William Michalak
William Michalak, Camden Police Department
WILLIAM MICHALAK was born in New Jersey on November 20, 1885 to Michelina “Minnie” and Vincent Michalak.
The 1900 Census shows the family at 1257 Sycamore Street. Vincent Michalak was then working as a day laborer. Besides William and his parents, the family consisted of older siblings William and Mary (or Mamie), and younger siblings Vincent, Minnie, Jennie, Francis & Irene. John and William were already out of school and working in one of Camden’s leather factories.
By 1910 the family had moved to 1194 Sycamore Street, where they remained through September of 1918. The 1910 Census shows Vincent Michalak as a watchman at a sugar refinery, and William still in the leather trade, as a foreman in a tannery.
Active in local politics as a Republican in the 1910s, William Michalak appears in City Directories from 1914 to 1917 a justice of the peace. He served briefly as a member of the Camden Fire Department. He resigned from the fire service, and was appointed to the police department on July 16, 1918.
The Michalak family moved to 1287 Thurman Street shortly before the 1920 Census was enumerated. William Michalak and his parents are also listed at that address in the 1921 City Directory. Shortly before the 1922 Directory was compiled, William Michalak married a widow, Mrs. Emma Zawojski, of 1204 Sycamore Street, who was, in January of 1920 living there with her five children, William, 18; Paul, 17; Stephen, 14; Mary, 11; and Emma, 6. William Michalak remained at the 1204 Sycamore Street the rest of his life.
The 1930 Census indicates that William and Emma Michalak had a daughter, named Minnie, after his mother. She is not, however, listed in the 1930 Census. Emma Zawojski, now Emma Morgan and separated from her husband, was still living at home. The 1940 Census shows a daughter, probably Emma, as Joan Haldowski, living with the Michalaks along with her husband Theodore Haldowski and Theodore Haldowski Jr.
William Michalak was still working as a Camden policeman when the census was taken in 1940. He passed away on October 22, 1941 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in what was then Delaware Township (present-day Cherry Hill), New Jersey. His wife joined him there in August of 1956.
Here and There in Camden
Camden Courier-Post —
Recently wedded, Lawyer Joseph Carr, of the firm of Ott & Carr, was yesterday inducted into the service at his own request. He goes to Camp Meade today and will be attached to the judge advocate’s department.
For injuries sustained to his right knee in a fall at the Camden Terminal on April 23, Francis Gallagher, of Westmont, yesterday brought suit for $5,000 damages against the Philadelphia & Camden Ferry Co.
Four-year-old Frank Harris, of 329 Liberty street, so badly mangled two fingers with a hatchet that doctors at Cooper Hospital amputated the crushed digits.
To take a more lucrative position in a shipyard, Levring Minister yesterday resigned as a member of Engine Co. No. 4.
Recently resigning from the fire department, William Michalak was yesterday appointed to the police force as a member of the mounted squad.
World War I Draft Card
WWI Draft Registration Card — Serial No. 3592, registered September 12, 1918. Address: 1194 Sycamore Street, Camden. Occupation: Policeman, Camden Police Dept. Nearest relative: Vincent Michalak.
‘Voodoo’ Is Held for Murder
Camden Courier —
Discovery of the body of a white baby several weeks old, human bones and other gruesome articles in a maze of dungeon-like caves and sub-cellars under 413 and 415 Liberty Street today have led the police to hold without bail “Doctor” H.H. Hyghcock, 71 year-old negro preacher, medicine man and undertaker.
The weird discoveries were made in the fantastically furnished “torture chambers” and “witch caves” under the houses. In addition statements made to Patrolman Charles Naylor and a Courier reporter by a seven-year-old daughter of the accused man, point to a possibility of a woman having been murdered in the place only last week.
“Weirdest Ever” Says Tempest
The labyrinth of underground passages and chambers discovered under the houses is declared by Deputy Director Tempest to be the “strangest and weirdest layout” he ever has visited in all his long career in police work.
Twisting and narrow underground passages and half-buried doors in almost inaccessible portions of the underground passages led to a belief that many more chambers remain for the police to enter in their underground exploration.
Deputy Tempest has ordered that a complete search be made of every corner of the cellars and sub-cellars and that if necessary the two houses above be torn down to make examination possible. The earth of all the cave floors is being dug up by the police in search of further clues.
Bone of Forearm is Found
The white baby’s body was found shortly before 1:00 PM today, lying in a large glass jar in one of the sub-cellars. What is believed to be the bone of a child’s forearm had been found in one of the passages a short time before. In another glass jar the police found what they report to be a human stomach.
To count the rooms, or divisions, of the many underground passages is impossible, because of the irregular arrangement, up and down and in all directions. Some of the policemen engaged in the exploring task have estimated there are more than 75 different compartments.
Second Arrest is Made
While the police were exploring the place shortly after noon a colored man walked into the Liberty Street entrance and started down the tunnel leading to the underground chamber as if he were well acquainted with the place.
Arrested and taken into police custody was Louis Reeves, 23 years, 1061 Ivins Street. he had been employed as a chauffer to drive the voodoo doctor’s automobile, he said, and he had been accustomed to visiting “Doctor” Hyghcock daily and being given a bottle of soda water. That was the only purpose of his visit today, he declared, and he disclaimed any knowledge of the activities of Hyghcock.
The little daughter of the “proprietor” of the strange “place of horrors” made her hair-raising statements while being questioned in regard to her father’s recent activities.
“Shot a Woman”— Took Her Away
“How many people has your father killed here?” she was asked.
“He never killed nobody until last week” she replied with childish frankness. “Then he shot a woman, and he took her away in her automobile at night.”
In his cell at City Hall, Hyghcock maintains an air of mysterious silence. He is of an impressive personal appearance. although below medium height, he has a proud bearing, made more compelling by his white hair, mustache and imperial.
He has boasted to acquaintances that he is the father of 32 children.
Bootblacks tell of him giving 50 cent tips.
Hyghcock was arrested last night when he appealed to police, demanding a warrant for an unknown thief about whom he told a weird tale of threats to return and kill him. Hyghcock styles himself a clergyman, physician, an undertaker, a real estate operator, a clairvoyant, a palmist, and a fortune teller.
Hyghcock was held on $500 bail early today on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses and in an equal amount on the charge of practicing medicine without a license when arraigned before Police Judge Cleary this morning.
He could not raise the money and was held in jail.
Then, when the other discovered were made, he was held without bail.
A visit to his place by the police led to the exploration of the intricate series of underground chambers. They were separated by swinging doors operated by mechanical springs. Some of the cave-like dungeons contained weird contraptions, like ancient machinery of torture, believed to have been used in connection with “cures,” is to which patients of the voodoo man were terrified.
Patient Believes In Him
Besides Hyghcock police arrested as material witnesses Mrs. Bipp Hyghcock, 43 years old, said to be his wife, and Mrs. Lotte Ingram, also a negress, 43 years old, of 59 North Peach Street, Philadelphia.
Mrs. Ingram, who was found in the house at 413 Liberty Street, said she was there to receive treatment for heart disease from Hyghcock. In a statement to Detective Hunt, Mrs. Ingram said she gave Hyghcock $25 as part payment for the cure of her disease, and that she had been visiting his house for several months. Upon questioning she revealed further that Hyghcock had given her herb medicines, adding that she had faith in his powers and believed she was being healed.
Hyghcock has no license to practice medicine, police say.
The revelation of the startling interior of the place and the practice of Hyghcock, at the Liberty Street houses, both of which were rented by him, was brought about when the “doctor” inquired for a magistrate to issue a warrant for a Philadelphia man who, he said, stole some automobile tools from him and threatened to return to slay him. Hyghcock made the first inquiry of Howard Westsell, 797 Mt. Vernon street, who was standing at Railroad and Kaighn Avenues at 6:00 o’clock last night. Westsell referred him to Howard Fisher, a negro policeman of the Second District, who approached the two.
Cops Take Him Home
Fisher, becoming suspicious, questioned Hyghcock, who became evasive and insisted that the officer could not aid him. Fisher placed him under arrest, summoned Policeman James McTaggart and William Prucella, of the Second District, who were in plain clothes at the time, and went to the Hyghcock house, where they were admitted.
In the house at 413 Liberty Street the policeman found Mrs. Ingram, Mrs. Hyghcock, and the latter’s 7 year old daughter. The two women were sent to police headquarters for questioning.
The dingy front room of the house was heated with a glowing coal stove and dimly lighted with a flickering kerosene lamp, faintly disclosed several ancient and must articles of furniture, several dozen bottles of soda water inside a glass showcase most of whose sides were missing or broken, several mysterious looking grips, bed-clothing, bric-a-brac, and other odd articles scattered about, it suggested what might be found in the rudely constructed entrances to chambers beyond.
In the glow of their flashlights the officers made a hurried search of the premises.
Entering the kitchen the trio descended a narrow, winding cellar-way into a gloomy cellar
Tunnels Explored
McTaggart branched into one passageway, while Fisher and Prucella each chose a different path. After stumbling upon blind tunnels which ended in closets or in compartments from which there were no exits, the three officers joined into one party.
Stooping at times under low ceilings, squeezing between the sides of converging walls, jumping over pits covered with rotted trapdoors, and pushing through a seemingly endless series of doors rudely constructed of odd pieces of lumber, and each equipped with a powerful springs, the officers wormed their way through a tunnel extending 50 feet under the yard after leaving the cellar. It ended at a trapdoor in the floor of a ramshackle refuse littered woodshed in the rear of the yard.
As soon as they emerged they took Hyghcock, who had accompanied them through the tunnels, to police headquarters
Cops Go Look For More
Hyghcock, his wife, and Mrs. Ingram were placed under arrest. Captain Arthur Colsey assembled Sergeant Charles Smith and Policemen Prucella, McTaggart, Howard Fisher, Harry Kreher, William Bryant, Herbert Anderson, and John Bryant of headquarters for a needed investigation of the premises. On the way to the house the patrol picked up Officers Enoch Johnson, Charles Smith, and William Michalak.
With the arrival of the patrol a crowd gathered in front of the unkempt buildings. Bordering the gloomy houses on each side are modest, well-kept two and three story homes, inhabited by white families.
Guided by flashlights and lanterns, a long line of policemen laboriously wound through the circuitous underground passages, scrutinizing every nook, and opening every container upon which they came.
Many Rooms Entered
At least seventy-five rooms or compartments were entered and hurriedly examined. Contents of innumerable closets and holes in walls were left undisturbed for fear that they would litter the narrow passageway and block the progress of the searchers.
In one room was found a large cartwheel daubed with dabs of white paint on each spoke. the wheel was mounted on a short upright axis set into the ground, permitting its rotation. Above the wheel was suspended a stuffed bird. The legs could be made to twitch and the wings to flap by the manipulation of a set of strings attached to them and fastened to a stick in an adjoining den.
Beside these the room contained an old iron bed, an oil lamp. and an oil stove. Other dens were similarly furnished.
Wires and Bells and Things
Closets and alcoves revealed odd collections of preserves, trinkets, charms, and indescribable odds and ends. In one closet in the kitchen of 413 Liberty Street were discovered a complicated set of improvised signaling devices. Wires attached to sticks will ring bells and unlock doors and various rooms of the house. Each door was equipped with a spring and bolts, and contained bells of various shapes and sizes.
In the rear of 413 Liberty Street partitioned with odd boards, curtains, and rags was a chapel. This room, about 10 feet wide by 13 feet long, contained an old wheezy organ, an altar, and religious pictures. Two more organs helped furnish two other rooms.
In a bedroom by the third floor of 413 Liberty Street, evidently occupied by Hyghcock, the searchers found charms sewed up in bags, odd implements, and three high silk hats.
Mrs. Hyghcock said that she her husband and daughter had occupied the two houses for eight years. Hyghcock, she said, had been working on the tunnels and underground dens for four years, carrying out earth in small quantities and depositing it in the back yards. police doubt that all the sand extracted from the subterranean dens would have been dumped in the yard, and believe that Hyghcock must have carried it away under the cover of darkness.
The Police Knew Him
A year ago Hyghcock was arrested by District Detectives David Kates and Walter Smith on Mount Ephraim Avenue near Van Hook Street. At that time he was searching for a policeman to report a hold-up. Looking into the closed automobile, the detectives found in the tonneau a bed in which lay a young negress, a lighted lantern hung from the roof, and a kerosene lamp on the floor. After questioning at police headquarters Hyghcock so changed his first story of an alleged hold-up on Kaighn Avenue and Cooper River bridge that the police disbelieved his tale.
Captain Colsey will notify the fire department today to safeguard the buildings from fire hazards and also will call to the attention of the health department the unsanitary condition of the place.
In his seventeen years completed with the police department, Captain Colsey said he has never seen such a layout.
Man Is Held in Court for Taking Cop’s Pants
Camden Courier-Post —
There is an old yarn about the policeman who lost his badge. Down in Haddonfield there was a story told recently about a patrolman who had his gun stolen. But this limb of the law lost his trousers.
However Judge Samuel Shay dealt leniently with the offender when the case was given an airing in criminal court here today.
Suspended sentence was imposed on Andrew Wojtkowak, of 1227 Chase street, who pleaded non-vult to the charges of larceny and carrying concealed deadly weapons.
Wojtkowak was accused of robbing the home of Policeman William Michalak, 1204 Sycamore street on the night of May 29, of last year. He was captured with the policeman’s trousers and revolver in his possession. The man was subsequently committed to the county jail on default of $1000 bail.
Judge Shay suspended sentence on the charge of larceny of the trousers when Assistant Prosecutor Lawrence Gregorio interceded and said that the man had spent several months in jail which he thought was ample punishment for the crime. The judge, however, fined Wojtkowak $50 on the charge of carrying concealed deadly weapons.
5 Camden Police Granted Pensions
Camden Courier-Post —
Petitions for pensions were granted yesterday to five members of the Camden police department.
The retiring men are: Lieutenant Charles Laib, in charge of the traffic bureau; Sergeant Charles J. “Jeff” Kay, City Detectives Theodore “Dory” Guthrie and Howard Smith, and Patrolman J. Oscar Till.
The retirements are to become effective Jan. 1, it was announced after a special meeting of the pension committee in city hall. Mrs. Louise F. Walsh, secretary of the board, presented the five applications.
Eventual retirement of Lieut. Laib has been rumored in the department for several months, but it was not until recently that the report was regarded seriously. It is understood that his associates as late as yesterday had requested him to remain on duty. He is recognized as one of the most competent officers in the department. Failing health, however, is said to have prompted the pension committee to approve his application.
Successor Not Named
No announcement as to Lieut. Laib’s successor was made by Acting Chief John W. Golden.
Lieutenant Laib was appointed to the police force on January 12, 1912, by former Mayor Charles H. Ellis. He was promoted to sergeant in 1916 and became a lieutenant in 1929. He has been in charge of the traffic detail for a year, succeeding Captain Charles L. Humes, who has been named inspector of personnel.
Laib is but 51 years of age and is one of the youngest men in the department to apply for pension. If his pension is approved he will receive a monthly salary of $102.05. His home is with his wife at 76 South Twenty-fourth street.
For many years, Laib has been conducting a “one-man” relief organization and is recognized by charitable organizations throughout the city for his generosity among the destitute. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, he personally collects funds for dinners for the children of the Sheltering Arms Home, Seventeenth street and River avenue, and has also been responsible for the home getting a daily supply of bread from a Camden bakery for several years.
Kay Served 38 Years
Sergeant Kay is a veteran member of the police department and has been an officer for 38 years. He is 72 and lives at 606 North Fourth street. He will receive $90.65 monthly. He has been on the sick list for several months, recovering from injuries received in an accident.
Detective Smith is 58 and lives at 933 Penn street. For several years he was loaned to the county as a detective and helped in the discovery of Camden county murders. He was recently returned to the police department and Detective Fiore Troncone turned over to the county in his place. He will receive $90.65 a month. He was appointed June 20, 1905.
Detective Guthrie served 19 years as a policeman and two as a fireman. He resides at 570 Chestnut street. He will receive $92.50 per month, the additional $2 being added because he will not have the usual two per cent deducted for the pension fund.
Patrolman Till, who is 56, resides at North Twenty-fifth street. He served 19 years as a policeman and two and one-half years as a fireman. He is attached to the Second district. Till will receive $83.60 monthly.
The members of the pension committee who passed on the applications is headed by Mayor Roy R. Stewart and includes, Newton W. Ash, fire department representative; William Michalak, police department representative; John J. Robinson, a citizen member, and Mrs. Walsh.
As Police Inaugurated Two-Way Radio Hookup
Camden Courier-Post —
The Camden police department yesterday changed over to two-way radio communication with its red patrol cars. Promptly at 4 p. m., Chief James Howell, of the electrical bureau, pulled the switch and Chief Operator Ed Garrity sent out the first messages to Cars 1, 2 and 3 to come in for inspection. All answered “O.K.” Garrity is seen sending a message while Howell stands by. Patrolman William Michalak is shown answering one of the tests.
Police Jailer Hurt as Bosco Hurls Platter
Camden Courier-Post —
Barber Indicted in Murder Cuts Patrolman With Shattered Plate
Officers Grab Arms, Lead Him Back to Cell
Sam Bosco, Camden barber indicted and arrested on a murder charge last Friday, went temporarily berserk in the city jail late Saturday, police revealed yesterday.
In a fit of nerves and rage, according to the police, the heavy-set prisoner flung a platter of food in the face of the jailer, Policeman William Michalak, who had opened Bosco’s cell to give him a hot meal he brought from a nearby restaurant.
Bosco then menaced the jailer with a jagged fragment of the platter that shattered on the cell floor. Michalak rang an alarm which attracted Police Lieut. Herbert Anderson, Detective Thomas Murphy, Motorcycle Policeman Marshall Thompson, Sgt. Gus Koerner and Policeman James McLaughlin from the adjacent police headquarters in City Hall.
Anderson and Murphy went into the cell tier at the end of which Bosco stood, still brandishing the piece of broken dish. After grabbing his arms, they led him back to his cell. He offered no resistance.
“I was excited,” he told them later.
Mute Saved from Jail for ‘Refusal’ to Speak
Camden Courier-Post —
City Jailer William Michalak proved a friend in need yesterday when Alexander Purzycki, 22, of 1267 Kaighn avenue, was arraigned in police court on a drunk and disorderly conduct charge.
Purzycki was arrested Sunday night in Johnson Park by Policeman Raymond Stark. Stark questioned him, but Purzycki failed to answer. For several hours at police headquarters he was questioned further. He still failed to answer.
In Police Court, Judge Gene R. Mariano asked him how he pleaded. Purzycki still did not answer.
Mariano was becoming angry when Michalak entered the court room.
“I’ve known this man for years,” Michalak told the court. “He is a deaf mute.” The charge was dismissed.
Memorial
Gravestone of William Michalak — Born Nov. 20, 1885, Died Oct. 22, 1941. Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Mrs. Emma Michalak
Camden Courier-Post —
Mrs. Emma Michalak, 80, died Saturday in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Joann Hall, 395 Bradford ave., Westmont, where she lived the past two years.
She was the wife of the late William Michalak, a Camden policeman. She was a member of Woodman Circle, Grove 40 and the Polish National Alliance, Group 160, both of Camden.
Surviving are two other daughters, Mrs. Mary Nolan, of Mt. Ephraim, and Mrs. Patricia Butler, of Westmont; a son, William Zawojski, of Mt. Ephraim; a brother, Otto Galor, of Moorestown; 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Solemn requiem high Mass will be sung Thursday at 9 a. m. in St. Joseph’s R. C. Church, 10th and Mechanic sts. Friends will meet at 8.30 a. m. in the Ciehanowski Funeral Home, 1309 S. 10th st., where they may call Wednesday night. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery.