reticent in telling of them. He published works in detective magazines. He had a book almost ready for the publisher when the lone gunman ‘got’ him yesterday afternoon.

“The net of his own weaving began closing. He could not retire from the racket. He received threatening letters. He was in fear for his life continually. He never went unarmed — and yesterday his .45 calibre automatic was missing. Police could not find it. The Winchester rifle he carried was in his car. With it known generally that he never was unarmed, the missing gun throws a difficult angle into his murder. Some hold the gun was stolen while he was in the crowd that welcomed Commander Evangeline Booth here yesterday. He was seen about the head of Main Street.

That Al Ritchie was ‘in the know’ concerning an impending happening here is evidenced by his telephone calls to the hospital about noon inquiring if anybody had been taken there shot. Officers believe that Ritchie knew that someone was marked for death today. The part he did not know, officers say, was that he was the man marked.

“A half hour before he was killed, he crowded a coupe in which two men were riding into the curb near the McCourt Label company plant. He and the men engaged in a heated argument. Al drove away.

“From the argument with the pair in the coupe — which bore a New York license — he drove apparently toward River street. On the way he picked up Tony Maccio — Tony Mike — who was wounded when the gunman ‘got’ his quarry.

Ritchie’s body was removed to Still’s undertaking rooms where Dr. S.A. McCutcheon, deputy coroner, performed an autopsy. Only one bullet was found in his body, leading officers to believe that the bullets which struck Maccio first passed through Ritchie. One shot shattered the right door glass of his car.”

The saga will continue.