Joseph
Bennie

JOSEPH BENNIE was born in Italy on August 7, 1897. He came to America as a small child, in 1901. By 1930 he had married, and owned a home with his wife Adalena in a predominantly Italian-American section of Camden's Third Ward. The Bennie family resided at 511 South 4th, the corner of South 4th and Senate Streets. He was then working as a tailor at a coat factory, very probably the DiPaola Coat Factory, which employed many in the immediate neighborhood. The Bennie family remained on South 4th Street through at least 1947.

Active in local politics, Joseph Bennie served on the Camden County Board of Freeholders from Camden's 3rd Ward in 1930 and 1931. By 1953 he had taken a job as a detective with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. At that time he was working under future federal judge Mitchell H. Cohen and with future Chief of County Detectives Wilfred Dube. 

Joseph Bennie  had moved to East Camden by 1956, where he lived at 515 Royal Avenue. Joseph Bennie died in June of 1967, still a resident of Camden. His family has remained in the area.

Camden Courier-Post * June 11, 1932

Joseph Bennie - Frank T. Lloyd - George Kleinheinz
Frank F. Neutze - Emma Hyland - Harry L. Maloney

Camden Courier-Post * June 13, 1932

Joseph Bennie
A. Harry Moore
 George Kleinheinz

Camden Courier-Post * January 22, 1935

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Frank T. Lloyd - Isaac W. Eason - Patrick H. Harding - Frank F. Neutze - Samuel P. Orlando
Lawrence T. Doran - James J. Mulligan - James Wren - Joseph Bennie - Casimir Wojtkowiak
Elmer Mathis - Daisy Rourke - Ethel Michener - Fred Klosterman - Joseph Klosterman
Crawford Smith - Carman Street - Thomas Kirk - Carpenter Street - Joseph Woodridge
Andrew Pointkowski -  South 9th Street - Walter Hart - Thurman Street
Arthur Colsey - Walter Smith - Howard Smith - Dr. Edward B. Rogers
Frank Kulczynski - Orchard Street - Albert Young  - North 2nd Street

Camden Courier-Post * February 12, 1938

Four Charged With Numbers Using 'Bingo'
Marino, Girard Held At Merchantville In New Racket

A new numbers racket based on "Bingo" was disclosed yesterday when county detectives and Merchantville police arrested four men, two of them police characters.

The suspects were seized in an automobile parked within sight of the Merchantville police station.

The two with police records are Joseph Marino and Harry Girard. The others are Irving Chapman, 23, of 43 South Merchant street, and John Holmes, 23, of 227 Main street, both of Merchantville. All were arraigned on a charge of violating the state lottery law, before Justice of the Peace Samuel Rudolph, who complied with a request from Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando and held them without bail for the grand jury. 

Marino's police record dates to 1914. He received three suspended sentences, three other cases were nolle pressed by the court and on one occasion he served a jail sentence.

His last time in custody was as a suspect in the slaying of Abe Goodman, former numbers baron. He was released after questioning.

Girard's criminal record dates back to 1924. He has been arrested five times, serving two reformatory sentences and one term in the state prison.

Details of the new racket were not immediately divulged by the prosecutor's office. It was learned, however, that hundreds of "bing slips'" were seized by the police when the men were arrested.

The new game is operated by means of a printed slip which contains the word "Bingo" in large type at the top. There is a set of instructions for the player, part of which reads:

"More action for your money than any other game on the market, plays six days for 30 cents. Beginning Monday, write the daily policy number for that day in the three squares on the same line with the word Monday, continue in this manner for each day of the week from Monday until Saturday, making sure that you write that number issued for that particular day during the week. Your ticket is dated and write only on the line reserved for that day of the week. Whenever your ticket number appears in a straight line (in any direction) from using the daily numbers in this way you receive the amount printed beside arrow which points in the direction your ticket runs."

Space for Writing

Then follows a space for the writing of the daily number, with the amount of payoff, from $2 to $10, according to which manner your number reads if you "hit."

Police Chief William Linderman, County Detective Chief Lawrence T. Doran and County Detectives Wilfred Dube, James J. Mulligan, Joseph Bennie and Casmir Wojtkowiak arrested the four men, all of whom were taken at once to the office of Prosecutor Orlando for questioning.

It was revealed at the prosecutor's office that an attempt to flood Camden city and county with the new numbers game has been made during the last two weeks.

Detectives have been trailing an automobile during this time, believed to have been the car in which the men were seized yesterday.

Carl Kisselman
Clifford A. Baldwin
Joseph Wallace
Lou Barron
Elmer Mathis
Joseph Bennie
Federal Street
34h Street

A case that Joseph Bennie was only indirectly involved in was the tragic suicide of James S. Wilkie, son of a veteran Camden police officer, John V. Wilkie in December 1953. For several days after the shooting, Sgt. Wilkie claimed that he had shot his son, in order that he receive a Catholic funeral. He retracted his confession after it became apparent that he could not deceive the city and county investigators, and was released after the grand jury refused to return an indictment.

This tragic case saw the involvement of many of Camden's law enforcement and legal community, including  Mitchell H. Cohen, Benjamin Asbell, Wilfred Dube, Thomas Murphy, James J. Mulligan, J. James Hainsworth,  John A. Healey, and Samuel P. Orlando, among others.