Introduction
EDWIN THOMAS MILLS was born in Ossining, New York on April 13, 1891 to Jacob and Katie Mills. His father was a shoemaker. When the census was taken in 1900 the family, which included a younger brother, lived on North Highland Avenue in Ossining. The Mills family was still on North Highland Avenue in Ossining as late as 1910. Edwin Mills was by then working as a driver for an express company.
Edwin Mills had moved to Camden by 1914. He was then working as a driver and living at 2614 Federal Street. When he registered for the draft in June of 1917 he had married. He was at that time working at the Keystone Leather Company plant at 16th and Mickle Streets. By 1919 he had taken another job as a machinist at one of Camden’s shipyards. Edwin and Eulalia Mills were still living at 2614 Federal Street as late as 1920.
By 1924 Edwin Mills had joined the Camden Police Department. 2614 Federal Street was by this time the location of the East End Trust Bank. Edwin and Eulalia Mills had moved to 2214 Federal Street when the 1924 City Directory was compiled. By 1929 he had moved to 240 Eutaw Avenue. Edwin T. Mills had been promoted to Detective by February of 1933.
Edwin T. Mills was traveling in a police radio car with detective George Zeitz when a bus collided with their vehicle on March 16, 1943 at Broadway and Mickle Street. Both officers were injured.
On June 9, 1944 Detective Mills was granted a disability pension by the Camden Police Department. He had been suffering with kidney disease. Sadly, his kidneys failed completely while he was at his summer home in Wildwood NJ. On June 11, 1944 he died from uremic poisoning at Atlantic Shores Hospital in Somers Point NJ.
Mrs. Mills and daughter Ruth Mills were still living at 240 Eutaw Avenue when the 1947 City Directory was compiled. 240 Eutaw Avenue was later the home of Camden Fireman Earl A. Smith Sr.
World War I Draft Registration
Edwin T. Mills, World War I draft registration
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
Named: Stephen Kirby, Roy R. Stewart, Eugene Lorenzo, Garfield S. Pancoast, North 5th Street, Walter Smith, Alfred Shire, Edwin Mills, Gus Koerner, Bernard Dempsey, Sydney Wilkins, Robert Sweeney, Betty Doyle, Helen Wright, Albert Malmsbury, Frank Smith, Joseph A. Kirby, John C. Gibson, Main Street, Pearl Street, and Bailey Street.
Chain Store Held Up by 3 Armed Bandits
Camden Courier-Post —
Take $40 From Cash Drawer, Flee After Threatening Manager
Three armed bandits held up and robbed the manager of an American Store at 752 Ferry Avenue, Saturday night and escaped with $40 taken from the cash register.
Willis told police the three men entered the store shortly before 10 p. m., all flourishing revolvers. They commanded him to stand against the wall and while two of them kept their guns leveled at him, the third man ran to the cash register and took its contents, about $40.
He gave Detectives Edwin Mills and Robert Ashenfelter descriptions of the bandits but was unable to tell whether they had made their escape by automobile or on foot.
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
PENNSAUKEN MAN HELD AS BURGLAR SUSPECT
Camden’s oldest burglar suspect was held without bail for the grand jury when arraigned in police court before Judge Pancoast Saturday. He entered a plea of guilty to breaking into and robbing the home of Watson M. Mervin, at 3266 Pleasant street, of jewelry worth $150 and a loaded revolver.
He gave his name as John H. Evans, 63, of 2254 Forty-first street, Pennsauken. He was arrested by Patrolman Clarence Barnes as he was leaving the Mervin home. Barnes said he found a rear door had been forced.
Detective Edwin Mills told Judge Pancoast that Evans had been arrested a number of times for burglary and had served several terms.
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
Woman Held for Jury After Fatal Stabbing
Declaring she was “just playing with a knife” when Rudolph Spicer, 28, colored, of 146 Walnut street, was stabbed to death Sunday night in her home, Mrs. Emma Pollard, 32, of 1065 Ivins street, was held without bail for the grand jury yesterday on a murder charge.
Police Judge Garfield Pancoast also held without bail, as a material witness, William Epps, 44, colored, of 203 Pine street, at the request of Detective Edward Mills. Mills said Epps was present when Spicer was stabbed in the chest.
Light in Basement Starts Burglar Scare
Camden Courier-Post —
Abe Block had a burglar scare at 1:30 a. m. Saturday in his tailor shop at 527 North Eighth Street. Block was passing the shop on his way home when he saw a light in the basement. He thought thieves were ransacking the place. He telephoned police and Detectives Walter Smith, Edwin Mills and John Trout sped to the shop.
Letting themselves in cautiously, they made their way to the cellar, and found that occupants of the second floor of the house were fixing the heater fire for the night.
Employee Charges E. C. Cades With Attempt to Kill
Camden Courier-Post —
Apartment House Owner Held Under $500 Bail on Man’s Complaint
Accusation Is Denied
Edwin C. Cades, 26, one of the owners of the Cades apartment houses in North Camden, was held under $500 bail yesterday pending grand jury disposition of a charge that he assaulted an employee in an attempt to kill him.
When asked why his employer would want him dead, Devlin testified in police court that he has two insurance policies, one for $3000 with double indemnity for death by accident and another for $1500. In both policies, Devlin declared, Cades is named as the beneficiary.
Devlin was found unconscious at Nineteenth street and River road late at night on May 16. Taken to West Jersey Homeopathic Hospital, he was found to have suffered a fractured skull and broken jaw. Police at first believed he was a hit-run victim but nevertheless, City Detective Edwin Mills was assigned to investigate the case.
Devlin testified yesterday that Cades invited him out for an automobile ride, alighted somewhere to look at a soft tire. Devlin asserted he found the tire to be hard and was getting back into the car when something struck him on the head. That was all he remembered, he said, until he regained consciousness in the hospital.
L. Scott Cherchesky, attorney for Cades, said he had a statement obtained by Cades from Devlin in the hospital on May 17 in the presence of Detective Mills. In the statement, Devlin purportedly asserted that Cades did not attack him and he did not know who his assailant was.
Cherchesky also had two affidavits from tenants in the same apartment house where Devlin resides. They are William H. Dougherty and William Widerman. Dougherty attested he saw Cades return at 8:30 p. m. with Devlin and the latter went into the house, “mumbling drunkenly.” Widerman also added that at about 9:45 a. m., he saw Devlin leave the house, alone.
Devlin declared he did not remember making any statement in the hospital to Cades, but that a nurse told him “later, when I came out of my daze and the room stopped swirling,” that he had made such a statement.
“I’ve been working for Cades for 13 years,” testified Devlin. “On the evening of May 17 at about 7 o’clock Mr. Cades called for me to take a ride with him in his car. We rode around the city in circles and while we were passing over a rough road somewhere Cades told me he thought he had a soft tire. He got out of the car and looked at it and then told me to get out and come around and help him fix it.
“I looked at the tire, felt it and it was hard. I told Cades it was all right. As I started to get back into the car, I was struck over the head and that is all I remember until I woke up in the hospital.”
Under questioning by Judge Pancoast, who held a statement given earlier to the police by Devlin, the latter said that Cades bought him a bottle of whisky on that night. He asserted it was his job to collect rents and take care of the apartments in the North Camden section and as pay he received an apartment and food gratis.
Devlin said he could not positively swear that it was Cades who struck him as Cades was behind him. He declared, however, that he saw no one else in the immediate vicinity and no one else was in the car.
“Because he is carrying a big insurance policy on me and has been for two years,” responded Devlin. “One is a $3000 policy with double indemnity for accidental death, and the other is a $1500 newspaper policy.
“The payment of the premium on the policies was to come out of the wages I was entitled to and I was to be retired in 10 years, when I was 64, and kept for the rest of my life.”
“Yes, I was struck on the head with a brick once before and I told my wife to notify my brother immediately if anything happened to me as I thought I was in danger because of these insurance policies.”
Devlin was then cross-examined by Cherchesky and admitted that several months ago he had been beaten by a son-in-law and on another occasion was struck by a man named Conway.
“I took Walter Devlin out in my automobile, as had been my custom, at 7 o’clock and took him home at 8 o’clock on the night of May 16. William H. Dougherty, who lives in the first-floor apartment at 111 North Third Street, saw Devlin get out of the car and walk up to his apartment, and has signed an affidavit to that effect, which I have.
“William Widerman, who also lives at the same address, saw Devlin in his apartment that same evening, and also saw him leave the apartment about 10 o’clock that night, and has given me a signed affidavit to that effect.
“I did not see Devlin until the next morning when I was called to the hospital by detectives. I cannot account for Devlin’s whereabouts after I left him at the apartment house at 8 o’clock.
“I voted at 8:30 at the polling place at Cooper School, and after that spent the evening with my family. This case appears to me as one of extortion by either Walter Devlin or some other interested party.
“Devlin has been working for me for the past 13 years, and our relations have been extremely friendly. I am at loss, therefore, to account for this action.”
Woman Fires Gun After Mistaking Cop for Prowler
Camden Courier-Post —
Awakened by a noise at 3 a. m. yesterday, Mrs. Prossie Corbett, proprietor of a drug store at 725 Broadway, looked out of her third-story bedroom window and saw a man get in a car and hurriedly drive away.
Mrs. Corbett, whose store burglars attempted to enter last Friday by climbing a ladder and removing a window on the second floor, fired three shots to attract the police, but the car already had disappeared down Broadway.
A few moments later, in answer to her call, half a dozen motorcycle patrolmen were outside her place. Just then Detective Edwin Mills came along in his car.
Told of what had occurred, Mills declared it was he who had gotten into the car Mrs. Corbett described to the police. Mills said he had left the car parked there while he made a routine inspection of the neighborhood.
Father Held on Charge Made by Daughter
Camden Courier-Post —
Charles Hellings, 52, of 2164 Berwick Street, was held without bail yesterday on a statutory charge by Police Judge Garfield Pancoast after he heard testimony from the man’s daughter, 14, and a granddaughter, 12.
The children made their complaint to Detective Edwin Mills and Hellings was arrested at his home by Detective Louis Schlam. Hellings said he had been drinking regularly.
Prize Prisoner Held Secretly Seven Weeks Saws Way Out
Camden Courier-Post —
Guarded Rigidly, Segregated From Others, Accused of Two Robberies
Slips Through Hole ‘Too Tiny for Any Man’
Drops to Yard by ‘Rope’ of Sheets; Saw Horse Helps Him Over Wall
He was in solitary confinement, allegedly under special guard and allowed no visitors other than his sister. He sawed away the bars of his cell early yesterday and fled hours before his disappearance was discovered.
The famed “Jimmy Valentine” of Camden-Philadelphia mobsters was a mystery prisoner at Mt. Holly. In February Adamski, alias Harry Burns, was sent to State Prison for a three-year term by Judge Samuel M. Shay, following conviction on a gun-toting charge. Several weeks ago Judge Shay issued a secret writ ordering his appearance in the local court and the sentence was suspended and Adamski turned over to Burlington county authorities.
Ellis H. Parker, chief of the Burlington county detectives, said yesterday Adamski was being held on two robbery cases—one at the home of Circuit Court Judge V. Claude Palmer, Moorestown, and the second at the home of Kirkland Marter, Burlington. Parker declares Adamski was indicted on both robbery charges by the Burlington county grand jury last week. The indictments were among the 45 impounded by the court and not made public, Parker said.
Adamski was in the south wing of the jail, in a cell block known to inmates as “murderers’ stir.” Forty other prisoners were in the north wing of the jail. The wardens office separates the two wings, with the prisoners exercise yard, surrounded by a 30-foot wall, in the rear.
At 11 p. m. Saturday Deputy Warden Atwood Wright and Lovando Pond, a special assistant only recently hired by Sheriff George N. Wimer, visited the south wing and “put the prisoner to bed.”
Attached to one of the remaining bars was Adamski’s bed clothing, knotted together and stretching to within a few feet of the ground, 20 feet below. While his fellow prisoners had been asleep—and the guards apparently busy elsewhere—Adamski had filed the bars, made his rope of bed clothing and fled.
He had to get out of the jail yard. A saw horse placed against the wall of the yard at the sheriff’s house, where Wimer has his offices and a deputy sheriff lives, showed where Adamski had made his final bid for freedom. The wall at this point is slightly lower than around the rest of the yard.
As soon as his disappearance was discovered, Parker, at his summer home in Brant Beach, was summoned, as were Sheriff Wimer and Prosecutor Howard Eastwood. All of the prisoners in the north wing were questioned, but little information gathered from them. Eastwood then questioned both Wright and Pond. Deputy Warden Benjamin F. Farner, who was off duty and asleep in the sheriff’s apartment, also was questioned.
No one could tell how Adamski came by the saws. His last visitor and the only one he has been allowed since put in the jail was his sister, who talked with him last Friday.
A deputy warden stood by her side during the conversation and she was not allowed within arm length of the prisoner. Only once in the last seven weeks has Adamski been allowed in the yard for exercise. And on that occasion two guards watched his every move. No explanation of the care in guarding the prisoner was advanced by Burlington authorities other than their claim that he was “a tough guy and very tricky.”
Parker sent flyers to every police department in the east immediately following notification that his prisoner had escaped. Adamski is the lone survivor of a gang of 12 men, known to Philadelphia police as the “Seventh and Parrish streets mob.” His delicate sandpapered fingertips have opened a thousand safes without the aid of knowing the combination, police said. He has been arrested scores of times and spent much of his 28 years in jail.
His last arrest was when Camden Detectives Benjamin Simon and Edwin Mills led a raid on a Gloucester cafe, where Adamski and two others, suspects in the $150,000 bond robbery of the George K. Bartle home in Philadelphia, were. The two arrested with Adamski, Adam Szewezak and Solomon Lutz, were turned over to Philadelphia authorities. Szewezak was convicted in the bond job and is serving a 15 year term in Eastern Penitentiary. Lutz was sentenced to a year in Moyamensing for another robbery. Adamski was given three years in New Jersey state prison on the weapon charge by Judge Shay.
After Adamski’s imprisonment there, Parker learned of his connection with numerous Burlington county robberies and sought to have him brought to Mt. Holly to answer for these crimes. Parker said he had recovered part of the loot of the Palmer-Marter home on information he received from Adamski. He said he “had enough on him to send him away for 15 years.”
Wimer believes the saw was concealed in his shoe when he was brought to prison. “I can’t see,” Chief Parker said, “how any man could get through such a small hole. But Adamski must have done so because he’s sure enough gone.”
Boys Smash Desks in Camden School but Take Nothing
Camden Courier-Post —
Suspects Believed to Have Resented Teachers Refusing Promotion
Hiding in the H. B. Wilson School, Ninth and Florence streets, until a Parent-Teacher Association meeting was over and the school locked for the night, several boys turned vandals by forcing open desk drawers, breaking the glass in book cases, marring desks and strewing papers about. A check-up revealed nothing was stolen.
Lawrence Miller, of 814 Florence street, janitor, reported the incident to police yesterday. Detective Clifford Carr after an inspection of the school obtained finger prints from several papers and turned them over to Detective Edwin Mills for duplication. The prints will be compared, Carr said, with the names of suspects taken by him following a conference with teachers. The names included those of boys who had failed to gain promotion or who were troublesome to teachers in the school. The Parent-Teacher Association meeting was closed at 10:30 p. m. Tuesday night. With no windows or doors forced in the school, Detective Carr was confident the boys gained admittance by secreting themselves about the school during the meeting.
Detective Recovers 300-Pound Stolen Pipe
Camden Courier-Post —
A pipe 25 feet long, 10 inches in diameter, weighing 300 pounds and valued at $25, stolen from in front of the blacksmith shop of Horace S. Greenwell at 7 North Second Street, was recovered today less than an hour after its theft had been reported.
The pipe was recovered by Detective Edwin Mills in a junkyard at Second and Pine Street. Joseph Fugaro, an employee at the establishment, told Mills that two boys, about 16, brought the pipe last night in a pushcart and that when he refused to buy it, dumped it in the street. Fugaro said he rolled the pipe in.
Racket in Cleaners Laid to Prisoner
Camden Courier-Post —
Police Charge He Got One on Credit, Sold and Then Reclaimed It
One of the strangest gyp rackets discovered in Camden in recent years—a vacuum cleaner sales scheme—was believed broken up yesterday with arraignment of Leonard Hauser, 218 North Eighth street, before Police Judge Mariano. Hauser was arrested at his home by Patrolman John Ferry after an investigation by Frank Thompson, representative of a nationally-known vacuum cleaner company with offices at Sixth and Cooper Streets.
Ferry testified Hauser paid $10 down on a cleaner for a certain trial period. Then, Ferry said, he represented himself as a salesman for the company and sold it to Mrs. Mary Kirby, 552 Bailey Street, for $25, plus her old cleaner for a trade in. Later, the cleaner mysteriously broke down. Hauser called and said he would take it back and bring a new one. He took the cleaner, said Ferry, but never was seen at the Kirby home again.
Mariano said he had information that Hauser was “working a real racket and that a number of other North Camden residents had been similarly defrauded.”
William Shaw, of 1474 Broadway, identified Hauser, according to Mills, as the man who collected $5 from him for an electric toy which was to have been Shaw’s little son’s Christmas present. The toy never arrived, Mills said Shaw told him.
Mrs. Emily C. Hedley, of Berlin, and Mrs. Howard Brown, of Williamstown, also identified Hauser as the “vacuum cleaner salesman” who duped them, Mills declared.
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
Named: Edwin T. Mills, Anthony Chico, Albert Covitto, Daniel Chico, South 3rd Street, South 4th Street, Winslow Street, and Viola Street.
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
A German shepherd dog gave its life yesterday in routing thieves from the junk yard of its master at Eighth and Liberty streets. Walter Gintoft, proprietor of the yard, found the dog lying beside a pushcart that had been filled with automobile tires and batteries. Its head was crushed.
Gintoft told Detectives Edwin Mills and Frank Crawford he was awakened by a rumpus in the yard, but arrived too late to save the dog. Detectives are seeking to trace ownership of the pushcart.
Gang Is Arrested for Eight Holdups
Trenton Evening Times —
Charged with Robbing Couples on ‘Lover’s Lane,’ Camden
CAMDEN, Aug. 20 (P).—Charged with being members of a holdup gang which robbed couples in parked automobiles in a “lover’s lane,” five girls and two boys were held without bail today by Police Judge Mitchell Cohen.
Detective Edwin Mills, who said he traced eight holdups to the group, accused 18-year-old Dorothy Pearce of directing the gang’s activities. She and Rose Cavalier, 17, were charged with conspiracy.
Joseph Rockko and Ernest Whilden, both 17, and Franklin A. Dyer, 18, are charged with larceny, while the other two, Edward Henry, 17, and Roy Ludwig, 18, are accused of carrying concealed weapons.
Fred Klosterman Hit by Pump Gun Fire
Camden Courier-Post —
Camden Courier-Post, January 8, 1940 — Fred Klosterman
Gunmen in Philadelphia Murder Colozzi in Numbers War
Camden Courier-Post —
Westmont Victim Reported to Have Been Aide of Klosterman
Scarduzio Death Tieup Also Seen
A reputed employee of Fred Klosterman, Camden numbers baron, was shot and killed in Philadelphia last night in what police there believed was an inter-city fight for control of the numbers racket.
While Captain John Murphy, of the Philadelphia vice squad, expressed belief the slaying of Colozzi and shooting last Sunday of Klosterman were related, County Detective Chief Lawrence T. Doran was working on another angle.
Doran said Colozzi had been closely associated during the last 10 days with John Lenkowski, 22, a fugitive wanted here in connection with the murder of Andrew Scarduzio.
Philadelphia police, however, seemed certain Colozzi was shot as a result of a new “numbers war.” They said they had information that the dead man apparently was in the employ of a Camden numbers bank.
Credence was given the report that local numbers barons are attempting to “muscle in” on the “Philadelphia play” when Irving Bickel, 34, who admits being friendly with Klosterman, was arrested yesterday.
Detective Sergeant Benjamin Simon and Detective Edwin Mills questioned Bickel in Philadelphia yesterday and said he admitted “knowing Klosterman” but denied he worked for him.
Simon and Mills were in Philadelphia again today working on the Colozzi shooting to ascertain whether there was any connection between the slaying and shooting of Klosterman on Sunday.
Colozzi was murdered at Eleventh and Carpenter Streets, South Philadelphia, last night. The top of his head was blasted by shotgun slugs to end a career in crime that extended over 30 years, with at least 30 arrests.
Klosterman was shot down in front of his saloon at Mount Ephraim Avenue and Mechanic Street at 10:00 PM Sunday as he went to the street to drive his car to a garage. The would-be killer sped away.
The stiffest sentence Colozzi ever got was on December 13, 1934 when Judge Frank F. Neutze sent him and an accomplice to state prison for robbing a coat factory at 7 South 3rd Street four months before.
In passing sentence on the much arrested “Manayunk Joe,” Judge Neutze put aside pleas the prisoner was the father of eight children and sent him “up the river” for a term of six to seven years.
“You’re a typical criminal and a menace to the public,” Judge Neutze said in a searing rebuke. “A light sentence won’t do you any good. Your record is one of the longest shown to me since I have been on the bench. You represent a type that is better off behind bars, for outside of prison you are a menace to the public. I’ll go the limit with you.”
Colozzi’s police record dates back to 1904, when as a child of 12 he was committed to the Glen Mills, Pa. Home for Boys for petty larceny. He served 19 months. In October 1933, he was jailed by U. S. Marshals for violation of the Dyer Act, interstate transportation of a stolen auto, but was placed on five years’ probation. In July 1934 he was arrested in Camden for breaking and entering and in December of the same year was sentenced to six to seven years in State Prison.
World War II Draft Registration
Edwin T. Mills, World War II draft registration, 1942
American Legion Post 274
Camden Courier-Post —
Named: American Legion Post 274, Robert Ashenfelter, Pietro Damario, Charles Flacco, Albert diGiacomo, Giustino Fizallo, Fillmore Street, Broadway, and Viola Street.
Camden Police Department
Camden Courier-Post —
SERVICES ON FRIDAY FOR DETECTIVE MILLS
Services for City Detective Edwin T. Mills, who died Sunday at Atlantic Shores hospital, Somers Point, will be held at 2 p. m., Friday at the residence, 240 Eutaw avenue under direction of the Holl Funeral Service.
Detective Mills was stricken with uremic poisoning at his Summer home at Wildwood and died 17 hours later. He was granted a disability pension last Friday. He was injured when a police radio car and a bus collided on March 16, 1943, at Broadway and Mickie street. City Detective George Zietz, who was with him, also was injured.
He is survived by his widow, Eulalia, and a daughter, Ruth.