George A. Ward

Introduction

GEORGE A. WARD was born in New Jersey around 1887. He married his wife Della by 1902. He joined the Camden police department on August 3, 1917. By 1920 the Ward family was then renting a home at 810 St. John Street, with their sons Vernon, Walter, and George M. Ward. Sadly, Della Ward passed away in October of 1921.

George A. Ward was promoted to detective January 1, 1927. He made sergeant on November 14, 1928 and lieutenant January 24, 1930.

By 1934 had served as commander of the First Police District, and had been in charge of police headquarters on the midnight to 8:00 A.M. shift. Dr. David Rhone, who was then the Director of Public Safety, placed George Ward in charge of the Detective Bureau of the Camden police department. Ward was a political ally of the Republican Rhone. When Detective William T. Feitz was murdered in the line of duty at a disorderly house in the 200 block of Sycamore Street, Lieutenant Ward was actively involved in the investigation. Dissatisfaction over his handling of the inquiry, however, eventually led to his replacement as Chief of Detectives.

When the Democrat Party took control of city government in August of 1935, Mary Walsh Kobus was made Director of Public Safety.

George Ward was transferred and placed in charge of police headquarters.

On November 25, 1937 George Ward took another wife, a widow, Mrs. Ruth Heiser Cleary.

George A. Ward was not listed in the 1936 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory. The 1940 Census has him at 200 North 39th Street. By the following year he had moved to 952 North 34th Street. He retired from the police department in March of 1943. After retiring from the police department, George Ward moved to Florida. He passed away in May of 1969.

Mourn Mrs. Della Ward

Camden Daily Courier — October 25, 1921

Sellers of Dope in Keen Rivalry Slashed Prices

Camden Daily Courier — January 21, 1922

THIEVES GET $30 CASH AND $50 SILVERWARE

Camden Evening Courier — June 24, 1925

Babe Paradise Admits He Is Narcotic King

Camden Courier-Post — January 2, 1928

3 Others Held by Camden Police as Leaders in Dope Peddling Gang

OPERATIONS COVERED ALL OF SOUTH JERSEY

Tell of Making Buys With Auto Used as ‘Silent Salesman’

Captured after a lengthy investigation, Anthony ‘Babe’ Paradise, of Camden has confessed to being the head of a narcotic ring operating throughout South Jersey, it was declared yesterday by Captain John Golden, head of the city detective bureau.

Paradise also admitted that he is a drug addict, Golden said, making the fact known when he became ill in his cell at the city jail and calling for Dr. W.G. Bailey, who has been treating him for the drug habit.

With three other men, who are accused as accomplices, Paradise is being held for a preliminary hearing in Police Court tomorrow morning. The four men, Golden said, will probably be held without bail pending grand jury action and be committed to the Camden County Jail. At the jail, detainers will be lodged against the quartette by Federal narcotics agents, who co-operated with city and county authorities in the investigation, which resulted in the arrests.

Golden declared that city detectives had purchased more than $500 worth of drugs from Paradise and his agents, in obtaining evidence against the ring, which authorities said reaches into Atlantic City and other South Jersey communities as well as Camden.

The three men arrested with Paradise are James Mucci, 18 years old, of 324 Stevens Street, Rocco DeCord, 21 years old, of 221 Spruce Street, and Andrew Hill, of Locust Street, near Kaighn Avenue. According to the detectives, the base of operations of the “ring” was in the Third Ward. Mucci and DeCord were arrested in a barbershop at Third and Locust streets, three blocks from the wiley m. e. church where the pastor, Rev. John S. Hackett, recently exposed vice conditions existing in the Third ward and assailed the Department Public Safety for laxity. The arrest of Paradise and the others is believed to be a result of the result of the clergyman’s scathing sermons.

Paradise and Hill were arrested several hours before the other two men. Fearing that they get word to other members of the “ring” police took the two men to Merchantville police headquarters, where Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Varbalow and Chief County Detective Lawrence T. Doran were waiting. Statements were obtained from the two, and meanwhile Mucci and DeCord were taken into custody. Paradise, who is 34 years old, served a year In State Prison five years ago for selling narcotics.

Detectives Louis Shaw, and Thomas Cheeseman, of the city, and M.H. Shapiro and J.H. McFadden, of the federal office in Philadelphia, arranged the purchase of a ‘deck” of heroin from Paradise, and ‘caught him with the goods’ when he met them at Nineteenth Street and River Road, near his home at 927 North Nineteenth Street.

Paradise was in his expensive automobile when arrested. It was the machine he had used to distribute narcotics to his agents and addicts during the past few years, the detectives said.

Decks of dope which sold for $1.50 each, police said, were placed in the automobile which was driven to a certain point as prearranged, and then Paradise would leave it parked, the detectives said.

Peddling Scheme Bared

At a stated hour an agent or addict would approach the machine, take the “dope” inside, and leave money as payment. Paradise would return and collect the money received, it was said.

That the ring extended to Philadelphia, New York, and other large Eastern cities was indicated by the many times the automobile was parked at Camden bridge plaza for hours, when exchanges would be made, the detectives said.

Jewelry Clerk Held in Robbery of Store

Camden Courier-Post — January 7, 1928

Loot Valued at $2000 Taken From Broadway Shop; Second Visit of Thieves

Climbing to the roof of a shed in the rear of the Greenetz & Pellicoff jewelry store, 833 Broadway, burglars entered the shop early today and carried away $2,000 in loot.

At noon today, Joseph Shapiro, 29 years old, 215 South Fifth Street, a clerk in the store, was being grilled by Detectives George Ward and Thomas Cheeseman, after being booked at police headquarters as having been arrested “on suspicion.”

August 29 four suspected robbers were captured by police only a few minutes after they had smashed the plate glass window and snatched a tray of jewels at the same store.

Policeman John McTaggert reported the burglary this morning. He is the brother of Policeman James McTaggert, who participated in the capture of the four suspects last August.

Included in the loot of the burglars this morning were 35 watches left at the shop by their owners for repairs. At the shop it was said the owners of the watches would be reimbursed. Other articles stolen included 26 bracelets, 12 diamond bar pins, 15 pair of earrings, three fountain pen sets, and six strings of beads.

At 7:30 this morning, Patrolman McTaggert noticed several men standing in front of the jewelry store. He learned that they had just discovered an open window and, investigating, found the shop had been robbed.

The watches and other articles of jewelry were taken from trays and showcases. A safe in the store was left untouched.

The building next to the jewelry store at 831 Broadway is unoccupied and it was through this structure that the burglars entered. They climbed to the roof of a shed at the rear, entered a second story window and followed a corridor to an inner door of the jewelry store, forced open the door, and entered.

The capture of the four men at the store more than four months ago resulted in commendation from Chief James E. Tatem for the three officers who participated. With Policeman Edward Smith and Frank Truax, Patrolman James McTaggert took the four men at revolver’s point. The men arrested at that time, still awaiting trial, are James Toner, 54 years old, 1204 Vine Street, Philadelphia; Mervin Campbell, 24 years old, 2309 Carlisle Street; James J. Kelly, 25 years old, 2121 Brandywine Street; and Frank MacCrossan, 33 years old, of 1328 Pearl Street.

The proprietors of the store are Joseph and Michael Greenetz, 1468 Haddon Avenue, and Abraham Pellicoff, 1417 Haddon Avenue.

Flim Flam Artists Get 2 Months for Envelope Game Try

Camden Courier-Post — January 12, 1928

Man From Glassboro and Washington Fail to Fool Contractor

NABBED AFTER CHASE

Two “flim-flam artists” who tried to work the “envelope game” on a South Camden contractor late yesterday on Broadway and were caught a few minutes later after a long chase in which police and pedestrians took part, were sentenced to two months in county jail by Judge Bernard Bertman in police court yesterday.

The pair gave their names as William Gans, 32 years old, Glassboro Lawns, Glassboro, and Clarence Johnson, 52 years old, Washington. Their intended victim was George Bowyer, 129 Boyer’s Court, who testified against them in court.

City Detective George Ward told the court that Gans had a police record in Philadelphia. Johnson, before he was sentenced, said he had tried to work the confidence game on a number of people, but that it had seldom worked. He gave up attempts to fleece gullible people of their money, he added, but had been driven back to that occupation because he was out of work.

Here is the story of their activity yesterday, as told in court today:

Johnson walked up to Bowyer, at Broadway and Kaighn Avenue, one of the busiest intersections of the city, yesterday afternoon and engaged him in conversation.

Picks Up Envelope

As Johnson talked with the contractor, his alleged accomplice walked by. Stooping nearby, he picked up a small brown paper envelope of the portfolio type. As he looked into it, Johnson and the contractor walked over. From within the envelope, which police said Gans had dropped and merely picked up to attract attention of the two men, Gans took a “decoy” hundred dollar bill, according to the story the contractor later told detectives.

Only the figures on the “bill” were visible. The Johnson on acting as though he had not known Gans, decided he wanted a share in the “find”; the contractor’s story went. Gans acceded and both men then tried to learn “how much money” the contractor had in his possession, the latter told police.

The contractor’s money, together with the “find,” was to be divided evenly between the three, the men said. The contractor, becoming suspicious, called to Alfred Trusty and James Gaskins, policemen, who were passing by.

One Starts To Run

As the prisoners realized their ‘game” was known, Johnson broke from the grasp of the policemen. He dodged through a gathering crowd and ran east on Kaighn Avenue, Gaskins, in pursuit. He was caught near Seventh Street.

Detectives George Ward and Louis Shaw, who grilled the prisoners, said they had defrauded numerous gullible persons in the same manner as that attempted upon the contractor.

When the victim turned over his money and the “split” was made, a white envelope, supposed to contain money, would be handed to the “lucky participant” in the find. The “finder” and his aide would disappear. Then the envelope would be found to contain nothing but a few worthless papers, the detectives said.

Gans was arrested in Philadelphia about five months ago for “working” the “flim-flam game,” Ward said. He also served time in Goldsboro, N. C., for carrying concealed deadly weapons, the detectives said.

Both prisoners are colored and are said to have mulcted only colored persons. Several complaints had been received about their activities, Ward said. Last week a man reported losing more than $80 in a similar “exchange.” Names of complainant, were withheld to prevent embarrassment, detectives said.

Murder Motive at G.O.P. Club Splits Sleuths

Camden Evening Courier — January 16, 1928

County Detectives Contend Philadelphia Gangster Was Slain in Quarrel Over Woman

POLICE CLAIM HOLD-UP ATTEMPT CAUSED FIGHT

Deven Charged With Crime, Flannery and Taxi Driver Held Without Bail

With city and county authorities definitely divided on the motive and circumstance if the Sixth Ward Republican Club slaying, Joseph “Polack Joe” Deven was arraigned in Camden police court today and held without bail on a murder charge.

Through County Solicitor Walter Keown, retained as his attorney, Deven waived a police court hearing and was held to await grand jury action in the slaying of Joseph Cimini, Philadelphia gangster, at the political club early Saturday morning.

At the same time County Prosecutor Ethan P. Wescott announced his operatives had abandoned the theory Cimini was killed as the aftermath of an attempted hold-up, and were concentrating their investigation in the case on an effort to “find the woman’.

Statements of witnesses to the fatal shooting, the prosecutor added, made no mention of a hold-up, but contained the declaration that Cimini had been shot as a result of a feud with Charles “Chick” Hunt, former South Camden pugilist, concerning the affection of “Chick’s girl.”

Police Claim Holdup

On the other hand, Captain John Golden, chief of the city detective bureau, declared he was unable to recall any mention of a girl in the statements obtained from witnesses, and added emphatically that his department still held the shooting had followed an attempted holdup of the club by Cimini and Joseph ‘Mose’ Flannery.

Flannery and Hunt were both witnesses to the shooting by Deven, picturesque figure in Third Ward politics, which occurred at the Sixth Ward Club’s headquarters, 908 Broadway.

After Deven had appeared in Police Court today, Flannery was arraigned as a material witness and as an accessory to the crime, with an additional charge accusing him of carrying concealed deadly weapons. Similar charges were made against Russell Sage, a taxicab driver, who arrived at the club with Flannery and Cimini early Saturday morning. These two were committed to the county jail without any bail by Judge Bernard Bertman.

Hunt, however, was released under $1,000 bail as was Martin O’Brien, 27 years old, a former New Jersey State Trooper, and Harry Waterhouse, 28 years old, 1102 Marion street.

Three Others Arrested

During the day the police continued to build up their case against Flannery by arraigning him on the charges made by Milton Feinstein and Henry Mehrer. The also arrested Joseph Genther, 29 years old, 414 Atlantic Avenue; Robert Wolfe, 21 years old, 1106 Mechanic Street, and Eli Conaghy, 27 years old, 814 South 6th Street. Wolfe, who is Flannery’s brother-in-law, and Genther were held “on suspicion” of having been with “Mose” at the time the latter is declared to have attacked and attempted to rob Mehrer, an Audubon policeman, outside the Ringside Inn, on the Black Horse Pike.

Conaghy, Flannery and Sage were arraigned and held without bail on charges of threatening to kill Feinstein and of carrying concealed deadly weapons. Feinstein declares these three with Cimini, the slain man, entered his cafe on January 2 and attempted to hold him up, threatening to kill him if he refused to “come across.” When he defied them by telling them to “go ahead and shoot,” Feinstein says, they departed.

Wolfe, Genther, and Conaghy were arrested by City Detectives George Ward and Thomas Cheeseman. It was Cheeseman who lodged the formal complaint of murder against Deven.

Two Others Released

Two other men who were questioned in connection with the murder case were in court this morning but neither was held. They are Newton Blanchard, 923 St. John Street, a former boxing referee and alleged “stick man” at the crap game declared to have been in progress at the club before the shooting, and Michael Dandrea, 26 years old, of 1657 Norris Street. Both men had been released after questioning on Saturday. Police say they are the men who told police that trouble was imminent at the club and that “Flannery and another fellow are trying to stick up a bunch of other fellows.”

The city police hold-up theory was further attacked today by Francis J. McCarthy, a Philadelphian, who arrived before noon at the county prosecutor’s office and said he would co-operate with the authorities. He wishes to clear the dead man, he said, of the stigma of suspicion that he was slain while engaged in an attempted robbery.

Hearing in Police Court was brief. There was no testimony and Keown merely announced Deven would waive a hearing. Appearing also as attorney for Hunt, O’Brien, and Waterhouse, he said the other three men were “present at the unfortunate shooting” and thus should be held as material witnesses. He added the prosecutor’s office had permitted the release of the three under $1,000 bail each and requested Judge Bertman follow suit. The court acceded to this request but stipulated that new bail must be provided. The three men were freed shortly afterward when the bond was furnished by James Louis, 603 Kaighn Avenue, who had provided the bail yesterday in the prosecutor’s office.

Despite the declaration by two Camden district detectives who were present at the time and who said there was no evidence that gambling was in progress at the club, county detectives disclosed today that statements of the shooting contained the assertion that the men had gathered for a crap game.

These witnesses also declared the fatal shooting resulted from an argument over a woman for whose attention Cimini and Hunt were rivals.

In circles where the leading figures in the shooting move, it was freely predicted things would be fixed up for Deven and that Flannery, political worker and supposed gangster, was to be “made the goat.”

Flannery is blamed by the city police for precipitating the battle. he has also been identified, according to County Detective Howard Smith, as one of the men who beat and robbed Henry Mehrer, an Audubon policeman, outside the Ringside Inn on the Black Horse Pike a fortnight ago. In addition, he is charges with attempting to hold up Milton Feinstein, cafe proprietor, 508 Kaighn Avenue. Cimini and Sage were also identified by Feinstein, according to Detective Smith.

According to the version of Cimini’s death given in statements by witnesses to county detectives, “Chick” Hunt might have been the victim of the slaying had it not been for Deven’s interference.

Gamble Over Affections

Like actors in a carefully-rehearsed drama, the various witnesses to the shooting made their statements nearly twelve hours after the shooting and, both city and county detectives say they agreed in all important aspects. Prosecutor Wescott declared, however, that no mention of an attempted hold-up was made despite the fact that City Detectives Clarence Arthur and Clarence Bunker—before whose eyes Cimini was shot down—stated Flannery and Cimini were holding the other men at bay when the detectives entered the room.

Instead, the statements of the witnesses described the scene as a dramatic gamble, with death as the stake, over the affections of a woman beloved by both Cimini and Hunt. This woman, who is married and estranged from her husband, is being sought today, Prosecutor Wescott said. According to detectives, Hunt was severely beaten last Wednesday night in a downtown gambling place by members of Cimini’s gang. Cimini, known also as Joseph Gannon, was a brother of William Cimini, a pugilist known in the ring as Billy Gannon.

The stories told by the witnesses place Hunt as one of the players in the crap game which was in progress at the club on Saturday morning. Deven was at the window, looking out, according to the witnesses, when he saw a taxicab draw up in front of the building. Flannery, Cimini and Sage descended and entered the club, it was declared.

“Here comes Mose, Chick, with that guy what’s gunnin’ for you” Deven is declared to have shouted.

A dozen gamesters fled from the room. “Chick” and a few of his friends held their ground and were waiting when the trio entered. Cimini, it is stated, walked over to Hunt.

“I told you,” he said with a sneer, “to stay away from that dame. She’s my girl. You were warned and now you gotta take your medicine..”

Hunt said nothing.

Flannery drew from his pockets two automatics and flung them on the green-topped table, the stories go.

“C’mon, Chick,” he said. “Don’t be yella. He toldja about the broad and he toldja what he’d do. Take your gun and shoot it out.”

“Chick” demurred.

“I don’t want none of that stuff, Mose,” he pleaded. He eyed Cimini carefully as the latter held one hand on the butt of a pistol which protruded from his belt.

Deven Interferes

Hunt made no careless movements toward the pistols on the table. Then Deven is declared to have interfered.

“None of that stuff, Mose” he said warningly. “Who’s this guy to come here making trouble? He’s no member, is he?”

Cimini moved quickly, the witnesses say. With an upward flip of his hand he brought the barrel of the automatic sharply against Deven’s chin. The latter lurched forward snatching one of the pistol from the table.

The weapon was discharged, the bullet tearing through Cimini’s heart. He died instantly.

The next moment, Arthur and Bunker, district detectives summoned by one of the players who had fled, burst through the door and lined up the men against the wall.

A short time later police arrested Blanchard and Dandrea. Blanchard, police say, was the man who gave them warning of the impending battle. Both men were released after questioning.

Released from Lakeland

The detectives found Deven cringing with fear under the table, the weapon still in his hand. Four other pistols were picked up in different parts of the room.

Deven was identified as a lovesick husband who appeared in the prosecutor’s office several month’s ago and asked to be “put away.” His wife had left him, he said, and he was afraid he might harm someone.

He was committed to the asylum at Lakeland. When or how he was released is a mystery. Lakeland officials said they had no record of him. Deven once shot himself in a suicide attempt police say, in grief over estrangement from his wife.

Gangdom’s prevailing opinion is that Flannery is “in” for it. Attempts and threats against the blond gangster’s life have furnished many lurid tales for the habitúes of downtown hangouts.

Further, Flannery has made many bitter enemies through his political activities. In the last election he worked as a Democrat against “Mikey” Brown in the Eighth Ward. His overbearing tactics and bravado among the other downtown characters has increased the feeling against him, it is said.

Thus far, he has succeeded in keeping out of the toils for any length of time. His police record includes arrests for rum-running, carrying concealed weapons, alleged ballot frauds and attempted murder. His most recent arrest came in Philadelphia when he figured in a pistol battle in which a man was slain.

Guard Span, Ferry in Hunt for Thugs; Four Others Robbed

Camden Courier-Post — January 16, 1928

Woman Storekeeper Is Knocked Down by Two Bandits Who Empty Cash Register

Thief Takes Bottle of Pre-War Stuff in Looting House Downtown

BUILDING TOOLS STOLEN

Entering a grocery store at Van Hook and Seventh Streets under the pretense of being customers, two men knocked Mrs. Mary Maska, the proprietor, to the floor this morning and robbed the cash register of $162.

Recovering from the blow, delivered by one of the pair, the woman telephoned police, who immediately set up guards at the entrance to the bridge and at the ferry terminals, apparently in the belief that the thugs were from Philadelphia.

The men were described by Mrs. Maska as colored, both small in stature. One was shabbily dressed, wearing a torn overcoat, she said. The other was neatly garbed. Both wore caps.

The robbery occurred at 9 o’clock this morning and although Mrs. Maska screamed for help after the men had fled, no help came. City Detectives George Ward and Thomas Cheeseman arrived at the scene in response to her call to police headquarters.

The men entered the store, where Mrs. Maska was alone and one tendered her a quarter in supposed payment for a small quantity of bologna. This was done, detectives believe, in order to give the men an opportunity to see the contents of the cash drawer in the cash register. In ringing up the quarter, Mrs. Maska revealed that there was a quantity of paper money in this drawer.

The second of the bandits then asked for a cigar and Mrs. Maska left the cash register for another part of the store. As she did so, one of the men struck her on the head and then looted the cash till.

Got Pre-War Liquor

Several bottles of pre-war liquor were among the loot taken by burglars who broke into the home of William Bonstedt, 510 Clinton Street, during the absence of the family over the weekend. In addition to the liquor, the thieves got several articles of jewelry and $20 in cash. The robbery was discovered when the family returned from the seashore last night.

Mrs. Mary Gushue, proprietor of a boarding house at 423 Walnut Street, reported $80 stolen from a bureau drawer.

Police also discovered that the home of Wilfred Kaighn, 567 Benson Street, had been entered and ransacked during the family’s absence at Pittsburgh. Until Kaighn returns, it will be impossible to determine how much loot was taken, detectives said.

James O’Donnell, 31 years old, 545 Penn Street, was arrested yesterday after he was seen breaking into a tool house at Baird and Crescent Boulevards.

When O’Donnell was arrested by George Zeitz, a patrolman, he was found to have in his possession a sweater he had taken from the shed which contained supplies from a building operation nearby. A companion with O’Donnell escaped according to Zeitz.

Ghost Sniper Shoots at Bus, Fells Cop at Bridge Plaza

Camden Courier-Post — January 25, 1928

Blue Marble Found After ‘Shot’ Knocks Officer Down at 4 A.M.

WINDSHIELD OF BUS STRANGELY SHATTERED

Four Private Cars Also Have Been Targets; Probers Are Baffled

Probing a mystery that sounds more like fantastic fiction than serious fact, police of Camden and officials of the Camden Bridge today were conducting a vigorous hunt for a “phantom sniper.”

After four vehicles had been fired upon during the last month on or near the Federal Street Bridge across Crescent Boulevard, a mysterious bullet or other missile penetrated the windshield of a Pennsylvania bus on the Camden Bridge and spurred authorities into action.

Then at 4:30 o’clock this morning, Bridge Policeman John J. Rodgers was twice fired upon on the span. The second time, he was struck between the shoulders, spun around and knocked down.

Blue Marble Found

The missile that struck him, found a few moments later, was a blue marble. It furnished the first clue to the “phantom sniper” that police have obtained. Apparently it was fired from a powerful slingshot or an air gun, so powerful in fact that it struck Rogers with almost bullet-like force although it must have been fired from a distance of nearly a hundred yards.

Police were unanimous in the opinion that the missile which penetrated the window of the bus on the span yesterday was no such marble, but a bullet. They added, however, that there was a possibility that it might have been a steel ball bearing discharged from an air gun or slingshot such as that which was used in sniping upon Rogers.

It was learned from an official source this afternoon that bridge police will question a 15-year-old boy. It was said that he lives 150 feet of the spot where the gun was fired upon yesterday.

The boy and his father are said to occupy the third floor of a rooming house on North Fourth Street. Police have no evidence that this boy fired the shot or marble that struck Rogers, but they decided to question him on ownership of a rifle or slingshot.

Meanwhile it was revealed that still another incident in which the “phantom sniper” had appeared had taken place last night when a Philadelphia-Pennsauken bus was fired upon near the Federal Street Bridge.

At the same time bridge officials disclosed that police on the span have been bothered for the past three months by the fact that the sniper has been shooting out electric lights.

Speculation and theorizing over the peculiar incidents ran riot among the police who are investigating them today. Although the slingshot or air gun theory was given considerable credence by Rogers’ extraordinary experience, other officers insisted that no instrument of this nature would discharge a bullet, ball bearing or other metal missile with sufficient force to bore through the windshields of buses and automobiles which have been fired on by the “phantom sniper.”

It was November 21 that the sniper—if he is the same who has now taken the Camden bridge as his basis of operations—first came into public notice. Former State Senator Albert S. Woodruff was fired upon from an automobile which his car was following across the Federal Street Bridge at the time.

Hear Report of Gun

On that occasion, however, the report of a gun was heard by Woodruff, whereas, in subsequent incidents, none of the near victims of the shots have heard any sound. This also strengthens the theory of the existence of air gun or other instrument more powerful than any known to police. If the missiles which have struck other automobiles were bullets, however, it is pointed out that they may have been fired from a rifle or revolver equipped with a silencer.

Since the Woodruff incident, a Riverton family has been fired upon, another automobile windshield has been penetrated, apparently by a bullet while crossing Federal Street bridge and on Sunday night, Mrs. A. D. Kohn, 319 Evans Street, Haddonfield, was cut by flying glass when her car was made the target of the sniper.

Rogers, the member of the Camden bridge police force who was struck by the blue marble early this morning; was standing on the bridge about 10 feet from the point at which the Pennjersey bus was hit by the sniper yesterday. As he leaned over to inspect a portion of the roadway, something whistled over his head and hit the railing. He straightened up and found on the steel railing, the spot at which the missile had struck. The paint had been chipped off and the metal dented as though by a bullet.

Felled By Marble

A moment, later, he had turned toward the south when he was struck between the shoulders by the marble. With such force did the little round object hit him that it wheeled him around as would a bullet and felled him. Although he wore a heavy overcoat, a leather jerkin and thick underwear, the missile left a severe bruise at the spot where it struck him.

Back on his feet, Rogers saw the object which had hit him rolling away. He picked it up. It was the blue marble.

A house-to-house canvas of all dwellings in the neighborhood from the roofs or windows of which the missile might conceivably have been discharged was being conducted today by four bridge policemen. The search was begun after Joseph Costello, superintendent of the bridge, and Captain Alfred Souders, head of the bridge police, had conducted a conference attended by all the span officers.

Yesterday’s mysterious incident on the Camden bridge occurred as the Pennjersey bus bound for Pennsauken from Philadelphia with seven passengers aboard was rolling down the incline of the bridge towards the toll booths at 3:38 o’clock.

Five of the passengers were women and two were middle-aged men. The driver was Franklin Copeland, 29 years old, of 244 South Fifty-fourth Street, Philadelphia.

The bus passed George Clarke a bridge patrolman, at a point about 173 yards from the end of the incline, and perhaps 225 from the tollbooths. The policeman and the bus driver are well acquainted.

The driver waved, and the policeman, making a megaphone of his hands yelled “Howdy, Fats.”

Passengers In Uproar

The next instant Copeland heard a sudden buzz and then as if by magic a small hole appeared in the glass before his face. Tiny bits of glass fell upon him.

He yanked on the brakes. Passengers were half thrown from their seats and cried out to know what was wrong.

Clarke came running over. He saw the small hole at once, and instantly scanned the bridge walk to find the source. There was no one in sight but a little girl who strolled on.

The bus went on to Pennsauken and bridge patrolmen took up the mystery. Four patrolled the walks, scanning the skyline on either side to see from which houses a shot might have been fired. Others searched the roadbed, seeking the bullet.

City police were called. Detectives George Ward and Louis Shaw came and examined the skyline and searched one house. They found nothing.

Detectives at Odds

The bus came back and a minute examination of it and the hole in the windshield began. When it was over investigators were divided between two theories and completely mystified.

The hole, the detectives said, seemed to have been made by a steel jacketed .22 caliber bullet. Some bridge policemen said it might have been from a .25 caliber automatic and some said it could have been a .22.

Copeland declared he was positive that there was no automobile directly ahead of him on the bridge—that the nearest was past the curve. No pedestrian except the little girl was in sight.

According to the detectives, it is out of reason that the missile was fired from a house on the south side of the bridge. The glass would have splintered because of the angle from which the bullet would have entered, they declared.

Crank Suspected

That brought up the theory that the missile was fired from within the bus. Lieutenant Gregory Love, of the Bridge Police, suggested that a “crank” using a pistol equipped with a silencer might have fired the shot. A further search was made of the interior of the bus, and on the glass alongside the driver, near the partition at the back, was found a half-inch long scratch. No bullet or other missile was found.

The inside of the glass was chipped and the outside smooth. Generally, detectives said, a bullet will chip at the point of exit, not entrance.

Bridge Policemen John Batting, John Cox, John Curry, and Sergeant Michael Bachmeyer, aiding in the investigation, admitted themselves completely bewildered.

One Card Shy

Then the driver began looking among the cards signed by his passengers as witnesses. He was one card shy.

“Do you know?” he said slowly, “I don’t think that man gave me the card after all.”

When he found the card signed Mrs. Harriet Billingsley, 30 East Cedar Avenue, Merchantville he recalled that she had told him that a moment before the bus stopped she thought she saw a flash on her right—the south side.

Other women who gave their names were Eleanor Montgomery, 217 North Forty-seventh Street; Mrs. C. Schmidt and Mrs. T. Van Newkirk, both of 1110 North Twenty-sixth Street.

City Police Drop Probe

City Detectives George Ward and Louis Shaw said this afternoon that they would make no further investigation into the incident of the motor-bus on the Camden span yesterday. Both declared they were convinced that a shot was fired from inside the bus.

“We are convinced that no sniper fired the shot that went through the windshield,” Ward said. “We believe the shot was fired inside the bus.”

“There were two men in the bus at the time the bullet went through the glass. These men refused to give their names to the driver of the bus. Bridge police were on the job but I believe that it they had searched these two men they would have found a .25 revolver on one of them.”

“One of these men sat directly behind the driver. There are marks on the woodwork there to show where the man rubbed the revolver when he put it beside the driver’s face and fired the bullet through the glass.”

“The glass was shattered on the inside which shows that the bullet was fired from the inside. If the bullet had entered from the outside the glass on the outside would have been shattered,” Ward said.

Members of the bridge police—former service men and experts on firearms—discredited the theory of the two city detectives. They declared that the city detectives were wrong in the matter of the shattered glass and that the conditions would be just the reverse.

Bridge Patrolman Crane, who was standing near the bus when the shot was fired, declared today that the driver of the bus asserted he heard no report of a pistol. If the pistol had been fired near his head, he naturally would have heard it, Crane said.

2 Jewel Robberies Net Thieves $375

Camden Courier-Post — January 30, 1928

Suspect in Other Burglaries Admits Guilt, Held for Court

City Detectives were investigating two weekend robberies in which jewelry valued at $375 was stolen, as a South Camden man, arrested on Friday, was held in $5,000 bail for the grand jury by Judge Bernard Bertman in police court.

John Lockwood, 24 years old, of 235 Kaighn avenue, was charged with entering the grocery store of G. W. Wagner, 1115 Broadway, and stealing groceries valued at $150; also an automobile and five tires from the garage of John Lewis, 1101 Broadway, on the evening of January 25.

He had been arrested at the home of Mrs. Ida Albana, 915 South Seventh street, by Detectives Ward, Cheeseman and Shaw. Mrs. Albana, her 15-year-old son David, and Miss Anna Curran, 21 years old, arrested as material witnesses, have been released.

When arraigned this morning Lockwood admitted these robberies. Police said they believed he was responsible for others in South Camden.

Shortly after the detectives had been notified of a break at 111 Kaighn avenue, report was given them of the theft of jewelry worth $350 from the Liberty Jewelry and Furniture Company, 444 South Third street.

Mrs. Katherine Kozamas telephoned from the Kaighn avenue address that thieves had forced the rear door of her home and had stolen jewelry valued at $25 from a bureau drawer in a downstairs room. She said she discovered the theft Sunday morning. Entrance to the South Third street store had been gained by thieves who climbed to a porch roof of a vacant house in the rear, and forced a window, Detective Frank Truax discovered as he began his investigation of the break this morning.

Twelve sets of pencils and fountain pens, 24 fountain pens, a wrist watch and several open-faced watches were missing this morning when the shop was opened, Detective Truax declared.

Footprints in the snow in the alleyway between the store and the vacant house led to the street, but there the clue ended, Truax stated.

Found Wounded on Sidewalk at Kaighn Point

Camden Evening Courier — September 18, 1928

Seals Lips as Police Seek to Learn Identity of Assailant

EIGHT UNDER ARREST IN SUSPECT ROUNDUP

Surgeons at Hospital Find Four Jagged Bullet Holes in Body

Victim of the gang feud—he denounced on his death bed, Joseph “Mose” Flannery, 26, picturesque Eighth ward political worker, was dying today in West Jersey Homeopathic Hospital.

Mortally wounded, his body riddled with bullets, Flannery was shot some time shortly before 4 a. m. today as he stood on the sidewalk outside a saloon at Front and Kaighn avenue.

Four or five men, grouped closely about the prone body of the political worker, hailed a truck which took Flannery to the hospital at 4.15.

Eight men had been arrested by police, seven charged with being a material witness, and the other being held at police headquarters “on suspicion.”

They were James L. Hawkins, 37, declared by police to be proprietor of the saloon at 101 Kaighn avenue; Walter Novak, 22, 442 Jackson street; Russell Sage, 25, of 407 Mechanic street; Joseph Novak, 34, of 508 Jackson street; Eugene Murphy, 51, of 101 Kaighn avenue; “Cuzzy” Scarduzio, 27, who gave police no home address, and Joseph Moll, 25, of 101 Kaighn avenue, all held as material witnesses; and Patrick Driscoll, 25, of 1225 South Third street, held “on suspicion.”

Cause of Shooting Unknown

Despite a far-reaching investigation, Flannery’s assailant or assailants, the details of the shooting, and its cause remained undetermined this noon. Every available county and city detective was engaged in the probe as Camden gangland’s victim hovered between life and death in the hospital.

Realizing doctors had given him but a few hours to live, Flannery continued to maintain his silence concerning how he was shot, and which he had adopted when he was carried into the hospital on a stretcher.

“My lips are sealed and if I don’t live to get the fellows who did this my gang will get them,” he told physicians when placed on the operating table at 4:30 a. m.

At 9 o’clock this morning, the doctors had given up hope for his recovery, but Flannery still was alive at 2.30 this afternoon.

South Camden virtually buzzed with rumors to the effect that Flannery’s fate was the result of a war in the bootleg ring; that it was the aftermath of a feud over slot machines; that it was a case of “women,” and that it could be linked up with the shooting in January of Joseph Cimini, by Joseph Devon, known as “Polack Joe.”

At Loss for Motive

Police were at a loss to name the motive. Acting Assistant Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando, in charge of the investigation, said the probe had not reached the point where anyone person could be accused of shooting Flannery, or where the gun fire could be traced to anything but a “gang feud.”

“Mose” Flannery had been shot. He probably would die. That much was known. The rumors naturally followed for Flannery was well-known, not only in the close-mouthed circle in which he moved, but throughout the city as well.

“Mose” Flannery is one of the most picturesque figures in Camden’s political “gangland.” For several years he has been a slot machine distributor in Camden and Philadelphia.

When “Polack Joe” Devon shot and killed Joseph Cimini, Philadelphia gambler in the Sixth Ward Republican Club early in the morning of January 14, last, Flannery was arrested as a material witness. It was disclosed by police that Flannery and Cimini had gone into the club together a few minutes before Devon’s gun pumped death into Cimini’s body after the Philadelphian had quarrelled with Devon.

Flannery was considered the most important of the material witnesses connected with the Cimini murder. Sage, arrested on suspicion this morning in connection with the felling of Flannery, was another “important” witness in the Sixth Ward Club shooting affair.

James Bonner, who was mysteriously shot several months ago, was questioned today by detectives but was not held. Walter Selby, a taxicab driver, also was taken before Chief of Detectives Golden and County Detective Chief Doran, but he too was released after being closeted with the officials for more than an hour.

Sage Ordered Held

After questioning Sage, Acting Assistant Prosecutor Orlando ordered that the man be held.

In the meantime, Flannery lay on a hospital cot, propped up on his side, his pain deadened by opiates. He mumbled incoherently to members of his family grouped about him. At times he lapsed into a state of unconsciousness.

The doomed political worker early today had asked for a priest. Rev. Father John J. Henry went to the hospital. “Joe,” he said, “you’re dying. You’d better give police a statement.”

Flannery was said by doctors to have replied he would tell nothing, that if he lived, “he’d settle,” and that if he died, “my gang will take care of that.”

After a session in which more than a dozen men were questioned, Captain Golden and Detective Chief Doran shortly before noon went to the scene of the shooting. They found evidence that a scuffle in the saloon at Front and Kaighn avenue had preceded the shooting.

Tables had been overturned. Glasses had been broken. Forty cents in change was found on a table beside a picture of a small baby. There was an empty glass on one table, another glass half-filled with beer on the bar.

Bullets Meant for Novak?

It was reported that police had been informed by one of those they questioned that the bullets which ripped their way through Flannery’s body had been meant for Walter Novak who they said had been standing at “Mose’s” side at the time of the shooting. The police officials refused to confirm that rumor. Novak had told them, Capt. Golden said, he was not with Flannery at the time. Later Novak admitted to being on the corner near the saloon, police said.

Police recalled that Novak was arrested several months ago in the alleged theft of a slot machine from the store of Louis Schectman, in Broadway near Line street. Novak was apprehended after a wild chase through South Camden streets.

Schectman at first told police Novak was one of two men who entered his store, and at the point of a gun, robbed him of a nickel slot machine. Testifying in a hearing in police court several days later, Schectman said he hadn’t kept a slot machine in his store, and that two men unknown to him stole a box of cigars and escaped in an automobile.

As far as could be learned by an Evening Courier representative, the case against Novak never was settled.

The bullets were fired from a “pump” gun and were of .32 calibre. According to Detective Thomas Cheeseman, they could have been fired only from a gun of the type common to gangsters who “shoot to kill.” Cheeseman said a “pump” gun was designed to hold nine shells or “wads,” as they are commonly known. The leaden bullet is surrounded by a coating of asbestos, which breaks from the lead upon the firing of the gun and allows the lead to enter its target.

Police were following every clue which developed, no matter how scanty. Detectives combed the Front street and Kaighn avenue neighborhood, it was learned, in an effort to discover the haunts of the gang known by police to center in that part of the city.

Chief of Police Lewis W. Stehr was asked if police would act against the owners of the habitats of the “Front and Kaighn avenue” gang or if a routine investigation into the shooting of Flannery would be conducted. Chief Stehr said the usual investigation was being made and would continue.

While members of the political worker’s family talked with Flannery, and while investigation of the shooting by county detectives and police was under way, doctors said the man who lives at 346 Jackson street, couldn’t “live out the day.”

Flannery had a bullet wound two inches in diameter in his back. Another bullet had pierced his abdomen, and he had been shot in both elbows, physicians said. Doctors said the bullets were two inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

It was shortly after 4 a. m. when Charles Foulk, of 219 Point street, driver of The Courier-Post delivery truck, was hailed by a group of men standing on a corner at Front street and Kaighn avenue.

“Have you got time to take a man to the hospital?” one of the group asked Foulk, according to the story he told Captain John Golden, chief of city detectives.

Flannery was lifted into the rear of the truck, two men jumped on the running board and the run for West Jersey Hospital began.

Walter Wartman, of 315 North Second street, another Courier-Post employe, who had assisted in the delivery of Morning Posts at the Reading Ferries, was with Foulk.

Foulk said one of the men jumped from the truck when it reached Mt. Ephraim and Atlantic avenues. The other went into the hospital, whispered a few words to Flannery, and then raced out the main entrance.

Mose’s Companion Escapes

Mrs. Edward McGrath, supervisor of nurses, called Policeman Frank Malec who for several days has been guarding a man known as “Two-Gun” Kelly, and Malec gave chase to the unknown companion of Flannery. Malec saw the man disappear on Mt. Ephraim avenue, but couldn’t find him in a search of the neighborhood.

In the meantime, City Detective William Boettcher, who had been working the morning shift, had notified Assistant Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando; Lawrence T. Doran, chief of Camden county detectives; Capt. Golden, and had called City Detectives George Ward, Louis Shaw, Thomas Cheesman [sic] and Howard Pike to investigate the shooting.

Boettcher said Flannery refused to “talk.” “You are a policeman and I’m no friend of the police. I’ll never tell,” Flannery told the officer, Boettcher declared.

Later Flannery told physicians, “I have learned my lesson and hope this will be an example to other young men.”

Witness in Cimini Shooting

Flannery was held as a material witness in the fatal shooting of Joseph Cimini, 31, in the Sixth Ward Republican Club, early in the morning of January 14.—Joseph Devon, known as “Polack Joe” fired the shot that killed Cimini. Devon was arrested but the case never came to trial.

Devon now is at liberty on bail and is under indictment for manslaughter in connection with Cimini’s death. Flannery also was released under bail.

While police continued their investigation, Flannery, still determined to refuse information to detectives and doctors, was surrounded by his wife, his 4-year-old son, his mother and father, and his 19-year-old brother James. Calling “Jim” to his side, Flannery, according to physicians, said, “I want you to promise me you’ll never get mixed up in these gang wars.” “Jim” promised, Detective Boettcher said.

Novak Under Suspicion

In their search for the “mysterious” companion of Flannery on the ride to the hospital, police pointed a suspicioning finger at Walter Novak who they had held “on suspicion.”

According to information given them by Foulk, the truck driver, Flannery, during the ride from Front and Kaighn avenue to the hospital, whispered, “Where are you taking me, Walt?” He was told the hospital was the truck’s destination, Foulk told police.

Detectives said Novak might have been the “Walt” to whom Flannery spoke. Novak said he was 22, was a “salesman” and lived at 442 Jackson street.

Taken by Strategy

Scarduzio’s arrest resulted from a piece of strategy on the part of Chief of County Detectives Doran. Doran with several members of his staff and city detectives were in the bar-room of the saloon at 101 Kaighn avenue when the telephone rang before noon.

Doran picked up the receiver and the party on the other end asked if Joseph Moll, son of former Policeman Frank Moll, was there.

Figuring that the persons might be some one who could help the authorities unravel the mystery, Doran answered:

“Yes, this is Joe Moll.”

“Well, I want to see you right away,” continued the other party.

“Will you come right down to 674 Fairview street. I want to see you,” finished the unidentified speaker who then hung up.

Doran with Captain of Detectives Golden hurried down to the address given and there found Scarduzio in the home of Garfield Del Duca.

Scarduzio, it is said, was more surprised to see the authorities than they were to find him as Chief Doran had been searching for “Cuzzie” for several hours.

He said he had nothing to do with the shooting of Flannery. Limping when the detectives escorted him from the house, Scarduzio was first taken to West Jersey Homeopathic Hospital to discover whether or not he was suffering from any bullet wounds in the legs.

Scarduzio Not Shot

Doctors later said Scarduzio had not been shot and the man who had been surprised at the Del Duca home was taken to police headquarters.

He “knew nothing about the shooting,” Scarduzio told Captain Golden and County Detective Chief Doran. There were stains, possibly bloodstains, on Scarduzio’s trousers, the police said. “Cuzzy,” as he is known in police circles, wore a clean white shirt, and that fact sent detectives from headquarters on another tangent in their investigation.

Scarduzio was asked where he had left a “bloody shirt” he was reported to have been wearing early today. According to police, he denied his shirt was bloody, and refused to give them any information.

City Detectives David Hunt, Samuel Johnson, and Walter Smith were dispatched on the “side” investigation.

Detective Thomas Cheesman [sic], of the city hall staff, also holds two warrants for the arrest of Scarduzio in connection with the holdup of a saloon in Gloucester several weeks ago and the theft of an automobile.

Moll was arrested while sleeping in a room over the saloon near Front and Kaighn avenue. He was arrested by Chief Doran, Captain Golden and Detective Ray Sapanore. Moll has been in police toils several times recently, the last time in connection with the mysterious shooting of Bonner near the spot where Flannery fell.

Woman Describes Auto

The movements of an automobile bearing Pennsylvania license and containing several men whom she said ran out of the saloon near Front and Kaighn avenue an hour after Flannery was shot, were described to police officials late this morning by Mrs. Mary Brown, who lives near the saloon.

She was questioned at detective headquarters after she had reported seeing the car drive onto the Spruce street pier, four men alight and board a motorboat which set off across the Delaware river in the direction of Philadelphia.

According to Mrs. Brown, the driver of the “mysterious” automobile turned the car about and raced north on Front street.

A city-wide man-hunt had been made for Joseph “Cuzzie” Scarduzio, detectives said after the “surprise arrest” on Fairview street. Police had heard rumors Scarduzio, known by them to be a “pal” of Flannery, had been standing by “Mose” when he was “given the works” by the yet unknown gunman or gunmen. They had heard, detectives announced, that Scarduzio, coatless and hatless, had been seen leaving the scene of the shooting, his clothes spattered with blood from the wounds of his friend.

Camden detectives said they doubted if Philadelphia gangsters were responsible, believing, they announced, that the shooting was local to the Camden gang center they knew existed.

City Detective Walter Smith shortly after noon brought a South Camden bartender into police headquarters for questioning.

The man said he was Frank Smith, and tended bar in a saloon in the 1800 block on Broadway, near Ferry avenue, and said he had overheard three men telephone for a taxicab to take them to Front street and Kaighn avenue. Smith placed the time after midnight, according to police, and detectives doubted if the three men were connected with the Flannery “case.” Smith was not held by police.

Vice Quiz Bears Fruit as Police Raid Andy Kelly

Camden Courier-Post — May 18, 1929

Camden Courier-Post, May 18, 1929. See also: Andrew Kelly • Edward Kelly • Daniel Hutchinson • Garfield S. Pancoast • Lewis H. Stehr • David S. Rhone • Joseph “Mose” Flannery • Joseph O’Connor • John Doris

5 New Lieutenants Appointed by Rhone Await Assignments

Camden Courier-Post — January 25, 1930

Two More Patrolmen to be Promoted Under New Ordinance

ONE MADE SERGEANT

Pending official designation of their new posts, five members of the Camden police department who were appointed lieutenants yesterday and a sixth, who was named sergeant, continued in their former capacity when they went on duty today.

Director of Public Safety David S Rhone, who announced the promotions and swore in the officers late yesterday, stated this morning that he has not yet determined where he will station them. That will be done within a few days, the commissioner averred.

Two more lieutenants remain to be appointed apropos of a recent city ordinance which stipulated that the new stations will not be designated until all seven lieutenants are named. One will be placed in charge of each of the four police districts, and one each in the traffic and motorcycle squads, and one at headquarters.

Those who were elevated to lieutenancy are:

Sergeant George W. Frost, 956 Pine street; Sergeant Walter T. Welch, 518 Benson street; Acting Lieutenant Ralph W. Bakley, 602 Clinton street; Sergeant Charles Laib, 76 South Twenty-fourth street, who has been acting captain, and Acting Lieutenant George Ward, 1437 Kaighn avenue.

Patrolman Clarence Thorn was also sworn in as sergeant of the mounted squad of the department. He succeeds Welch.

The lieutenancies pay an annual salary of $2500, and one year from this date, each of the lieutenants will be eligible to take Civil Service examination for elevation to a captaincy, which carries a yearly stipend of $3200.

The five who were made lieutenants were among ten members of the department who recently took the Civil Service examinations for lieutenancy. Welsh [sic] and Laib were among the three having the highest ranking in the tests, being second and third respectively. Under Civil Service rules, the director had to select at least one of the three first in ranking in the examination, but he could select any other six.

The ten who took the examination and their grades as unofficially announced in Trenton follow:

Sergeant John T. Potter, 298 Burwood avenue, 89.64; Sergeant Walter T. Welch, 518 Benson street, 87.75; Sergeant Charles Laib, 76 South Twenty-fourth street; Acting Lieutenant Bakley, 602 Clinton street, 87.11; Sergeant George W. Frost, 956 Pine street, 86.31; Acting Lieutenant Ward, 1437 Kaighn avenue, 85.83; Sergeant Herbert Anderson, 496 Newton avenue, 84.79; Sergeant Samuel E. Johnson, 526 North Front street, 84.71; Sergeant Harry G. Newton, 118 North Twenty-fifth street, 83.18, and Acting Lieutenant Cunningham, 1114 Kaighn avenue, 81.78.

Promoted for Merit on Force

Camden Courier-Post — January 25, 1930

[Names printed at the foot of the left-hand block:] WALTER T. WELCH
CHARLES LAIB
RALPH W. BAKLEY

[Names printed at the foot of the right-hand block:] GEORGE W. FROST
GEORGE WARD
CLARENCE THORN

2 Police Officers Made Lieutenants

Camden Courier-Post — April 9, 1930

Rhone Reported Ready to Make Five Patrolmen Sergeant

Reports that five members of the Camden police department will be promoted to sergeants tomorrow were circulated, today after announcement that two sergeants had been appointed lieutenant.

Those who, according to rumors, will be elevated to sergeant are Nathan Petit, of the second police district, to be assigned to the traffic squad; Gus Koerner, detective bureau; Walter Rowand, first district; Frank Truax, Second district, and Edward Hahn, third district.

The two new lieutenants who took oath of office yesterday are Samuel Johnson and Thomas Cunningham. The former was a sergeant of police attached to the detective bureau and will continue in that department, while Cunningham, while a sergeant, was acting lieutenant in day command at the fourth district. He remains in that district. The appointments were announced yesterday by Commissioner David S. Rhone, director of public safety.

Both were immediately administered oaths of office by Dr. Rhone’s secretary, Bayard M. Sullivan, at the director’s office. Lieutenant Cunningham is already eligible for retirement, having served more than 20 years on the city police force.

The two appointments complete the seven lieutenancies created by a city ordinance. Ten members of the police department passed civil service examinations for the post, which pays an annual salary of $2500. Each must serve one year as lieutenant before becoming eligible to take examination for captaincy.

The five previously appointed lieutenants are George Frost, now night commander of the fourth district; Walter Welch, third district; Charles Laib, a sub-commander of the traffic bureau under Captain Charles T. Humes, traffic Inspector; Ralph Bakley, second district; and George Ward, first district.

The other three candidates who passed the examination, Sergeants John T. Potter, Herbert Anderson and Harry I. Newton, did not receive lieutenancies, although Potter had the highest percentage in the tests.

Dickinson Confers With Lieutenants

Camden Evening Courier — December 3, 1930

New Police Deputy Denies ‘Laying Down Law’ to Aides; Shakeup Unlikely

Major Charles V. Dickinson, newly appointed deputy director of public safety, today held a two-hour conference with heads of the city police department.

The meeting between the new police ruler and the commanders of the four districts, the traffic bureau and the mounted squad, was held in the offices of Police Chief Lewis H. Stehr, who is confined to Cooper Hospital.

Although it was rumored about police headquarters prior to the meeting that the “law was to be laid down,” Major Dickinson stated afterward that nothing unusual had taken place.

“I called the men together,” he declared, “so that I could become better acquainted with them and learn the various manipulations of the districts of which they have charge.”

The major in answer to questions by reporters said that no changes had been made in the personnel of the department.

Those attending the conference were Inspector of Traffic Charles T. Humes; Lieutenants Charles Laib, of the traffic bureau; George Ward, of the First District; Ralph Bakley, of the Second; Walter Welch, of the Third, and George Frost, of the Fourth, and Sergeant Clarence Thorn, of the mounted squad.

Funeral for Stehr to Be Held Saturday

Camden Evening Courier — December 11, 1930

FUNERAL FOR STEHR TO BE HELD SATURDAY

City in Mourning as Rites are Planned—Burial Will Be in Harleigh

With the city in mourning today, funeral arrangements were being completed for Chief of Police Lewis H. Stehr, who died yesterday in Cooper Hospital. Hundreds of friends will view the body in state tomorrow between 7 and 10 p. m. at the Schroeder Chapel, Broadway and Royden streets. Many others will attend the funeral services, which will be held at 2 p. m. Saturday at the chapel.

Burial will be in Harleigh Cemetery.

A list of honorary pall bearers was compiled today, as well as the police escort. The police stations in the four city districts were draped in black and flags were at half-mast today, and will remain so for 30 days.

The pallbearers will be Lieutenants Ralph Bakely and George Ward; Sergeants George Nowry and Frank Truax; Policemen Thomas Cheeseman and Harry Kyler.

Honorary pallbearers are Sergeants Herbert Anderson and John Skolski; District Detective Archie Reiss, Policemen John Kowal and Clarence Phifer, and Donald Swissler, clerk of the chief’s office.

There will be a guard of honor formed by the mounted squad of the police department which will be changed every two hours while the body is viewed. Funeral arrangements are in charge of Lieut. George Ward.

The police of the city will view the remains Friday at 7.30 p. m. at the funeral parlors.

(Continued on Page Two)

Mrs. Anna Stehr had been at the bedside of her husband constantly since he was stricken Thanksgiving Day. Yesterday nurses assured her her husband’s condition was unchanged and she was making Christmas purchases at Chief Stehr’s request when he died. Condolences were being received by Mrs. Stehr from many city and county officials as well as legions of friends. Deputy Public Safety Director Charles V. Dickinson and Captain Arthur Colsey, police chief clerk, were to convey to Mrs. Stehr today the official condolence of the city.

Cops Express Sorrow

A letter of condolence was sent to Mrs. Stehr today along with a resolution adopted by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Camden Local No. 35. The letter read:

“It is with heartfelt regret and with deepest sympathy that we offer condolences to you in this hour of bereavement. The sudden action of the Almighty in plucking this noble man from our midst has overwhelmed us with sorrow and regret that words alone cannot express. This, however, being the desire of the Lord, we feel that the benevolent performance of our beloved chief so ably executed upon this humble earth, will be amply rewarded in a celestial sphere not made by man.

“We sincerely trust, we, his brothers and friends, have lessened your grief in this, our expression, of what your faithful husband has meant to us, the members of the P. B. A. as well as yourself.

“Respectfully yours, “CLIFFORD A. FLENNARD, “President.”

The resolution declares: “Whereas this local feels that it has sustained a severe loss in the passing of its greatest force for good, and “Whereas we deeply deplore his passing, “Be it resolved that it is the unanimous opinion of the membership of this organization that the death of Lewis H. Stehr, chief of police of the City of Camden, N. J., has caused great sorrow among us. His good deeds in life might well cause one to write a never-ending stream of eulogies but in this case we wish to call him and always think of him as a friend, a word that is applied to him whole-heartedly and in the fullest sense of the word. It is impossible to express to what extent we shall miss him but we shall always and forever remember Chief Stehr as a friend whose place made vacant by death will be very difficult to fill.

“Be it further resolved that Camden Local, No. 35, P. B. A., also wishes to extend its sympathies to Mrs. Stehr and to offer whatever assistance possible at this time of her bereavement and at any other time this organization may find it in its power to do so.

“Be it further resolved that we also extend our sympathies to his relatives and friends who are no doubt feeling his passing as deeply as we do so.”

Copies of the resolution were sent to Director of Public Safety David S. Rhone, Mrs. Stehr and the press. The resolution was passed at the regular meeting of the local yesterday. The resolution was signed by Flennard, the president, and Joseph Keefe, the secretary.

Chief George W. Black, secretary of the International Chief of Police Association, sent his regrets and letter of condolence to Captain Arthur Colsey and asking that a floral design be sent to the funeral at the association’s expense.

Mayor Expresses Sorrow

Mayor Price issued the following statement: “I was very greatly shocked to learn of the death of Chief Stehr. While I understood he was in a serious physical condition, I did not anticipate his death.

“Chief Stehr had devoted practically his entire lifetime to the service of the city, having entered the police department in his early youth, and is entitled to the commendation of his fellow citizens for his efforts in the public service.”

Commissioner Frank B. Hanna, when apprised of the police chief’s death, said: “The news of Chief Stehr’s death was a terrible shock. I feel a personal loss, as we were close friends. I knew him since I was a young boy, and our contacts in the past two years were most pleasant.”

Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin declared: “The suddenness of the death of Chief Stehr comes as a shock to those of his friends who were wishing him well in his illness. His passing naturally causes grief to those whose work brought them into close contact with him.”

City Commissioner Clay W. Reesman said: “The passing of Chief Stehr is a great loss to the community. We were all hoping that Chief Stehr was on the road to recovery and only several days ago when I inquired at the hospital, I learned that his condition was greatly improved. His sudden passing is a terrible shock.”

Pallbearers Named for Stehr Funeral

Camden Morning Post — December 12, 1930

Body Will Lie in State Tonight—Burial Tomorrow Afternoon

Funeral arrangements were completed yesterday for Chief of Police Lewis H. Stehr, who died Wednesday in Cooper Hospital following a heart attack.

The body will lie in state tonight between 7 and 10 p. m. at the Schroeder Chapel, Broadway and Royden streets. The funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. Saturday at the chapel. Thousands of friends are expected to view the remains.

Burial will be in Harleigh cemetery.

A police escort and a list of honorary pallbearers was compiled yesterday. All police buildings in the city were draped in black and flags over municipal buildings were at half-mast and will remain so for 30 days.

The active pallbearers will be Lieuts. Ralph Bakely and George Ward, Sergts. George Nowry and Frank Truax, Policemen Thomas Cheeseman and Harry Kyler.

Honorary pallbearers are Lieut. Herbert Anderson, Sergt. John Skolski, District Detective Archie Reiss, Policemen John Kowal and Clarence Phifer and Donald Swissler, clerk of the chief’s office.

There will be a guard of honor formed by the members of the mounted squad. A fire truck will convey the flowers to the cemetery.

The police of the city will view the body at 7:30 p. m. tonight at the funeral parlors.

Members of the Sixth Ward Republican Club, of which Chief Stehr was an active member, will assemble at their headquarters at 7 p. m. and march to the funeral parlors. They will be led by John J. Breslin, president of the club.

Rev. Edward Weeks, pastor of the Union M. E. Church, Fifth and Mt. Vernon streets, will conduct the services.

Giant Distillery Falls in North Camden

Camden Morning Post — December 13, 1930

—Courier-Post Photo

A portion of the huge 500,000-gallon-per-day alcohol distillery raided and seized by local police yesterday is shown in the picture. Detectives are shown draining alcohol from a 3000-gallon still into empty cans. Nearly 100 gallons of alcohol were taken from the plant, which also contained five storage tanks, believed to hold mash, and two stills with a capacity of 50,000 gallons each. The raid was led by Deputy Director of Public Safety Charles V. H. Dickinson and Lieut. George Ward of the First District.

Probe Started by Dickinson in Raid ‘Leak’

Camden Evening Courier — December 13, 1930

Men Fled $250,000 Still Before Cops Arrived, Deputy Learns

Baldwin Gave Clue to Giant Plant

Vast Amount of Rum Supplies Seized in North Camden

Major Charles V. Dickinson, deputy director of public safety, today started an investigation to ascertain how plans for a raid on a $250,000 North Camden distilling plant leaked out more than an hour before the raid was made late yesterday afternoon.

The inquiry to locate the “leak” was prompted by rumors that neighbors saw employes of the distillery running from the plant at Ninth and State streets an hour and 20 minutes before detectives and the police raided it. Major Dickinson, however, insists he and Lieut. George Ward were the only persons in the police department who knew the location of the plant prior to the raid.

Police believe the distillery to be one of a chain of such places operated throughout this state with headquarters in Newark.

The raid was the result of an investigation made by Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin after he had heard rumors a large distilling plant was being operated in North Camden. Baldwin assigned Lawrence T. Doran, chief of county detectives, and other county detectives, to make a survey, and men were stationed near the plant.

Baldwin Orders Raid

When Chief Doran reported the results of the survey to Baldwin the prosecutor immediately notified Major Dickinson and ordered him to make the raid. Dickinson called in Lieutenant Ward and plans were made for descending on the plant.

A squad of detectives and patrolmen, led by Dickinson, raided the plant a few minutes before 4 p.m. It was the third raid on the plant within two years, Lieutenant Ward having seized a 1500-gallon still there on March 25, 1929, and federal prohibition agents confiscating $100,000 worth of alcohol distilling equipment about 18 months ago.

“If there was a leak, and if the employes and operators were tipped off, I would like to know how it happened,” Major Dickinson said today. “As soon as I heard of this distilling plant I called Lieutenant Ward into my office and we made arrangements and completed plans to raid the place immediately. The plans, however, were not completed until 3 p.m. about an hour after I was notified of the existence of the plant.”

“All arrangements were made by telephone and there could not have been anyone, to my knowledge, who knew the plans. Detectives and patrolmen were told to assemble at the First District police station. They were not told where they were going or what for. Ward and myself were the only ones in the police department who knew the location of the plant.”

Alcohol Seized

The raiders seized 915 gallons of alcohol in 53 five-gallon cans and 12 50-gallon drums, 1500 pounds of brown sugar, 400,000 gallons of mash, 12 bags of white powder and one bale of hops.

Five steel tanks, each of 80,000 gallons capacity, two stills of 50,000 gallons capacity each, one 3000-gallon still, several large wooden tanks, thousands of feet of piping and coiling equipment were found in the plant. The steel tanks had been built in, a section of one floor having been removed to make room. The plant was located on four floors, the fermentation tanks being on the top floors and pipes arranged so that the products could be “worked down” to the first floor tanks where the alcohol was put in five-gallon cans for shipping.

Baldwin called the plant the largest illicit distillery in the United States and said he believed it to be operated by a big liquor ring. He believed it took several months to install the extensive equipment, which was new. An elaborate system of signal alarms, secret telephones, tunnels for hurried exits and arrangements for lookouts two blocks from the plant were found.

All of the equipment, as well as supplies for the plant, were taken there by boat, Baldwin believes. Arrangements had been made for emptying the mash into Cooper River. The entire plant was surrounded by a high fence.

Plant in Use 10 Days

Dickinson said he believed the plant had been in operation not more than 10 days as the valves, turnhandles, spigots and brass work showed little signs of wear. Preparations had been made against a possible raid. Dickinson learned after visiting the plant, as the names on shipping labels had been torn so they were not readable. Tar paper had been placed over the window. Names had been removed from the lunch boxes of workmen.

Large packing boxes such as used for the shipment of radio and phonograph sets were used to hide the machinery and also for shipping the cans of alcohol.

The stills and steel tanks were dismantled by acetylene torches, the mash and chemicals were dumped in Cooper river and the alcohol was taken to city hall. The alcohol probably will be turned over to hospitals and charitable institutions.

Lessors Sought

Dickinson and Baldwin are making surveys today to ascertain, if possible, who leased the building. Nearby plant owners and neighbors will be questioned.

The building for many years was headquarters of the old Highland Worsted Mills and extends from Ninth street to the Cooper river; on State street, and runs back about a half square to Moore street.

Yesterday the buildings were empty when the big squad of cops swarmed into the place. The lunch baskets of several employes were found on tables in the room and there were other evidences of a hasty exit having taken place. There were rumors that a “tip off” had been given the men in the building, and it was reported they were seen to rush from the building a few minutes before the arrival of the raiders.

Owners Escape

The raid, observers recalled, bears every indication of paralleling that on Chestnut street, near the second district police station, on October 22 when a $200,000 distillery was uncovered. Of nine men arrested there, six were fined $300 each and three were dismissed yesterday. Their attorney declared the men were merely employes and that the “owners have skipped out, leaving these men in the middle.”

Neighbors stated they had smelled peculiar odors in the vicinity for several weeks past but were unable to establish the location of the still until it was uncovered by yesterday’s raid. The raid also brought to climax a series of reports that have been in circulation for several weeks that there was a bigger still in operation in Camden than the one found on Chestnut street.

The raiders entered the building through a tunnel on the banks of Cooper river. The tunnel ended under the building with a trapdoor giving ingress to the basement of the distillery.

None of the stills was in operation. Warm storage tanks containing mash indicated that two stills had been in operation recently. Three huge storage tanks reaching to the third floor had a total capacity of 240,000 gallons. It is estimated that the distillery had an output of about 500,000 gallons of alcohol per day.

On the same factory site is a building now occupied by the Joseph A. Middlebrook Company, Inc., wool washers. The building occupied by the distillery is separated from the Middlebrook Company by a roadway.

An official of the Middlebrook Company said he had seen no activity in or about the building opposite, but declared it was leased by Joseph A. Madison of Philadelphia, agent for the owner.

Only three five-gallon cans of alcohol were found when the policemen arrived. Fifty cans were filled from one still by the raiders. The distillery was so enveloped in darkness, with few electric lights, that the raiders were forced to use flashlights in inspecting the five floors and locating equipment.

Stored against the wall on the first floor were 1500 empty five-gallon cans.

A 10-inch pipe line equipped with a force pump runs from the large storage tanks into Cooper river for dumping of residue from mash.

The raiders in addition to Deputy Director Dickinson and Lieutenant Ward included Sergeant Walter Mattison, Sergeant Jeff Kay, Detectives Howard Smith, Alfred Shires, Harry Kyler, Archie Reese, and Patrolmen Walter Smith, Alfred Shires, Harry Cattell, Earl Rider, Charles Smith, a second patrolman of the same name, John Toll, John Taylor, Frank Carle and Oscar Thompson.

Job of Police Chief to Remain Vacant

Camden Evening Courier — December 15, 1930

Appointment Will Be Delayed Until After Election; Anderson May Be Promoted

To Get Promotion?

Sergeant Herbert Anderson

By Mercury

No one will be appointed to succeed the late Lewis H. Stehr as chief of the Camden Police Department at least until after the commission government election next spring.

Deputy Director of Public Safety Charles V. Dickinson will assume complete control of the police department and a lieutenant will be assigned to headquarters as his assistant.

The above sums up reports Mercury received in his Christmas mail over the weekend. There is no particular authority for any of the rumors but they have come from most reliable sources.

Police Inspector Charles T. Humes and Lieutenants George Frost, Walter Welsh [sic] and George Ward all have been mentioned as possible successors to Chief Stehr. These reports had it that whoever got the post would receive the title as chief and the increase in pay that would go with the job.

Last week Mercury heard reliable reports that there would be no new chief but that an acting chief would be named temporarily. However, later reports have it that all thoughts of a chief or an acting chief have been dropped until after the election for commissioners next year.

In the meantime, it is planned to continue the operation of police headquarters by assigning a lieutenant to that office as an assistant to Deputy Director Dickinson. The latter, incidentally, under the new arrangement, will assume all the duties that would have been under the supervision of Chief Stehr had he lived.

Assignment of the lieutenant to headquarters will not take place until after the first of the New Year. At that time several veteran members of the department will go on pension. Among them will be Lieutenant Thomas Cunningham, of the Fourth District.

When word of Cunningham’s retirement was announced some weeks ago it was reported that Sergeant Herbert Anderson would be elevated to the rank of lieutenant.

And the reports today are to the effect that Anderson, who has had quite a bit of experience at headquarters during the past year, will be the man who will get the appointment as Dickinson’s assistant.

30 Cops Shifted Today in Opening of New District

Camden Courier-Post — February 16, 1929

Shake-Up in Camden Force is Most Drastic in History

SMITH AT CITY HALL

Drastic shifts in the Camden police department, affecting more than 30 members of the force became effective at 8 a.m. today.

The shake-up, announced yesterday by Commissioner David S. Rhone, director of public safety, is the result of creation of a fourth police district.

The outstanding changes are the promotion of Sergeant of Detectives George Ward to acting lieutenant in the First district, supplanting Sergeant Samuel Nayler, who is sent to headquarters, and the return to the city detective bureau of Acting County Detective Howard Smith.

Smith was detailed to the second district today and was assigned to a robbery investigation in the thirteenth ward.

District Captaincies Abolished

With the shifts, the rank of district captain is abolished. Instead, lieutenants will be in charge of the districts. Captains will be in charge only of the traffic and detective bureaus and headquarters, Commissioner Rhone said.

The removal of Sergeant Naylor from the First District was not unexpected, since he had been “on the carpet” last October as a result of a speakeasy shooting in his district. Naylor, though holding the rank of sergeant, was acting captain of the district.

He was threatened with dismissal by Chief Stehr and Commissioner Rhone if the vice conditions in the First District were not cleaned up. The situation came to a climax with the wounding of Charles Arini and Louis Dei Duca in a speakeasy at Third and Mickle streets in October. It was reported Naylor was to be removed from the district several times since.

Ward Again Promoted

Ward was promoted to sergeant of detectives two months ago. Under the transfer, he is promoted again, remaining as acting lieutenant for a year, until he takes an examination for a lieutenancy.

Other police officers now acting-lieutenants will become lieutenants after examination.

Naylor, who was in charge of the First district for several years, will serve as desk sergeant under Capt. A. Lincoln James.

The return of Smith to the city detective bureau was requested by Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin, it is understood. Smith has been a county detective for more than eleven years. He first was transferred to the prosecutor’s office at the request of Prosecutor Charles A. Wolverton. Although a Republican, he was retained there under Prosecutor Ethan P. Wescott. Although some surprise was occasioned by the announcement of Smith’s return to the city force, inasmuch as the new prosecutor is a Republican, it was said that Baldwin wished to begin his term with an entire new force.

Worked For City Also

Although Smith acted for the county and was paid by the county, he received a salary of $1 a year to retain him in the city so that he could be recalled at any time.

Through the shift, Sergeant Charles Laib, serving under Traffic Inspector Charles T. Humes, is elevated to acting captain of the traffic department. In the future all motorcycle men with the exception of George Clayton will report direct to Humes and Laib instead of to headquarters.

Ralph Bakley, who has been acting sergeant of the First District, has been named acting lieutenant of the Second District, and Thomas Cunningham, who was acting captain of the Second District, becomes acting lieutenant of the new Fourth District. William Horner, who has been acting captain of the Third District, is elevated to the rank of acting lieutenant and remains in charge of that district.

Wilkie to Receive Reprimand on Raid

Camden Courier-Post — August 14, 1931

(Continued from Page One)

Wilkie, but he refused to sign it. He was granted an audience by Mayor Stewart yesterday. The “note book cop” told the mayor that the transcript was incomplete and did not include many important things which developed at the hearing. He also advised the mayor that he wanted to be heard on some “other things.” His request that he be permitted to submit a detailed report on those “other things” met with no objections from the mayor.

Mayor’s Statement

Mayor Stewart’s decision follows:

“After reading the transcript of the examination given Patrolman John Wilkie by Major Charles V. Dickinson and staff, I have decided as follows:

“Patrolman John Wilkie be reprimanded for taking independent action in the making of a raid without first reporting to his superior officer and that he be warned that a like occurrence in the future will mean suspension.

“I have further decided to call before me Lt. George Ward and the officers under him to ascertain from them why they did not have knowledge of the violation of law existing at 831-833 Market street and why they failed to make a report of the same to either Major Dickinson or myself so that proper action might have been taken by the police department.

“I want it understood that it is the duty of every officer to report and receive orders from his superiors and it must be understood by all members of the department that the decision rendered in this case is equally applicable to them, the violation of which will be punishable by suspension.

“R. R. STEWART, “Mayor.”

Local Police Heads Greeted at State Prison

Camden Courier-Post — October 21, 1931

Camden Courier-Post, October 21, 1931. Headed by Major Charles V. Dickinson, local police officials made a tour of inspection of the state prison at Trenton. Photo shows Colonel George L. Selby, chief deputy warden at the prison, greeting Major Dickinson and his companions at the prison gates. Left to right: Patrolman John Stevenson, Lieutenant Herbert Anderson, Captain Arthur Colsey, Major Dickinson, Lieutenant George Frost, Colonel Selby, Lieutenants George Ward, Ralph Bakley and Walter Welch.

Relatives’ Cries Nearly Start Panic

Camden Courier-Post — March 9, 1932

Crowds Mill About Scene of Explosion Where Workers Died

“They are in there—dead”

That shrill scream from the chilled lips of a relative of two men trapped in the steel tomb of the purifying box at the Public Service gas plant at Locust and Cherry Streets today almost started a panic among 1,000 persons, gathered at the scene a few minutes after a mysterious explosion snuffed out the lives of more than a dozen men.

The cry of horror and grief was taken up by others as they pressed against the woven wire fence about the company’s property. Panic was averted by the policemen and firemen who had reached the scene a few minutes after the blast.

The excitement started when Frank Pizzatilla, of Walnut Street near Third, climbed up the narrow steel stairway that led to the top of the purifying box and looked upon a scene of horror within the square steel tomb.

Pizzatilla, who had rushed to the plant with several hundred others when word of the tragedy spread, said he recognized the seared bodies of his father and father-in-law in the seething mass below.

He started to walk down the narrow, steel stairway that formed the only means of reaching the lone entrance to the purifying box. Below the hundreds of relatives and friends of the doomed men watched him with anxiety.

“In There Dead”

“They are in there—dead,” he screamed.

He fell in a faint and but for a fireman, Pizzatilla would have toppled to the ground, fully 20 feet below. Other firemen and policemen rushed up the narrow stairway and carried Pizzatilla down.

As his inert body was being carried toward an ambulance, cries of bitter hatred were heard. They came from a relative of another victim. He shouted vile curses upon the officials of the company, upon the firemen and upon the policemen. He called them murderers. He yelled for a revolver, shouting that he would avenge the death of the trapped men.

About him gathered a number of persons, most of them of foreign extraction, or colored, for the majority of the victims were colored. The situation became tense.

Every policeman and fireman who could be spared from the gruesome work of trying to reach the entombed bodies rushed the crowd. Lieutenant George Ward and several policemen grabbed a heavy, long rope from one of the nearby fire wagons.

Quickly the rope was stretched across Locust Street at the intersection and a tug of war started, with the crowd surging against the rope and policemen and firemen pulling at both ends, sweeping them backward into Locust Street.

With the crowd under control, the police began to search for the man, whose cries for revenge had started the hundreds milling around in groups, but he had disappeared in the crowd.

Then Locust Street below Cherry Street was roped off with little difficulty and a line of policemen took their positions across Cherry Street between the two gas tanks that stand on the northeast and southeast corners. People who attempted to reach the plant were turned back.

“No use going any farther,” the policemen would tell each person who tried to get up closer. “All the men in the tank are dead and there is nothing anyone can do except remove the bodies when the tank is cooled down.”

These words seemed to have a quieting effect upon the hundreds that had tried to rush the police lines. Gradually the people left for their homes. An hour after the blast there was less than 100 spectators at the scene.

House Party Raided, Woman Asks Probe

Camden Courier-Post — March 28, 1932

Married Couples Herded in Patrol by Lieutenant Ward; Disorderly Charge Denied

Complaint against policemen who raided her home early yesterday and arrested four women and eight men participating in a party there will be made today by Mrs. Velda Mosely, 23, of 521 North Third street.

The woman charges the police had no right to stage the raid without a complaint or warrant. Her husband, Robert Mosely, 26, still is being detained at police headquarters in lieu of $100 security wanted to assure police of his appearance at a hearing today.

A Camden policeman and the son of another policeman were included among those arrested. Two of the other women were married and were accompanied to the party by their husbands, while a fourth woman was accompanied by her fiancé.

The raid was staged at 1:00 AM by Lieutenant George Ward, commander of the First Police District, and District Detective John Trout.

At police headquarters those arrested were booked under the “disorderly act,” of Section 422, City Ordinances, which prohibits the congregating of disorderly persons.

Raid Puzzles Woman

“I can’t understand why the raid was staged,” Mrs. Mosely said last night. “We were all bundled into the patrol wagon and taken to city hall after Lieutenant Ward and another officer had knocked on our door at 1 o’clock.

“At that time I asked Lieutenant Ward to come into the house and inspect the place. He refused to do this and said ‘I’ll give you five minutes to get your hats and coats on and come out here,’ He stood by the doorway all the time.”

“No liquor was seized because there was none there and furthermore no search was made to find any.”

“I asked my neighbors in the building this morning if they had made any complaint against us and they told me they had not. The caretaker of the apartment house told me we were making a little noise dancing and laughing but that he had received no complaint,” Mrs. Mosely continued.

“I think the police made a mistake in arresting us. They could have told us to discontinue the party and we would have complied with their wishes. I intend to enter a formal complaint against Lieutenant Ward with his superiors tomorrow.”

Cop Gets Patrol Ride

The patrolman arrested was Edward Wright, attached to the First District under Ward. Herbert Bott Jr., son of Patrolman Herbert Bott, of the Third District, also was taken. Both were made to ride in the patrol and booked at police headquarters.

Others arrested were: John Olsen, 26, of 950 North Twenty-seventh Street and his wife, Eleanor, 19; Alda Prickett, 23, of 920 Fern street; Benjamin Harris, 27, of Sewell; William C. Grey, 38, of 519 North Third street, and Henry Ronson, 24, of 116 Elm street.

Nearly all of those arrested live in the neighborhood of the raid and have been friends for some time. Mrs. Mosely said. She said that three of the women work together at a local factory, two of whose husbands are out of work. All but Mosely were released in $10 security for the hearing.

Police Raid House

Camden Courier-Post — March 28, 1932

Taylor Avenue Man Sent to Jail for 50 Days When Unable to Pay $50 Fine

Thomas Fleeyne, 54, of 515 Taylor Avenue, who was arrested when police raided his home, was sent to jail for 50 days in default of a $50 fine Saturday by Police Judge Pancoast. Fleeyne entered a plea of guilty to permitting disorderly persons to congregate at his home. He said he had been without work since coming to Camden.

Fleeyne’s wife, Margaret, 42, was unable to appear in court on account of illness, and her $25 bond was returned; Josephine Lorento, 30, of 350 Tree Street, Philadelphia, also held as a material witness, was freed when she said she had visited the house to see Mrs. Fleeyne.

Michael Bratses, 49, of 210 Market street, and Thomas Kretekos, 48, of 529 South Broad street, Philadelphia, were fined $25 each as inmates. John Kershaw, 32, of 515 Taylor Avenue, forfeited $25 bail when he failed to appear. The raid was made by Lieutenant George Ward, commander of the First district police, and Patrolman John Trout, on complaint made by Dominick Madden, 46, of 455 Haddon Avenue.

3 Held in Robbery of 2 Beer Hunters

Camden Courier-Post — June 6, 1932

Phila. Victim Returns to Camden, ‘Spots’ Men and Causes Arests [sic]

Three men, suspected of robbing of two Philadelphia men under pretense of showing them where to get beer, were arrested yesterday.

They are George Rumble, 19, of 1832 Fillmore street; Al Dubowski, 22, of 1819 Fillmore street, and Frank Marcone, 28, of Woodlawn avenue, Woodbury Heights.

They are accused by Bernard Franz, 26, of 131 North Sixteenth street.

Franz told police that he and Robert Tully, of 4937 Girard avenue, accosted Rumble, Marcone and Dubowski early yesterday at Second and Kaighn avenue and asked them to hop into his car and show him where they could “drink some beer.”

Franz, who has identified the three, according to Detective Joseph Carpani, declared Rumble directed him through a maze of streets and suddenly all three turned upon him and Tully. He said they took $5 from Tully. Franz was locked up as a material witness.

Yesterday afternoon Franz returned to Camden in the neighborhood in which he first saw the men. He sighted them at Broadway and Kaighn avenue and summoned police. The three were arrested by Lieut. George Ward, and Detectives Howard Smith, George Zeitz and John Trout.

COP SHAKEUP TODAY; AX FOR 4TH DISTRICT

Camden Courier-Post — June 7, 1932

Humes Due to Be Personnel Inspector, Replaced by Ward or Anderson

A resolution abolishing the fourth police district will be adopted by the City Commission Thursday at its semi-monthly meeting.

A general shakeup in the police department is scheduled for announcement immediately after the meetnig [sic] by Mayor Roy R. Stewart, director of public safety.

Chief among the scheduled changes is appointment of Inspector Charles T. Humes, now stationed at police headquarters, to inspector in charge of personnel of the entire department.

Humes would be succeeded at police headquarters by either Lieut. Herbert Anderson or Lieut. George Ward.

Anderson commands the fourth district, which will merge with the second police district under command of Lieut. Ralph Bakley.

Ward heads the first district police. In the event he replaces Humes, he will be succeeded by Anderson.

A number of sergeants also will be shuffled. Sergt. Edward Hahn, now stationed in the third district, and Sergt. John Garrity, of the fourth, will be transferred to the traffic squad. Two acting sergeants now in the traffic bureau, George Jefferis and James Wilson, will be patrolmen.

Sergt. Edward Carroll, of the fourth, will go to the third district to replace Hahn. The other sergeant from the fourth district, John Skolski, will become a desk sergeant at headquarters.

Skolski will replace Sergt. Stiles Whitaker, now a headquarters desk sergeant. Whitaker will return to his former post, duty at the city banks.

Two Places Raided by Camden Cops on Gambling Charges

Camden Courier-Post — June 9, 1932

One Said to Be Dealing in ‘Numbers,’ Other One in Racing Bets

NINE MEN ARRESTED

Two alleged gambling establishments, one dealing in “numbers” and the other in horse racing, feel [sic] prey to police raids yesterday. Nine men were arrested.

A store front dwelling at 338 Kaighn avenue, alleged by police to be the collection agency for a Philadelphia “number bank,” was visited by Lieutenant Ralph Bakley and Detective Thomas Cheeseman. Two men were taken into custody. Blank “number slips” sufficient to take in several thousand dollars were seized, police said.

An earlier raid by Lieutenant George Ward and patrolmen of the First district was made at 112 North Second street where seven men were arrested and betting sheets confiscated.

Joseph Connors, 32, of 869 North Twenty-first street, Philadelphia, alleged proprietor of the Kaighn avenue place, was released in $100 cash bail, and Max Aronson, 45, of 425 Stevens street, was freed in $30 cash security. They will be arraigned in police court this morning. Aronson, police said, was arrested several weeks ago in a “number raid” on an office in the Finance building, Sixth and Cooper streets.

Tony Miller, 34, charged with being proprietor of the horse race gambling establishment, was released in $100 bail for a hearing today.

The others, charged with being material witnesses, were held in $10 security each. They gave their names as Thomas Telto, 42, of 1424 Federal street; Thomas Maner, 40, of 414 North Fourth street; Thomas Wright, 30, of 345 Penn street; William Brown, 39, of 115 North Third street; Clinton Krane, 43, of 145 State street and Leonard Winner, 35, of 1021 Grant avenue, Collingswood.

Cops Are Shifted by Mayor Stewart

Camden Courier-Post — December 31, 1932

Retirements on Pension Cause Changes; Sergeant Petit, Traffic Head

Police Sergeant Nathan Petit yesterday was named head of the city traffic bureau to succeed Lieut. Charles L. Laib, who will retire on pension tonight.

A number of other transfers to fill vacancies left by other members of the police department who are to accept pensions were made yesterday by Mayor Roy R. Stewart.

Lieut. Samuel Johnson will be assigned in charge of police headquarters in place of Capt. A. Lincoln James and will serve also as a desk-sergeant on the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift daily. Policeman William Robertson will be made an acting desk-sergeant to fill the vacancy left by Johnson.

Policeman Frederick Watson, who has been doing special work in the detective bureau, will be returned to police headquarters to work at his old position of jailor in place of Samuel Hibbert, another pensioner.

Detective William Boettcher will be assigned to take over the duties of Detective Thomas Stanger, who also will retire tonight. Stanger has been in charge of Bertillion [sic] records and police photographic work for many years.

Rumors to the effect that Lieutenants George Ward and George Frost would be shifted from their present positions were spiked in the announcement that Petit would take charge of the traffic division.

The reports at city hall had it that Frost would be named to succeed Laib and that Ward would be placed in charge of the detective division in place of Lieutenant Louis Shaw, but Mayor Stewart announced that both Ward and Frost will remain in the present positions. Ward is acting desk sergeant in charge of police headquarters during the day shift. Frost has been in charge of the police school and pistol target range.

Although not announced by Mayor Stewart, Frost is expected to be named inspector of personnel, taking over the duties formerly performed by Inspector Charles T. Humes, in addition to his former duties as head of the police school.

Petit will not be named an acting lieutenant, the mayor said, but will hold his title of sergeant. He will, however, be in absolute charge of the traffic division and will not alternate on the three shifts with the other two sergeants.

Policeman Robertson is named desk sergeant in place of Sergeant Thomas Murphy, who will retire on pension tonight with the others.

In announcing the changes, Mayor Stewart said that they would not mean anything more financially to the men and would not be actual advancements.

Cops and Firemen Will Elect Today

Camden Courier-Post — February 9, 1933

Herbert Bott Is Unopposed for Presidency of Camden Association

The Camden Police and Firemen’s Association will hold election of officers today at its headquarters, 1175 Whitman Avenue, from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Herbert Bott is unopposed for re-election as president. William Thorn is unopposed to replace Richard Middleton for financial secretary and Walter Vecander is unopposed for the new post of assistant financial secretary. All these are police officers.

The police trustees will be named from the following nine candidates: William Marter, George Ward, William Britner, Joseph Shreeve, William Schriber, Joseph Mardino, Joseph Dunnett, Leon Feltz and Russell Young. Two police sergeant-at-arms will be chosen from among Stanley Wirtz, Harry Cattell, Joseph Schultz and George Clayton.

Three candidates are seeking the post of vice president, which goes to a fireman. They are William Spencer, Charles Edwards and Albert Dukes. Warren Rich, a fireman, is slated to succeed himself as recording secretary and Winfield Leviseur is unopposed for the new post of assistant recording secretary, which goes to a fireman.

Four fireman trustees will be chosen from ten candidates. They are Charles Cook, Henry Baumgartel, Walter Eastlack, Arthur Batten, William Getner, William Toy, Lawrence Newton, James Young, Russell Anderson and William Taylor. Three firemen are seeking two posts as sergeants-at-arms. They are William Judge, John Mulligan and Furman Price.

Bott Chosen Head of Policemen, Firemen

Camden Courier-Post — February 10, 1933

Spencer Wins 3-Corner Fight for Vice-President of Association

Lauded by the members for his splendid work in behalf of the club, Herbert Bott, a patrolman attached to the Third Police District, last night was re-elected president of the Camden Police and Firemen’s Association.

The praise was heaped upon the patrolman following announcement that he had received 107 of 110 votes cast in yesterday’s balloting. He was unopposed for reelection.

In a three-cornered fight, William Spencer, a fireman, was elected vice president of the association. He received 73 votes. His opponents were Charles Edwards, given 12 votes, and Albert Dukes, 18 votes. Both are firemen.

Others unopposed for office were: William Thorn, financial secretary; Walter Vecander, assistant financial secretary; Warren Rich, recording secretary, and Winfield Leviseur, assistant recording secretary. The last two are firemen while the first two are policemen.

Lieutenant George Ward, Patrolman William Marter, and firemen William Taylor, William Getner, James Young and Lawrence Newton were elected to the board of trustees.

Sergeants-at-arms named were Stanley Wirtz and George Clayton, police, and William Judge and John Mulligan, firemen. All had opposition.

After the ballots had been counted William H. Iszard, former assemblyman, appeared on behalf of the Elks Crippled Kiddies Committee, and asked police to support the wrestling show to be staged by that group February 13.

Rain Soaked Barefoot Children And Parents Sheltered by Cops

Camden Courier-Post — June 1, 1933

Six barefoot children and their parents who reached Camden tired and hungry last night after ‘two months’ journey from California, were befriended city police and firemen after two welfare organizations refused to shelter them.

The children, four girls and two boys ranging in ages from 3 to 13 years, were found with their parents soaking wet in their truck which they had parked in a shanty at Delaware avenue and Pearl Street.

Motorcycle Policeman Raymond Carson, who made the discovery, took the bedraggled family to No. 6 fire house at Second and Elm streets where Captain Saunders and other firemen cooked them a substantial meal, the first they had tasted since 8 o’clock yesterday morning when they were fed in Maryland.

According to Carson the Salvation Army reported it had no room to shelter them, while the Wiley Mission wouldn’t take the children and told the father it was too late at night to admit him.

The family was then directed to police headquarters at the old city hall. There Lieutenant George Ward took up a collection from the men sufficient to buy shoes for the children and arranged for the entire family to sleep overnight in the detention quarters on the third floor.

The family is en route to Paterson, home of the children’s grandfather. They left California March 28 in the hope the father could obtain work in the east.

SLUGGED POLICE CLERK ACTS AS OWN SLEUTH

Camden Courier-Post — May 1, 1934

Sleuthing as his own detective, Police Stenographer William J. Malinowski still is seeking the mysterious assailant who felled him in city hall two weeks ago.

Several friends, he declared, are helping him.

“I don’t think I got a good break at all from the police,” said Malinowski. “It seems that they are trying to blame me for the attack, and they’re not going to much trouble to find out who hit me.”

Malinowski, carrying stenographic notes taken at a hearing by Mayor Roy R. Stewart into erroneous release of a swindle suspect by Lieut. George Ward, was attacked and choked while near the city detective bureau.

“The police theory that there is a woman angle to the attack is ridiculous,” says Malinowski. “And I am not going to transcribe those notes because I might be attacked again.”

5 Men and Woman Held in P.S. Bus Barn Holdup, Marlton Bank Robbery

Camden Courier-Post — June 19, 1934

Four of Notorious ‘Forty’

COPS ARREST 4 IN PHILA. HOTEL COUNTING CASH

Camden Police to Seek Extradition of Gang at Hearing Thursday

LICENSE NUMBER OF CAR LEADS TO RAID ON ROOM

Scores of Crimes Charged to Members of ‘Band of 40 Thieves’

Five men and a woman, reputedly members of Camden’s notorious “band of 40 thieves,” were arrested yesterday and formally charged with the holdup of the Public Service bus garage at Fifteenth and Mickle streets.

Efforts are also being made by local and state police to link the sextet with the $4000 Marlton National Bank holdup last Friday, and more than a score of other recent crimes throughout South Jersey.

All six will be given hearings Thursday. The five men are held without bail; the woman is in jail in default of $5000 bail.

Stanley Powell, 28, of 1256 Whitman avenue, and Stephie Ciesla, 22, of 1224 Chase street, were taken into custody in Camden.

John Lenkowski, 28, of Chestnut and Louis streets; Stanley Geda, 22, of the 1200 block Everett street; Stanley Krause, 19, of 1252 Sycamore street, and Mitchell Sadowski, 18, of 1200 Sycamore street, were arrested in Philadelphia. Lieut. George Ward, of the Camden detective bureau, is preparing extradition papers to have them returned to this city.

Suspected in Holdups

The six are also suspected of complicity by local and state police in the holdup ten days ago of the Genova Cafe, Third and Arch streets; the $900 payroll robbery last month of the Young and Metzner Company at Sixth street and Atlantic avenue; the attempted robbery of a Westville chain store last Friday when shots were exchanged with police; the holdup of an ice cream stand at Central Airport; the larceny of an automobile from the Cadillac-LaSalle agency in Westville, Friday, and the theft of more than a score of other automobiles.

A total of $187.50 was found in the possession of the quartet nabbed in Philadelphia yesterday. This was described as part of the loot from the Public Service garage job by Lieutenant Ward.

The spectacular capture of the four was hailed by local authorities as the first step in the breaking up of the notorious gang that has been operating in South Jersey for so long. The arrest of Powell and the Ciesla girl came a few hours later.

Lieutenant Ward and Detective Sergeant Gus Koerner, aided by (Continued on Page Two)

STANLEY POWELL (Above) STANLEY GEDA (Above) JOHN LENKOWSKI MITCHELL SADOWSKI

Lenkowski, Geda and Sadowski are three of the four suspects in the Public Service garage holdup early yesterday nabbed in Philadelphia and held without bail to await extradition at a hearing Thursday. The other is Stanley Krause. All are Camdenites. Powell was arrested with Stephie Ciesla in Camden, and also held without bail for a hearing Thursday. Bail of $5000 was placed on the girl. The six are suspected of complicity in the Marlton bank holdup last Friday, also.

5 Men, Woman Held in Bus, Bank Holdups

(Continued from Page One)

Philadelphia detectives, swooped down upon Irving Hotel, 917 Walnut street, Philadelphia, and smashed in a door to a second-floor room. There they found the four men, according to Ward.

Were Dividing Money

“They were dividing up some money,” explained the detective head. “It was stolen in the Public Service holdup yesterday. We are lodging a detainer against them with a warrant accusing them of that job. The Marlton bank holdup is a Burlington county matter. Once we get them over here we will question them about other local jobs.

“We have been looking for them for some time. We understood they had been living in Philadelphia for the past six weeks, and yesterday we learned they had moved to the Irving Hotel. So we planned the raid. The biggest factor in finding them was the cars they have been using. Police in both states were on the lookout for the car used in the Marlton holdup.”

The arrest of Powell and the girl came as a result of the Philadelphia raid. The license number of the car in which the four had driven to the hotel was checked, and traced to the girl’s mother.

Patrolmen William Feitz and Joseph Schultz went to her home and waited for the car to appear.

Powell was driving the car as it approached the Chase street address. When it stopped, the two policemen placed both Powell and Miss Ceisla [sic] under arrest. The man jumped from the car and ran, with Schultz in pursuit. After a chase of half a block, the cop fired a shot over Powell’s head. Powell stopped and surrendered.

Powell Denies Holdup

Powell denied any part in the garage holdup, saying he had slept at the Ciesla home Sunday night. He was held without bail as an accessory after the fact, however, and the girl was placed under $5000 bail as a material witness. They will be given hearings Thursday.

The four arrested in Philadelphia were given preliminary hearings today before Magistrate Charles Medway at Twelfth and Pine streets police station. They were held without bail for another hearing Thursday, when Lieut. Ward will ask that they be extradited to Camden.

At today’s hearing, all four denied any connection with the garage holdup. They testified that two men had come to their room in the hotel and left a bag in their care. They were in the act of counting the contents of the bag—$187.50 in nickels, dimes and quarters—when the police entered, they said.

Lankowski and Sadowski told the Court they did not know the identity of the two men, saying they were friends of Krause. But Krause said he didn’t know them either, whereupon Magistrat [sic] Medway held all four without bail for a further hearing Thursday.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia police are checking on recent holdups there in an effort to link the quartet with them.

Identified by Victims

Witnesses to the Public Service holdup yesterday were taken to Philadelphia and identified the suspects, according to Lieut. Ward. They also identified a photograph of Powell, he added.

Corporal George G. Small, of Berlin barracks, New Jersey State Police, and Detective Sergeant William P. Kelly, of Hammonton headquarters, went to Philadelphia last night in an effort to link the quartet with numerous robberies throughout South Jersey, including two chain stores in Pine Hill last week. Sergeant Kelly was the only one to question the men. Lieut. Ward did not, but explained that he will Thursday.

Thomas Thorpe, chief of Pennsauken township police, today asked Lieut. Ward for permission to question the suspects when they are returned to Camden, in an effort to link them with holdups in that community. Chief of Burlington County Detectives Ellis Parker is also interested in the case. The Marlton holdup comes under his jurisdiction.

Moyer Is Jailed Here On Fake Bill Charge

Trenton Times — August 23, 1934

MOUNT HOLLY, Aug. 23.—Frankie Moyer, arrested in Camden with a counterfeit $10 bill in his possession, was committed to the Mercer County Jail yesterday afternoon in default of $2,500 bail by Supreme Court Commissioner Ralph W. Haines, of Mount Holly. Moyer, a former pugilist and saloonkeeper in Camden and Gloucester, was arrested at the Pennsauken dog racing track Tuesday night by Lieutenant George Ward, of the Camden detective bureau, after he is alleged to have passed two bogus $10 bills in Camden earlier in the day.

12 Questioned, 2 Men Held in Murder Probe

Camden Evening Courier — September 3, 1934

COLSEY LEADS CITY-WIDE HUNT FOR BANDIT KILLERS OF COP

Comrades Eager to Avenge Feitz, Shot 4 Times in Back at Holdup

ORLANDO CONDUCTS OWN INVESTIGATION

Mad Scramble of 20 to Escape Tragedy Scene Described by Sleuth

The greatest man-hunt in the history of the Camden police department was under way today to apprehend the murderers of Detective William T. Feitz, slain early yesterday when he surprised bandits holding up 20 persons in a South Camden disorderly house.

Feitz, recently promoted from a patrolman, was shot four times in the back as he attempted to reach the front door of the establishment at 243 Sycamore street to summon aid.

Police today said they “had a pretty good idea” as to the identity of his slayers, although none has been charged with the crime.

A “mystery blonde” was arrested in the case early today in Atlantic City by Detective Stanley Wertz [sic]. Police refused to reveal her name and will not allow anyone to talk to her.

A man, first believed to have been the trigger-man, arrested in Philadelphia early today, was released by police after a few minutes’ questioning.

Two men are being held “incommunicado” in connection with the case, while a dozen material witnesses were being questioned at detective headquarters.

Probe Rushed

The investigation into the shooting, begun within a few minutes of the slaying continued throughout the day and night without a break.

Police Chief Arthur Colsey took personal command of the probe with Detective Lieut. George Ward and Detective Sergeant Gus Koerner.

Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando, who “sat in” yesterday as police questioned a score of witnesses, stated this morning he will open his own investigation today. He intimated “new developments” may throw a startling light on the case.

Feitz’ slayers escaped as 20 inmates and frequenters of the alleged disorderly house scrambled mainly for freedom beneath the eyes of Detective Joseph H. Leonhardt, who sat outside the place in a police radio car.

Leonhardt told his superiors he was so startled by the shooting he failed to act until after the slayers had escaped.

Feitz and Leonhardt had driven to the scene in the radio car, after trailing a suspicious sedan for 15 minutes through a maze of South Camden streets.

Followed 3 Men

The sedan had stopped near the Sycamore street place and three of the men had entered the dwelling. Feitz followed and Leonhardt remained in the car.

Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, alleged proprietress of the house, and Cornelius Murphy, 50, doorkeeper, headed a list of 14 witnesses held by police for questioning or as material witnesses.

Murphy was booked early today as a material witness, with Thomas Bonelli, 27, of 207 Walnut street; Edward Grapatin, 32, of 246 Kaighn avenue; Joseph McKenna, 30, and Catherine Lougheed, 32, an inmate, and Edith Miller and Edna Butler, colored domestics employed by Mrs. Heisler.

Joseph Powell, 25, former Camden boxer, and Stanley, his brother, were the two men held incommunicado. Police refused to reveal what connection either had with the murder, although stating they were merely being held pending investigation.

Feitz died five minutes after being admitted to West Jersey Homeopathic hospital, where he was taken by Leonardt [sic] and McKenna, who stopped in his flight from the house to assist the wounded policeman. Three .32-calibre slugs were buried in his back and a fourth had pierced his wrist.

Lieutenant Ward today clamped down on news of the investigation, ordering all detectives and police to refuse information to news reporters.

Orlando said he would make known facts in the case known to him later today.

The Heisler woman, said by police to be the sister-in-law of Patrolman Thomas Cheeseman, recently demoted city detective, was not booked on the police docket this morning, but Ward declared he was not through questioning her and that she would be “booked” later in the day.

Several of the witnesses made their escape from the vicinity of the shooting in Powell’s car, police stated, one of whom was the mysterious woman arrested early today in Atlantic City.

Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd last night declared the case would be investigated by the September Grand Jury. It will not, he said, assume more importance in that body’s deliberations than the numbers racket.

Note Lack of Noise

Investigators were at a loss to understand why Feitz and Leonhardt, seated in an automobile on a quiet side street within 20 feet of where a holdup was taking place, did not hear any accompanying sounds. The belief was expressed that 20 men and women, being robbed, would become hysterical and noisy. The Sycamore street house is a ramshackle, two-story structure, with no vestibule leading into the parlor. There is no porch.

Powell drove first to the Lougheed woman’s home, where Mrs. Heisler, the Lougheed woman and Grapatin alighted. He then drove to Atlantic City with the unidentified girl, he said.

Police, advised of Powell’s presence in the house, dispatched the license number of his green sedan over the police teletype system.

Powell was apprehended at Folsom, 40 miles from Camden, as he was returning to Camden from Atlantic City. Sergeant Albert T. Varreiman of the Mt. Ephraim state police barracks stopped Powell’s machine and took him into custody. Powell was alone.

Feitz’s murder was a climax to half an hour’s scrutiny by him and Leonhardt into the suspicious actions of the four bandits. A car in which they were riding was sighted in the neighborhood by the two detectives at 2 a. m.

Trailed Car Fifteen Minutes

They trailed it in their police car for 15 minutes, as it wound through the narrow streets, repeatedly passing the Sycamore street house. Finally, the detectives saw the bandits park their machine on Locust street. Three of them emerged, walked down Sycamore street, and entered the house.

According to Leonhardt, neither he nor Feitz obtained the license number of the bandit car.

Upon seeing them enter the place, Leonhardt drove the police car around the block and stopped in front of the house.

Feitz and Leonhardt sat outside in their machine for 15 minutes. Finally, Leonhardt said, Feitz opened the door and stepped to the sidewalk.

“I’m going in there and see what’s going on,” he said.

Turning, he walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. Leonhardt said the door was opened after a short pause, and Feitz entered. The door was closed.

Hears Bandits’ Guns

Almost immediately, Leonhardt heard the muffled roar of the bandits’ revolvers. Feitz’s body came flying through the door. Pandemonium followed. As the persons in the house fled, neighbors came to doors and windows. Almost immediately, the street was filled.

Leonhardt was so shocked he was unable to drive. An unnamed witness drove the police car with Feitz’s body in it to the hospital.

Prosecutor Orlando indicated his office will step into the probe today.

Shooting Reconstructed

With the aid of witnesses, police yesterday were able to reconstruct the shooting.

“Feitz walked into the house just as the three bandits were holding up the inmates,” Detective Gus Koerner said.

“Witnesses say that when the doorbell rang, the three bandits conferred briefly and decided to admit whoever was at the door. They thought it was another frequenter.

“’Let him in; we’ll take his money too,’ one of the witnesses said a bandit ordered.

One of the bandits went to the door, opened it and admitted Feitz. The detective took five steps into the living room, pausing at the door of the dining room, where he was recognized by a bandit who was frisking the inmates.

“This bandit shouted: ‘It’s a dick; let ‘im have it!’”

Shot in Back

As Feitz reached for his revolver, the man who had admitted him shot him in the back. Feitz attempted to reach the front door, apparently to call Leonhardt, and three more slugs tore into his body.

“It is not known whether the shooting was done by only one of the bandits, or whether all three fired. We do not know whether Feitz opened the front door himself and fell to the street; whether he fell through the glass, or whether the bandits opened the door and pushed him to the street.

“The glass in the front door was broken later by police, who struck it with their blackjacks in order to gain admittance. Leonhardt told me he is unable to clear up this point as everything happened too quickly.

“He said he suddenly heard shots, and a moment later, saw Feitz’ body on the pavement.”

One of the bandit’s bullets went wild, imbedding itself in the wall near the front door. It was fired from the dining room. Ballistics tests will be made of the bullet.

City-wide Raids Follow

Under the direction of Detective Lieut. George Ward, Camden was subjected yesterday and last night to a fine tooth-combing for suspects. All police leaves were cancelled, and all patrolmen volunteered to do active duty until some results of the probe are forthcoming.

A series of raids on known disorderly houses resulted last night in the arrests of more than 20 persons all of whom were taken to police headquarters and lined up for the perusal of witnesses. It was not known whether this scrutiny brought results.

Chief Colsey declared last night the murder will be the signal for an intensive “cleanup” of the city. Policemen in patrol cars were dispatched on prowl duty, ordered to pick up everyone of a suspicious nature.

City officials and citizens voiced their regrets at the killing. Feitz was the father of two children, a boy and a girl. Their names could not be obtained last night. He was estranged from his wife, who resides in Cape May with the children.

Woman Questioned

Mrs. Heisler, regarded by police as a key witness, was questioned several hours in detective headquarters by Chief Colsey, Ward, Orlando and Koerner. The officers refused to disclose the results of the quiz.

No adequate description of the bandits could be furnished by any of the witnesses, Koerner said. Two were described as being of average height, one taller. Two were dark, the third blond.

None of the three was masked. Each was armed.

Mrs. Heisler and Murphy were held without bail as material witnesses. Powell, accompanied by Camden detectives, left for Atlantic City to show them where he dropped off the unidentified girl inmate of the house. They had not returned at a late hour last night.

According to Murphy, two of the bandits previously had visited the house as patrons, and at one time attempted to “shake down” Mrs. Heisler. She resisted their demands, Murphy declared.

Other persons arrested as material witnesses who, after hours of questioning were released in their own recognizance, include:

Frank Adams, 21, of 938 Atlantic avenue; Joseph MacDonald, 20, of 1605 South Sixth street; Henry Gorba, 19, of 17 North Twenty-first street and Edward McKenna, 31, of 1304 Broadway.

Edith Miller, 28, colored, of 205 Sycamore street, and Edna Butler, 32, also colored, 1122 South Second street, also were arrested and held as witnesses. They are inmates of the house, Koerner said.

Police said the bandits, in their search for booty, forced their victims to remove their shoes during the holdup to ascertain whether they were concealing any money. Only $8 was taken.

An autopsy performed on Feitz’ body yesterday by Coroner Arthur H. Holl and County Physician Edward B. Rogers showed that two of the bullets had penetrated the detective’s body. Coroner Holl, in whose undertaking establishment the detective’s body lay last night, declared death was virtually instant.

Chief Colsey last night denied Feitz and Leonhardt were acting under orders to watch the Sycamore street house.

“There have been general orders out to clean up all disorderly houses for a long time,” Colsey said. “I imagine the detectives were more interested in what the four men were doing than they were in the house. I talked at great length with Leonhardt and he told me neither he nor Feitz knew the place was a disorderly house.”

Leonhardt could not be reached last night to give his version of the affair. Colsey said Leonhardt was taking an active part in police efforts to solve the crime.

“If I had known the house in Sycamore street was a disorderly house,” Colsey said, “I would of course have ordered it raided long ago.”

Feitz and Leonhardt were assigned to detective duty from the uniformed ranks last week, replacing former Detectives Thomas Cheeseman and Vernon Jones, who are now reduced to rank of patrolmen.

Chief Colsey said the reason Cheeseman and Jones were reduced was “merely for the good of the department.” He would not amplify that statement.

According to Detective Rox Saponare, Cheeseman is the brother-in-law of Mrs. Heisler, charged with operating the house. Cheeseman, also active in the investigation of the killing, could not be reached last night to comment.

Commended for Bravery

Feitz was appointed to the police force March 1, 1928. He was appointed to the detective bureau last week by Mayor Roy R. Stewart. In 1931, Feitz was commended for bravery in arresting three men in a holdup at a chain grocery store at Locust street and Kaighn avenue.

Last week, the same store was robbed, and Feitz arrested three other men for the theft.

Leonhardt, 39, resides at 512 Division street. The last arrest he made in company with Feitz was at 12.45 a. m. the morning of Feitz’ death. The officers nabbed Cecilia Spencer, 28, colored, at 806 Locust street, a block from the Sycamore street house, on charges of soliciting.

Chief Colsey and other city officials reached Feitz’ bedside in the hospital too late to see him alive. The officer died without regaining consciousness. Funeral arrangements were not completed last night.

Before the estrangement from his wife two years ago, Feitz lived with her and their children at 1062 Langham avenue. He resided recently at the Liberty street address with his widowed mother, Mrs. Pauline Feitz, who last night was prostrated at the news of her son’s death.

Chief Colsey last night absolved Leonhardt of any negligence in not chasing the killers. The police chief declared Leonhardt’s first duty was to look to the condition of Feitz.

Chief Colsey said Mayor Stewart, vacationing in Ocean City, will not return until tomorrow morning. Any investigation into possible negligence on the part of police in permitting the Sycamore street house to operate will be conducted after the mayor returns, Colsey said.

“I consider it more important at this time to lend all our efforts toward solving the crime rather than in conducting any side-bar probe into the question of negligence by any policemen,” Colsey said.

Colsey and Detectives at Murder Scene and 2 Held for Quiz

Camden Evening Courier — September 3, 1934

[Six photographs; the headline above them is the only printed text.]

Stewart Says Laxity on Vice Will Be Probed

Camden Evening Courier — September 4, 1934

Pushes Inquiry in Killing With Chief Colsey Lending Co-operation

WHOLESALE CHANGES LIKELY IN DEPARTMENT

Chief Executive Refers to Official Who Scored Lashing of Cops

A wholesale shakeup of police officials, patrolmen and detectives in the Camden police department is expected to follow the slaying of District Detective William T. Feitz, in a South Camden disorderly house.

That was indicated strongly today by Mayor Roy R. Stewart, director of the department of public safety, after his return from a weekend vacation at Ocean City.

“I intend to get at the bottom of this matter and punish the guilty person or persons,” Mayor Stewart declared upon his arrival at city hall.

“There is something wrong in the police department when no action is taken against a disorderly house which I ordered closed on numerous occasions.

Blames Police

“If the police in the department had followed my instructions we wouldn’t have a dead detective as a consequence of their laxity.

“Chief Colsey and myself are going into the investigation very thooughly [sic] to find out who was responsible for failing to close this place.”

Questioned as to whether the killing of Detective Feitz would bring shifts in district commanders, sergeants, patrolmen and detectives, Mayor Stewart said:

“Yes—anything can happen—for I’m not satisfied with the actions of the department.”

Mayor Stewart also disclosed that since his charge of laxity against the police department, he has been criticized by at least one city official—whose name he would not make public.

“I’ve been told that as head of the department of public safety I shouldn’t make such a statement as I did yesterday because of the effect it would have on the morale of the police department.

Will Shield None

“Well, I want it to be known that I am not guilty of shielding anyone in the operation of this disorderly house. I have a right to protect anyone in the department who is not involved in this violation of my orders and that is what I intend to do in my investigation.”

Mayor Stewart’s first move when he reached his offices was to call Chief Colsey into conference to discuss the events leading up to the death of Detective Feitz early Sunday in the disorderly house allegedly operated by Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, at 243 Sycamore street.

Later, he announced, he would confer with the district and detective lieutenants and sergeants to find out why his orders issued a number of times to close up Mrs. Heisler’s establishment, were not carried out. The conference, Mayor Stewart indicated, would take place this afternoon.

To Quiz Demoted Pair

Two district detectives who were demoted and returned to beats a few days before Detective Feitz was killed, who covered the neighborhood of Second and Sycamore streets, are also to be grilled by Mayor Stewart. One of the detectives, according to police, is a relative of Mrs. Heisler.

While Mayor Stewart and Chief Colsey were conferring, police and detectives still were engaged in running down clues to the identity of the slayers of the detective who was shot when he walked in on a holdup of 20 persons in the disorderly house.

Three bandits who shot Feitz then rushed out the door and directly past District Detective Joseph H. Leonhardt who was bending over Feitz’s body which had hurtled through the front door and dropped down the steps to the street.

The two detectives in a police radio car had been trailing a suspicious car containing the bandits for some time prior to the shooting [text between crops not shown]

Colsey Speaks Freely

Chief Colsey unlike Detective Lieutenant Ward who has persistently refused to talk to newspapermen or give them any information, spoke freely about the police investigation of Feitz’s death.

“I feel confident that within a few days we will have the killer or killers of Feitz under arrest,” Chief Colsey said.

He admitted that all of the suspects arrested here, in Philadelphia and Atlantic City to date had not been identified as members of the bandit mob.

A suspect who was arrested last night by Chief Colsey and a detective in cruising about the city was released after being questioned.

Another suspect arrested early today was still being held by the police, who refused to reveal his identity. Chief Colsey stated that he did not think the man was involved in the killing of Feitz.

8 Still Held

However, four men and four women are being held in cells at police headquarters as material witnesses.

Only seven are listed on the police blotter, the name of Mrs. Heisler being omitted. The others are Thomas Bonelli, 27, of 207 Walnut street; Cornelius Murphy, 50, of 239 Sycamore street, said by police to have been the doorman of Mrs. Heisler’s establishment; Edward Grapatin, 32, of 246 Kaighn avenue; Joseph McKenna, 31, of 1404 Broadway; Edith Miller, 28, colored, of 205 Sycamore street, and Edna Butler, 33, colored, of 1122 South Second street, domestics in Mrs. Heisler’s place; Catherine Lougheed, 32, of 626 Pine street, an alleged inmate.

Released after being held as material witnesses were Edward Gorba, 20, and his brother, Henry, 19, of 17 North Twenty-first street; Frank Adams, 21, of 938 Atlantic avenue, and Joseph McDonald, 20, of 1605 South Ninth street. All were released in their own recognizance to appear tomorrow.

All of the persons taken into custody after the shooting, were in the disorderly house at the time, police said.

Police disclosed that Ed Gorba was the only eye-witness to the killing who was proving of any value in remembering the description of the killers or in attempting to identify suspects arrested.

Ward Has Nothing to Say Regarding Feitz Probe

Camden Evening Courier — September 4, 1934

Detective Lieutenant Ward in charge of the Camden detective bureau, had “nothing to say” today for the second straight day in connection with the investigation of the murder of District Detective Feitz.

Yesterday in starting his campaign of keeping the activities of the police probe from newspapers, he ordered newspapermen out of the detective bureau.

At the time he declared he was “going to do police duty.” Today he declared he had “nothing to say.”

Lieut. Bakley and 11 Police Suspended in Feitz Inquiry

Camden Evening Courier — September 10, 1934

3 Sergeants Included in List Set Down by Chief Colsey

JUSTICE LLOYD JOINS PROBE INTO MURDER

Chief of Police Arthur Colsey at noon today announced the indefinite suspension of Lieut. Ralph Bakley, commander of the Second district of Camden police, and 11 other policemen in connection with the investigation into the killing of Detective William T. Feitz.

The full list of those suspended is as follows:

Lieut. Ralph Bakley, Sergt. John Garrity, Sergt. Walter Mattison, Acting Sergt. Edward Leonard, Sergt. Richard Cornog, Policemen George Weber, Joseph Leonhardt, Leon Branch, Thomas Cheeseman, Frank Wilmont [sic], John Houston and Vernon Jones.

Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd today entered the investigation into the murder of District Detective William T. Feitz in an alleged South Camden disorderly house Sept. 2.

The jurist, upon returning from his Summer vacation at Seaside Park, called an immediate conference with Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando of Camden county and Police Chief Arthur Colsey of this city.

Although no confirmation could be obtained officially, it was learned from authoritative sources that Justice Lloyd would take up the charges made earlier in the week by Prosecutor Orlando that graft and corruption exist in the Camden police.

May Probe Suicide

The jurist was also expected to delve into the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, alleged operator of the disorderly house where Feitz met his death at 243 Sycamore street.

Mrs. Heisler, who was detained in the Camden detective bureau at the order of Detective Lieutenant George Ward instead of being locked in a cell, jumped from the fifth floor window of Ward’s office September 4 while two detectives assigned to guard her were nearby.

The progress of the police investigation into the killing of Feitz, whom police declare was shot when he surprised three bandits in the act of holding up 20 inmates and patrons, will be presented by both Prosecutor Orlando and Chief Colsey.

Mickey Blair to Give Up

Mickey Blair, boxer whose real name is Michael Tenerelli, 25, who has been living in New York City, but whose Camden address is 833 South Fourth street, is to be surrendered to Camden police for questioning in connection with the murder of Feitz.

He has been sought by detectives for grilling since a few hours after the shooting of Feitz.

His attorney, Edward V. Martino, of 540 Cooper street, notified Chief Colsey today that he would surrender Tenerelli or Blair to the police in his office at 1 p.m.

“Mickey knows absolutely nothing about the killing of Feitz,” Martino told newspapermen. “Learning through a friend that police were seeking him for questioning, he called me Saturday night and asked me to ascertain the facts.”

“I learned that police wanted to talk to him and telephoned him to that effect in New York City where he has been staying for the past few weeks. He later called me back and told me that he would be in Camden at 1 p.m. today.”

‘Attended Funeral’

Martino revealed that Tenerelli or Blair said he had been in Camden prior to the killing of Feitz and also on Labor Day, the day following the shooting of the detective. He was here to attend the funeral of a brother-in-law, Martino said.

Neither Chief Colsey or other police or detective officials would comment upon what they hoped to learn from Tenerelli that might bring an early solution of the murder and lead to the arrest of the killers.

Prosecutor Orlando at the conference with Justice Lloyd in his City Hall-Court House offices, was to present a complete report on the murder of the detective together with statements obtained from all persons who figured in the crime.

Will Probe Numbers

Prosecutor Orlando stepped in and assumed nominal charge of the investigation last Thursday when he ordered police to submit to him all reports and statements of witnesses. However it was learned that the police are still directing the search for the killers.

The conference between Justice Lloyd, Prosecutor Orlando and Chief Colsey comes on the eve of swearing in the September Grand Jury tomorrow at which time the grand jurors wil [sic] be ordered among other issues, to probe into the “numbers” racket in Camden county.

Feitz Funeral Photographs

Camden Evening Courier — September 10, 1934

Police officials and fellow officers of Detective William T. Feitz, Jr., slain last Sunday in a disorderly house in Sycamore street, attended the funeral services Saturday. Top photo shows pall-bearers removing Feitz’s body from the undertaking establishment of Coroner Arthur H. Holl at left. The pall-bearers, left to right, are Patrolmen Joseph Leonhardt, Feitz’ companion the night he was slain; Otto Taperscer, Delaware Palmer, William Weaver and Paul Jackson. Lower photo shows police officials at the services. Left to right, Lt. Herbert Anderson, Chief Colsey, Lt. Ralph Bakely, E. Howard Broome, secretary to Mayor Stewart, and Lt. George Ward.

Grand Jury Vice Probe to Be Ordered by Lloyd; Stewart Quizzes Cops

Camden Evening Courier — September 11, 1934

FEITZ MURDER, CITY GRAFTING TO FACE INQUIRY

Action Follows Parley With Orlando and Mayor on Conditions

MORE SUSPENSIONS OF POLICE INTIMATED

Mickey Blair Quizzed on Detective’s Killing; Stewart Warns, ‘Clean Up’

Questioned in Feitz Murder

Michael Tenerelli, 25, known in pugilistic circles as Mickey Blair, is shown above during a lull in the questioning by detectives investigating the murder of District Detective William Feitz. Tenerelli surrendered to police yesterday and on order of Prosecutor Orlando was held without bail on charges of being a material witness and with conspiracy in a robbery in connection with the holdup in progress in the South Camden alleged disorderly house at the time Feitz was shot.

Ward Reported on Way Out as Detective Chief

Reports around Camden police and detective headquarters today were to the effect that Lieutenant George Ward was on “his way out” as head of the Detective Bureau.

Dissatisfaction with the manner in which both police and detectives have handled the investigation so far into the Feitz murder will result in Mayor Stewart, director of public safety, ordering a change in detective chiefs today, it was authoritatively learned.

Lieutenant Herbert Anderson, commander of the First Police District, will succeed Lieutenant Ward as it was reported, the latter being sent back to that police precinct which he formerly commanded.

“A sweeping investigation of all phases of “crime” in Camden County, will be the first order given the new September Grand Jury today after it is sworn in at Camden Courthouse by Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd.

That was the decision reached by Justice Lloyd after three hours of separate conferences with Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando, of Camden County, and Mayor Roy R. Stewart, director of public safety. During the conferences held in Justice Lloyd’s offices at City Hall-Courthouse, the murder of District Detective William T. Feitz, alleged graft and corruption in the Camden police department and protected vice were thoroughly discussed.

Today, Mayor Stewart, who has inaugurated his own personal investigation of existing conditions in the police department, continued to question and take statements from police officials, patrolmen and detectives. Twenty-three patrolmen and detectives were ordered before the mayor yesterday in addition to the 12 others who were indefinitely suspended by order of Police Chief Arthur Colsey.

Tenerelli Quizzed

Michael Tenerelli, 25, also known as Mickey Blair, former Camden lightweight boxer, was still being questioned at police headquarters in connection with the murder of Detective Feitz. Tenerelli who surrendered to police here yesterday after returning from New York, is booked as a material witness and on a charge of conspiracy in a robbery. Both charges were ordered placed against Tenerelli by Prosecutor Orlando who has assumed direct charge of the investigation. He is being held without bail.

Seven other men and women taken into custody by police after the shooting of Feitz in the alleged disorderly house operated by the late Mrs. Emma Heisler at 243 Sycamore street, were to have been arraigned in Camden Police Court today on orders of Prosecutor Orlando and then turned over to the county authorities. Bail, Prosecutor Orlando declared, would be “sufficiently high” to insure their later appearances when wanted.

However there were no appearances of material witnesses or others in the Feitz investigation before Judge J. Harry Switzer in Camden Police Court during its session today and it was unofficially reported that the prosecutor had changed his plans.

Police Chief Colsey warned all detectives and patrolmen in the department that further suspensions will follow justified complaints of vice anywhere in the city limits if it can be traced to police neglect.

Chief Colsey also admitted that the 12 patrolmen and detectives suspended yesterday on his orders, will receive no pay as long as their suspensions last.

In addition to Lieutenant Bakley, Sergeant Cornog and Acting Sergeant Leonard, the others suspended include Sergeant Walter Mattison of police headquarters; Sergeant John Garrity, District Detective Joseph H. Leonhardt who was with Feitz when he was shot; Patrolmen Leon Branch, George Weber, Thomas Cheeseman, Frank Wilmot, John Houston and Vernon Jones, all attached to the Second district station.

Interviews Police

Three of the suspended officers, Mayor Stewart revealed, were among those interrogated yesterday. They are Lieut. Ralph A. Bakley, commander of the Second Police District or Division “H” in which territory the alleged disorderly house existed where Feitz was fatally shot; Sergeant Richard Cornog and Acting [lines between the bottom of crop 15 and the top of crop 16 are not captured in the scanned crops]

Edwin Andrews, Winslow township; Joseph Dougherty, 140 Prospect avenue, Merchantville.

William Tomlinson, Glendale, Voorhees township; Edmund S. Stafford, 546 Stevens street; Harry Buffington, 123 East Clinton avenue, Oaklyn; Samuel A. Dobbins, 2599 Baird boulevard; Charles H. Thatcher, 129 Kendall boulevard, Oaklyn; Richard S. Thompson, East Zane avenue, Collingswood; Benjamin F. Stemmer, 420 Third Avenue, Haddon Heights; Horace J. Harvey, 721 Amherst avenue, Audubon; H. B. Cox, Evesham avenue, Voorhees township; Dr. Walter F. Wood, Collingswood; John W. Underwood, 801 Cumberland street, Gloucester; Clarence Alloway, Blackwood; Charles A. McWilliams, Blackwood; Louis G. Clark, Barrington; Albert J. Cline, 18 East Crystal Lake avenue, Westmont; Robert Bushbeck, First avenue, Pine Hill, Harry Burkhardt, Bell road, Mt. Ephraim; George T. Schuster, 223 Woodland terrace, Collingswood; Chesley L. Hutchins, 711 Market street, Gloucester and Otto Vierling, Evergreen avenue, Runnemede.

The order of Justice Lloyd for a wide grand jury probe of crime follows upon a decision he made 10 days ago to have the same body open an investigation into the “numbers” racket in Camden city and county. At that time he declared he did not believe any graft or corruption existed in the Camden police department in connection with the operation of the lottery game here.

Tenerelli was identified, Colsey said, as a frequenter of Mrs. Emma Heisler’s disorderly house at 243 Sycamore street, where Feitz was killed, and was booked as a material witness in the Feitz murder, and on a charge of “shaking down” Mrs. Heisler by force, prior to the murder.

Unlike Mrs. Heisler, who leaped to her death after 60 hours freedom in the detective bureau, Blair was slapped without bail into the “cold storage” or incommunicado cell in the bureau.

Blair, after surrendering to Colsey, was sent to the “downstairs” jail and kept there until about 4 p. m. yesterday. Then he was questioned for an hour and a half by Prosecutor Orlando and Colsey.

Blair denied all knowledge of the murder, Colsey said, after the grilling ceased, but added that two inmates of Mrs. Heisler’s house, whom he would not identify, named Blair as one of several men who had come several times to Mrs. Heisler’s place, attempted to extort money from her and, failing, had “held up the place” or a “shakedown.”

This coincided with the statement of Detective Sergeant Gus Koerner, on the day Feitz was killed, that the place had been held up several times, and Mrs. Heisler, because of the nature of her occupation, would not report the holdups.

Prosecutor Orlando, subsequently, had stated that Feitz met death in an attempt to block a “shake-down” holdup of the place.

Boxer Is Identified

Both the inmates of Mrs. Heisler’s place, held incommunicado, looked at Blair in the new detective bureau “lineup” room and identified him as a shakedown visitor, but said he was not in the house on the night of the murder, Colsey said.

The chief then was asked if he believes friends of Blair staged the fatal shake-down and killed Feitz, and replied:

“That’s what we want to know. We don’t know yet. But we are getting somewhere and will solve this case.”

The two inmates of the Heisler house were brought back to the lineup room a second time, took another look at Blair through the screen that made him a “high-lighted” figure and prevented him from seeing them and reaffirmed their previous statements, Colsey said.

Upon the suspension of the twelve members of the force and the installation of a new acting second district commander and new acting sergeants to relieve those suspended, Chief Colsey said he issued the following order to the entire department:

Calls for Cleanup

“All vice must be eliminated absolutely and entirely in Camden. This means all types of vice, including the numbers racket, gambling houses, disorderly houses, horse-race bookmaking speakeasies and everything else though it may not be specifically enumerated here.

“In the future if any complaint of vice comes in, and is proved to be justified, and is attributable to negligence on the part of any patrolmen of police officer [sic], immediate suspension of the negligent members of the force will follow without exception.”

Chief Colsey also said he will recommend that bail of $2000 be set in all numbers racket cases in future, and that all arrested be held for grand jury action, except in cases where innocent players are brought in.

‘Prompted by Facts’

In making public the suspensions of the policemen, Chief Colsey said his action was “prompted by facts” uncovered during the course of his investigation.

In announcing the taking over of the murder investigation, Prosecutor Orlando said:

“As a result of my conference with Justice Lloyd it has been decided that the prosecutor’s office from this time on will take charge of the murder investigation.

“In doing so, however, it does not mean that the city police will cease acting in the matter and will act with just as much zeal as is within their command in bringing about the apprehension of those responsible.

“This investigation has been taken over by this office by reason of the policy assumed in other murder investigations. Hereafter all murder investigations in Camden county will be under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office and at the same time through co-ordinated efforts of this office and the police department of the particular community where the murder takes place.

“As far as developments are concerned, there is nothing new in the case except the arrest of Mickey Blair, who was surrendered by his counsel and who is in the custody of the police until he is committed.”

Lieutenant Walter Welch in command of the Third Police District was assigned by Chief Colsey to replace Lieutenant Bakley and make the suspensions of all sergeants and patrolmen in that precinct effective immediately. Sergeant John Potter of the Third District was named an acting lieutenant to replace Lieutenant Welch as commander of that precinct.

Welch said he will instruct every policeman under his new command that he must work in harmony with earnest efforts to stamp out vice.

“If they do not do this,” Welch said, “I do not want them. They will be of no use to me. They know what to expect if they fail to cooperate. My efforts will be directed to maintaining order without vice in the Second district, just as I have done in the Third.”

Feitz Witness Dies in 5-Floor City Hall Jump

Camden Evening Courier — September 5, 1934

Should Have Been Kept in Cell, Stewart and Orlando Say

WOMAN TRIED IN VAIN TO TALK WITH WARD

Colsey Will Conduct Investigation in Attempt to Fix Blame

A complete investigation was ordered today by Mayor Roy R. Stewart into the suicide yesterday of Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, who plunged five floors from a detective bureau window in city hall.

Mrs. Heisler was the key witness to the murder early Sunday of Detective William T. Feitz. It was in Mrs. Heisler’s alleged disorderly house at 243 Sycamore street that Feitz was killed.

Mayor Stewart, ordering the investigation, freely admitted today that Mrs. Heisler should have been locked in a city hall jail cell instead of being permitted to roam about detective headquarters.

Colsey to Conduct Probe

Mayor Stewart delegated Police Chief Arthur Colsey to conduct the probe and determine whether there is evidence of police laxity in the suicide of Mrs. Heisler.

From two sources since the woman was taken into custody were the police warned against permitting her to walk unguarded in city hall. The warnings were ignored.

Only yesterday, a short time before the woman leaped to her death, a Courier-Post reporter made the comment in detective headquarters:

“You’d better watch that woman, or she’s liable to jump from a window and sprain her ankle.”

A similar warning that Mrs. Heisler should be locked in a cell was delivered by Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando.

Less than an hour before she took her death leap, Mrs. Heisler had pleaded with Lieutenant Ward to let her talk to him.

“I’ve got something in my heart I must let out,” she told Ward, interrupting him as he gave a last-minute telephone report of the murder probe to Mayor Stewart. The mayor was about to catch a 4.20 p. m. train to his Ocean City summer home.

Three times, Ward said, she tried to drag him from the telephone as he talked to Stewart, each time insisting she had something to tell him.

Ward Refused to Listen

Ward concluded the conversation with Stewart and then left the bureau instead of talking to her.

At 5.12 p. m. Mrs. Heisler rushed from the detectives’ room into Ward’s private office, raised the only window not guarded by a glass ventilator and leaped to her death.

Whatever she had in her heart was still there.

She never regained consciousness fully and died at 6.12 p. m. in Cooper Hospital.

With her, police believe, went their best chance of learning the identity of Feitz’s slayers.

After Ward brusquely rebuffed the woman as she attempted to tell him something that he, by his own admission, believes might have been the identity of the killers, she went back into the desk room where all detectives sit when idle.

A Courier-Post reporter was outside the counter separating the detectives’ office space from that area reserved for the public—barred from the inner sanctum by Ward’s orders.

The reporter said the woman was disheveled in appearance, her blonde hair straggling about her face, her eyes showing that she was under a severe emotional strain.

Detectives Laugh

“You’d better watch that woman,” he told Detective Robert Ashenfelder. “She’s liable to jump from a window and sprain her ankle.”

The detectives laughed.

A few minutes later she sat at a desk near the entrance to Ward’s

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private office, in the corner of the bureau.

“She was about to break. I think she was ready to tell us who killed Feitz,” Detective Sergeant Gus Koerner said afterward.

After Ward refused to let her unburden herself—possibly of information the entire department has been seeking night and day since Feitz’s death—she appeared highly agitated.

The woman leaped from her desk and rushed into Ward’s private office.

Body Broken Badly

She raised the only window not guarded by a ventilator and leaped. She landed on the iron windshield bar of a roadster, and the force of her fall almost cut her body in half. She bounced into the seat of the car owned by Andrew Stewart, 143 West Cottage avenue, Haddonfield.

Detectives Clifford Carr and Robert Ashenfelter were the only members of the force in the bureau. Carr was answering a telephone. Ashenfelter was questioning Camillo Cinelli, 848 South Third street, a former pugilist known as Billy Hart, about some matter not connected with the murder.

“We were standing almost at the door of Ward’s office,” Ashenfelter said. “Cinelli wanted a drink of water and I followed him to the water bottle, away from the door. We drank and started back.

“Cinelli was in front of me and I could not see the woman. All of a sudden we heard the sound of tinkling glass. Cinelli ran into Ward’s office. I followed him. The woman was gone. We looked out the window and saw her in a roadster with the top down.

Takes Her to Hospital

“I went downstairs in the private elevator, loaded the woman into a car and went with her to Cooper Hospital. Carr went downstairs with me, but he had to return to the office.”

Carr said he was answering a telephone when he heard the sound of glass, looked about for the woman and saw she was gone. Then he too rushed to Ward’s window and looked out to see her in the car below.

The woman’s skull was crushed. Her fall bent the metal bar of the windshield almost to the dash and shattered the glass—to give notice of her death to her previous captors upstairs.

At the hospital, Dr. Roscoe Kandle examined the woman and shook his head, then ordered her removed to a ward cot. She was in a semi-comatose state.

Carpani and Lieutenant Ward, who had rushed to the hospital for his delayed reception of her story, found her unable to tell what was in her heart.

Her brothers, Albert and William Slonski of 1300 South Broad street, Philadelphia, arrived before she died.

Father James Foley, pastor of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, administered extreme unction to the woman. He happened to be in the hospital, asked if she were a Catholic, and gave her the last rites of her faith for the living.

Neither Mayor Stewart nor Chief of Police Colsey would criticize any member of the detective force for the woman’s leap, but Prosecutor Orlando was outspoken in his belief that police laxity, in spite of a warning from him, had caused her death and had removed the state’s chief witness against Feitz’s slayers, “if they are caught.”

Orlando Warned Mayor

“At 2 p. m. today,” Orlando said. “I told Mayor Stewart that woman ought to be locked in a cell and held on the charge of maintaining a disorderly house.

“It is a regrettable thing that she was permitted to commit suicide. It may prove costly in the prosecution of Feitz’s slayers, if they are caught.

“I am not having much to do with the investigation. I am hoping the police will bring it to the point where I can prepare to prosecute.”

“I will not criticize any member of the force for Mrs. Heisler’s leap,” Chief Colsey said. “We had agreed to allow Ward to have his way. He felt, and convinced us, that we could get more from her by treating her kindly.

‘She Appeared Contented’

“As a matter of fact, she appeared contented. When Mayor Stewart and I questioned her earlier in the afternoon, she appeared in better condition than at any time since she was brought here.

“If she had wanted to leap from a window, she had had ample opportunities. She could have leaped while the mayor and I were questioning her, for that matter. We did not suspect she would attempt her life.

“She anwered [sic] questions better—more straightforwardly—for Mayor Stewart and me than at any time before.

“I believe she knew who killed Feitz. She said she didn’t. I think she would have told us tonight who killed him. She was beginning to open up.”

Ward, silent since Monday morning, said virtually the same thing, although he insisted he was “not talking anyway.”

Ward Calls It Fear

“She was about ready to tell what she knew,” the chief of detectives said. “It probably was fear that had kept her from it before. She feared she would be killed if she did tell. I think she knew who killed Feitz.

“She came to me three times while I was talking to Mayor Stewart on the phone and I had to put my hand over the phone to send her out,” Ward confessed. “She kept saying she had something to tell me. I think she was ready to tell it all.

“I had to leave the office after talking to the mayor,” Ward continued. “I didn’t get to question her further. I wasn’t here when she jumped. I’m not talking, anyway,” Ward said.

It was Mayor Stewart who revealed that the woman told Ward “I’ve got something in my heart and I must let it out.”

This, the mayor said, Ward told him on the telephone, interrupting the conversation to hear that much and then leaving the bureau before hearing what it was.

Disagrees With Colsey

Mayor Stewart’s opinion of the woman’s nervous condition was the reverse of Chief Colsey’s, however. He said:

“The death of the Heisler woman is very unfortunate. But we believe it will not retard our investigation into Feitz’s murder. We are hopeful that there are others who know just as much as Mrs. Heisler knew.

“I noticed this afternoon as Chief Colsey and I questioned her that she was in a very nervous condition. Several times she became flustered and appeared bewildered when attempting to answer questions.

“Her mind at times seemed to become a total blank.”

‘Ward’s Idea’

Asked why the woman had not been booked and locked in a cell, Mayor Stewart said:

“This angle had been gone over very carefully several times and it was Ward’s idea that Mrs. Heisler be given freedom of the bureau and treated with kindness, with the hope that she would reveal valuable information.

“I am sorry now I did not insist that she be placed in a cell.

“In the future, definite steps will be taken to prevent like happening.”

Asked whether any disciplinary action would be taken against members of the detective bureau as punishment for laxity in watching the woman, the mayor said:

“No. There will be no such action. I acquiesced in Ward’s desire to allow the woman freedom, trusting his judgment that this course might reduce the best results.”

Voluntary Prisoner

Mrs. Heisler was allowed many privileges during her detention. She was held as a voluntary prisoner, Chief Colsey said, adding:

“But if she had wanted to leave, we would have booked her and put her in a cell.”

He admitted the woman was held—though technically not held—in excess of the 48 hours police are permitted to hold a prisoner without filing charges.

“You can hold them as long as necessary in a murder case,” Colsey said.

Rests in Comfort

For two days the Courier-Post Newspapers had been printing pointed stories to the effect that Mrs. Heisler was allowed free run of detective headquarters, being treated as a guest while all others linked in any way with the murder were locked up in cells.

She was not even sent to a cell to sleep. Detectives converted a bench in the line-up room, which opens onto their quarters, into a bed, using blankets, overcoats and other pieces of clothing and bedding, impounded as stolen, to make her comfortable.

Detectives Served Her

An unidentified friend was permitted to bring her $10 in cash. She was allowed to smoke at will, to eat when and what she desired, and to have coffee brought to her by detectives at any and all hours.

That the Heisler woman had operated disorderly houses for six or seven years in Camden was generally known, although police would not admit the knowledge.

She ran a place at Sixth and Spruce streets for a time; then operated another house at Third and Mechanic street, a third at Ninth and Pine streets, and still another at Second and Chestnut streets. Then she ran a house at 242 Sycamore street, moved away, and then opened a new place at 243 Sycamore street, where Feitz was killed. This place had been in operation about seven months.

Sergeant Koerner said the woman had shown every indication that she was on the point of “breaking.”

‘Bad Break’ for Police

“She would walk up to me and other men as though she wanted to tell us something. Then she would turn and walk away. She was getting ready to tell everything, I believe. It is a bad break that she is dead.

“I think she knew who killed Feitz. The men had been there before. They had asked for her by name at the door, and she had admitted them. She is bound to have known them.

“She was ready to tell who they were, I believe, but every time she got to the point of telling, something would come up in her throat. I think it was fear.”

Chief Colsey continued to drive all members of the force night and day on the investigation, determined, he said, to clean it up as soon as possible.

Woman Planned Suicide Monday, City Hall Rumor

Camden Evening Courier — September 5, 1934

Rumors persisted today around the city hall that Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, who committed suicide yesterday by leaping five floors from detective headquarters, planned Monday to end her life.

Reporters at the “hall” recalled today that they were present when Detective Clifford Carr took Mrs. Heisler into detective headquarters Monday. The woman looked distraught and glanced around her nervously.

She mumbled something to Carr, whereupon the detective was heard to answer.

“Well, this is the fifth floor, the top of the city hall and as high as it goes.”

“Please take me back now,” the woman was heard to say.

Although Lieut. George Ward and Police Chief Arthur Colsey denied Mrs. Heisler previously spoke of suicide, it is believed her mumbled conversation with Carr was to that effect.

Woman ‘Docketed’ After Suicide Leap

Camden Evening Courier — September 5, 1934

Mrs. Heisler’s Name Put on Police Book Today; Ward Silent

The ghost of Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, who leaped to her death yesterday from a fifth floor detective bureau window in city hall, stalked today in police headquarters.

For the first time since she was taken into custody Sunday after the murder of Detective William T. Feitz, Jr., her name made an uncanny appearance this morning on headquarters police docket.

No one, not even Lieut. George A. Ward, chief of detectives, could explain its presence there or why the woman’s name had not been entered on the “blotter” the day of her arrest.

Since Sunday, newsmen have held the docket under closest scrutiny, looking for the name of Mrs. Heisler, but it did not appear until today, and then it was pasted in.

When questioned as to why the name of Mrs. Heisler had not been entered before, Lieutenant Ward became evasive, bristled with resentment and answered:

“I don’t know anything about that.”

The “pasted in” name of Mrs. Heisler was written to make it

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Woman ‘Docketed’ After Suicide Leap

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appear as though it had been entered at 4.50 a. m. Sunday, after the killing of Detective Feitz.

With ghastly irony, the woman, a day after her death, is now formally held as a material witness in the “murder,” according to the notation in the police book.

Although Mrs. Heisler had been given a free run of the jail and had not been placed in a cell, she was locked up in cell “1-S,” according to the police docket record.

Under the heading of occupation appeared the word “none,” and the dead woman was listed as “married,” and “W. F. S.,” which indicated that she was “white, female and sober.”

“No Bail,” Opposite Name

On the page is written in pen, “no bail,” which conveys instructions to police headquarters officials that Mrs. Heisler was not to be released in bail.

The name of Mrs. Heisler was “pasted in” to lead the array of witnesses in the Feitz killing. Preceding hers, is the name of a man held on a charge of drunkenness.

Further mystery surrounding the entrance on the police docket of Mrs. Heisler’s name arose when Police Lieut. Samuel Johnson, in charge of headquarters, was unable to explain its presence.

Johnson’s name appeared on the docket as having received the woman early Sunday morning despite the fact that he did not report for duty until 8 a. m. that day.

“I don’t know anything about it,” said Johnson. “The name must have been put there when I was off.”

A reporter questioned Lieutenant Ward as follows:

“I see the name of Mrs. Heisler is now on the docket?”

“What do you mean, now,” snapped Ward.

“I mean that it hasn’t been there before today, and I should like to learn why.”

Says Space Left Blank

“Well,” began Ward haltingly, “a blank space had always been left for this woman’s name. She was entered when she was first brought in on a duplicate card, but her name was not placed in the book. She was the most important witness we had. Why wouldn’t we put her under arrest?”

“Wasn’t the name pasted in the book?” Ward was asked.

“I don’t know anything about that,” was the reply.

Ward refused to comment further.

It is customary at police headquarters to enter the name of prisoners in the docket and then make out duplicate cards, which are sent to police court. That is done, it was explained, so that police court authorities will be familiar with all details of charges against prisoners when they are arraigned for police court hearings.

Lieutenant Ward declared a duplicate card bearing Mrs. Heisler’s name was made out and “placed in the sergeant’s desk.”

Orlando Pores Over Data on Feitz Murder

Camden Evening Courier — September 7, 1934

Prosecutor Ready to Take Charge of Probe Should Need Be Seen

3 SOUGHT AS KILLERS DESCRIBED IN REPORT

Cops Devote Spare Time to Hunt in Hope of Avenging Detective

Ward ‘Not Interested’ in Killer Reward Offer

Lieut. George Ward, in charge of the Detective Bureau, was asked today if he was in favor of the city offering a reward for information leading to apprehension and conviction of Feitz’s slayers.

“I don’t care,” he said.

“Don’t you think it might help find the killers?”

“I don’t know anything about it,” he replied. “Go ahead and offer a reward yourself.”

“Suppose you were very busy on the case last night? Any important developments?”

“I didn’t do a thing on it,” he answered. “We haven’t got anywhere at all.”

Then he hung up.

Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando today began a study of all police data on the murder of Detective William T. Feitz, Jr., with a view to taking a directing hand in the investigation.

The prosecutor received from Police Chief Arthur Colsey a report he called for yesterday, setting forth all the circumstances of the killing and, supposedly, all the information regarding the killers which police have obtained.

The report is understood to contain the names and descriptions of the three gunmen sought in the killing of Feitz at 2 a. m. last Sunday in an alleged disorderly house at 243 Sycamore street. The first police version was that the men were holding up and robbing 20 persons in the house when Feitz entered, after following the bandit car about the neighborhood because of its suspicious actions.

Shakedown Hinted

Later developments, however, indicate the men were trying to “shake down” Mrs. Emma Heisler, 38, proprietress of the place, for “hush money.” Mrs. Heisler committed suicide at 5 p. m. Tuesday by leaping from a fifth-floor window of the Detective Bureau in City Hall, where she had been permitted the freedom

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of the large office, according to police.

Orlando said he will study the report on the murder and suicide case between now and Monday, and he expects on Monday to go before Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd to discuss the feasibility of engaging private investigators to augment his staff of county detectives, for the purpose of pushing the probe at a faster pace than police detectives seem to have done.

After Orlando indicated he was not entirely satisfied with the progress, or lack of progress, police have made, Chief Colsey announced for the first time that his men have a “pretty good idea” who the killers are, and the investigation has now narrowed down to a search for them. Two are former pugilists of Camden, and the third is a notorious Eastern Pennsylvania ex-convict, robber and “trigger-man,” who is described as the man who poured four bullets into Feitz’s body near the door of the Sycamore street house.

Furniture Removed

Incidentally, the furniture was moved from the house yesterday, but police admitted they knew nothing about the moving, nor where the furniture was taken. It is presumed the moving was ordered by William Solinsky, 1052 Line street, only brother of Mrs. Heisler and spokesman for the family. Solinsky would not discuss it.

Feitz Slain Balking Grafters—Orlando

Camden Evening Courier — September 8, 1934

Prosecutor Says Holdup Theory is Fake; Police Still in Dark

Reports that Detective William T. Feitz, Jr., was slain gy [sic] gunmen staging a “shake-down” and not a hold-up, as police have stated, were given credence today by Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando.

Taking a hand in the investigation because of apparent lack of progress by police, Orlando expressed the opinion that Feitz was trying to protect Mrs. Emma Heisler from a band of extortionists when he entered the disorderly house she operated at 243 Sycamore street about 2 a. m. last Sunday, only to have four bullets pumped into his body.

Meanwhile the same air of secrecy with which police and detectives have surrounded themselves in the investigation was assumed by denizens of Camden’s underworld, several of whom are reported to know more about the case than they care to disclose. However, Police Chief Arthur Colsey declared this morning there was nothing new in the investigation that the police can give out.

Gangsters Silent

Known gangsters who had been willing to talk freely about activities of opposing mobsters last night were close-mouthed, shifty-eyed and obviously afraid to say anything about the Feitz murder.

One underworld character said all gangsters are fearful that some “weak sister” in one of the many gangs may “spill something” that will lead to wholesale revelations of graft, vice and crime, with dozens of arrests following.

As a result, the underworld’s nerves are on edge. Numbers racketeers, “alky” dealers, vice lords and their henchmen—all conditions and varieties of underworld characters seemed to have caught the infection. Their usual affability was replaced with a curt denial of any knowledge.

Disorderly houses in Camden had closed voluntarily. Virtually every race horse bookmakers’ establishment was closed. The parade grounds of gangsters were deserted. They could be found only in “back rooms” and the less populous corners—and most of them were alone, in marked contrast to their penchant for hangers-on.

They were cleared for action, observers decided, and ready for a “big break” of some sort—fearful that an aroused police department might crack down with such ruthless abandon that “shooting it out” might become the necessary “play” for self-preservation.

Orlando expressed the opinion that Feitz was killed by “shake-down” men after he had quizzed a number of witnesses in the Feitz murder, including Cornelius Murphy, who, police say, was caretaker at the Heisler establishment.

This quiz was launched yesterday afternoon.

Orlando’s reconstruction of the crime was in harmony with persistent rumors that have been in circulation ever since Feitz was shot to death early last Sunday. His theory, however, is at variance with that of Camden city police department detectives, who have insisted that Feitz was killed when he went into the house and caught a trio of men “sticking up” the patrons in the place.

Orlando’s questioning of witnesses corroborated reports that the county intends to take charge of the investigation into the case.

“Matter of Time”

While admitting that neither he nor the police knows the identity of the slayers, Orlando expressed confidence that their apprehension was only a matter of time.

At the same time, both Orlando and police chieftains denied reports that a widely known South Camden boxer had been arrested in New York as a material witness, and is being held incommunicado in connection with the murder.

“My present plans are to take all the information available on the case before Justice Frank T. Lloyd Monday, so he can direct us in future developments,” explained the prosecutor.

Asked for his opinion of the conditions which led up to the shooting, Orlando replied: “I think these men went into the place to obtain money from the operator of the house. Feitz went in to frustrate the attempt and was murdered.”

“Have you any idea of the specific time we can expect the suspects to be taken into custody?” the prosecutor was asked.

“No. Any statement I might make along those lines would be merely guess-work.”

“Does your statement mean you have decided not to take what evidence is available before Justice Lloyd?” Orlando then was asked.

“No. This information is preliminary to a report I intend to give Justice Lloyd Monday so he can direct us.”

Welcomes Interviews

“Do you have any intention of clamping down on news to the press?”

“Absolutely not. On the contrary, I shall be glad to give a daily interview to the newspapers. I think the public should be kept cognizant of developments, and I want to cooperate with the press,” whereupon the prosecutor gave out the following formal statement:

“Pursuant to a request which I made to Chief Colsey yesterday, the Chief and Lieutenant George Ward came to my office this afternoon and submitted to me for inspection reports which they have made up setting forth a series of events in the Feitz murder investigation.

“This report was supplemented by a more detailed and minute verbal report by Lieutenant Ward and Chief Colsey, and following this conference I came to city hall, where I read over some statements which have been taken from some of the witnesses in the case.

Talks to Witnesses

“In order to satisfy myself more thoroughly, I have talked to some of the witnesses myself, but have not been able to talk to all of them because of the lack of time and because I wish to give the stenographers a chance to transcribe the notes they have made on the prior witnesses.

“I feel satisfied from the information obtained from the witnesses that while the names of the slayers have not been mentioned and we do not have them, a careful and minute description which has been given by two or three of the witnesses who were in the premises the night in question will lead us to the individuals responsible for this murder.

“We can’t give out that information because we believe it would frustrate the investigation and give the culprits a chance to secrete themselves, but we intend to use all of the police facilities available to locate these individuals who answer the descriptions given. And until we have in our custody these men who answer these descriptions, there will be nothing of major importance that we can give out excepting that we are looking for them.

“It is merely an opinion, but I believe we should be able to take into custody these individuals that have been described.”

Feitz to Be Given Funeral of Hero

Camden Evening Courier — September 8, 1934

100 Policemen Expected to Attend Rites Today—Officials to Be Present

William T. Feitz, Jr., Camden’s first policeman to be murdered in line of duty, will be laid to rest this afternoon with the honors of a hero.

Probably half of the police force of more than 200 men will turn out in their nattiest uniforms to attend the funeral services for their slain comrade and accompany his body to the grave. Feitz was shot to death early Sunday when he walked into a disorderly house at 243 Sycamore street. Three gunmen suspected in the slaying escaped.

A crowd of close to 1000 persons is expected to gather about the undertaking establishment at 1401 Princess avenue, where the services will be held. Rev. Christian M. Hansen, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Kenwood and Kaighn avenue, will officiate.

Colsey to Attend

Police Chief Arthur Colsey and all high officials of the department will attend, and some of the five city commissioners are expected to be present. Mayor Roy R. Stewart, director of the department of public safety, was not certain this morning whether the pressure of business in his office would permit him to attend. If he cannot be there, his secretary, E. Howard Broome, will represent him.

More than 20 automobiles are expected to be in the funeral procession. The cortege will be led by a dozen motorcycle police, four more will drive slowly beside the hearse and another quartet will bring up the rear.

Chief Colsey, Lieutenant Ralph Bakley, Feitz’ superior as commander of the Second district; Lieutenant George Ward, in command of the detective bureau, and other police officials will ride in a car immediately behind that occupied by members of Feitz’ family.

Most of the policemen attending will meet at Central station, in the basement of city hall, at 1 o’clock. The services will begin at 2 p. m.

1500 Pass Bier

Nearly 1500 persons thronged the funeral parlors last night when the body of the slain detective, only recently promoted from patrolman, was placed on view. His mother, Mrs. Pauline Liebich Feitz, with whom he lived at 1125 Liberty street, fainted when she saw her son’s face for the first time since he died.

Later she recovered sufficiently to sit in a chair and watch the procession as it filed past her son’s body.

Taken to a davenport and revived, Mrs. Feitz lay there moaning in her grief as Mayor Stewart, Chief Colsey, Lieut. Ward, Lieut. Bakley, and 100 other policemen in uniform filed past the bier.

Again, when the Camden Elks Club held its memorial service for departed members, she fainted. Frank M. Travaline, exalted ruler, and Albert Austermuhl, secretary, with other officers and a quartet from the club were holding the service, eulogizing Feitz and lamenting his death when Mrs. Feitz swooned the second time.

From 6.30 until 10.30 p. m. a steady stream walked past the detective’s bier. Old women hobbled in, and many children were among those to look at Feitz. Police said hundreds of curious men and women came from Philadelphia to see the body.

Store Bandits to Be Quizzed in Chester on Feitz Murder

Camden Evening Courier — September 14, 1934

Mickey Blair Admits Visit to Heisler Home on Fatal Night

Boxer Tells of His Attempt to Borrow Money From Woman

STEWART LAUNCHES BANK ACCOUNT PROBE

Mickey Blair yesterday admitted to the Courier-Post that he was in Mrs. Emma Heisler’s house trying to borrow money a few hours before Detective William T. Feitz was shot to death.

Mayor Roy R. Stewart, at the same time, announced that he will launch an investigation of the bank accounts of “certain policemen” to determine their wealth.

The two statements summarized the day’s progress in the search for Feitz’s slayers and in the mayor’s investigation of police connections with vice graft.

Blair not only admitted to a newspaperman that he was in Mrs. Heisler’s house to negotiate a loan a few hours before the slaying but charged the police with manufacturing a fake alibi for him, for the purpose of tearing it down later.

Reports that patrolmen drawing from $25.50 to $36 a week were owners of expensive automobiles and spending money lavishly and still were amassing fortunes were believed to have stimulated the mayor to action in his bank account probe.

He would not amplify his statement other than to say that he will question those policemen whom he desires to question and are now on leave when they return.

In his broadside against the police, Blair said:

“Chief Colsey lies if he says police have broken down my alibi. I have no alibi, only that I know nothing about this murder.

“I told Lieutenant Ward, after I had voluntarily walked into detective bureau, where I had been from Saturday night until last Monday. At no time did I say that I was in New York at the time of the shooting.

“I told them I was at a roadhouse in Berlin at the time of the shooting, that I returned to Camden on Sunday and remained here for the funeral of my brother-in-law on Monday. I did not leave for New York until Tuesday afternoon, almost three days after the killing of Feitz, and I did not know they wanted to question me then, or I would not have gone away.

“Police have given out statements to the effect that I told them I was in New York at the time of the shooting. That is a lie. Many of my friends and acquaintances saw me Saturday night at Berlin and others saw me the following day and on Monday. I can prove everything I have told the police to be true.

“I knew Emma Heisler and have known her for several years. I wouldn’t say she was a close friend, but I did know her fairly well. Police have accused me of attempting to shake her down for money. That is not my racket.

“I did attempt to borrow from Emma on Saturday, but I can’t see anything wrong in that. I tried several friends, because I needed a little money at the time to purchase flowers for my brother-in-law’s funeral.

She Promised Loan

“When I saw her early Saturday night, she told me to come back on Monday and she would lend me the money. I was thankful because of the favor, so why should I try to do the woman any harm?

“Police say I am the ’finger-man’ in the shooting. That makes me laugh. They know they haven’t a shred of evidence to prove such a lie. They’ve got to hang it on somebody, so they blame it on me.

“It’s been the same in all big cases. Somebody has to get blamed. It was just unfortunate for me that I happened to be talking with Mrs. Heisler a short time before the slaying. I had nothing to hide when I went to her for a loan and I have nothing to hide now.

“Two or three persons were there when I asked to borrow the money. Do you think anyone who was attempting to frighten the woman would do it before all these witnesses? I knew this woman when she had a place down the street from where Feitz was shot. I knew her when she conducted many other places in the city, and she knew me. I would have been crazy to try anything wrong with her, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t, because everybody in Camden knows me and would recognize me.

Says He Attended Wake

“I told police that I left Fourth and Spruce streets about 1 a. m. Sunday, and arrived at the roadhouse in Berlin about a half hour later.

Many people saw me there. I stayed at the place until late Sunday afternoon and then returned to Camden.

“I was at home all of Sunday night until I attended a wake at the home of my sister on Decatur street. Then on Monday I was at the funeral and Monday night I visited several places in the city. I had made arrangements to go to New York, but postponed my trip until Tuesday after my brother-in-law’s death.

“While in New York I heard from a friend who told me police were looking for me. I immediately telephoned Edward V. Martino, who has represented me in other matters, and asked him to learn if that were true. He called me back and said it was. I told him my business in New York would be completed on Monday and that I would return to Camden at that time and visit detective headquarters.

“I paid my own expenses to get here, and since the time I gave myself up, police have constantly walked me about with handcuffs on. Do you think I would have surrendered to police if I had any intentions of running away?”

Martino Raps Police

“I have told the truth and I am innocent of any connection with the death of Detective Feitz. If police want to give out the true story, they will verify that everything I have told you is what I told them. And every word of it is the truth.”

Martino, who was present during the interview, added that it was “a disgrace” to the police department in the manner in which Blair has been treated since his surrender.

“When Blair gave himself up,” Martino said, “I instructed him to go to detective bureau by himself. I did not request the right to protect his constitutional rights, because it was my idea that by not interfering, the police could not find any excuse in their failure to solve the crime. They not only failed to appreciate the co-operation given them, but are continually giving out so many contradictory statements that the general public is given the impression that Blair is deliberately lying.”

Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando, meanwhile, disclosed yesterday that the new grand jury will not hear witnesses in the Feitz murder case, or open a probe into vice conditions in Camden at its first session next Thursday.

“Facts in the murder probe and pertaining to vice conditions will not be ready in time for consideration by the new grand jury next Thursday,” the prosecutor said. “The veniremen will act on pending cases, including those of several alleged numbers barons arrested during the last week.”

Meanwhile, the police continued their crusade against the numbers racket, making their tenth and eleventh arrests in a week.

At the same time, Fred Klosterman, an alleged numbers baron, who surrendered Wednesday, was held in $5000 bail by Police Judge J. Harry Switzer for the grand jury. His brother, Joseph Klosterman, was held in similar bail previously, also on a charge of operating a numbers game.

The two men apprehended yesterday were arrested by George Clayton, a policeman, charged with being numbers writers. They will be given a hearing in police court today. The men gave their names as John Geronio, 52, of 1042 Cooper street, and Crawford Smith, 51, of 702 Carman street.

Fred Klosterman is 33 and gave his address as 1050 Mechanic street. Joseph Klosterman, 35, gave his address as 1400 Mechanic street.

The Klostermans, according to police, are among the topnotch numbers barons of the city. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

No disposition was made in police court of the case of Mrs. Mollie Schwartz, 42, who was arrested Wednesday on a charge of operating a still at a double dwelling at 3404 Rosedale avenue. Police Lieut. John Potter said the woman admitted operating the still.

Strict co-operation with the State Alcoholic Beverage Commission in the detection, closing up and prosecution of speakeasies is being given by the Camden police department.

That statement was made yesterday by Mayor Roy R. Stewart, who is the director of the department of public safety, and came as the result of an interview which Howard B. Dyer, an investigator of the state beverage commission had with the mayor. Dyer was formerly deputy city clerk.

An anonymous letter to Camden police led yesterday to the arerst [sic] of Glenn Brown, 48, colored, on a charge of operating a 50-gallon still at 141 Mt. Vernon street. Brown was held in $500 bail at police headquarters for a hearing today in police court.

Brown was arrested by Police Lieut. Walter Welch, who said the still was found in the basement of the Mt. Vernon street address and it had been in operation shortly before the raid.

The technical charge against Brown is violation of Section 48

Police Admit Feitz Slaying Is ‘Mystery’

Camden Courier-Post — September 15, 1934

POLICE ADMIT FEITZ SLAYING IS ‘MYSTERY’

‘Still in the Dark,’ Cops Say After Three Weeks of Vice Probe

BLAIR LAWYER SCORES ‘FARCE’

Editorial: “The Cop, the Criminal—And Who Else?” appears on page ten.

Three weeks after the slaying of Detective William T. Feitz, police admitted yesterday that they are “completely in the dark” in their efforts to solve the murder and find the slayer.

Although Mickey Blair, former pugilist, is held as the most important witness in the case and police say they believe Blair knows who killed Feitz, they have no one under direct suspicion, the police said.

This was in direct contradiction to a police statement of several days ago, in which it was said that a New York gunman of peculiar appearance was sought as the trigger man.

Lawyer Flays Police

The conflicting stories coming from the police department yesterday drew a scathing fire of ridicule from Blair’s attorney, Edward V. Martino.

In a review of Blair’s surrender, Martino flayed the police for “many contradictory statements” and said their handling of Blair is a “disgrace to the department.”

The handling of the case drew this comment from Martino:

“Such conduct on the part of an intelligent police force is detestable.”

Martino’s criticism of the department and the announcement that Mayor Roy R. Stewart will present such facts and evidence as he has gathered in his probe of police connivance with vice or dereliction in duty to Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd constituted the only developments in the case yesterday.

Double-cross Hinted

Stewart said he will give Justice Lloyd and Prosecutor Samuel P. Orlando his complete data on the police and Feitz probes and is ready to present the same data to the grand jury if Lloyd and Orlando consider this course advisable.

Martino, describing step-by-step the events leading to Blair’s surrender and his subsequent examination drew the conclusion that Police Chief Arthur Colsey is “either telling a deliberate falsehood” or has been double-crossed with misinformation by his detectives. Martino said:

Police Admit Defeat In Vice Slaying

“On Saturday past, I received a New York telephone communication from Mickey Blair, and he told me that he had been advised that the police were looking for him. He requested me to ascertain whether this was true, and if so he would gladly come to Camden.

“I talked to Lieutenant George A. Ward on Sunday afternoon, and he told me that they did want Mickey. I talked with Mickey that afternoon, and he told me that he would come to Camden at about 1 p. m. on Monday.

“He entered my office at about 12 noon, and after talking to me about five minutes, during which time he told me that he knew absolutely nothing about the shooting, I advised him to go to the detective bureau alone.

Would Not Interfere

“I did not request the right to protect his constitutional rights, because it was my idea that by not interfering, the police could not find any excuse in their failure to solve the crime.

“They not only failed to appreciate the co-operation given them, but are continuously giving out so many contradictory statements that the general public is given the impression that Blair is deliberately lying. Chief Colsey has repeatedly told the newspapers that Blair stated that he was in New York at the time of the crime.

“Colsey is either telling a deliberate falsehood or he has been misinformed by one or two of his examiners. I talked with Blair at the county jail, and although he appeared tired and worn, he was surprised to learn of the story given out by Colsey.

“It is difficult to understand why the police did not arrest Mickey before he left Camden for New York, since he was in Camden until the Tuesday following the murder.

“He attended a wake at the home of his sister on Sunday, and attended the funeral on Monday (Labor Day) from his sister’s home on Decatur street, Camden. He did not leave Camden for New York until some time on Tuesday afternoon.

Called a Disgrace

“The general physical appearance of Blair before Judge J. Harry Switzer was a disgrace to the Camden City Police Department. He was handcuffed and chained, although he was thoughtful enough to pay his own expenses in traveling from New York, and willingly submit to the police. Such conduct on the part of an intelligent police force is detestable.

“My only hope is that the crime is solved, but in doing so, the officials in charge should be careful that they charge the guilty man or men with the crime.”

The sweeping grand jury investigation of crime and vice ordered of the grand jury by Justice Lloyd is not expected to start, Prosecutor Orlando disclosed, for at least two weeks.

“Our evidence is not entirely at hand,” said Orlando, “and until it is ready I will not proceed. Another reason why I can’t go ahead with it is the large number of cases which I have ready at this time and which must be presented to the grand jury when it opens its sessions next Thursday.”

Earlier, both Prosecutor Orlando and Police Chief Colsey admitted that the authorities were no nearer a solution to the murder of Feitz than they were 20 days ago when he was shot and killed in an alleged disorderly house in South Camden.

Furthermore, previous statements of the police notwithstanding, the identity of the killer or killers is shrouded in as much mystery as it ever was.

“Who killed Feitz?” was a question asked Prosecutor Orlando.

“I don’t know—do you?” was Orlando’s “two-way” reply.

Still ‘In Dark’

The prosecutor’s statement was the first revelation that police and Camden county authorities are still in the dark.

Police Chief Colsey echoed Prosecutor Orlando’s statement by telling newspapermen upon being questioned that he “wished he did know who killed Feitz.”

“We’re entirely in the dark,” he added.

Heretofore the police, through statements made by Chief Colsey, have expressed their confidence that they knew who the slayer or slayers of the detective were and were following important clues which would lead to their arrest.

While the authorities were admittedly groping about for clues in the Feitz murder, the police drive on gambling continued yesterday with the arrest of two alleged “numbers” bankers.

Held in $2000 bail to await the action of the grand jury on charges of operating a “numbers” lottery by Police Judge Switzer were Crawford Smith, 51, of 702 Carman street, and John Deronio, 52, of 1042 Cooper street. Smith pleaded not guilty to the charge which grew out of Deronio’s admission to police that he “wrote” the “numbers” for Smith for a considerable period of time.

Both Smith and Deronio were arrested by Patrolman George Clayton. Deronio pleaded guilty to the charge.

Will View 3 Suspects

Three suspects charged with the robbery of a South Camden candy store Wednesday night were either to be brought to Camden or material witnesses in the Feitz murder were to be taken to Chester, Pa., where they are being held, to learn whether either suspect could be identified as one of the killers.

Mayor Stewart continued his questioning of police yesterday, seeking data on crime and vice in this city.

Questioned by the mayor in his office were Lieutenant George Frost, commander of the police department’s one-man vice squad who is said to have told the mayor considerable about conditions, former City Detective Ben Simon who is now a patrolman; Vernon Jones, one of the 13 suspended policeman [sic] and the officer on the beat at Second and Sycamore streets the night Feitz was killed, and Detective Stanley Wirtz.

Chief County Detective Lawrence T. Doran, who is conducting Prosecutor Orlando’s investigation into the murder, said a search of the records of the city assessor’s office revealed the property in which the late Mrs. Emma Heisler was charged with operating a disorderly house is owned by the Hyman Varbalow Building and Loan Association.

Rented in Oct., 1933

It was rented, Chief Doran said, by Nathan U. Katz, a real estate agent of 410 Kaighn avenue, to a “Mary Dudley” on October 18, 1933, for $15 a month. However, the occupants did not enter the house immediately, according to Doran, because of needed repairs, which were made.

Katz told detectives that the rent was always paid in advance by a man who called at his real estate office. There was no lease on the property, it being rented from month to month.

“Had I known the place was being used for immoral purposes I would have ordered the people out long ago,” Katz told detectives.

At the same time, Chief Doran disclosed that after a conference with Police Chief Colsey, orders were issued that every person arrested in Camden, whether the charge is trivial or serious, will be placed in a police “lineup” and the material witnesses will face them to see if any of Feitz’s killers are among them.

Chief Doran was not sure whether Camden county authorities would be able to bring the two robbery suspects to Camden because they are also wanted in Pennsylvania for almost a score of other holdups and burglaries.

In the event Chester authorities will not turn the two men over to Camden detectives, the witnesses will go to Chester to examine them, Chief Doran said.

“We are letting nothing slip through our fingers at this stage of the investigation,” Chief Doran said. “There is a bare possibility that either of these two suspects may be implicated or have some knowledge that would be useful to us in solving this crime.”

Police Force Politics Banned Commissioner Kobus Declares

Camden Courier-Post — August 3, 1935

Calls for 100% Efficiency and Promises Square Deal for All in Talk to Commanders; Stresses Fact Colsey is Chief

“I want 100% efficient police department and not a political machine.”

Commissioner Mary W. Kobus, new director of public safety, made that declaration yesterday afternoon at a joint police-press conference in her office at city hall before she was served with a writ restraining her from taking that office.

Commissioner Kobus was the kindly mother talking to her “boys” for the most of the conference—but at times she became the stern parent—with the birchrod in the cupboard—as she instructed the police heads to “divorce themselves from politics.”

“For many years I have nursed in my heart a desire to see Camden with a 100% efficient police department,” the commissioner said. “Now that time is at hand.”

“I have known all of you men for many years,” she told the assembled commanders, “and I don’t care what your respective political affiliations might be. You have a right to your opinions, but I want the police department to divorce itself from politics.”

“You must know what is going on in your city and you must let me know. I must have 100 percent cooperation if I am to succeed in this new undertaking.”

“If you have any complaints, don’t go around and growl, undermining the department. Lay your cards on the table, I guarantee you a fair deal.”

“Chief Colsey is head of the police department and not in name only. You others in the rank you occupy are also commanders in fact and not in name. It is up to you.”

The commissioner urged a closer co-operation between police and the press and concluded by saying she wanted her “family” to be honest-to-goodness policemen “because there is no room in the department for those who are not.”

Attending the conference was Chief Arthur Colsey, Lieutenant Herbert Anderson, chief clerk of the bureau; Lieutenants George Frost, Ralph Bakley, Walter Welch, Samuel E. Johnson and George Ward.

Johnson Gets Ward’s Job as Kobus Orders Cop Shakeup

Camden Courier-Post — August 31, 1935

Shaw Made Assistant in Place of Koerner

By Charles L. Humes

In a shakeup of Camden police officials yesterday afternoon Lieutenant Samuel E. Johnson was named acting chief of detectives by Commissioner Mary W. Kobus, director of public safety.

Lieutenant George A. Ward, who has been in charge of the detective bureau for a year, was transferred to take Johnson’s place in charge of headquarters.

Detective Louis Shaw was made assistant to Johnson, replacing Detective Sergeant Gus Koerner. Koerner was transferred to the Second District, for radio car and street duty. The new order became effective at 4:00 PM yesterday.

Police Chief Arthur Colsey announced the changes in the bureau after a two-hour conference with Commissioner Kobus yesterday afternoon.

Maurice Di Nicuolo, who has been an acting detective, was transferred to the First Police District, with former Acting Detective Clifford Del Rossi returning to his old post in the detective bureau.

In the only other transfer announced, Sergeant Harry Newton was switched from the First Police District to the Third, with Sergeant Edward Carroll going from the Third to the First.

Although no other changes were made public, it is believed yesterday’s are a forerunner of numerous shifts to be made today or early next week.

“These changes are being made for the good of the service,” Commissioner Kobus declared. “There will be other transfers of officers and men so that all the police may familiarize themselves with all the branches of the department.”

Lieutenant Johnson was appointed a policeman on January 1, 1910. After 10 years as a patrolman, he was promoted to a detective, where he made a splendid record. On November 28, 1928 he was made a sergeant, and again promoted on April 8, 1930, when he became a lieutenant.

Ward was appointed a policeman on August 2, 1917, promoted to detective January 1, 1927, sergeant November 14, 1928 and lieutenant on January 24, 1930.

Johnson was a detective sergeant when former Police Chief John W. Golden was head of that bureau, but later was transferred to police headquarters.

Ward has been in and out of the detective bureau several times. He served for a time as the commander of the First District and later was in charge of the police headquarters on the 12:00 midnight to 8:00 AM shift. He was a political lieutenant of former Public Safety Director David S. Rhone.

Illness Causes Shifts for Police Officials

Camden Courier-Post — February 26, 1936

Temporary changes in the police department to offset the absence of Lieutenant George Frost, head of the First District, who is ill, and Lieutenant George Ward, of headquarters, who is away on police business, were announced yesterday by Chief Arthur Colsey.

Sgt. John Potter, of the Third District, is made acting lieutenant and placed in charge of the First. Patrolman Louis Schmidt, of the Third, replaces Potter as acting sergeant.

Lieutenant Herbert Anderson, of the Fourth District, replaces Ward at headquarters, with Sgt. John Skolski acting as lieutenant in charge of the Fourth.

Sgt. Gustav Koerner, of the Second District, who has been working in plain clothes, is to report in uniform.

Patrolman John Kowal, of the Second District, is shifted to the First district, with Patrolman William Schultz going from the First district to the Second district.

2 Policemen Hurt by Prisoners Here

Camden Courier-Post — October 12, 1936

Two policemen were injured early yesterday as a result of battles with alleged drunken prisoners at police headquarters.

Earl Wright, 30, of 535 Fulton place, suffered a fractured nose when Frank Wade, 35, of West and Mickle streets, struck him. Wright was treated at Cooper Hospital. He said the man, who had been arrested as drunk and disorderly, fell and when he tried to assist him to his feet he struck him.

Acting Desk Sergeant Frank Evans was kicked on an injured leg and was treated at Cooper Hospital. Thomas Golden, 57, of 636 Birch street, is said to have attacked Evans, whose leg was injured in a motorcycle accident a year ago. Evans and Lieut. George Ward subdued the prisoner and placed him in a cell.

2 Who Fought Police Get Hearings in Court

Camden Courier-Post — October 13, 1936

Belligerent prisoners who met their police captors with husky swings appeared before Judge Lewis Liberman in the city police court yesterday.

Frank Wade, 35, of West street and Mickle, was making a disturbance yesterday and neighbors sent for Earl Wright, a patrolman, to quell the noise. He found Wade in bed, ordered the man to get up and go away, when Wade swung. The prisoner was given 60 days.

Thomas Golden, 57, of 63[?] Birch street, made an eloquent plea and received a suspended sentence of six months.

Golden was arrested Sunday, and when he was booked, kicked Acting Desk Sergeant Frank Evans on a leg which was injured in a motorcycle accident some time ago.

“I never was arrested before,” said Golden, “and the policeman doesn’t want to prosecute me. Don’t send me to jail, Judge.”

Lieutenant George Ward also testified that Evans wanted no reprisal on the defendant, so the court was lenient and gave Golden a suspended sentence.

Merchantville Driver Held on Tipsy Charge

Camden Courier-Post — October 13, 1936

Charged with drunken driving, Preston Fisher, 33, of [?]124 Fisher avenue, South Merchantville, was held by Camden police last night in $500 bail for a hearing in police court this morning.

The charge was made by Policeman Richard Donnelly, who with Policeman Fred Garbrecht arrested Fisher at Twenty-seventh and Thompson streets. Donnelly said Fisher was driving his car “in circles” and that he found a half-pint bottle of whisky in the machine.

At police headquarters Lieutenant George Ward and Sergeant Raymond Stark, after Fisher had undergone tests to determine whether he was intoxicated, said that in their opinion he was not and so informed Policeman Donnelly. The latter, however, insisted that the charge stand.

Tipsy Driver Cases Draw Court’s Fire

Camden Courier-Post — February 12, 1938

Mariano Says He Won’t Postpone Any More as Complaint is Thrown Out

Police Judge Mariano gave notice yesterday that “unless a very good reason is advanced,” there will be no more drunken driving cases postponed in Police Court.

He made that statement after telling Virgil Moffett, 47, of 303 North Forty-first street, that he was “very lucky” and that he would be “given the benefit of the doubt.” He then dismissed a drunken driving complaint against the man.

Moffett was arrested last Saturday night after a truck on which he was riding, and a car driven by Ernest Herman, 25, of 214 Byron street, were in collision at Fourth and Federal streets. The hearing scheduled for Monday, was postponed until today so that “additional witnesses” could be called.

Although Lieutenant George Ward testified that Moffett was drunk when brought into police headquarters, Sergeant James Wilson, who arrested Moffett, said he was not intoxicated, but had been drinking.

Moffett admitted driving the truck into the city and said he had a couple of drinks at a restaurant. He said that he did not want to drive back and that two men whom he met in the restaurant and whom he did not know offered to go along with him and drive the truck. The men were not with Moffett when he was arrested.

Herman said he didn’t know who was driving the truck but that after the collision Moffett came over to him. He said he didn’t know whether Moffett was drunk.

“I must dispose of these cases upon the evidence presented here under the law,” Judge Mariano declared. “I will dismiss the complaint. This will be the last drunken driving case that will be postponed by me unless a very good reason is advanced.”

Camden Jury Asks Police Shake-up

Trenton Times — August 9, 1940

Mrs. Kobus Ouster Urged As Head of Public Safety Dept.

CAMDEN, N. J., Aug. 9 ([?]P).—In a sweeping report charging “mismanagement and inefficiency,” a Camden County Grand Jury recommended the resignation of City Commissioner Mary W. Kobus and proposed a drastic shake up in the city’s police department.

Informed of the action, Mrs. Kobus declared:

“I am not resigning. I was elected by the people.”

The jury, which has been sitting since April, made these specific recommendations:

1—That Mrs. Kobus resign as director of public safety and be replaced by another city commissioner.

2—That Lieutenant George Frost be named chief of police to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Captain Arthur Colsey. The position has been held by Lieutenant Ralph Bakley, as acting chief.

3—That Lieutenants Bakley, Walter Welch and George Ward be assigned to duty in charge of the first, second and third police districts, respectively. They have all been on other assignments.

4—That all acting lieutenants and acting sergeants revert to their regular rank, and that hereafter all promotions be decided by examination “with utter disregard for politics.”

5—That the Camden police personnel be increased from 176 to “at least 250” officers and men.

Its report, the grand jury said, was based on evidence “which has convinced this body that the police department is functioning in an exceedingly inefficient and desultory fashion.”

The jury declared that Bakley’s appointment as acting chief was made “for purely political reasons” and added that “the rank and file of the department has little or no respect for its superiors.”

George A. Ward, Former Detective

Camden Courier-Post — May 17, 1969

Camden Gang-Buster

LAKEWORTH, Fla. — George A. Ward, former Camden, N.J. detective credited with several gang-busting investigations during the 1930s, died here yesterday at 81.

Mr. Ward joined the police force as a patrolman in August, 1917, and retired as lieutenant of detectives in March, 1943.

During his years as a detective, starting in 1927, he was teamed with Det. Louis Shaw and the pair was credited with breaking a gang known as the “Forty Thieves” which had terrorized South Camden for several years.

He also was famous for busting other mobs, including safecrackers and warehouse thieves.

Mr. Ward was known as a tough cop. On at least two occasions, persons he arrested accused him of striking them. He was cleared on both counts. One of the complainants was former city official and planning aide to Mayor George Brunner, Clarence E. Moulette.

Mr. Ward was named detective in January, 1927, and was promoted to detective sergeant in November, 1928; he was lieutenant of detectives from 1930 until his retirement in 1943.

He apparently died of a heart attack.

Mr. Ward is survived by his wife, the former Ruth Heiser; three sons, Vernon of Merchantville, George of Lakeworth, Fla., and Walter of Vincentown; daughter Beatrice Robinson of Marlton and several grandchildren.

Services will be Wednesday at the Earl Smith Funeral Home in Lakeworth, where friends may call Tuesday night. Burial will be in Lakeworth on Wednesday.

Relatives’ Cries Nearly Start Panic

Camden Courier-Post — March 9, 1932

Crowds Mill About Scene of Explosion Where Workers Died

“They are in there—dead.”

That shrill scream from the chilled lips of a relative of two men trapped in the steel tomb of the purifying box at the Public Service gas plant at Locust and Cherry Streets today almost started a panic among 1,000 persons, gathered at the scene a few minutes after a mysterious explosion snuffed out the lives of more than a dozen men.

The cry of horror and grief was taken up by others as they pressed against the woven wire fence about the company’s property. Panic was averted by the policemen and firemen who had reached the scene a few minutes after the blast.

The excitement started when Frank Pizzatilla, of Walnut Street near Third, climbed up the narrow steel stairway that led to the top of the purifying box and looked upon a scene of horror within the square steel tomb.

Pizzatilla, who had rushed to the plant with several hundred others when word of the tragedy spread, said he recognized the seared bodies of his father and father-in-law in the seething mass below.

He started to walk down the narrow, steel stairway that formed the only means of reaching the lone entrance to the purifying box. Below the hundreds of relatives and friends of the doomed men watched him with anxiety.

“In There Dead”

“They are in there—dead,” he screamed.

He fell in a faint and but for a fireman, Pizzatilla would have toppled to the ground, fully 20 feet below. Other firemen and policemen rushed up the narrow stairway and carried Pizzatilla down.

As his inert body was being carried toward an ambulance, cries of bitter hatred were heard. They came from a relative of another victim. He shouted vile curses upon the officials of the company, upon the firemen and upon the policemen. He called them murderers. He yelled for a revolver, shouting that he would avenge the death of the trapped men.

About him gathered a number of persons, most of them of foreign extraction, or colored, for the majority of the victims were colored. The situation became tense.

Every policeman and fireman who could be spared from the gruesome work of trying to reach the entombed bodies rushed the crowd. Lieutenant George Ward and several policemen grabbed a heavy, long rope from one of the nearby fire wagons.

Quickly the rope was stretched across Locust Street at the intersection and a tug of war started, with the crowd surging against the rope and policemen and firemen pulling at both ends, sweeping them backward into Locust Street.

With the crowd under control, the police began to search for the man, whose cries for revenge had started the hundreds milling around in groups, but he had disappeared in the crowd.

Then Locust Street below Cherry was roped off with little difficulty and a line of policemen took their positions across Cherry Street between the two gas tanks that stand on the northeast and southeast corners. People who attempted to reach the plant were turned back.

“No use going any farther,” the policemen would tell each person who tried to get up closer. “All the men in the tank are dead and there is nothing anyone can do except remove the bodies when the tank is cooled down.”

These words seemed to have a quieting effect upon the hundreds that had tried to rush the police lines. Gradually the people left for their homes. An hour after the blast there was less than 100 spectators at the scene.

Bodies Identified

So badly were the bodies burned that identification was extremely difficult. It was early evening before identification was complete. The dead are:

John Albert, 55, of 275 Walnut Street, father of eight children.

Dominick Puzzitiella, 53, of 1005 South 4th Street, father of four sons.

Pasquale Curiale, 48, of 338 Walnut Street, father of eight children.

Frank DeLarge, 51, of 324 South 5th Street, father of three children.

Nicholas Tulini, 58, of 208 Benson Street, father of 10 children.

Nunzio Ferraro, 51, of 1131 South 4th Street, single.

Edward Anderson, 30, colored, northeast corner Second and Pine Streets, no children.

George Williams, 33, colored, of 277 Sycamore Street, father of three children.

John Pollard, 32, colored, of 1065 Ivins Street, no children.

Thomas Watson, 65, colored, of 123 Chestnut Street, single.

Louis Carcione, southwest corner of Third and Spruce Street.

Antonio Bilanko, 43, who lived in a club room at Locust Street and Kaighn Avenue and boarded at the home of Pedro Blair, 1225 Hyde Park.

F. Kralich, northeast corner of Second Street and Kaighn Avenue.

Farrell Coleman, 44, colored, northeast corner of Second and Pine Streets, single.

The first six were employed regularly by the company. The others were unemployed in the neighborhood, hired especially to clean out the purifier yesterday.

List of Injured

The other injured, all of whom were taken to Cooper Hospital are:

Hillman Bryant, 30, colored, 109 Chestnut Street, burns on face, head and hands.

Harry Read, colored, of 111 Chestnut Street, burns on the head and face.

Harry Hall, 27, colored, of 718 South Second Street, burns on the head and face.

Read and Hall were taken to their homes after receiving hospital treatment.

Patrolman Walter Patton of the First District suffered a cut on his left arm while digging in the debris for bodies. He was treated at the hospital and returned to the station house.

After working with the police and firemen for several hours, James Bevan, 1447 Kaighn Avenue, foreman at the plant, collapsed just as the last body was removed. Physicians treated him for exhaustion and shock and he was taken to his home.

Another workman, Peter Alemi, 35, of 1010 South 4th Street, a volunteer who helped firemen in removing the last body, was overcome by fumes in the tank and was treated at the hospital.

Red Cross aid to the stricken families of the victims was offered by William T. Read, chairman of the Camden County chapter. Public Service officials were informed that the national Red Cross headquarters had listed this tragedy as a “disaster” for which relief was available.

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