Strange Times 68: A Shot in the Brain
Today brings bad manners in Detroit, sexism in the fire house, and a chase for a killer on Manhattan’s southern tip. Doff your hat for…
March 9, 1921
Despite the testimony of several eye witnesses, the NYPD announces it is impossible to identify the three policemen accused of hurling potatoes at an East Side restaurant.
After 48 hours of "mad riding," the leaders of the 30th annual six-day bicycle race at Madison Square Garden remain the teams of Oscar Egg and Peter Van Kempen (Switzerland & Holland) and Willie Lorenz and Walter Rutt (Germany).
Although Caruso's condition continues to improve, his physicians warn his friends that it could be quite some time before he recovers his full strength.
The Weather: Cloudy, probably rain today; Thursday, cloudy and colder; fresh south, shifting to northwest winds.
The next time my baby hurls food on the floor or my toddler points his butt at me and says, "This is my butt," I will take solace knowing that even in 1921, children did not respect their parents.
DETROIT, March 8.—Samuel C. Mumford, a member of the Board of Education, will suggest a "better manners" course for pupils in Detroit public schools.
"Detroit needs a 'better manners' campaign," he said today. "Our schools should have 'better manners' classes. We are getting worse each day. Soon we will be a nation of half civilized brutes if we follow today's trend. Such little things as a man failing to remove his hat in an elevator in which are women, or to yield his seat to her in a street car, show the general trend.
"But the thing goes deeper than that. We exhibit a lack of courtesy to women and to men as well in all our relations of daily affairs. The great 'I' is the all-powerful factor. The children of today do not respect their parents. Ample proof of this lies in the fact that many parents come each week to our schools to ask how they can establish control over their children."
I'm pretty numb to the uninterrogated misogyny that runs throughout the 1921 newspaper, but this article—which reports on a nationwide exercise whose sole purpose was to spit on women ushers—made me furious. I will say nothing further, save that J.O. Kostner's initials are quite appropriate, indeed.
CHICAGO, March 8.—Women ushers in theatres lack judgment in times of emergency, and this is not conducive to public safety, according to 85 per cent of the city Fire Marshals of the country, who have replied to a questionnaire sent out by Alderman J.O. Kostner, Chairman of the City Council Buildings Committee.
Not one of the answers favored women as ushers in theatres, the other 15 per cent being indirect.
"Women would not be of any value in case of trouble with a crowd," wrote John McNarrey, the Kansas City Fire Chief. Edward Grenfell of Portland, Ore., answered that "men ushers were safer."
Simon J. Fennnell of Rochester, N.Y., wrote: "I do not think women show as good judgment as men ushers, nor are they as reliable in case of an emergency."
This is a wild, tragic story of a hold-up gone instantly wrong. There's something cinematic about the way that 50 people start chasing the killer, then 100, then 500, then (in his telling) 1,000. Angry mobs just aren't what they used to be.
An unidentified man, well dressed and about 30 years old, shot and killed Morris Bealkin, proprietor of a men's furnishing store at 26 Greenwich Street, late yesterday afternoon, fled from a crowd of 500 or more persons who pursued him, exchanged shots with a policeman, and then, driven to bay in a telephone booth in a Battery Place cigar store, killed himself with a shot in the brain.
The motive for the murder and suicide had not been definitely established by the police last night, but it was believed that Mr. Bealkin's assailant had attempted a robbery and shot the haberdasher when the latter tried to resist him, and had killed himself when he saw that he could not escape. Three cents in money was found in the suicide's possession, and it was the police theory that he was probably trying his first hold-up. A more experienced robber, they explained, would have thrown down his revolver and have thrown up his hands the moment he found himself cornered.
Homegoing crowds that filled Battery Place and the nearby streets were startled to hear two revolver shots just after 5 o'clock. Fifty persons walking south in Greenwich Street saw a young man run from the door of Bealkin's store with a revolver in his hand, and saw the proprietor fall face downward just inside the open doorway.
Led by Joseph Sharp of 78 Grafton Street, Brooklyn, a hundred men started in pursuit of the murderer. This number was augmented fivefold in a few seconds, as the fugitive, hard pressed, turned the corner and darted into a cigar store kept by Solomon Eppstein at 4 Battery Place.
"Hide me," the fugitive begged Eppstein. "A thousand men with guns are chasing me."
"You can't come in here," said Eppstein, as the fugitive attempted to force his way behind a small counter. The latter then turned to a telephone booth and was just about to enter it when the first of his pursuers appeared.
There is a bootblack stand at 2 Battery Place, adjoining Eppstein's cigar store. In the chair, having new laces put in his shoes, was Policeman William Kramer of the Old Slip Station. Standing by him in conversation was Policeman Leo S. Moore of the same station. Both had recently finished a tour of duty and were in civilian clothes.
"What's the matter?" called Kramer, as the chase came around the corner.
"He just shot a man in Greenwich Street," replied Sharp.
The two policemen, drawing their automatic pistols, entered the cigar store ahead of the crowd.
The fugitive fired a shot, which went wild, on their entrance. Kramer returned his fire. The bullet struck the fugitive in the leg, just as he tried to get in the telephone booth, and was embedded in the door.
Bealkin's assailant, who was holding his revolver in his left hand, put the muzzle to his left temple and pressed the trigger, before either of the policemen could reach him. He sank unconscious on the floor of the telephone booth.
Other policemen had in the meantime sent in a call for ambulances. Dr. Harrison took Bealkin to the Broad Street Hospital, where he died about an hour later. Bealkin had been shot twice through the abdomen and either of the wounds wold have proved fatal.
Bealkin's assailant lived for nearly two hours after he had been taken to the Volunteer Hospital, but did not recover consciousness. The police found little to aid in identification. The laundry mark on his linen, "16-X," and the initial "E" on a belt buckle and a woman's handkerchief found in a pocket were the only clues discovered.
The man was about five feet, nine inches in height, 160 pounds in weight, of light complexion and was about 30 years old. He was well dressed and wore a dark suit, a brown ulster and a black velour hat. His finger nails appeared to have been manicured recently and there was a military service button in the lapel of his coat.
Bealkin was married and had three children, two daughters and a son. Mrs. Bealkin had left the store barely half an hour before the shooting. She was unable to identify her husband's assailant and said she did not believe she had ever seen him before.
Mrs. Bealkin said her husband probably did not have more than $50 in the store and that he always carried a gold watch and wore a diamond scarf pin. So far as the police could ascertain, nothing had been stolen.
