• U.S.

Miscellany, Nov. 26, 1956

3 minute read
TIME

The Outsider. In Toronto, after he threw wads of paper and a lamp globe at passers-by from the window of an office building, set fire one by one to a flock of paper voodoo dolls, then touched off a 820,000 fire in the building. John Martin explained to police: “No one loves me.”

Free Fall. In Santa Ana. Calif., after he and ten other prisoners escaped by way of the jail roof, were captured. James E. Barrett alibied: “There was a hole in the wall and I just fell through.”

The Rough. In Wayne. N.J.. despite his explanation that he was sober and merely lost. Jesse Abraham was jugged on a 30-day drunken driving rap after police found him motoring on the Passaic County golf course.

The Best Defense. In Cleveland, on the day he was supposed to testify at his trial on charges of robbing a grocery, Robert E. Crawford was arrested, charged with stealing three tons of scrap metal from a transit-system yard.

Handicap. In Cincinnati. Mrs. Mabel Russell told the judge she paid Russell E. Thomas $25, plus $425 expenses, for half interest in a horse he described as so fast it “could win on only three legs,” won a $750 default judgment against Thomas on her testimony that in its first race the horse fell down and ran last, would have run last in its second if another horse had not fallen.

For the Road. In Youngstown, Ohio, after being released on $500 bond to await trial for drunken driving. Earle Stone decided to jump bail, bought a bus ticket for Henderson, N.C.. faced his trial when he wandered into a bar to kill time before the bus departed, hoisted too many, got arrested for drunkenness.

Do as I Say. In Portsmouth, England, magistrates granted a license to serve drinks after hours at the annual dinner dance of the Hampshire County Temperance League.

Night to Howl. In Newark, Truck Driver Mrs. Betty Jean Johnson, a 200-pounder, was sentenced to two days in jail for brawling after she brought an alley cat into the El Morocco Bar, shared her drink with it, tussled with other customers who objected when the cat nipped their drinks, justified her behavior by explaining that it was National Cat Week.

Service Exit. In Des Moines, the $52,000 damage suit that Hugh Warren Bascom brought against the Lloyd Hotel and two process servers was dismissed, in spite of his testimony that when he climbed out his third-floor window to avoid the process servers, and started lowering himself down the rope provided by the hotel as a fire escape, the rope broke.

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