Strange Times 160: Bronx Boy Bandits
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Today we watch Lady Astor put her foot in her mouth, a Berlin mob put a killer in harm’s way, and a little girl put a gang of hoodlums in the hoosegow. Try to remember to read the room on…
June 9, 1921
After spending four hours in jail on charges of driving over the speed limit at 26 MPH, Babe Ruth speeds to the Polo Grounds at 30 MPH, enters the Yankee game in the sixth inning in place of Chicken Hawks, and draws a walk.
Accused bigamist embezzler Shubel K. Siver’s second wife, 18-year-old Adele Gouin, announces her intention to leave her new husband—who now hopes to convince his first wife to reconcile with him.
Fraternity brothers at George Washington University’s chapter of Delta Tau are accused in court of drinking beer, singing “suggestive songs,” and making it difficult for neighbors to sleep.
The Weather: Partly cloudy today; Friday, unsettled, probably thunderstorms; moderate to fresh south winds.
We have encountered Lady Astor several times before, most notably when she chased down a purse snatcher and shamed him into returning her bag. Today we find her in a less heroic pose: hectoring the working class in what I can only describe as, “The TED Talk Every Millionaire Dreams of Giving.”
LONDON, June 8.—”We are all some one’s servant. Husband and wife, for instance—one bosses the other,” said Lady Astor today at the annual meeting of the Domestic Service Branch of the National Alliance of Employers and Employed. The audience consisted of many mistresses and domestics.
“I would rather have a rattlesnake around than a disgruntled domestic servant,” she added. “We have to get rid of the nonsense that we can get something for nothing.”
Her butler, she added, helped more than anybody else during the Plymouth election. He always seemed to put things right, however disagreeable every one else was. He was a gentleman as kind to the smallest kitchen maid as he was to her, which was a true test.
“I don’t believe in asking maids into the drawing room,” said Lady Astor. “I think maids would be perfectly wretched if they were made to sit down and talk to me. Every one chooses her own friends.”
As far as excuses go, “I didn’t murder her—I only shot her!” is not terribly convincing but wins points for chutzpah.
BERLIN, June 8.—Extraordinary scenes attended the arrest today here of the alleged murderer of Rosa Luxemburg. It will be remembered that she met her death in January, 1919, in circumstances which were never cleared up, nor was her body ever found.
On Monday a former officer of the Baltic Freebooting Corps named Krull was taken into custody, having aroused suspicion by trying to sell the dead woman’s watch. It is believed that he was concerned in the murder, although it has long been the theory of the police that the murderer himself is a man named Otto Runge, a former member of one of the Berlin free corps, which during the times of revolution indulged in something approaching pogroms against the revolutionaries. He and some other soldiers arrested Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht, who, it was reported, were shot while trying to escape.
The authorities were never able to discover the whereabouts of Runge, but this morning he put in an appearance under a false name at a Berlin labor bureau and asked for work. Other unemployed persons who were waiting there recognized him.
“You are the man who murdered Rosa Luxemburg,” they said to him.
“No,” he cried, “I didn’t murder her; I only shot her.”
He then attempted to escape, but the crowd rushed after him, caught him, ripped his clothes off and half lynched him. He was unconscious when the police appeared, dispersed the big crowd, and carried him off to prison. His wounds are serious.
Thrilling stuff! Leaves me wondering two unimportant things: when did the Times quit printing the address of every person mentioned, including children accused of crimes, and who leaves a blunderbuss in a field?
Stealthily, one by one, they crept into the tumbledown shack in a vacant lot in the Bronx. The dread Black Cross of their order showed on their wrists as they raised right arms and swore the blood oath of secret loyalty. With solemn mien they went through the mystic ritual carrying its death threat for him who should turn treator. Hushed, they heard the commands of their merciless leader. Some gripped their clubs. One took up the ancient firearm that had played its part in battles of olden days. All was ready. Indian-fashion they stole through the shadows to the appointed rendezvous.
Beatrice Mauer, ten years old, of 452 East 139th Street, went to a grocery near her home, bought a bag of supplies for her mother, and came out with $4.66 in change in her hand.
“Your money or your life,” said the leader of the implacable bandits who ringed her path. Beatrice hesitated. It was her mother’s money. But she was frightened. How was she to know the old thing wouldn’t shoot! Besides, it hurt just as badly as the most modern rifle when they cracked her over the head with it. The blood trickled from a tiny scalp wound and Beatrice delivered. The bandits fled.
Such was the Order of the Black Cross which ended last night. With it passed into history an organization of juvenile miscreants unique even in a city not a stranger to skilled safecracking at fourteen. Never before have the police been called upon to deal with a gang of young ruffians who deliberately and by choice preyed upon little girls emerging from stores on errands for their mothers.
Terrors of Neighborhood
For five months they terrorized their neighborhood in the Bronx. Hold-ups of children were not their only activity. John Bernstein of 690 East 138th Street, known as the Jackie Coogan of the gang, because it was he who threw the wadded brick, was too expert for that. Many a glass transom he smashed with his brick and that other little forms might wriggle over and denude toy, candy, stationary, electrical supply and grocery stores of their choicest stock. As a reward John was allowed to prick a circle around the cross on his arm and “tattoo it in” with coal dust.
Going over their records for three weeks past, the police of the Alexander Avenue station compiled a list of twenty-three complaints against them. They believed that the total for their period of operations would be 100 or more. One hundred dollars was the most they ever got.
The eight who composed the secret order had a lively time while it lasted. They haunted the Bowery and Chinatown and Coney Island, they saw all the baseball games, they took trips by land and sea, all on the proceeds of their depredations.
Detectives Sullivan and Buddemeyer rounded them up yesterday. All confessed, the detectives said, the younger ones blaming it on their more mature leaders, Harry Walsh, 11, of 597 East 136th Street, and Victor Zajatz, whose span of life has been equally long, of 282 Brook Avenue. Some of the boys were held in the Children’s Society for arraignment in the Children’s Court. They were the lucky ones. The younger offenders were released in the custody of outraged parents.
Forgot Their Secret Oath
Beatrice was their undoing. She recognized some of her assailants as pupils in Public School 9, at 138th Street and Brook Avenue. The boys seized there forgot all about the blood oath when the overwhelming calamity of the law overtook them. They told on the others in Public School 29, at 135th Street and Cypress Avenue. With the round-up the police got possession of the gang’s artillery, an antiquated blunderbuss picked up in a field. The others arrested were Michael Toonkel, 9 years old, 632 East 136th Street; Joseph Curley, 9, 498 East 138th Street; David Silverstein, 10, 515 East 138th Street; Theodore Fino, 11, 142 St. Ann’s Avenue; Eugene Sullivan, 11, 523 East 138th Street.
Among recent victims of the gang, the police said, were the Daniel Reeves grocery store at 139th Street and Alexander Avenue, which lost $100 worth of groceries; Ida Cozzo, 11 years old, from whom the boys tried to take $1 at 138th Street and Brook Avenue, but were interrupted by her valiant brother; Loretta Rooney, 6 years old of 373 East 141st Street, who lost $1.25; Mildred Day, 11, of 245 Brook Avenue, from whom they got 65 cents; Cheap Frank at 145th Street and Willis Avenue, who lost $40 worth of books, toys and pencils; a toy store at 143rd Street and Alexander Avenue, where the loot was worth $25; Cheap Paul at 144th Street and Willis Avenue, robbed of $40 worth of stock; a shoe store at 139th Street and St. Ann’s Avenue, boxes of sneakers; an electric supply store at 140th Street and Brook Avenue, robbed of flashlights, a bicycle store in Brook Avenue, between 138th and 138th Streets, from which sporting goods were stolen.
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