John Looney abandoned his scandal sheet, The Rock Island News, in 1912 after a beating at the hands of Mayor H.M. Schriver and the riot that followed. He fled to New Mexico, where he lived for nine years.

But The News was revived in 1916 with one of his lieutenants, Dan Drost, in charge. In 1920, Mr. Drost and Harry M. Hamilton went to jail for a year, convicted of libel for stories written in The News.

On March 26, 1921, big headlines proclaimed: ``John Looney Is Back. Dan Drost Goes To Jail.'' According to Argus accounts, Mr. Looney and Mr. Drost had a falling out. Mr. Drost testified in 1923 that it was over Mr. Looney stealing several thousand dollars from him.

Mr. Drost and others later would publish The Tri-City Clipper ``to rid this community of the Rock Island vice syndicate, which is comprised of the lowest, most degenerate lot of blackmailers that the world has ever produced.''

Looney would sue Drost and Drost would sue Looney, but no action ever materialized.

Conditions were at their worst in 1922. In anticipation of a national Grotto convention in June, Mr. Looney's collectors sold protection to law violators.

When Prohibition agents came to Rock Island in July to follow up on raids they had made during the convention, William Gabel, who ran a saloon at 2319 4th Ave., met with federal narcotics agent R.C. Goss. Mr. Gabel gave canceled checks, endorsed by John Looney, to the agent, who reportedly boasted that he had them.

On July 31, 1922, Mr. Gabel was gunned down in front of his saloon.

Mr. Gabel's death sparked a gang war that ended in the Market Square shooting of John Looney's son. There were 12 murders in Rock Island in 1922.

The Argus led an ongoing cry of indignation that did not let up until Mr. Looney was convicted of the Gabel murder in December 1925.

``The thing for you to keep in mind, Mr. Good Citizen, is that the murder of Bill Gable was unwritten notice to you and the other 35,000 residents of Rock Island that the price of interference with the activities of the local underworld is death,'' The Argus editorialized shortly after Mr. Gabel's death. ``And that threat will remain over your head just so long as you continue to tolerate the present vicious condition in your city. Rock Island belongs to you, not to the band of itinerant thugs and prostitutes.''

The community was outraged. Day after day, The Argus ran a string of editorials that provoked public indignation and kept the issue from dying.

``This simply bears out what The Argus has held from the beginning -- that the underworld is stronger than the city and county governments,'' The Argus raged on more than a month later. ``It is up to the city and county governments to prove that it isn't, and thus far they haven't proven it.

``The Rock Island underworld may be somewhat unsettled as a result of its experiences of the past month, but it still retains its strangle hold on the city and county administrations, and it likely will retain it during the incumbency of the present officials,'' The Argus charged.

In return, Mr. Looney's News accused the ``Dirty Argus Bunch'' of being involved in the murder of Bill Gabel.

``Argus Lies Nailed'' read another issue of the News on Sept. 16. 1922. ``Argus Bunch Tried to Send Mr. Schnell to Penitentiary. Insane Editor Tries to Fool Public with a Story of Vice Ring Meeting in Rock Island. Even a Child Could See it Was Not True,'' read The News headlines.

The Argus continued to demand that authorities fulfill their promises to clean up the city. Meanwhile, Mr. Looney was circulating petitions for his candidacy for county judge.

He would blame the Argus, too, for the climax of the gang war on Oct. 6, 1922, when a gun battle opened up on Rock Island's Market Square. He and his son, John Connor Looney, who acted as a bodyguard, were talking in their car outside the Sherman Hotel. Two cars stopped behind theirs, and the occupants began shooting. John Looney ran inside the hotel and returned fire, but Connor Looney, 22, was riddled with bullets and died later in a hospital. Mr. Drost and a bystander were wounded.

The headlines in the next Rock Island News read: ``R.I. Argus Thugs Kill John Looney Jr.'' A secondary headline continued: ``Insinuations of Dirty Sheet Direct Cause of Murder.''

Mr. Looney abandoned The News and his Rock Island operations again following his son's death. All of his saloons and brothels were closed by Oct. 26. He fled to New Mexico, where he was apprehended a year later.

Rock Island historian Richard Hamer says his evidence shows that Argus reporters and editors probably were using their own underworld sources for background information on Mr. Looney and others under his control.

``The Argus did what it had to do to keep public indignation high so the Gabel murder would not be swept under the rug,'' Mr. Hamer said. He credits The Argus with having a tremendous amount of courage and tenacity.

Summing up the case against Mr. Looney for the murder of Bill Gabel, Sen. Charles Hadley, special prosecutor, paid this tribute to The Argus:

``When newspapers set out to expose graft, they are continually vituperated by the persons hardest hit by the exposures. In this case, it happens to be the only daily in Rock Island. It is an enemy of John Looney's. You gather that it was instrumental in exposing him and running him out of town. I make no apologies for The Argus or its publisher, John Potter. Would to God there were more newspaper publishers like John Potter!''

Following the 1925 conviction of John Looney for the murder of Bill Gabel, an Argus editorial said: ``The Argus has never sought to conceal (that it was an enemy of Looney) during the period that it sought to break down the power of the organization controlled by Looney. The Argus has always admitted that it was responsible for driving Looney out of Rock Island. It has pleaded guilty to the accusation of Looney and has thanked him for the compliment.''

Friday: How John Looney rebuilt -- and lost -- his vice empire.