The Asylum Bookie

Few bookies have ever had a better cover for their activities than Martin Wanzig, 42, of Chicago. Judged by the standards of his high-paying profession, his average under-the-counter traffic was modest: seldom over $35 a day. But his clientele was loyal and steady. As a patient-orderly at Chicago State Hospital, a 385-acre mental institution, Wanzig enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the betting of 5,000-odd potential horse players.

Patient Wanzig (diagnosis: schizophrenic with suicidal tendencies) operated with remarkable freedom until last month, when police discovered that a nurse at Chicago State had killed herself because she was despondent over her betting losses. The trail led inexorably toward the asylum bookie, who had salted away some $2,000 in the last year by placing $2 to $10 bets for hospital employees and bets of as little as 25-c- for hard-pressed patients. His outside contact was his girl friend, Dorothy Hughes, 31, who visited him daily at the hospital. Dorothy would phone in Wanzig's bets to a bookie with better communication facilities, later bring back the winnings.

Last week investigators moved in on Wanzig, and got four hospital employees fired as accomplices. (Said a Chicago cop: "This confirms my thought that confirmed horse players can find a home anywhere.") But right there the law ran into a dead end. Wanzig's defense against prosecution is airtight: he can plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

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