1914-1921

The last Marshal of Baltimore City

By CLINTON H. JOHNSON December 19, 1936

So far as Patrolman "Mike" Malinofski was concerned it had been a pretty quiet Halloween.

For that matter, not much of anything ever did happen out there on his post in Howard Park, so this 1935 Halloween wasn't unusual. Sometimes he'd grumble about it around the Northwestern District station; mutter that the boys, in closer to town got all the action while he spent his nights trying well-locked doors.

When he would come home after his all-night tour of duty, his wife Mrs. Gladys Malinofski would try to find out what had happened. What had he seen ? Had there been any accidents? Any fires? Any burglars to chase?

He used to chuckle at her persistence, assure her that she hadn't missed anything by not being with him during those long, cold hours between midnight and dawn, riding the deserted streets of Howard Park in his little roadster.

So Halloween hadn't been any different from the other nights. Maybe he felt the loneliness a little more because, when he went on duty at midnight, he'd just come from a happy family party at his brother's home. As he left someone called a parting warning: "Take care of yourself " He remembered that some five hours later as he pulled his car up beside a row of stores at Gwynn Oak and Maine avenues and jumped out to try the doors.

Take care of himself ? Huh., What did they think, anyway? All he had to worry about out here in the sticks was getting enough action to keep warm. Mechanically he switched on his flashlight, turned down beside the row of store fronts, rattled their door handles with brisk efficiency, rounded the corner and started for the back doors.

He was sprawled in the street when the milkman found him. One outstretched hand gripped his flashlight. It was still lighted. The beam frightened the milkman's horse.

The faint light of a distant street lamp glinted dully on the still figure's black puttees.

The milkman looked once, then ran toward an all-night filling station in the next block. A police radio car had just pulled in for some air when the milkman pounded up. The car swung out again. The milkman jumped aboard.

Patrolmen Charles Heims and Louis Mohr lost no time when they got to “Mike" his real name was Arthur Malinofski, no one seems to know who started calling him "Mike." Heims took him to the West Baltimore General Hospital.

Mohr stayed to question anybody he could find.

Heims wild ride to the hospital was in vain, Mike, the doctor said, probably had died instantly. He had been shot in the side and through the heart.

A half dozen residents had heard the shots. Five, everybody agreed; two, then a pause, then three more. Some thought they had heard running footsteps, heard a car door slam, heard a car drive off.

5 Empty Shells

Near the slain policeman's car the police found five empty shells from a .32 caliber automatic. One of them was on the running board, one was under the car, the rest nearby.

Malinofski's gun holster hadn't even been unsnapped when they found him. Out there in the sticks, where nothing ever happened, Death had leaped at him out of the darkness so quickly he couldn't make a move to defend himself.

The Malinfoski murder is on the “open” files at Police Headquarters. That meant they haven’t found who killed him. But it does mean they won’t.

For if there’s one thing the police hate to do, it’s admit defeat on a case where one of their own men is involved.

The Malinofski case, however, is a tough one. Detectives Jim Manning, Bill Feehley, Mike Cooney and George Mintiens, who still have charge of it, admit that readily.

There are three kinds of murder cases, those where you know the killer and can prove it; those where you know the killer, and can't prove it, and those where you simply don't know who did it or why. "Mike" Malinofski's murder comes in the latter class.

There were suspects questioned, but none held more than a, day or two. There were all sorts promising "angles" but they all collapsed on investigation.

Even within the last few weeks Detectives Manning and Feehley worked out a "hot" tip until it turned stone cold on them.

But they're ready to work the next, when it comes. They're determined to get the man who got "Mike" Malinofski.

They’ll take him peaceably, of course, if they can. But. They rather hope he'll try to fight:.

Records of Police Department Tell of Bravery

By CLINTON H. JOHNSON December 26, 1936

Something about the shop didn't look right, but for a moment Patrolman John Blank couldn't figure out just what it was.

Then it dawned on him. The light in the office was out. He knew it should be on. The company' safe was in that front office, in full view of the street, and when the last employee departed every night he switched out the desk lights, turned on a single bulb hanging over the safe. Now this, too, was out.

Blank moved close to the windowpane; trying to peer into the darkened office. Then he made his second disturbing discovery. The door to the rear office was closed but there were lights in there.

No one will ever know exactly what John Blank thought the few crowded minutes that followed.

Perhaps he reflected on the bad luck that had to bring him face to face with such a problem in the last few minutes of his 4 P. M. to midnight tour of duty.

He was on his way to the police call box at Harford avenue and Preston street to check out for the night. It was February 11, 1934, and a clear, bitter cold night. This shop in the 1400 block Central avenue was almost the last on his post. A few steps more, a few more door handles to rattle and he would have been ready for the checkout call. Then a cup of coffee somewhere and home to bed. That had been the program. And now this had to happen.

If John Blank thought of all those things they stayed in his subconscious mind. The rest of his brain, reacting automatically to long police training, directed his actions along prescribed lines.

A homeward bound youth of the neighborhood was passing. To him Blank muttered a quick order: "Beat it down to the call ,box. You'll find some police there waiting to call in. Tell 'em to get up here quick."

The youth dashed off. Blank hurried around the corner to have a look at the back of the building. It was L-shaped, with a front entrance on Central avenue, a rear entrance on Oliver street.

It was only a moment before Patrolman William Atkinson arrived, a little out of breath. He took a look at the front, figured Blank bad gone to the rear and went around after him. Blank, crouched in the shadows against a wall, told him:

Atkinson turned ran back toward the Central avenue entrance. He hadn't even reached it before he heard two shots. He didn't know, as he turned back again what they meant. But he soon found out.

They meant the end of Patrolman John Blank.

It wasn't hard for Detectives Ben Busky, Bill Feebly and Fred Harbourne to find out later exactly what happened. They heard the story from a taxi-driver, from a casual pedestrian, from three people who, emerging from a bridge game, had been almost directly opposite the shop's rear entrance on Oliver street. Their stories all checked. And this is what happened:

Blank had gone a few yards up the narrow alley that runs from Oliver to Hoffman street, hoping to peer in a rear window of the shop. As he did so, two men burst out the rear door, turned east, dashed across the alley mouth, spotted him and without halting, yelled back over their shoulders: "Look out, Mac."

Their warning startled Blank. He swung his gun up, turned, and started for them. As he reached the sidewalk line he met "Mac," face to face, gun to gun. "Mac," it seems, had waited to pick up the burglar tool kit. Blank hadn't counted on a third man. His surprise made him a split-second slow with his trigger finger. That was all "Mac" needed.

One bullet went straight to John Blank's brain. He went down as if he'd been struck by a pile-driver. “Mac" hurdled his body and fled down the alley.

He was only a dim shape in the darkness when Atkinson reached his fallen comrade. Atkinson commandeered a passing cab, circled the block, returned empty-handed, took up the sorry task of sending Blank to a hospital, spreading the alarm, listing the witnesses, making out a report.

They found the safe blown open inside the shop, with some $1,100 gone. They found the tool kit, too, about 200 feet up the alley. There weren't any fingerprints worth anything, however, on either.

John Blank’s murder, like that of Patrolman Malinofski, told in last Sunday's American, is an "open" case in the Headquarters files. But there's a subtle difference in the way they talk about the two cases.

They haven't an idea who killed "Mike." They've got a very good idea who killed Blank. Not a positive identification, of course. It was too dark for the witnesses to tell. John Blank could have told, perhaps, but "Mac" fixed him. .

Still, they have a very good idea who "Mac" was.

There won't be any arrest, though.

For "Mac"-if they are right- is dead, too, He lived about a year longer than John Blank and died, finally, by his own hand.

The average citizen can keep himself out of dangerous situations from one year's end to the next if he's reasonably cautious. A policeman, however, can't do that. He's got to be ready to face anything, any time, without dodging. In a series of stories, of which the following is the third, the Baltimore Sunday American is presenting tales from the Baltimore Police Department official records of men who have gone to death performing their duty. By: CLINTON H. JOHNSON January 2,1937

The thing they all remembered about him afterward was his queer, twisted, sinister smile.

He smiled at the first detective who came to question him smiled while he dressed to go to headquarters for more questioning, smiled as he made his last desperate bid for freedom under the street light in front of the Police Building, was still smiling faintly some 40 hours later when he breathed his last in Mercy Hospital.

They never determined who he was, never established which of a half-dozen aliases was his real name. He had been known, the records showed, as Henry Peterson, John Peterson, Kay Jensen, John Sperling and O. Anderson.

Whatever his name, he was a killer. He had tried to kill one policeman in New York, almost succeeded.

He tried to kill four Baltimore detectives, there in front of the Police Building that night of November 19, 1928, succeeded in killing one and wounding two more before the fourth got him with three bullets neatly placed in a line down his spinal column.

The detective he killed was Sergeant Joseph Carroll. Like many a policeman before him, Carroll plunged into battle, without knowing what it was all about, died before he found out.

One minute he was sitting in the police garage swapping stones with Detective John Marts his partner on the night emergency squad. The next minute he was lying sprawled in the Fallsway, his smoking pistol still clenched in his hand, while over his prostrate form the brief, bitter battle raged.

The whole thing started when the night clerk of a small East Baltimore Street hotel telephoned Detective headquarters that a new guest there, registered as O. Anderson answered a description put out by the detectives a few day's earlier as that of a man wanted for trying to kill a New York policeman.

Over to the hotel went Detective Frederick Carroll--no relation to Joseph--to see if the description really fitted. He found the suspect in his underwear, reading a magazine in room.

Anderson denied he had been in New York, said his name was Pearson, exhibited a Bible to prove it. Always that queer smile lurked on his lips.

Carroll was half persuaded, retired to the lobby to think it over, decided not to give up so easily and returned to the room.

At his request the man dressed, started with him for headquarters. He carried his overcoat on his arm when they left the room, stopped to put it on in the lobby. Back at headquarters Detective Sergeant Elmer O'Grady, time heavy on his hands, watched idly out the Fayette street windows to see whether Carroll would walk his prisoner over. He saw them round the Baltimore street corner, watched their progress to Fayette street. Something made him keep his eye on them as they crossed to the north side of the street.

O'Grady was watching, when the prisoner, with an amazingly quick gesture, whipped a gun from his overcoat pocket, whirled on Carroll and jammed the pistol into the detective's stomach.

O'Grady saw Carroll's hands start up in submission, then swing into action, saw the two men grapple.

Rush To Aid

O'Grady went into action himself. He jabbed the alarm button on his desk and when Joe Carroll answered from the basement emergency room phone O'Grady yelled: "Holdup Right in front of the building."

Then O'Grady snatching his own gun up, was off down the stairs, three at a jump. He hit the street from the Fayette door as Marts and Joe Carroll in a police car skidded into the Fallsway from the Lexington side. O'Grady jumped behind the prisoner, jammed his gun in the ,man's back and commanded: "Stick 'em up Police."

But. the prisoner didn't stick 'em up. Instead he jumped sideways and started shooting. He had already creased Fred Carroll's skull, with one bullet. Now he flung a shot at O'Grady, dropped him with a bullet in the leg, whirled to meet the challenge from the occupants of the police car.

Marts was driving, Joe Carroll consequently was the first out. He charged into the scene, his gun blazing. The cornered gunman fired point-blank, Carroll dropped.

Marts remembered later that the car was still rolling when he fell, recalled that he had to jam on the brakes to keep from driving over his partner’s body.

An instant later it was all over, John Marts is a crack shot and he doesn't like to waste ammunition. The gunman turned back to deal with O'Grady and Fred Carroll.

Marts squirmed out from under the wheel, halted on the running board for a split-second aim, then pounded the gunman down with three bullets as fast as he could pull the trigger.

Uniformed police were pouring out of the building by that time. They got the two Carrolls and O'Grady into machines, grudgingly picked up the fallen killer and took him along.

Joe Carroll died in an hour. Fred Carroll and O'Grady recovered. The gunman lived 40 hours, long enough to dictate a statement admitting he shot deliberately, knowing he was fighting the law, knowing his only chance depended on his gun. The last thing he said was:

"The only thing is, I am willing to take what's coming to me." He said that when he was dying, when there wasn't any choice. Under the circumstances it wasn't as brave as it sounded.

But how about Joe Carroll? He probably never bothered to think of it that way, but he had said just about the same thing in different words when he took the oath as a policeman.

Subsequent investigation satisfied them that Lewis was the one who killed Block. They went on looking for the other two, however and finally found one in Florida. He got 18 years for the hold-up. The third man hasn't been found yet.

After Patrolman John Block gave his life in performance of his duty, his widow received a medal commemorating his heroism. The late Governor Ritchie is shown bestowing the medal.

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In pursuit of a speeding suspicious car, this police traffic cruiser went out of control, crashed over a curb and into a fire hydrant, and turned over three times before coming to rest upside down on Hillen Road and Thirty-third street. Two patrolmen in the car were hurt.Suspicious Auto Escapes After Smash Up

October 8, 1938

Two traffic policemen were hurt today when their car, in pursuit of a fleeing automobile, hit a bump at sixty-miles-an-hour, went out of control, jumped a curb, hit a fire hydrant, and turned over three times. The accident occurred near the intersection of Hillen Road and Thirty-third Street, where Patrolmen Fred Dunn and John S. Moore were attempting to overtake a car being driven in a suspicious manner.

BOTH INJURED

Neither patrolman was seriously hurt. Moore was treated for a dislocated shoulder and abrasions at St. Joseph's Hospital and Dunn, the driver, was treated for abrasions by a police department Physician.

Dunn said the pursuit started on Loch Raven boulevard when the driver the car ahead of the traffic cruiser suddenly turned off into a dirt road when he saw the police car.

The police car followed the machine through to Hillen Road, where the speed of the car in front was jumped up to sixty miles an hour and maintained at that rate until the time of the accident. The fleeing car got away after the crash but the patrolmen have its number.

Stanton Suggests $21,500 Surplus Salary Account Be Used For This

February 28, 1939

Commissioner Robert F. Stanton wrote the Board of' Estimates today, asking that 21,500 surplus in the Police Department's salary account be applied toward replacement of seventy-two police automobiles.

All the seventy-two cars were bought between 1929 and 1935, and are showing their age, the commissioner said. Some of the older ones, he added, are very much the worse for wear and tear.

Forty-three of the machines are being used for patrol work in the suburban sections and twenty-eight are being used in the radio patrol. Old No. 72 is the Southern district patrol wagon, which has gone more than 200,000 miles in its day.

According to Commissioner Stanton, the present police budget appropriates only $100,000 for the maintenance and replacement of equipment. Last year $85,000 was expended for maintenance alone. Since the police rolling stock is no a better this year than last, that same sum or more probably will be required for maintenance, leaving only $15,000 of the $100,000 item for new purchases, the commissioner said.

If the salary surplus is applied to new equipment purchases, continued the commissioner, it should work a saving in maintenance costs.

Commissioner Stanton explained that the $21,500 excess in the salary account represents an accumulation of several years. It was piled up, he said, through the salary difference that results when a veteran patrolman who gets with bonus, about $46 a week, is replaced by a probationer who gets only $35, and also through temporary vacancies in the officers ranks of the force.

Bids on the department's old cars already have been asked and, received from various automotive firms in the city, Commissioner Stanton said. They have offered bids on seventy-one cars, as a whole and on smaller lots. As yet, however, no bid has been put in for the superannuated Black Maria.

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March 5, 1939

An escaped Negro convict was shot and killed late yesterday by patrolman Edwin J. Humphreys, of the Northeastern district, as the Negro attempted to drive off in a stolen car that had been spotted by police at North Broadway and Miller street.

The dead man was identified as Edward Turner, 25, who according to police, has a long criminal record and was a fugitive from the Maryland House of Correction, having escaped last July.

Captain William J. Forrest, commander of the Northeastern district, said Turner answered the description of the Negro who a week ago broke into a bedroom of a house in the 700 block North Broadway and assaulted Miss Frances Whelan, 25 year old nurse at Sinai Hospital, with a knife. Patrolman Humphreys had been detailed to watch the stolen car after it was discovered parked by Sergeant Michael J. Hoban shortly after the change of shifts at 4 P. M. yesterday.

Ten minutes after Humphreys went on duty, Turner approached. the car, climbed in and started the engine. Humphreys ran forward calling to the Negro to halt.

Instead, Turner meshed the gears to start the car in motion. A shot in the air failed to stop the, Negro, but at second shot, which Humphreys sent crashing through the window of the car, caused Turner to slam on the brakes and leap out on the far side of the machine.

Turner raced down Miller Street toward North Broadway, which was filled with afternoon shoppers. Patrolman Humphreys paused, took careful aim and fired. The Negro pitched forward, shot through the heart. His body fell almost in the middle of the south bound traffic lane on North Broadway and was barely missed by passing automobiles.

The shooting occurred in front of Branch No. 5 of the Enoch Pratt Library at North Broadway and Miller Street. Several children who had heard the shots ran to the windows of their homes and outside in time to witness the shooting.

Turner's body was taken to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where physicians said he died instantly. Police said the Negro lived in the 1700 block Ashland avenue.

The car, according to police, was stolen late last month from Mrs. Minnie C. Russell, of the 4400 block Springdale avenue. The license plates had been reported stolen from another motorist.

Dr. Paul Schenker, coroner for the Northeastern district, released Humphreys in the care of Captain Forrest, who temporarily relieved the officer from duty.

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June 15, 1939

Believing the small, movable traffic “Kiosks” to be antiquated, Police Commissioner Robert F. Stanton has ordered the removal of eight of them from intersections in the central part of the city as an experiment, he announced today.

His order was the result of a survey made by Captain Henry C. Kaste, commander of the Traffic Division. The intersections from which the small enclosures, originally designed to protect traffic patrolmen from the elements, have been removed are at Pratt and Sharp Streets, Pratt and Howard streets. Lombard and Hanover streets Lombard and Charles streets, Lombard and, Calvert streets. Baltimore and Paca streets, Saratoga and Eutaw streets and Charles and Chase streets.

Commissioner Stanton said today that about ten of the kiosks remain at intersections, but that if it developed that traffic could be directed as well without them they would probably be removed also.

The kiosks have always been rolled away from the intersections at night, the Commissioner said, and patrolmen did without them if night traffic warranted their presence at all.

The great majority of traffic patrolmen are exposed to the weather when on duty he added, so that the loss of the protection the structures afford would work little hardship on the few officers who are being deprived of them.

Commissioner Stanton said that at , the intersections from which the kiosks had been removed the Traffic Division officials reported that vehicle movement was being handled with the same facility as before.

There is no intention on the part of the department to remove the traffic towers, such as that at North Avenue and Charles street, which can be operated automatically. These towers are, used only on special occasions and at those times they are needed, the Commissioner said.

Traffic patrolmen in Baltimore still direct the movements of hundreds of thousands of automobiles from eighteen antiquated kiosks, which have been protecting them from snow, rain, and the summer sun for the past fifteen years, a survey today disclosed.

Inside the kiosk- stands a policeman who manually regulates traffic by the turning of a handle within which in turn changes the "Stop" and "Go" signals atop the cubicle.

Originally there were approximately forty of the kiosks scattered - mainly along the busy thoroughfares in the downtown section, but with the regulation of traffic by means of electric signals, many were no longer needed, police officials said.

Captain Henry C. Kaste, commander of the traffic division of the Police Department, said that the police directing traffic from within the kiosks "look a little antiquated" and stated the little houses still have some "good points." "During rush hours of the morning and afternoon," said Captain Kaste, "I have ordered the men to desert their kiosks and regulate traffic with their hands from vantage points at the intersection. "As fast as automatic traffic signals are installed to regulate traffic at intersections," the captain added, "the kiosk is no longer needed. If the presence of a policeman is needed in an emergency, he can stand in the center of the street directing with his hands."

While admitting he is giving the kiosk situation some serious consideration, Commissioner Robert F. Stanton did not amplify his intentions as to the fate of "little houses.'" " In addition to the kiosks the police still have three traffic towers. They are located at North Avenue and Charles Street, Howard and Lombard Streets and Pratt and Light streets. When first put into operation the tower at North Avenue and Charles Street, which directs traffic though the red, amber and green signaling lights fastened on all four sides, had a policeman on duty manipulating the controls. Except on such special occasions as Easter Sunday, the lights of the tower, will work automatically and the presence' of a policeman is not needed Captain Kaste said.

The tower at Howard and Light streets is operated during the rush hours---8 to 10 o'clock in the morning and from 4 to 6 o'clock in the evening by a policeman. At other times of the day the lights work automatically.

As the Pratt and Light streets intersection has more vehicular traffic than any other intersection in the, city during the course of it day, it is necessary to keep a policeman on duty manipulating the controls from 7.30 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening.

Before the coming of the kiosks, the traffic policemen of the city did their regulating from the center of the street intersection by waving their hands. Next they were provided with a wooden platform to which was attached an umbrella. An iron pole jutting through the top of the umbrella supported the "Stop" and "Go" signs, manipulated by the turn of a handle by the policeman. A circular piece of sheet metal attached to the edge of the platform and reaching as high as the policeman's waist served as a protection from the elements. The device was commonly known as a "can" in police circles.

In the eighteen remaining kiosks some of the Police have been directing traffic at the same intersection for as long as ten years. The locations of, the kiosks are as follows: along Pratt Street at Charles, Hanover, Sharp and Howard streets; Lombard street, at the intersections of Charles, Light, Calvert and South Streets; Baltimore street at Paca Street and the Fallsway; Eutaw and Saratoga streets and Liberty and Saratoga Streets; St. Paul and Saratoga streets, Calvert and Centre streets; Charles street at Chase and Biddle street and Fleet street and Broadway.

Six mournful Baltimore traffic cops who have been de-housed by the Police Department. De-housing Authority (probably the commissioner) today were flinging their arms about, tooting their whistles and agreeing with W. S. Gilbert that "a policeman's lot is not a happy one.'

The six are a majority of the eight who, until recently, occupied confined kiosks containing stop-go semaphores on one of eight street intersections in the city. Today they were kiosk-less and an investigation indicated that of the eight, six didn't like it at all. Two others couldn't be interviewed.

Counts Ten--Then Replies

The interviewer walked down Charles Street to Lombard, where Patrolman John Thierauf, who has always occupied the booth on the southwest corner of the busy thoroughfare, was standing in the middle of Lombard, arms and whistle going.

"How do you like the change:" the officer was asked, He counted to ten before answering, "It's hard on the feet and hot on the head," he said. "This asphalt gets hot and it isn't like the old wooden floors and the roof. Of course, I don't like it." The officer admitted that the change might have improved the traffic situation somewhat however.

The journey continued to Pratt and Sharp streets, the officer who used to occupy a kiosk at Hanover and Lombard being nowhere in sight. At the former intersection Patrolman Frank J. Corrigan was standing on the northeast corner. Hanover Street is one way at that point. but there was plenty of traffic to keep the patrolman moving. "How do you like the change?" the interviewer inquired again. Patrolman Corrigan counted about twenty, and swallowed. "I don't mind saying that I don't like it a damned bit!" he exploded, "I've been standing in the house over there indicating the southeast corner for the past ten years without an accident at this corner. And I haven’t been on sick report for eight years." he added feelingly.

"The sun is here at 8 o'clock in the morning until 5:30 o'clock in the afternoon during the summer and about half an hour a day in the winter. And I just had that box painted.

At Pratt and Howard streets Patrolman Howard W. Singleton was more or less noncommittal. He missed his box. He had it on the southeast side of the street. Now he stands on the west side of Howard, about the middle of Lombard. and dodges.

Up at Baltimore and Paca Officer, J. M. Collison didn't like the new order of things at all.

Gets Clothes Spotted

"A man buys expensive clothes and tries to look nice and a car come along, one splash and look at them, he said with even more feeling than Officer Corrigan. He was feeling it might be added, the front section of his uniform trousers. There wasn't much in the way of a crease there and they were spotted.

"Did you get wet in the rain on Tuesday?" he was asked, "I did. and I've been trying to get my trousers clean ever since" he said.

The patrolman, it was learned, has guided traffic at the intersection for fourteen years. He began with one of the old can-box effects, with the semaphore standing up from the center, and worked his way up to a full-fledged box.

"And they come around and took it away last Friday" he mourned. "I used to have a system with that box. Now as soon as I take my arms down, traffic stops automatically." The box he added, had never interfered with traffic.

The regular officer at Eutaw and Saratoga Streets, where a box has been removed was at the Western Station House on a case and his substitute hadn't much to say about it. From there the interviewer marched to Charles and Chase Streets, where Patrolman John Wess has been standing in a house and taking care of street cars, busses, private machines, trucks and pedestrians for some time. And here the interviewer received an entirely new but still protesting point of view.

"This here is the coldest corner in town in the winter time" said Patrolman Wess."The wind blows around here something fearful. It once blew the box completely over, with me in it. How's a man going to stand up against a wind like that?"

"Kiosks" a veteran of fifteen years of service, located at Saratoga and Eutaw Streets (above)

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YOUTH SHOT BY POLICEMAN GETS BLOOD TRANSFUSION

Heart Grazed By Bullet That Entered Burglary Suspect's Back---Officer Says Victim Ignored Order To Halt---Police Inquiry On

July 24, 1939A 15-year-old boy was in a serious condition at the West Baltimore General Hospital, shot in the back today by a policeman who saw him fleeing from a vacant house at 3500 Dolfield Avenue. The bullet entered behind the youth's left shoulder, piercing the entire body, grazing the heart, and came out his right breast, according to hospital doctors who treated him and administered a blood transfusion.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Stephen G. Nelson began what he called a "routine investigation" into the shooting by Patrolman Thomas A. Wojcik The "investigation." he said will be made by Inspector Thomas J. Mooney.

With Patrolman George Kraft, in a police radio patrol car, Wojcik had sighted the youth running southward on Dolfield avenue from the vacant house as the patrol car made one of its usual rounds about 1.30 A. M.

Calling to the boy to halt, the police sped in pursuit, whereupon the youth crossed the street again and plunged between two dwellings, with Patrolman Wojcik after him on foot.

In the rear yard, Wojcik reported, after he had called to the boy six times to halt, the youth reached toward a back pocket as if for a weapon and the policeman fired. The boy went down. Taken immediately to the hospital, the boy was identified as Ralph Rauch, who escaped on July 7 from the Maryland Training School for Boys.

Since then he had not been seen either at the training school or at the home of his father, George Rauch at 2609 Cold Spring lane.

Mr. Rauch today said "About a year ago my son got in with some bad boys and I sent him away to the Maryland Training School for Boys. He got out supposedly to come home, but we didn't hear from him.

"The first I heard from him since the fifteenth was when the police came to the door this morning and told me he had been shot. He is a good boy, but he just got in with some bad company." Captain Lawrence King, of the Northwestern district. reported to Inspector Nelson that subsequent investigation by his men revealed marks on the door of the vacant house at 3500 Dolfield Avenue as though attempts had been made to pry it open. Similar marks were found on a window of a home at 3600 Belle avenue, a short distance a way he said.

Also, he reported the finding of two rings in the boy's pockets at the hospital. both of which were identified as part of the jewelry taken several days ago from the home of Edward G. Conrad, at 3300 Sequoia avenue. One was a diamond ring and the other a class ring.

Between the two Dolfield Avenue houses where Wojcik had followed the youth afoot, Captain King added, his men found a large screwdriver and one of the youth's shoes.

The Rauch boy is tall for his age and in the early morning darkness Captain King said, it was impossible for his men to know the fleeing figure was that of a boy. Patrolman Wojick in his report, said that both he and Patrolman Kraft thought the figure was that of a man when they saw him flee from the vacant house.

Captain King, when asked today if he considered the case one of "promiscuous shooting" by police, replied "Oh, no! Absolutely not!

Officer Wojcik gave the boy every chance in the world. He called to him six or seven times to stop. Then he saw the boy reach for his back pocket, so he did the only thing he could do"

Captain King said he saw nothing unusual in the fact that Wojcik was unable to tell that the runner was a boy, and yet could see him reach for his hip pocket. "The Rauch boy is 5 feet 7 or 8 inches tail" he stated. "It would be next to impossible to tell that he was a boy."

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When an experienced policeman makes an arrest it is usually a matter of routine duty and attracts little or no attention, but when a rookie officer apprehends a burglary suspect on the fourth night of duty he becomes the pride and joy of the family.

"I'm tickled to death," said Mrs. Margaret Gable yesterday when she learned that her husband, Patrolman Earl William Gable, earlier in the day had arrested a suspect who has a record for burglary and larceny.

Son Apparently Proud Patrolman Gable, who was assigned to the Central district Monday night, apprehended the suspect as he endeavored to escape from the top of a window at a drug store at Charles and Read streets. Later a revolver was found near the spot where the man had been hiding.

At Patrolman Gable's home at 5021 Williston street yesterday, Earl Guy Gable, the officer's 2O-month-old son, was apparently bubbling over with joy at his daddy's bravery.

Goo, goo," he shrieked as he bounced over armchairs, ran a toy lawn mower over the rug, tugged at his mother's skirt and performed other antics in celebration of his father's, success.

In "Seventh' Heaven" He knew there was some reason for his mother's happiness and he fell right in tune with her joy.“I'm tickled to death," Mrs. Gable repeated. "Just tickled to find out that he is making headway.

"Earl has been crazy about being a policeman ever since he was a boy and he is tickled with his work. I really have no objections, I'm just so glad for him. "He was in seventh heaven when he found out that he had made the grade and was going to be put on the force.

Mrs. Gable said that she knew nothing of her husband's arrest of the suspect until a neighbor gave her the message that her husband wouldn't be home because he was working on a case.

Mother Also Happy"Then I rushed into the house and looked at the newspaper to see whether there was anything in about Earl. I was so thrilled when I saw the story and I was so proud." When it was mentioned that Patrolman Gable has the same name as at prominent movie star, Mrs. Gable laughing answered that most of his friends call him 'Clark.' Patrolman Gable is 29 and is 6 feet 3 inches tall. I "He has a lot of nerve. too, and is not afraid of anything," his wife added.

Drove Armored Car “Earl always had the ambition to be a policeman," she observed. "I know he'll make a good one because he doesn't get excited and has a very good disposition.She recalled that Patrolman' Gable went to Public School No.74, at Twenty-second street and Homewood Avenue, and later attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute for several years. Then, she said, he learned the plumbing trade.

About five years ago he obtained the position as driver of an armored car for a concern that transports money and worked there until he joined the force. Patrolman Gable has three brothers, and two sisters. His father, Guy Gable, is an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

To Face Grand Jury Action The burglary suspect was later charged with carrying a deadly weapon and with the theft of a revolver from Michael Gransee, of the Philadelphia Road, Chesaco Park, Md. The suspect identified himself as Maurice W. Homer, 23 of the 800 block McKean Avenue.At a hearing yesterday afternoon before Magistrate Elmer J. Hammer, in the Central district police court. Homer was held for action of the grand jury in $500 bail on each charge.

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In 1939 Officer Charles W. Jones leads Albert Beverati & Joan Garrett across the street September 7, 1939

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SCENE OF SHOOTING---- In this schoolyard police closed in on six colored youths as they congregated near the steps of the main building of Public School No. 112, at Laurens and Calhoun Streets. A gun battle followed, the police said. The body of one youth, fatally injured, was found beneath the tree at the extreme left of the photograph and that of another at the far corner of the small portable school building near the trees. Commissioner Robert F. Stanton was investigating today.

Two Negro youths were shot and killed last night in a running battle in the rear yard of Public School No.112. at Laurens and Calhoun streets, by a squad of detectives which had laid in wait for more than a quarter of an hour.

Two other Negroes were captured during the fight in which a half dozen shots were fired, and another pair escaped. One of the bullets went wild and crashed through the window of a bedroom in a house one hundred yards from the scene of the shooting.

The only statement made by the police came from Capt. John A. Cooney, of the Detective Bureau, three hours after two of the Negro youths were taken to police head-quarters for questioning.

He said: "We arrested one man this afternoon for larceny of an automobile and he gave us certain information and we sent detectives to the steps of the school, where they placed six Negroes under arrest.

"After being placed under arrest, four of the Negroes broke loose and began shooting. The detectives returned the fire. The police had advance information that one of the Negroes, now dead, had two guns on him. We located one pistol, of a ..38 caliber. Four bullets were in the gun. One empty was found on the ground."

Lieutenant Oscar Koch, of the Northwestern district who found the pistol, also recovered a cap in the school yard. Robert F. Stanton, Commissioner of Police, ordered that the reports of the detectives not be made available and that no additional information be given.

Chief Inspector Stephen G. Nelson, who had been closeted with J. Bernard Wells, State's Attorney, the detectives and other police officials for more than three hours, said the detectives involved in the case had not made their reports at that time, and consequently no information was available.

At the Provident Hospital where the two dead Negroes were taken, identification was established. The Negroes were:

EUGENE DUVALL, 18. of the 2100 block Pennsylvania avenue, against whom a warrant for assault and robbery had been sworn in the Northwestern district.

LAWRENCE HARVEY, 19, of the 1200 block Park avenue.

Detectives in the squad were:

Lieutenant ALLEN D. CRONE.

Lieutenant ROBERT BRADLEY.

Sergeant DONALD MADIGAN.

Patrolman ALBERT KENDRICKS.

Patrolman JAMES H. BUTlER, Negro.

Although the police would not make public its report on the shooting, the residents of the neighborhood were able to give a detailed account.

One of the witnesses, Roger Dorsey, Negro, lives at 1314 North Calhoun Street, about one hundred yards from the rear of the school building.

The cars, with several men in civilian dress inside each remained parked until a group of Negro youths -- five or six-walked to the rear of the school and sat on the steps facing the play yard.

As soon as the Negroes arrived, one man left a car and walked down Calhoun street. This man went around the school building and approached the Negroes from the east side of the school yard. Meanwhile, two other men got out of the cars and walked in the direction of the school

The man who circled the school shouted “Don't run” Dorsey said.

At that the Negroes on the step began to flee toward a group of portable school buildings on the north end of the playground. “One of the boys almost ran into one of the men," Dorsey said. At the time he was relating the story, Dorsey did not know the "men" were policemen. "The man fired a shot at close range, but the boy kept on running. Another shot was fired as the man ran after the boy. The boy ran until he reached the curb about thirty yards farther on and then he fell."

Meanwhile another series of shots was being fired in the central section of the schoolyard. Residents who had ducked into houses at the beginning of the shooting came out again.

By this time it was learned that another boy had been shot fatally near the portable school buildings. Two of the boys were led to the police cars.

Some minutes later the two dead Negroes were carried to the cars and the machines were driven off. At this time none of the residents knew what the shooting was all about.

The second boy was wounded, blood was left as he dragged himself around the corner of one of the portable buildings. He fell dead a short distance away.

In the home of Viola Mason, Negro, of 1319 Woodyear Street, a small street which skirts the schoolyard on the east, a stray bullet went through a third story bedroom window. John Mason, brother of Viola, whose bedroom it was, happened to be in the dining room on the first floor at that time. In the bedroom immediately behind his, was Mattie Williams, who heard the noise and discovered the bullet hole. The slug was stopped by the wall over the closet.

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STANTON PROBES SHOOTING OF 2 BOYS BY POLICE

Police Commissioner Robert F. Stanton announced today that he was undertaking a complete investigation of the killing of two colored youths by detectives last night in the yard of a public school at Laurens and Calhoun streets.

Until a course of action in regard to the shooting has been established, secrecy concerning all of its details was ordered by the commissioner.

He said that disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the killings might be in contravention of a Supreme Bench ruling against discussion of pending cases by the police.

Information gained from police sources revealed that the police were conducting a roundup of suspected purse snatchers and bandits when the pistol clash occurred. .

Seven prisoners, one of them a 14 year-old colored girl, have since been taken into custody and the roundup continued today.

Trap Set By Police

Captain John A. Cooney, commander of the Detective Bureau, said that one of the seven now in custody, Reginald Duvall, 17 years old, a brother of one of the dead youths was arrested yesterday afternoon on an automobile larceny charge. After questioning him, a detective squad went to Public School No. 112, Laurens and Calhoun Streets, and lay in wait for a group of suspects.

Six colored youths appeared at the school. The police surrounded them, an action that was followed shortly by gunfire in the school yard. Two suspects were taken alive, two were dead and two escaped.

The dead were sent to the morgue, and were identified as Eugene Duvall, 18 years old, and Lawrence Harvey, 19.

Captain Cooney was asked who fired the first shot, the detectives or the, suspects. He replied: "The first shot was fired by one of the Negroes."

An order issued by Commissioner Stanton suppressed written reports filed by the detectives at the office of Chief Inspector Stephen G. Nelson. These reports were delivered to the commissioner today.

After the shooting the police continued the roundup of suspects. On the docket at the Northwestern police station a penciled notation said they were suspected of purse snatching and the holdup of ice cream stores and pharmacies. All were sent to the Police Building to be presented in a lineup, viewed by recent holdup victims.

Captain Lawrence King. in command of the Northwestern police district, said he was heading an investigation into the shooting because it happened in his district, but that the detectives involved had made no report there.

Commissioner Stanton said: "A thorough investigation of the fatal shooting of the two suspects will be made by me. I have received the written reports of the men. I am not in a position to make them public. The Supreme Bench has held this might be contempt of court.

Both State's Attorney J. Bernard Wells and Deputy State's Attorney William H. Maynard were absent from their offices today. Mr. Wel1s is expected to return tomorrow. Assistant State's Attorney Thomas N. Biddison said: "I talked to Mr. Wells today and he asked me to take charge of the case until he returns and to make an investigation.

"Assistant State's Attorney Anselm Sodaro was at police headquarters and detective headquarters for several hours last night and talked to everyone concerned. I expect to go to police headquarters today and to thoroughly investigate the whole matter.

"When the investigation has been completed, there will probably be a preliminary hearing before the police magistrate of the Northwestern police district. in which the shooting occurred.

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STABBING-Patrolman Ryan was fatally stabbed today in the first block South Gay Street. Wilcox, an engineer, brought down his assailant with a flying tackle and helped to hold him until other police arrived. Patrolman William L. Ryan, a member of the Police Department since 1921, was fatally stabbed on Gay Street, near Baltimore, today by a man who was taken to the Central Police Station alternately fighting furiously and praying, "O Lord God, give me liberty and peace."

Ryan, lying on the sidewalk, had fired two shots at his assailant, but both missed. The man was brought down with a flying tackle by Perry Wilcox, an engineer, and was held by Wilcox, other civilians and two firemen from No. 1 engine house until several policemen arrived and disarmed him.

His weapon. they said, was a butcher knife with a ten-inch blade. At Mercy Hospital, where Ryan was pronounced dead on arrival, it was stated that the blade had pierced his heart. He had suffered three puncture wounds of the chest and abdomen, the hospital report said, in the region of the heart and liver. It was Wilcox who called the officer's attention to the man and the knife. The engineer, who lives at 3303 Northern Parkway, said he had made some purchases at an electrical supply shop at 5 South Gay Street and that as he emerged and crossed the street he passed the man, lounging against the front of Grace and Hope Mission next door to the engine house.

He noticed, that the man had the knife in his hand. "Just as I got to him," said Wilcox, "he asked me, what do you want?' I told him, I didn't want anything and went on down the street. "A little farther, on I met Officer Ryan walking north, and told him about the fellow. Ryan started up to him and I followed.

"As Ryan reached him he said, 'What's the matter, and without saying anything in reply the other drew back and plunged the knife in the officer's breast. Then he broke into a run.

As Ryan lay on the sidewalk with a bloodstain spreading over the front of his clothes, he managed to get his gun out and fired, but the shots went wild.

"I ran after the fellow and got him around the knees."

Wilcox was having considerable trouble holding his captive and George W. Green, of 4917 Midwood Avenue, several other civilians, and Henry Fidler and Joseph Paulus, firemen from the engine house went to his aid.

They said that although their prisoner was a man of only about 140 pounds, he "fought like a maniac and they were unable to get the knife away from him. It was not wrested from him until Detective Lieutenant Louis Kotmair, Sergeant Donald Madigan and Patrolmen Walter Geraghty and John Fox arrived.

The officers handcuffed the man and he was carried through a large crowd that had been attracted by the shots and lifted yelling and screaming, into the Central district patrol. Ryan was put into a city ambulance and hurried to the hospital.

At the station the prisoner first refused to answer any questions, even to state his name. The police said that in his pockets, however, they found a Social Security card bearing the name Joseph Abato and the address 1427 Gough street. Officers were sent to that address to inquire about him.

Man, Shouts And Screams

Meanwhile, the police said, he continued to shout and scream incoherently, throwing himself on his knees to pray for "liberty, peace and life" and begging that his handcuffs and leg irons be removed. Whenever the cuffs and irons were removed the officers said, the man renewed his fight.

He is sharp-faced, with brown eyes and black hair, and was wearing a black shirt, dark trousers and black shoes. "His forehead was cut from his fall when Wilcox tackled him.

State's Attorney J. Bernard Wells and Assistant State's Attorney Anselm Sodaro went to the station to question the man and when Sodaro addressed him in Italian, the police said his manner calmed almost instantly and he talked readily about himself.

''He said his name is Joseph Abato and that he has been living in a building in the rear of the Gough street address, working at odd jobs when he could get them and spending much of his time at the Grace and Hope Mission, especially during the evening meetings.

He was born in Sicily, he said, and was brought to the United States when 2 years old. When he was 4 he went on, his parents disappeared and he was reared in a New York orphanage. During the World War he was to young to fight, he stated, but served an army enlistment after the conflict.

He is married and has a wife, whom he has not seen for several years, and a 4year old son, in New York. He said. his last regular job was on a tunnel project, on the new Harrisburg-Pittsburgh super-highway, near Chambersburg, Pa. It ended last September, he said and it was then that he came to Baltimore.

Patrolman Ryan was 44 years old and lived at 3204 Kenyon avenue. He was a popular officer and was known to""his acquaintances as "Larry." He was' married five years ago and his survivors, besides his widow, Margaret, are a son, "Larry" Jr. 4 years old and a daughter, Patricia Margaret, 18 months.

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If you are looking for two female Great Danes they are being held in protective custody in a cell at the Western Police Station

The dogs Were picked up yesterday by Patrolman Arthur C. Boston, of the traffic division, while they were romping in the middle of the intersection of Eutaw and Lexington streets between automobiles moving in all directions. when Boston saw the dogs, he scratch his head and murmured something about “Well. I’ll be… He stopped traffic that was moving all around the dogs and led them to the sidewalk where he looked for the owner.

When the owner could not be found, Boston took the dogs to the Western po1ice station and presented them to the desk Lieutenant. The desk lieutenant also scratched his head, murmured something about “Well, I’ll be…… and ordered the dogs to the largest and nicest cell. The dogs were not docketed or searched.

Last night Western police attempted to locate the owner of the dogs but were unsuccessful. The po1ice believe the dogs jumped out a parked car. Whenever a person entered the station house last night they were quickly led to the cell block and shown “our very fine guest.”

Members of the station house contributed dimes, nickels and quarters

To buy bones and raw meat for the dogs’ supper. After the Great Danes had eaten they crawled up on the bench in the cell and went to sleep.

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By Donald K. Miller 1944

An error 29 years old in the Police Department records was rectified today when Commissioner Hamilton R. Atkinson ordered the name of Patrolman George C. Sauer inscribed on the roll of honor beside those of 22 other policemen who met violent death in the performance of their duties.

Patrolman Sauer was fatally shot in the abdomen shortly after 4 o'clock on the morning of April 9,1915 by one of three out-of-town. gunmen whom he had chased up a blind alley that runs between Hare Street and Ellwood Avenue.

Omission A Mystery

Accounts of the killing and of the subsequent roundup of the criminals and their trial in Criminal Court occupied prominent space in the newspapers for many weeks. No one now connected with the Police Department is able to explain the omission all these years of the slain patrolman's name from the Honor Roll.

Had not Lieutenant George Sauer, a Central District policeman and son of the slain officer, read a recent article in The Evening Sun which listed names on the Police Department's roll of honor, more years could have elapsed before the award.

My father was a policeman killed in line of duty. Why wasn't his name mentioned with the others?" the Lieutenant asked.

When he was told that police records. dating back to 1870 contained no data on his father's death, the matter was brought to the attention of Commissioner Atkinson.

A canvass of the police force unearthed a handful of old-timers who recall the slaying of Officer Sauer.

One was Capt. Lawrence King, Commander of the Southwestern District, who at the time was a Detective Lieutenant and one of the Policemen who came to the aid of the stricken officer.

As Capt. king recalled, the tragedy followed of three gunmen from a saloon on eight street near Lombard, because of disorderly conduct.

Gunmen Open Fire the gangsters, who had been given the bums rush by other patrons of the saloon, whipped out their guns and started blazing away.

As they ran down the street pursued by a crowd of infuriated civilians patrolman Sauer joined the chase.

Sauer was chasing one of the men up a blind alley when felled by a bullet. Before the assailant had time to escape, he was collard by King. Later in the day the two other men, identified as companions of the captured gunmen were arrested in their hotel in the unit block of North liberty Street. The loaded revolvers were found under the pillow of their bed.

Two Sentenced to Prison

Records of the Maryland Penitentiary disclose that David Bender, of Brookyln, NY and Harry McQuade, of Philadelphia. were convicted of second degree murder in connection with Patrolman Sauers death and given 18 year terms in the prison.

Bender escaped over the wall of the penitentiary on June 27, 1921, but was later arrested in California on September 20th.

On November 16 of the same year, after escaping from the institution, he was sentenced to two more years. Bender was paroled on May 19, 1931 and McQuade was granted a parole on March 25, 1930.