The Ducklegger War: How an Undercover Agent Busted a Massive Ring of Market Hunters and Waterfowl Bootleggers

This story was initially revealed within the December 1958 concern of Outside Life. 

At secret rendezvous factors in three Midwestern states, they began gathering earlier than daybreak. It was September 5, 1958 simply 4 days after Labor Day. 

In Illinois they gathered from Peoria to Beardstown alongside the Illinois River, and close to the Mississippi within the neighborhood of Quincy; in Wisconsin they gathered between Prairie du Chien and La Crosse; in Michi­gan they gathered within the St. Clair Flats space within reach of De­troit’s suburbs. There have been greater than 80 of them. Half have been sport brokers of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or U.S. marshals; the opposite half have been state sport wardens. 

It was a giant aggregation of enforcement officers, one of many huge­gest ever assigned to a game-law case in the US. It wanted to be. The 80-odd sport protectors confronted a man-sized job that morning. They carried federal warrants for the arrest of 95 males charged with market looking or trafficking illegally in wild geese. 

Their plan known as for the largest round-up of alleged violators within the historical past of the lengthy warfare Uncle Sam has waged, ever since market looking was outlawed in 1918, towards unscrupulous gun­ners who kill geese and geese on the market and wildlife bootleggers who assist market them. The Fish and Wildlife Service hasn’t gained all of the battles on this warfare, by any means, however this was one they meant to win. They hoped to smash, at one stroke, the entire market-gunning operation within the main waterfowl facilities of the Midwest. 

Below federal legislation, capturing geese and geese for market is a misdemeanor, not a felony, and most U.S. judges desire to have such warrants served by daylight somewhat than at evening. So zero hour was set for six a.m. 

The entire job, as hush-hush as a narcotics raid, had been labored out intimately over a interval of weeks by the 2 males in cost: ­Charles H. (Chuck) Lawrence, assistant chief of the department of administration and enforcement of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, and Floyd H. (Flick) Davis, regional supervisor of enforcement for the North-Central area at Minneapolis. Davis had contacted the chief law-enforcement officer within the conserva­tion division of every of the three states per week earlier than, the primary inkling anybody had of what was within the wind, other than those that have been directing the operation, and had been given full c­ooperation. 

On the afternoon earlier than the arrests, state and federal males made a dry run collectively, finding the houses of the boys they needed, sizing issues up, ensuring there’d be no hitch. Ar­resting 95 males in a morning is not any small endeavor, particularly when a few of them have reputations for be­ing pretty exhausting lads. The officers went concerning the job quietly, however prepared for something, working in pairs to forestall resistance or bother. 

The raid moved like clockwork. At exactly 6 a.m. they began knocking on doorways. The brokers discovered most of their males in mattress. Sleep-fogged poachers, who had bragged brazenly of their outlaw duck killing and pre­dicted that no sport warden would ever meet up with them, tumbled out, caught flat-footed. Not one was armed; none provided resistance. Right here and there a person argued, however not for lengthy. One, given permission to make a name, phoned the county sheriff—whom he claimed as a private pal—and requested for recommendation. He obtained it, hung up, and stated, “O.Ok., I’m able to go.” 

A couple of of the boys had left for work and needed to be gone after. Two occurred to be industrial fishermen and have been already on the Mississippi lifting nets. That triggered solely a brief delay. In lower than three hours, 80 of the defendants have been in custody. Rounding up the others was solely a matter of time. Two or three had moved; one was away on his honeymoon. “He’ll discover unhealthy information when he will get residence,” a federal agent commented. 

Solely one of many 95 warrants couldn’t be served. It was for a hunter who was accused of promoting 125 geese to the federal government’s spy greater than a yr earlier than. Now he was useless. That left 94 defendants to face federal courtroom. A bootleg ring that Fish and Wild­life officers suppose could have been slaughtering and promote­ing upward of 250,000 geese a yr in half a dozen Midwest states had suffered a crushing blow. 

Few game-law violations are as exhausting to stamp out. With only a few exceptions, the boys who shoot for mar­ket and deal in bootleg sport usually are not run-of-the-mill violators. They’re sport racketeers, within the enterprise for cash. They belong to a rigorously organized and nicely ­built-in ring that operates very similar to any underworld enterprise. The ring consists of males who do the capturing, others who purchase and wholesale the birds, nonetheless others who ship them to market. Typically it consists of operators of shady joints who serve duck dinners at a fats revenue. The ring additionally has its personal efficient spy and lookout system. 

The boys who hunt are marshmen who know the nation. Those that push and ship the birds are prone to have useful political connections. And in any respect factors of the operation, kin or pals stand able to cross alongside tips about the whereabouts of sport officers, both for pay or without cost. 

In some ways the operation resembles bootlegging in prohibition days. The racket is saved going by taverns, evening golf equipment, bars, eating places, and playing joints­typically operated by mobsters-where wild-duck dinners could be had at $6 to $7 per duck. Or — surprisingly typically — the final word shopper is a person of fine standing in his group, who “simply needs to placed on just a few duck dinners for some pals.” Federal brokers advised me, for instance, of a distinguished legal professional in that class, who recurrently buys as much as 400 birds a yr. 

Native officers in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan advised me they knew that geese have been being shot for mar­ket within the areas the place the 94 arrests have been made. In lots of instances they even knew who was doing the capturing. However their finest efforts over a interval of years had outcome­ed in solely an occasional pinch. The ring was too nicely organized for them to interrupt up. 

Within the face of such odds, how does Uncle Sam get the proof on a far-flung nest of business gunners and duckleggers? 

As in two earlier operations — in California in 1954 and Texas in 1956 — this was a one-man job, a troublesome, harmful project carried out over a interval of two years by Tony Stefano, ace prison investigator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His undercover job in California had resulted within the arrest and conviction of 28 males. And within the coastal marshes of east Texas, Tony had put the finger on 56 operators who’d been killing and advertising an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 geese and geese a yr. That story was advised intimately in “Texas Man Entice” in OUTDOOR LIFE, December, 1956, shortly after Tony moved to Illinois to deal with the lead­ing market-hunting nests of the Midwest. 

Market hunters and duckleggers maintain particular watch of federal sport brokers. The federal man isn’t prone to be identified within the space the place he’s working and violators dread a federal rap. The ring members go to think about­ready pains to review every federal agent they uncover. They make notes of his look, the form of footwear and garments he wears, and the automotive he drives. Then they cross the phrase round. In addition they make it their enterprise to know the place he’s always, they usually have their very own methods of discovering out. 

When Stefano’s operation was going full blast in Illi­nois, as an example, a squad of federal brokers was despatched into the realm to see whether or not their presence would dry up the provision of unlawful geese. They arrived about meal time, unaware that Stefano was within the space. Earlier than midnight, whereas he was calling on the residence of a number one market hunter, Stefano was advised, “You higher lay low for per week or so. Couple carloads of feds pulled into city tonight.” He purchased few geese till the brokers moved out. Then enterprise resumed. 

How harmful was Tony’s Midwest project? This ring had the standard assortment of powerful characters. There was an ex-pug, a labor goon or two, former cops now engaged in shady enterprise, and one man who’d pulled a gun on a federal officer just a few years earlier than. There have been additionally fairly just a few third-generation males, fol­lowing their fathers and grandfathers in a hard-bitten, outlaw commerce. 

If they found they have been coping with an underneath­cowl agent, there wasn’t a lot probability they’d take it mendacity down. A couple of sport warden has been mur­dered underneath such circumstances. The least Stefano may count on, if issues went mistaken, was a tough work­ing over; the worst, an “accident” in a duck blind. There was at all times the chance, too, of retaliation gangland type, for a few of the males had the appropriate con­nections to rearrange it. 

However Tony was used to dangers of that sort. The mob he’d smashed in Texas included drunks, gamblers, ex­pimps, and honky-tonk operators. The Illinois, Michi­gan, and Wisconsin crowd wasn’t as powerful, he advised me when the job was achieved. There was little threatening, much less cloak-and-dagger stuff, by no means any gunplay. 

He was threatened solely as soon as. In a Wisconsin tavern a person he’d purchased geese from advised him, within the presence of two market hunters and two strangers, “In case you turned out to be a fed and testified towards me in courtroom, I’d kill you on the witness stand.” 

“He’ll have the possibility,” Stefano says. 

Issues obtained just a little bushy on one or two different events. A ringleader took Tony right into a blind in Illinois for a morn­ing’s shoot; 4 different members have been there forward of them. As they neared the blind the host yelled, “Be careful, boys, I’m bringing in a federal agent.” 

That was the primary time anyone had hinted at suspicion, and Stefano feigned rage. “What the hell you imply by a crack like that?” he blazed. All the identical, he saved his eyes open. There was a pile of geese within the blind, shot earlier than he arrived. The host killed 4 in about 10 minutes. Tony shot as soon as, jammed his gun. The market hunter picked 4 birds off the pile and hand­ed them to him. “Right here’s your restrict,” he barked. “Let’s get out.” 

They did. However when the person obtained to know Tony higher, he bragged that he’d gone again later and helped kill 115 geese. 

One huge distinction on this Midwest undercover operation was that Tony couldn’t use his personal title, as he had within the California and Texas jobs. For the reason that Texas case had acquired nation­huge publicity, there was little probability that any market hunter would promote a duck to a man named Stefano. So he’d purchased a home in East Peoria underneath the title of “Marc DeMarco” and moved in together with his household. His automotive registration, driver’s license, and the looking licenses he purchased that fall all bore that title; even his spouse and 16- year-old son went underneath the DeMarco title. 

Some amusing issues occurred consequently. The spy was at a dinner in an Illinois hotspot one evening with a market hunter he’d identified solely a short while. With out warning the person shoved throughout the desk a replica of OUTDOOR LIFE carrying the story of how an agent named Tony Stefano had mashed the Texas ring. Marc professional­essed full lack of curiosity, and went on together with his night paper. 

“I may get you 500 geese a yr,” the hunter boasted, “but when the govern­ment goes that far to catch us, I’ll need to know you a hell of lots higher earlier than I promote you a fowl.” 

He relented later, nevertheless. And when the warfare­rants have been served, he was on the record. 

And in Detroit, one of many arrested males, after pleading responsible, confided to U.S. Lawyer John Chase that he too had learn the story and sometimes puzzled what he’d do if he ever ran throughout Stefano. “I by no means dreamed I used to be speak­ing to him on a regular basis,” he muttered.

A secure title, although, isn’t sufficient. A undercover agent wants a “entrance,” a enterprise that he can fake to be carrying on whereas he goes at the actual job. In Texas, Stefano had posed as a shady jewellery salesman, not above dealing in sizzling gems, pushing dope, or procuring name ladies. However he determined a decent disguise was wanted this time. 

So, as DeMarco, he went to Minne­apolis and contacted a producer he knew, Delbert Belden, president of the Louver Manufacturing and Provide Firm. He advised Belden his story. “I need to be a producer’s represen­tative for you,” he stated. 

Belden, himself a duck hunter hating market capturing, thought it over. “Know something concerning the louver busi­ness?” he requested. “No, however I be taught quick.” 

As a routine safeguard, the corporate requested the FBI to verify DeMarco. When the report got here in, he obtained what he requested for. He spent just a few days on the manufacturing unit and went again to Peoria as a full fledged street consultant. Now  he had a job, a reputation, a stable reputa­tion to work on. Flick Davis calls Belden’s contribution probably the most public-spirited issues he’s ever identified a person in such a place to do. 

DeMarco now made the rounds of Illinois cities and known as on sellers dealing with the corporate’s merchandise. He carried catalogs and the standard paraphernalia. When market hunters phoned the deal­ers later to verify on DeMarco, as hap­pened many occasions, the solutions have been at all times proper. 

Right here’s the story of what adopted, as Stefano advised it to me within the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional workplace in Minneapolis, three days after the ar­rests have been made. It’s the identical story he’ll inform on the witness stand in federal courtroom when he testifies towards the 94 defendants. 

His first purchase of unlawful geese was solely a penny-ante deal; it takes time to win the boldness of the market. DeMarco had a tip {that a} used-car seller in an Illinois city was additionally a industrial hunter and seller in contraband geese, so he made a busi­ness name and led the speak round to looking. 

“I’m a poor shot,” he confided, “however I would like some geese to entertain busi­ness pals.” 

The suspect put his query bluntly and with out hesitation. “You need to purchase some?” 

“Certain.” 

The automotive seller opened the door and yelled out to just a little knot of males on the lot, “Any of you guys obtained geese on the market?” 

One had. DeMarco clinched the deal, paying $6 for seven geese of various sorts. The ice was damaged. That was in October, 1956. 

By early November he was making small buys recurrently in that space and different main Illinois duck facilities. Later in November, because the market gun­ners obtained to know him higher, issues picked up. A tavern operator offered him 37 birds in a single batch. A purchase of 42 from a father-and-son workforce adopted, and a day or so later he purchased 75 from one other tavern man. 

DeMarco posed at first as only a salesman with a variety of enterprise favors to do. “I may give my clients a bottle of whiskey or take ’em out to dinner,” he’d clarify, “however they will purchase them issues for themselves. If I give ’em half a dozen geese, I’m actually the fair-haired boy.” 

Now, making greater and greater buys, he needed to invent a recent excuse. 

“I’ve obtained an uncle that runs a joint up in Chicago,” he advised the hunters. “He requested me to herald all of the geese I can get.” 

By the start of 1957, issues have been rolling in excessive gear. Though the Illinois duck season had closed De­cember 21, that was no handicap. Win­ter, with the birds concentrated and legit hunters out from underneath foot, was the duckleggers’ finest season. 

DeMarco made his first purchase of 100 in a single lot in January, from an As­toria man. The identical man equipped one other batch of 100 a few weeks later, and adopted with a sale of 120, delivering them to Marc’s home. The spy knew now he had handed the check. He was posing brazenly as a wholesale seller, a member of the ring, and even the ultracagey big-time operators had accepted him. “You don’t have to be afraid of DeMarco,” one stated in introducing him to a different. 

“I’ve had the hoods in Peoria verify him and he’s O.Ok.” 

When the geese pulled out of Illinois on the northward flight in April, 1957, the unlawful gross sales had mounted to 2,000. 

In shopping for the geese, Marc had been painstakingly cautious to keep away from two issues: asking any hunter to kill geese for him, or ordering a particular quantity at a given time. He simply purchased what­ever was accessible, at any time when they have been provided. In courtroom, the plea of en­trapment by a federal agent is the one nearly unfailingly utilized by duck boot­leggers. 

“I wouldn’t ever have offered a duck, your honor,” they’ll whine, “however I believed this man was a pal. He begged me to get him 20 mallards, so I went out and shot ’em as a favor to him. I by no means did something like this earlier than.” 

That was the alibi provided by each member of the Texas ring who selected to face trial, but it surely did no good. DeMarco had gained an excessive amount of ex­perience in undercover work to put himself open to such a cost. Every time attainable, he made three of 4 separate buys from every Midwest sus­pect-to forestall any plea of entrap­ment-and then prevented that man and moved to a different. He hunted re­peatedly in season with the market gunners, watched them kill geese wholesale, however contrived by no means to shoot greater than the restrict himself, though typically urged to take action as a check. “I’m a awful shot,” he’d alibi with a chuckle. 

He additionally managed to jam his gun at handy occasions, and refused re­peated invites to participate in il­authorized hunts. “Can’t afford it,” was his excuse. “My boss would fireplace me in a minute if I obtained caught.” In a single in­stance he declined to shoot after hours with a hunter who’d simply offered him 61 geese, whereupon the poacher refused to promote him one other fowl. However by that point it was too late. 

When the autumn flight poured south in 1957, the masquerading louver salesman was again within the Illinois duck cities, extra keen than ever to get birds in huge tons. Buys of 30 to 100 grew to become widespread now, and DeMarco started to get a clearer image of what number of geese have been being siphoned il­legally to markets in St. Louis, Peoria, Springfield, and Chicago. Later he was to seek out {that a} huge market flourished in Detroit as nicely. 

He purchased 300 in a single lot in Quincy, In poor health. He discovered a hunter who had 10 gunny sacks of down stashed in his basement prepared on the market, collected in a season and a half of unlawful opera­tion. One Illinois seller provided to ensure him 10,000 geese a season. DeMarco backed away, saying he couldn’t use that many. And after the case broke, he advised me he was con­vinced there have been at the very least half a dozen males within the ring who may have stuffed orders of that dimension. 

How have been the birds taken in such numbers? Some have been netted or trapped, however most of them have been shot. Bait was used, each to lure geese into traps and to pay attention them on ponds and potholes. In some instances, after ice got here, the market hunters resorted to bait and decoys. 

There was much less mass killing than was uncovered in California and Texas, the place hunters typically crept up at evening on flocks of hundreds, raking them with weapons holding as much as 14 shells in extension magazines. Nothing like that was discovered within the Midwest. However a crew of three or 4 crack pictures, capturing unplugged weapons from a blind on a baited pond may knock off as many as 200 geese at a time. They raked the sitting birds with shot, then poured in additional lead because the geese rose in a cloud. Many of the capturing was achieved at day­break. The rule was, “Blast ’em, and make a quick get-away.” 

There was one curious sidelight on the trapping of geese. Hotspots serv­ing unlawful duck dinners need to be certain they’re getting wild birds, not mallards raised on a sport farm. So lots of the trappers would put 4 or 5 trapped birds right into a gunny sack, then again off and fill them filled with lead.

By 1957 the path lead throughout the Illinois line into Wisconsin. DeMarco began making calls round Prairie du Chien. “You may get all of the geese you need for 2 bucks apiece,” he was advised. Earlier than lengthy he’d purchased 38 geese from one hunter, then 42 from the person’s brother. By the spring of this yr, he’d collected proof implicating 10 Wisconsin males. 

Once more within the fall of ’57, performing on suggestions from different federal brokers about market-hunting actions within the St. Clair Flats space, DeMarco moved into Michigan. It didn’t take lengthy to get a toe within the doorway. Earlier than the top of October he’d purchased 23 geese from a gas-station operator within the space, and 30 from a hunter on Harsens Is­land. A month or so later he adopted up with buys of 46 from a retired De­troit cop, 60 from one other member of the ring, and 61 from a 3rd. 

Enterprise boomed. A complete of 1,341 geese handed into the agent’s fingers. And when round-up day arrived, warrants have been served on 21 defendants across the Flats. Jasper Poole, working a grocery retailer at Algonac, Mich., advised DeMarco he had a prepared supply amongst some Natives on Walpole Island, on the Ca­nadian facet of Lake St. Clair. They killed the geese and introduced them over for 50 cents to $1 apiece. Poole obtained $1.25 to $1.50. Charged with aiding and abetting the sale of waterfowl, Poole pleaded responsible in Detroit the day he was arrested. 

Michigan conserva­tion officers say lots of the birds offered round St. Clair Flats have been killed by Natives on Walpole Island. 

The person buys in Michigan and Wisconsin weren’t so huge as these in Illinois, however that didn’t point out a small operation. It takes some time to seek out out who the needed males are, get their confidence, and begin dealing in a giant method. Says DeMarco: “If I’d operated another yr, I’d have been swamped with geese in all three states.” 

It was in November of 1956 that he made a small purchase of greater than ordi­nary curiosity in Quincy, In poor health. It was a deal involving solely seven geese, however they got here from a metropolis fireman. Subsequent there was a purchase of 10, then 42. Lastly the overall reached 486 birds, equipped by 4 members of the Quincy fireplace division. When the time got here to serve warrants, federal officers have been reluctant to deplete the power by taking the 4 males off obligation all at one time, so that they known as on the chief, advised their story, and provided to let the 4 ap­pear voluntarily, as they might be spared. There was no delay about their exhibiting up.

By spring of this yr, DeMarco had purchased a complete of 5,141 geese in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. He figures that was lower than 5 % of the geese that went to market from the areas he’d labored.

He had additionally purchased 5 geese, 10 pheasants, one deer, and 98 kilos of black bass and crappies, taking the pheasants, deer, and fish to keep away from sus­picion after they have been urged on him. He’s satisfied the visitors in nonmigra­tory sport in lots of Midwest areas would amaze sportsmen. He was of­fered deer, quail, pheasants, and rabbits repeatedly, however refused to purchase except the market gunners confirmed re­sentment and charged him with being solely in migratory birds. That was a hazard sign he dared not ignore. 

How had he disposed of his enormous stockpile of unlawful birds? By turning them over at evening, as quick as he purchased them, to trusted common brokers of the Fish and Wildlife Service, in secret conferences on lonely nation roads and in again alleys and cemeteries. The birds have been tagged for identification, put in chilly storage, and held for evi­dence. There are frozen geese to again each one of many 94 warrants. 

The job was now achieved, the person lure prepared for springing. The Fish and Wildlife Service determined to attend till early fall, simply earlier than duck season, within the perception that such timing would possibly dis­braveness market looking in different elements of the nation. 

In August of this yr, the home in East Peoria was offered, and the DeMarco household vanished. A month later the officers struck, the story broke, and the duck bootleggers discovered one thing new a few “louver salesman.” 

“I by no means offered a duck to anyone named Stefano,” considered one of them wailed indignantly to the officers who arrested him. Then he thought it over a minute. “However I assume I did promote just a few to Marc DeMarco,” he confessed, crestfallen. 

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What penalties do these males face if con­victed? That will likely be as much as the judges, after all, but it surely’s unlikely they’ll get off calmly. As soon as a U.S. decide is con­vinced from the proof that commer­cial looking is concerned and that he’s coping with wildlife racketeers, he isn’t inclined to be lenient. The king­pins within the Texas ring have been fined as much as $500, served jail phrases so long as six months, and (possibly the harshest pun­ishment of all for such males) misplaced the appropriate to hunt waterfowl for 3 years. Sentenced in 1956, they’re nonetheless ineligible to enter a duck blind. 

The proof I’ve cited right here makes federal sport officers suppose the hunters have been advertising at the very least 250,000 birds a yr. From the point of view of sports activities­males, you may’t put a price ticket on a wild duck, however surveys point out that geese killed legally price round $8.16 apiece, taking every part under consideration. Duck hunters agree they’re value what they price. Meaning the duckleggers have been slaughtering round $2,000,000 value of waterfowl a yr. To interrupt up a racket of that scope at a price of lower than $50,000 is sweet enterprise. 

The place can we go from right here? Market looking has been hit exhausting in three sec­tions of the nation — California, Texas, and now the Midwest. However federal au­thorities are satisfied it’s nonetheless flour­ishing in different main duck facilities.

How can or not it’s knocked out? How can the geese be saved for trustworthy hunters who purchase licenses and stamps and fol­low the foundations? 

To start with, as Chuck Lawrence factors out, it might be a giant assist if in any other case law-abiding individuals who purchase geese for themselves and their pals, or order unlawful sport dinners in shady spots at fancy costs, would reform. He’s useless proper, after all, however as professional­hibition taught us, there isn’t an excessive amount of hope of drying up an outlaw market by voluntary motion of that sort. 

The surest method could be to broaden the Fish and Wildlife Service’s underneath­cowl program. Presently your entire power of U.S. sport brokers consists of solely 128, pitifully few once you con­sider the huge dimension of the nation they need to cowl. Extra enforcement brokers, along with further undercover operators, ought to do lots towards sav­ing waterfowl for the weapons of legiti­mate hunters. 

If the Service, which operates on a regional setup, had a Tony Stefano or two working in every of its six areas, duck bootlegging would quickly lose its lure. Such a program, in co-operation with state sport departments, may go far to curb the visitors in different sport as nicely, and there’s little doubt that sports activities­males would welcome it. 

In the meantime, right here’s a tip to market hunters in all places: At a press con­ference in Minneapolis final September, a reporter requested Lawrence, Davis, and Stefano if they’d any plans for the longer term. “Our undercover work will go on,” they stated firmly.