Today in History

[dhermann1]

AKA post partum depression. A very real condition caused by scrambled hormones. Not the first time it's happened, and not the last.
But that's an amusing term for it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

AKA post partum depression. A very real condition caused by scrambled hormones. Not the first time it's happened, and not the last.
But that's an amusing term for it.

An 1890's medical handbook suggests treating "lactational insanity" by (1) ceasing to nurse and (2) consuming regular doses of "malt liquor." That might not really cure anything, but after a few doses, who cares?

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 13, 1936

VANISHED GIRL'S "GOING TO JUMP OVER MY CLIFF" NOTE

From our Special Correspondent


PEMBROKE, Thursday -- "I am shooting off for Pembrokshire to-day to jump over my cliff. Wish me a happy landing!"

The wreckage of a car at the foot of Stack Rock, towering 160 ft. over the sea, has increased the anxiety of a father who was handed this note from his missing twenty-five year old daughter, Miss Isabel Mathwin. For Stack Rock was one of her childhood haunts. On Tuesday night, Miss Mathwin kissed her father, Mr. F. G. Mathwin, a healthy Cardiff coal-owner, and went up to bed. Next morning she had gone, and a friend from Newport brought her father the fateful note.

Mr. Mathwin set off with his wife in a car at once to overtake the girl but arrived at the cliff head without having seen her. He persuaded the coastguard from Flimston near by, Mr. Joslyn, to make a search, and in the stormy waters he saw the spare wheel of a car. When Joslyn went down by the aid of a lifeline, he found laid bare by the ebbing tide the remains of a car. The engine was gone, most of the body-work had been washed away, and the number plates were missing. At once he made a search of the caves at the water's edge but when he returned to the clifftop exhausted, he said there was no trace of a body.


BABY SHOT AS MOTHER PICKS UP GUN SHE FOUND

By a Special Correspondent

Doctors fought last night to save the life of a ten month old London baby who was accidentally shot through the neck by his mother.

The young mother, Mrs. May Higins of Sutherland-road, Bow, E., sobbed as she told me what happened. "I was cleaning up some rubbish from a cupboard at the house where I work when I found a revolver," she said. "Baby was playing at my feet, as he always does when I am out at work. I picked up the revolver, without of course knowing it was loaded. It went off and the bullet went through poor little baby's neck."

"He was rushed to St. Andrews Hospital. My husband and I have been waiting anxiously by his cot. The doctor says it is a miracle the bullet missed the vein and other vital parts, but Roy is still in critical condition."

"I am so upset I can hardly bear to think of what happened."


STRIKERS "SPRAYED WITH PAINT" BY WORKERS WHO "RESISTED"

Strikers were alleged to have "manhandled" women machinists who have been sprayed with paint by resisting workers during a strike affecting 5000 people at the west works of the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, Birmingham, yesterday.

The strile was started the previous night by forty-eight body polishers and spread rapidly when the night-shift workers decided to down tools. Yesterday it became a stay-in strike. Employees in the majority of departments refused to work. They were told to go home at noon.

Unless a settlement is reached at a special meeting at eight o'clock this morning between a deputation at night and day shift workers, union officials and company representatives, it is likely that the north factory will come out in sympathy. This may mean that the entire personnel of more than 20,000 will have to cease work, and production will stop.

A member of the workers' committee said "Women jumped on the benches and cheered as we marched into their shop. Some of the painters turned paint sprays on us when we called on them to come out. In the end we had to chase them out."

FILM STAR TO WED BARONET'S BROTHER

"Love in Exile" was a film in which dainty Tamara Desni, stage and screen star, was featured -- and "love in exile" was the unexpected development of her engagement to Bruce Seton, film actor and brother Sir Alexander Seton, Bart. Mr. Seton -- portrait of whom is inset -- went down to Southampton Water to meet his fiance as she returned from America in the Europa, but owing to some technicality, Miss Desni was not allowed to land and had to journey on to Bremen.


Also in the news --

BRITAIN'S WAR FOOD SUPPLY PROBLEM NOT YET SOLVED SAYS PREMIER

How Britain will be supplied with food should war break out has not yet been solved by the Government. Mr. Baldwin made this statement in the Commons last night. This question, he said, was in process of solution, but was not yet wholly solved.

A scheme of rationing, which could be used if the emergency arose, had been drawn up and the Minister of Agriculture had produced a scheme for increased production. We were now in a position of organisation considerably in advance of where we were in 1914.


MR. CHURCHILL'S ATTACK

Mr Churchill, accusing the Government of being "decided only to be undecided, all-powerful but impotent," denied that all was going well with defence programmes. He mentioned one case where an order for gun-mountings which had to be declined by a British firm, was executed in the United States through a French firm which had a branch there, and the goods were sent to Woolwich arsenal without the War Office knowing the channels through which they had passed.

How was it, added Mr. Churchill, that this country with its enormous motoring and motor-bicycling publicm should not be able have strongly mechanised divisions, both regular and territorial?


THE KING SINGS "TIPPERARY" TO 2,000 MEN OF THE NAVY

King Edward sang "Tipperary" in the centre of 2,000 naval ratings on the aircraft carrier Courageous to-night, to the accompaniment of the ship's mouth-organ and concertina band, "Very good indeed," he said as he finished.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 14, 1936

BALDWIN BETRAYS HIS CONVICTIONS FOR VOTES -- VICTORY AT ANY PRICE

THE CONFESSION OF THE "SEALED LIPS" ---

"If I had gone to the country and said Germany was rearming and we must rearm, does anyone suppose that the country would have rallied to the cry? No. I cannot imagine anything that would have made the loss of the election more certain." -- Mr. Baldwin

Baldwin's confession has shocked Britain and angered the world. In the forty-four astonishing words reproduced above he has written not only his epitaph, but has also forced a question -- which the whole cabinet is duty bound to answer.

What is the country to believe? Is everything that Baldwin and his twenty-one muddled Ministers have said to be cast into doubt by this calamitous revelation? These questions must be answered --

1. WHY DID BALDWIN STAGE AN ELECTION UNDER FALSE PRETENSES?

2. WHY, THREE YEARS AFTER THE TRUTH OF GERMAN REARMAMENT WAS KNOWN, IS THIS COUNTRY STILL UNPREPARED?

3. WHY WAS NOT CHURCHILL, THE OBVIOUS CHOICE, ENTRUSTED WITH THE VITAL TASK OF OUR DEFENCES?

Quietly and with deadly serenity, this most ghastly admission in the history of British politics has been announced.

The alarming story -- incredible as it seems -- of how this country's interests were risked for mere political gain has been revealed by Mr. Baldwin.

Never in the long and honourable record of our Parliament has a Prime Minister taken upon himself the ugly task of selling the destiny of England in order that his address might continue to be 10 Downing Street.

Remember that this country was placed in a dangerous position. Remember that forces that menaced our very existence were at work. The Prime Minister knew in 1933 that Germany was arming with terrifying speed and ruthless determination.

Baldwin and his Cabinet, with an unsavoury determination to keep their jobs at all cost, smothered the truth -- the truth that affects every man, woman, and child.

Also in the news --

"I'm A Rotten Horsewoman" Confession

Lady Joan Baird doesn't stand for the sort of nonsense that is often noticeable in the hunting field. "I'm a rotten horsewoman," she confessed, "and know very little of what the hounds are actually doing. Hunting is the grandest sport in the world, but I am not going to be highbrow about it or pretend I enjoy it in a highbrow way."

 

[dhermann1]

Stanley Baldwin

Neville Chamberlain has gotten a slightly raw deal in history. Baldwin was at least as culpible for Britain's unpreparedness as Chamberlain. But it must be said, I think the general attitude in Britain at the time was still strongly pacifist.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 16, 1936

LADY ASTOR'S NEPHEW FALLS TO DEATH ON HONEYMOON

From Our Own Special Correspondent

New York, Sunday --

To the horror of his bride, who had only four months ago had eloped with him, David Brooks, wealthy twenty-six year old Englishman, and nephew of Lady Astor, fell to his death from his honeymoon suite on the fourteenth floor of a block of skyscraper flats on Park-avenue here to-day.

His body fell into the street opposite President Roosevelt's town home.

Two years ago, Mrs. Brooks' mother, wife of James Moffatt, U. S. oil magnate, died in a similar tragedy. She fell from an eighth floor bedroom window in New York. That ended her daughter's promising career as a radio singer. Sorrow forced her to abandon singing. She started studying medicine but illness foiled her ambitions. Then to the surprise of her friends she married Brooks. To-night, still dazed by this third tragedy of her life, she told the story of her grief.

"Heard him Scream"

She and her husband, she explained, returned to their apartment at 3 a. m. from a party at which Howard Hughes, ace film producer and Vivienne Dixon, society beauty, were also guests. They went to their rooms.

"He told me he was going to open a window because it was stuffy," she said. "He went into the bedroom. I was taking off my hat and coat when I heard him scream horribly. I rushed into the room. The window was open but he was gone."

Mrs. Brooks is in a state of collapse and under the care of doctors at her father's home.


MR. BALDWIN IN MOTOR-CAR SMASH

Mr. Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, was injured in a motor accident at Hillington Hill, near Uxbridge, Middlesex, yesterday. He escaped injury.

The accident occured at the road junction at Hillington Hill and Royal-lane, Uxbridge. A skid caused a small saloon car to scrape the offside wing of Mr. Baldwin's car. Prompt work by Mr. Baldwin's chauffeur lessened the force of the impact, but the other car was so badly damaged that it had to be towed three miles to a garage at Dedham.

The other occupants of the cars escaped injury.


MADRID ENTERED

Insurgent troops have entered Madrid according to an official communique issued at insurgent headquarters early today, says Reuter.

It is hoped that the north-west sector of Madrid will be entirely occupied to-day, for "the enemy's resistance is now overcome."


SAVED AS HE CLUNG TO BLAZING YACHT -- WENT BACK FOR DOG

Six men, including three policemen and a Sea Scout plunged fully dressed into the sea at Lowestoft yesterday when the 36ft. motor cruiser Orinthia suddenly burst into flames and started to drift toward the shore.

When they reached the vessel the rescuers found the owner, Mr. Richard Armstrong of Cromwell-road, London, with his wife clinging to the back of the vessel with their legs trailing in the water. The rest of the craft was enveloped in flames.

Two of the men, Thomas Hubbard and Andrew Keith, dragged Mrs. Armstrong, exhausted, to the beach, but before her husband was rescued he climbed to their Alsatian dog on the blazing yacht and threw it into the sea. It swam to the beach.


ARMY BAND BOYS REVOLT -- FLING MUGS AT BRIGADE

Sixteen band boys of the Leicestershire Regiment, at Ebrington Barracks, Londonderry, recruited from a Catholic orphanage in England, locked themselves in a barrack room on Saturday night as a protest against conditions of service. They barricaded the doors of the room by means of iron bedsteads and furniture.

Yesterday morning when they failed to answer the roll call, the military fire brigade was called out and hoses were turned on the boys through the window. They put up a stubborn fight and hurled cups and mugs and other articles at the firemen.

The boys defied all attempts by the brigade to dislodge them from their quarters and when a cordon of soldiers was thrown round the building they retaliated by setting fire to their bedding.

When the commanding officer promised a full investigation into their complaints, the boys surrendered.

PRINCESS HELENA ILL

Princess Helena Victoria, cousin of King George V, is suffering from a chill at her home in Pall Mall, and has cancelled her public engagements. No bulletins will be issued.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 17, 1936

MOTHER HEADS PLEA TO SAVE DAUGHTER'S MURDERER

From Our Own Correspondent

HULL, Monday -- "I WILL HEAD A PETITION FOR THE REPRIEVE OF THE MAN WHO MURDERED MY DAUGHTER."

With those words a mother told me to-night how in the midst of a tragedy that threatened to wreck her life she has learned to forgive. She is Mrs. Meyer of Hull, whose sixteen year old daughter Elsa was strangled by her childhood playmate.

A petition is to be opened in Hull to-morrow for the reprieve of Elsa's murderer, Arthur North, aged twenty-two, who was sentenced to death at York Assizes last week.

North is a lifelong friend of the Meyer family. He took Elsa on a bus ride to Beverley, Yorkshire, and strangled her in a field.

He returned to Hull and confessed to a policeman in the street, stating that if he went to a field and walked through a gate on which he had placed a bunch of flowers, he would find the dead girl.

After the trial, Mrs. Meyer stated that she would sign a petition if one was organised.

"NO ILL FEELING"

"I will head the petition," she declared emphatically to me. "People who don't know me find it difficult to understand my attitude. I have no ill feeling. It was a terrible blow to lose my poor girl in this way. But other people have feelings besides me. The North family are all lifelong friends of my family. Our children went to school together, played together, and visited each other's houses."

"Arthur has been running in and out from the time he was a tiny tot to the very day on which he killed my daughter. I can only see him as I have always known him. Something must have gone wrong with him. He must have suddenly gone mad. Yes I will sign the petition, and I hope the boy gets off."

ARMY RESERVISTS LEAVE SHIP WITHOUT ORDERS

Dissatisfied because they were ordered to remain on board until this morning, a number of Army Reservists from Palestine on the Tuscania made a demonstration on the quayside at Southampton yesterday.

When the ship arrived in the afternoon it was decided that only about 300 of them lived near enough to Southampton for them to be able to leave their depots last night. The remaining 700 were ordered to remain on the ship to await trains to-day.

There was considerable dissatisfaction and last night about 200 men, mainly from Scotland and the North of England, left the ship without orders. They made a peaceful demonstration by the quayside. There was no violence or disorder.

Later the order against shore leave was relaxed and many of the troops were given permission to spend several hours in the town -- a concession which was received with general delight.


JEWISH FAMILY "BESIEGED" IN HOME FOR 3 WEEKS, SAYS M. P.

The plight of a Jewish family "besieged" for three weeks in their home, afraid to go out because of fear of Fascists was revealed to M. P.s last night.

The House of Commons was discussing the government's Public Order Bill, which will ban political uniforms. Members were discussing legal aspects of the Bill's clauses and dealing in political principals.

Then suddenly, with a few words Mr. R. H. Turton (Con., Thirsk and Malton) brought a great human tragedy into the debate -- the ancient tragedy of the Jew and his tormentors. "There is a certain house in Whitechapel," he told a hushed house, "where there is a Jewish family who have not been out for three weeks because the remainder of the street is inhabited by men who have lately left prison and who are now adherents of the Fascist Party."

Mr. Turton, however, confessed he was very worried about the clause prohibiting political uniforms. The Bill was read a second time without a division.

PARENTS' TERROR AT EPIDEMIC

From Our Own Correspondent

British mothers in Hong Kong, where a dysentery epidemic is raging, are frantic with fear for their children. Baby after baby has been stricken. Two more British children died yesterday, bringing the death toll to eight.


Also in the news --

ANTI-BALDWIN REVOLT SPREADS -- M. P.s ACT TO-NIGHT

By Our Political Correspondent

The Anti-Baldwin revolt is spreading. Mr. Baldwin's amazing obstinacy has further exasperated Conservative opinion. A number of M. P.s kicked over the Conservative Party traces last night and said what they thought about their leader's shilly-shallying tactics.

One M. P. told me that he thought the leader "pig-headed."

This new revolt, in in which more than fifty National Government supporters are involved, is not over the armaments programme this time, but on the question of the distressed areas. The rebels held a secret meeting yesterday and discussed whether they should petition Mr. Neville Chamberlain -- the probable future premier -- rather than Stanley Baldwin.

Some rebels tell me they are quite prepared to force an all night sitting if the opportunity arises. But the indications are that Mr. Baldwin will continue obstinate.

CHANGED HAIR TO ORCHID BLONDE AND WON SUCCESS

If you get tired of being in the chorus, turn up one morning with mauve hair.

Miss Towyna Thomas, who is twenty-three and comes from Carmarthenshire, did this, and now she has a part in the new revue "To and Fro," which opens at the Comedy Theatre, London, on November 26.

Towyna's hair is naturally platinum blonde. "I was so tired of being platinum blonde and seeing almost every girl with the same coloured hair," she told me, "that I decided to have my hair mauve. No one seems to have thought of that. I call it 'orchid blonde.'"

"I can't say I like it much in daylight, but my work is the most important thing to me and it won me a part -- and I hope it will help me realise my ambition to be a comedienne."

 

[Fletch]

By 1937 Miss Thomas had graduated to fishnet stockings and army boots, and later in the year, had her nose pierced. She was arrested on 19th November that year after she and a squad of Mosley's Blackshirts attempted to start a moosh pit during a Jack Payne band show at the Hammersmith Gaumont Palace.

lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Confess, you used to work for the Mirror!

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 19, 1931

WARNER TO BALK HOOD IN JAIL RELEASE

Prosecutor Off to California Today to Return "Occult," State Probes Writ Delay

Attorney General Joseph E. Warner today prepared to act in the case of William H. Hood, swindler, reported about to be released by California authorities because of failure by authorities to go after him.

Learning that the failure of officers and papers to arrive at Long Beach, Cal. might result in the release of Hood, wanted here on charges of swindling women through spiritualistic seances, the attorney-general went into action. It was understood he planned to rush a telegram to California asking that Hood be retained in custody until the attorney-general could intervene and at the same time start an investigation.

Hood was captured in Long Beach on Nov. 5, and police of that city held him for the larceny of $43,000 from Mrs. Lillian Field of Brookline, and various other sums in Salem.


CAVAGNARO'S LIFE ALWAYS IN DANGER

Inspector Never Knew When Criminal Vengeance Would Strike to Try to Erase Him

By THE MASKED REPORTER

The shadow of death -- sinister, sudden death -- many times enveloped "Big Joe" Cavagnaro. Many times his powerful underworld enemies were ready to strike. Probably nothing else, from any other source, could have thwarted them.

Thwarted them, yet still a boon to them, for more than one underworld denizen breathes more freely today, comes out of the shadows for the first time in many months, goes about with a lighter heart, because Joe Cavagnaro's eyes are closed forever and he lies in his coffin in his Brighton home.

The Danori case threatened to spell the doom of the big, genial police inspector. Joe never knew when, out of this investigation, or that of Albert Bruno, alleged slayer, death would dart.

And in and out of both these probes, reappearing, disappearing, with Joe ever on the trail, walked Peter Gianbruno, "Peter the Shiek."

Joe and Peter are both dead now. Inspector Cavagnaro's persistent efforts to solve the killing of 10 year old Salvatore Danori are ended.

I, the MASKED REPORTER, am going to tell today the hitherto unrevealed inside story of that case....


RUSSIA WARNED BY JAPAN

Tokio, Nov. 19 (INS) -- A warning against the sending of Soviet Russian troops into Northern Manchuria was dispatched today to Moscow by the Japanese Government.

Ambassador Hirota, at Moscow, was invited to inform Maxim Litivinoff, Soviet commissar for foreign affairs, that the arrival of any Soviet forces in Manchuria would create a serious situation, and would likely result in serious consequences.

CLOTHING SOUGHT FOR SPRINGFIELD JOBLESS

Springfield, Nov. 19 -- A committee named by Mayor D. R. Winter has appealed to the public for immediate gifts of serviceable clothing for distribution through welfare bodies. It is expected to obtain clothing worth $50,000 by this means.

TEACHER SHOWS BLEMISH TO MALE JURY

Defense in School Party Case Contends Janitor Saw Miss Williams Swimming

Morgantown, W. Va. (US) -- Amid blushes, Esther Williams, pretty Morgantown high school teacher, timidly lifted her skirt about four inches above her knees and gave an all-male jury a peek at a birthmark which figures in her trial with Dr. John Thomas West, school principal.

Miss Williams swore that Percy Smith, one of three "peeping janitors" saw the birthmark when she went swimming, and not when she reclined on the divan in the private office of Dr. West. She startled the court by further declaring that the charges resulted when she refused to "make a date" with Smith, the State's star witness.

 

[Fletch]

Confess, you used to work for the Mirror!

Oi, luv, I never 'ave done!

'Ere nao, ye hain't goin'ew 'it me about the 'ead an' shoulders are yez?

 

[Fletch]

Born this day

...in 1905: Tommy Dorsey, the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing.

Cape Cod, 1938. Andy Ferretti, Pee Wee Erwin, trumpets; Mo Purtill, drums; Gene Traxler, bass; Carmen Mastren, guitar; Howard Smith, piano.
Earle Hagen, trombone; TD; Johnny Mince, Fred Stulce, Hymie Schertzer, saxes. Photo: Rex Hardy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 21, 1931

'CANDY BOY BANDIT' SHOOTS MAN

Boy, Girl, and Two Others Are Fired on in Outlaw Reign; Pedestrians Periled

Shooting of a Dorchester storekeeper today culminated 12 hours of banditry in Boston and the suburbs in which three more men, a boy, and a 13-year-old girl were fired upon, one man was slugged with a gun butt, and pedestrians were endangered by a barrage of bullets.

Max Gilbert, 55, owner of a variety store at 771 Dorchester Avenue, was wounded in the right arm when a youthful gunman opened fire on him shortly after he opened his shop today. At Carney Hospital, where the bullet was removed, Gilbert told police he believed he recognized the youth as living in the neighborhood and a search was launched for the suspect.

LAUGHED, AND IS SHOT

The robber asked for some candy as he entered Gilbert's place, and Gilbert, being busy, told him to help himself and leave the money. Instead the boy drew a gun and demanded all the money in the store. Gilbert thought it was a joke and laughed, whereupon the young holdup man blazed away.

As the storekeeper fell to the floor, the youth went through his pockets and took $20. Then he threatened to fire again if Gilbert made any outcry and with that he fled.

A pair of youthful gunmen took part in the other forays of the night and early morning. Police believe the same two are responsible for several more holdups and thefts of numerous automobiles in the Fields Corner district recently. The first robbery occured late yesterday in a chain store at 97 Washington Ave., Chelsea, when the pair held up Abraham Peters, 35, the manager, and his assistant, Philip Calvatore, 16.

Peters resisted, and one bandit slugged him with a gun butt. The pair then forced Peters and his clerk into a back room, slammed the door, and fired a shot through the panel.

PEDESTRIANS FLEE

After looting the cash register of $50, the pair fled and fired again, the bullet crashing through the window of a beauty shop, narrowly missing Evelyn Jordan, 13, of Eustis st. Several pedestrians scurried into nearby doorways as the bandits fled in a closed car.

They next appeared at a grocery store in Clifton st., Saugus. They held up Charles L. Marsh, 50, the proprietor, and took about $50 from the cash register. They then ordered him to walk out the rear door. He looked back as he did so and a bullet whistled past his ear.

ROUTED BY GIRL

A short time later, one youth, a description similar to one of the holdup pair, entered a chain store in Savin Hill ave., Dorchester, and held up the manager, Myles McDonough, taking $40. Late last night, Miss Esther Phelan, 35, of Mountain ave., Dorchester, was approached by three youths while she was walking in Millwood st. They flourished a revolver and demanded her money. She screamed, and the youths fled, she said.

A short time later, Dr. Franklin A. Perkins, of Dorchester ave. was held up by two youths as he parked his car in front of the home of a friend in Rockland st. The doctor started to battle the pair, and when two men joined him, the bandits fled.

YEGGS USE AUTO TOOLS TO GET $700

Worcester, Nov. 21 -- Using tools they found on the premises, yeggs ripped open the safe in the White Company, auto truck dealers, and stole $700. They entered through a rear window in Shrewsbury st., and removed the safe fron the shop, where it was found when workmen arrived today.

 

[Fletch]

"YEGGS"???

The Yegg on rubber soles comes creeping
Inside the house when it is late,
And while the occupants are sleeping,
Removes the heirlooms and the plate.
– Edward Gorey

 

[WideBrimm]

Denver Sesquicentennial

Happy Birthday Denver! Today marks the Denver Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of Denver's founding at the Confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River on November 22, 1858.

It was the Colorado gold rush that brought people here where the Mountains meet the Plains. It was before the civil war, and before the coming of the railroad a dozen years later. Denver was named for Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Colorado Territory was created several years later.

Special sections in both Denver papers, Rocky Mountain News www.rockymountainews.com, and Denver Post www.denverpost.com yesterday. Freebies today: Colorado History Museum, Contemporary Art Museum Denver, Zoo, Botanic Gardens, etc. Special exhibit opens today at the Colorado History Museum (free also).

Happy Birthday Denver

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 24, 1931

NASHUA MAN HELD FOR MAYHEM

Alleged to Have Called "Rival" From Home Where Wife Hid and Slashed Him

Nashua, N. H., Nov. 24 -- Charged with mayhem, the allegation being that he attacked Alfred Ducharme of Canal st. and mutilated him, George Cadioux, formerly of Canal st. was arraigned today in district court and held without bail.

The attack is alleged to have resulted from a quarrel over Cadioux's wife. Ducharme is now hospitalized in serious condition, according to Police Chief Irving Goodwin.

Police sat Cadioux went to Ducharme's home shortly before midnight on Nov. 3 and called Ducharme to the door. Ducharme was attired only in a shirt and a bathrobe, according to the police, and Cadioux is alleged to have thrown him to the ground after a tussle and seriously mutilated him. He then disappeared and was arrested last night in Lowell. Police are still investigating and have received information that Cadioux made a mistake in singling out Ducharme as the man in the case, although Mrs. Cadioux is reported to have been in the Ducharme house at the time of the attack.

Hearing in the case was continued until Dec. 28. After Cadioux fled from the scene of the attack. Dr. V. E. Bolduc was called and performed a delicate operation which it is believed may save the injured man from the serious effects of the unusual attack.


GIRL HOLDS SECRETS IN GANG KILLING

JEALOUSY AS MOTIVE IS HINTED

25-Year-Old Widow Grilled By Probers in the Murder of "Sphinx Face" Tescano.

Mrs. Rosa Russo, 25, a pretty widow who lives with Mrs. Grace Merangi Pallazzo on Leverett st., West End, was questioned today by Revere police in connection with the murder of Philip "Sphinx Face" Tescano, 28, ninth victim of the Merangi gang feud.

SLAIN IN REVERE

Toscano's bullet-ridden body was found in a vacant lot off Borden st., Revere, near the Chelsea line early yesterday morning. He had been lured to the lonely section and "put on the spot" on some bootlegging pretext in the opinion of the police. Several persons living in the vicinity heard shots around 11 o'clock Sunday night. Late disclosures today directed suspicion to certain members of a West End gang which added traffic in girls and drugs to liquor smuggling and hijacking.

While apparently prompted by gang vengeance linked with vice and rum, a theory of jealousy loomed strongly today. Mrs. Palazzo, 40, a divorcee, and Mrs. Russo, the attractive widow, were asked if they had knowledge of anyone who might be jealous of Toscano. They said they had no such knowledge.

"BOSSY" WINS FIGHT TO KEEP SCHOOLS OPEN

Funds Voted For School Salaries

Newburyport Council Grants "Bossy's" Requests to Prevent Shutdown

Newburyport, Nov. 24 -- The city council last night unanimously voted to pass a transfer order of $3300 for the school department as requested by Mayor Andrew J. "Bossy" Gillis, ending a row over the possible closing down of the schools.

This sum is to pay teacher's salaries for the remainder of the year. Otherwise there would have been a deficiency in the schhool operating fund requiring the schools to close Dec. 1 unless an emergency appropriation was granted.


AMERICAN'S BASKET FUND OPENED

The Boston Evening American announces today the opening of its Christmas Basket Fund for the 1931 season.

Get aboard, all you good fellows who can, for this year more than ever the lift of your generous hands is needed. There are hungry mouths to be fed, hearts to be made happy, little children to be shielded from disappointment and disillusionment.

The Christmas Basked Fund for 1931 is open, and a frank appeal is made to you, in the endeavor to assure that no needy family shall go this year without a substantial and satisfactory Christmas dinner.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 25, 1931

\

GIRL HELD AS MEMBER OF HOLDUP GANG

Flat Tire Causes Arrest; Suspected of a Series of Robberies

Salisbury Beach, Nov. 25 -- A flat tire today caused the arrest of an attractive Chelsea divorcee and her four male companions on suspicion of being members of a holdup gang that has terrorized storekeepers in three states.

The flat tire was on a stolen automobile in which they were riding.

NABBED AT GUNPOINT

Patrolman Harry Wilmot noticed the vehicle with the flat tire and walked over to offer aid when he noticed one man drop a revolver into the rear seat of the car. He drew his own gun and placed the five under arrest.

They are Josephine Cullinane Baldwin, 24, of Williams st., Chelsea, who told police she was divorced; Frank Ryan, 23, of Chelsea st., East Boston; George Kelley, 24, of White Plains, N. Y.; and William Durke, 19, and Lawrence Donahue, 24, of Portland, Maine.

All denied participation in the holdups, and when they were first searched, no money was found. Later $30 was found concealed in their shoes.

FEAR GIRL IS SUCIDE OR KIDNAP VICTIM

Wellesley High Senior May Have Been Lured Away By a Motorist

Wide search for Alberta Winnier, 18, Wellesley high school senior, who fled from her home in Manor ave. Monday night scantily clad, today failed to find any trace of her, and police fear she may be kidnaped or dead by her own hand.

Authorities believe the girl may have accepted a ride from a passing motorist, as the Winnier home is far from trolley cars and trains, and her partial attire may have inspired a driver to run away with her.

The alternative suicide theory is based on the fact that she was in a highly excited state of mind when she left home, following an argument with her father. Her mother is dead.

THREE HELD IN ROBBERY OF WOUNDED LOWELL VET

$247 Stolen From Him is Recovered

Victim Was Slugged Over Head With Pistol After Beer Party, Police Say

Lowell, Nov. 24 -- Three men were placed under arrest last night within a few hours after George A. Gifford, 48-year old disabled war veteran, was hit over the head with a pistol barrel and robbed of several hundred dollars.

Richard W. Wood, 25, of Chelmsford st., was charged with robbery; William H. Sullivan, 28, of Lincoln st., was charged with being an accessory; and Albert J. Pelletier, 21, was charged as an accessory after the fact. Police recovered $247 and fished the pistol from a shallow section of Hale's Brook.

According to the police, Gifford went to Sullivan's house yesterday afternoon, and during the late afternoon liquor was consumed. Incidentally, the liquor squad cleaned out the place last night, taking some beer.


'SHIEK' SLAIN TO SPITE WIFE

Philip "Sphinx Face" Toscano's tardy decision to spend more time with his wife and two children in East Boston and lead a more orderly life led to his murder by members of a West End mob of drug, vice, and liquor racketeers, it was revealed today.

A young woman admirer was so infuriated that she is reported to have ordered his execution in a vacant lot in Revere last Sunday night. The girl who pronounced the sentence of death on the underworld shiek was being hunted today by Boston and Revere police, who learned that she had not only openly threatened Toscano with violence, but boasted that she would also "slash" his wife's pretty face.

THREAT REVEALED

One night a short time after the murder, this girl parked her car on London st., East Boston, a few doors from the Toscano home. She directed a young man who rode with her from Boston to tell Mrs. Toscano she wished to speak with her in the street.

"Tell her," replied Mrs. Toscano indignantly, "that if she has anything to say to me she can come in here and say it."

The courier returned to the girl in the automobile with Mrs. Toscano's message, and they drove off without further delay.

The police think that if Mrs. Toscano had innocently gone out to the car in the street, which is not brilliantly lighted, she may have been attacked with vitriol or a razor. Mrs. Toscano said she was really frightened by the affair.

 

[Fletch]

Zebu frîtes, monsieur?

From The New York Times, November 25, 1909.

A zebu (Bos indicus).

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 30, 1931

LAWRENCE BEER, RUM RACKETS BARED

By THE MASKED REPORTER
(Copyright 1931 by the Boston Evening American.)

Liquor, Lotteries, Illicit Income.

For three weeks, government agents have been looking them over in Lawrence. What they discovered is their own concern, and none of mine. For the people of Lawrence, I have made my own investigation. Here, and in the following articles, I am going to set down the facts.

LAWRENCE IS OPEN WIDE.

Two hundred speakeasies -- and I will describe in detail the most colorful, with their manner of disguise and their methods of operating. America -- for those who like their Prohibition liquor cheap and raw!

A syndicate actively operated by three men has made this oasis of cheap liquor possible. Back of this syndicate stands the influence of certain politicians, How great a part politics play in maintaining Lawrence as a wide-open town I shall discuss in subsequent installments.

From cities and towns for miles around, outsiders descend upon Lawrence to carouse on the cheapest of the cheap. Nowhere else have I ever found liquor, as it is called, being sold for ten cents a drink, and 25 cents a half-pint. Imagine a "coffee royal," three quarters gin, one quarter black coffee -- for 15 cents! On Common st., where this "bargain" is to be had -- and of this place more later -- the customers call it a "great buy."

It is -- if you can stand it and don't mind dying young...


SECRET EVIDENCE IN NOBLE'S FIGHT

Noble Will Spurn Aid of Brother

New Evidence Unearthed as Youth Still Maintains He Killed Widow

In his fight for freedom or commutation of the life sentence he is now serving, Russell Noble, Haverhill high school "model boy" will spurn the aid offered by his older brother Charles, who claims to have been told by Russell that another man was involved in the murder of Mrs. Clara Ellis.

The 17 year old prisoner will never deny that he killed the wealthy widow, who, he says, invited him to her bedroom on the murder night and forced unwanted attentions on him...

2 GUNMEN SOUGHT IN METHUEN AUTO HOLDUP

CRIPPLE CAR, THEN FLEE INTO WOODS

Victim Turns Over Only $1.07, Saving Rest of Roll by Letting It Fall on Seat

Methuen, Nov. 30 -- Richard Gulesian, 25, of 19 Wheeler st, this town, and a young woman companion whose name is being withheld by police, were held up at gunpoint by two youthful bandits as the two parked in an automobile on the Methuen-Lowell boulevard near Roseland Park early this morning.

Gulesian told the authorities that he complied with the bandits' commands to turn over his money in the face of a nickle-plated weapon. Gulesian stated that while fumbling in his pocket he allowed the greater part of his bills and change to drop back onto the seat, and that he only turned over $1.07 to the bandits.

The men, who were not masked, removed the distributor cap of Gulesian's motor, and fled into the woods skirting the Merrimack river.


GAMBLERS LOSE OUT TO BANDITS

Lawrence, Nov. 30 -- Six gunmen held up and robbed 45 men of $2000 when they invaded a building in Valley st., and lined participants in a dice game up against a wall.

One shot was fired to intimidate the crowd, and the gunmen systematically stripped them of money, pocketbooks, auto licenses, and private papers. One man asked that his auto registration be returned to him and was struck over the head and knocked unconscious.

The holdup attracted no attention outside the room where it occured, and the six gunmen escaped unmolested.

 

[LizzieMaine]

December 1, 1934

LANDIS THREATENS TO QUIT OVER FUCHS' DOG RACE PLAN

Ridiculous, says Judge of Ban On Track

By Bill Corum, International News Service

Philadelphia, Dec. 1 -- Unless Judge Emil Fuchs, owner-president of the Boston Braves, abandons his present plan of opening a greyhound track at Braves Field next summer, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis will resign his post as czar of baseball.

The information comes from a source closer to Judge Landis than the old felt hat that he wore until the crown and brim sagged apart and decided to go their seperate ways. Then the judge got a new hat. And if he sees so much as one mechanical rabbit around the sacred precincts of Braves Field next spring, Baseball is going to have to get a new high commissioner.

The blow-off, in fact, is likely to come much sooner than that. Likely to come any day now, and in all probability will be precipitated by this exclusive story. The judge (Landis, not Fuchs) is disposed to make an issue of it right now.

JUDGE BLOWS UP

Within the past ten days the commissioner has stumped into the offices of at least two prominent Chicagoans with whom he is closely acquainted and demanded in his brusque way: "What do you think of baseball and dog racing?" "I think," replied one of these gentlemen, "that baseball is a great sport and dog racing is a racket."

"Humph," humphed the Judge, "So do I. Fuchs has lost a lot of money in Boston and he thinks this is his only chance to get it back. But baseball and dog racing are a different breed of cats, and they'll never be associated as long as I'm the head of baseball. I'll quit! I'll quit!"

Whereupon the judge snatched his overcoat and barged out, shaking his white head like a terrier at a porcupine hole.

THE SITUATION

Permission to locate a dog track in Allston, where Braves Field is located, is the next best thing to having carte blanche to go ahead to print your own money. Braves Field is big and ideally suited to this sport, and just think of all the novelties Judge Fuchs could work out between baseball in the afternoon and dog racing in the evening. He might even run off a few heats between innings. He could have his greyhounds chase "Rabbit" Maranville in the hurdle race.

Unfortunately for this project, Babe Ruth, prospective manager of the Braves, has grown more sedate with the years, but what a cinch it would have been a few seasons back to have the Babe playing and managing in the afternoon on the same field where you ran a dog track at night. It wouldn't be necessary to pay him at all -- just let him trade out his salary in mutuel tickets.

Now, I have no better friend among the moguls than Judge Fuchs -- but in this situation I have to throw in one hundred percent with the other Judge, Judge Landis. How could any club owner give the fan the heave-ho for betting at 3 o'clock, but then at the same time invite him to come out and bet right down to his shirt at 8:30?

There must be some other way out for the owner of the Braves. I have nothing against dog racing in its proper place, wherever it may be, but that place is not in a major league ball park. And if Judge Landis should lose this battle, and quit on the issue, here is one baseball writer who would have to go with him.