Document text
i 'I'll: k.c.,
c me
-.ohc:rd Tit h. a vL,..Isit fre'm the Press
Francis Donovac,,
Thomaston, Conn.
Frid3,y,Dec. 30,'33
Tiere.: is a f1,77----7 fe;:citement at th Fire House tor7ay,fo-
'Tate rbury paper has /fent
,n and reporter on 90me sort of special mission. Gloo /descends
n a he i,vy pall on "our side" howev-r,w1v n the two men ente
the door
of tier company. There is much spec ul stiola on the ture of their
'lid onsimembilax. the sLE ge,!.-'-.i on is f ace tiousl th'-.t Mr.
Ifacflurr: ap-oi..nted a committe.- of OT. -P to iD itli ,:s t •'ate and perhaps
he will p:et hie picturE--' taen. To this Mr. MacCur ie retorts indignantly
191111111.x that he is not a seeker after "notoor_,Set ,and never was.
L.-:.,ri,ntly someone has his piCtL)).re t:-) ni1:-Icygever, for as the
newsp-.prmen leave ,we hear one say, Th9L....)1 fcr posing." le decide
th at they It are doing a feature story r t'ae Sunday paper.
The factor ie s bein6 closel„ 44-,
J.... i .--reek •ieof the department's
atve members 'ILI" e present It the fternoon sessions. le have with us
M -r. Coburn and Mr. 'Ryan. Mr. !....____,Curr 1 the only one of the old
,uard remai_ninE, f Inds himself utnumbered, b-Lut puts up valiant, battle
to set the cs,onvensational ace. Me leads o,ff with the Itaterbury scandal:
("To my way of think their ;.rose is- cooked and thy know it. They' --e
'F,Innin' to be don '-r 1 -,vorrit-17„. 'ILije--i' ye 6ot to convict eta. The
temper of t:.Le r pie is up zoownrawil&K a nd they won' t stand for any
/4
c'--) n nnsense. ,2•0 to 4011110ir j' 11. Mark. my "7 or', a.
CivIr. yan: I '719.S1. a 0Ill tre yestera-y 3\ jad I see somethin' that
10 un-' e d me u. I my car parlc.ed in front of the Immaculate Conception
wa tin' for my ”,Tife,and these two cops come along,lwar car ryin' 'a
1 riAllr... This fella was plastered,t '2Bre w Ti,s n' t any do- f'ot about it,but
s he !Tasn' t sionow gi-lin' them any t ro uble,except t'aat he was
head 71%8
b. less. I--lis feet kept dr-IFn' on the gr ound, and his
It x
W 150(35
-2
fall in forward. One of t(le cons was a sergeant- 9. big red faced bruiser.
11 of a sudl en he stops, -,nd he doull '..1p his f ist an brings it Lap from
he ankles. Hits this poor Aillskosar.. druak right in the eye. His eye
syel led up so fast you c and actu- lly s e e it. Made me so damn mad I
felt like annear int U in court for him, but then
thought, -hat the s the use. It No.) 11 n t help him any,maybe, and it
would hirt me. If I had plenty of money I would hate taken a chance, but
a poor man is foolish to get mixed up in anything he don' t hate to.
ij-c-)ose I'd apreared against those cops.
and the next time I went to lfa.terbury, they'd have me on some MOW fixed
up charge.
Mr. MacCurrie: "Then I was in the hovitsj, they brought in a lad---"
Mr. Coburn: "They ain't, all bad,the cops al t. I remember on tire there
accident up on Plymouth Hi11,19.d gq_t hts leg broke. He wa s drivinl
as an
,n truck all by himself and af jar the doct or had fixed him up a little,
t y asked who' d drive him to laterbury. S()) I said I would and Hugh McColl
n d Jack Sa earer went along with me.
"Ile got down there all right,but l the way down the lights kept
go in' of a and the horn would sitatimisilliva=colsulloc start blow in' got the
1 ad in all right and we. started Tuacit,l-Aut the lights went of again.
jgollipt I stopped right up there on Robbin s street and I says by Jeez I'm
gonna, fix this thing before we go Y f art her.
"SO we all gets out and I started mmke.„3,1n1 with the wires the WierrA.
horn blowin' like hell all the time,I ficpr ed there was a short, sornepla9e.
13u t there w5flt any short. '"fa ile I'm fo with it, somebody in the
house acro5s. the street opens the window,d this wanan hollers:
You fellas get right out of there or c all the police department.
So Hugh says,' Go right ahead. T he h.or n kept on blowinl and I
kept on tryint to fix it and pretty so on t 'rae window opens again, and
y' d take my marker number
looke at
-3_
guy hollers,'This is your la _pt ce,nowyeither get goin' or
I'll call the cos.' Somebody says 17-4-----411111MIIIIX Nuts to you,' but
MUK says what th hell we better EID t gain' we don't want to get in
no t rouble.
"So we go down to the foot of the hillyt here' s a light by that rotary
d own there.
"I Foes to work on it agal. n, a rid the k mac( horn 8+,111 blowin' and
pretty soon we see a slilad car come tearin' AK u p the street and round
the corner. It stopped up it the house where we was parked before and
this alIK cop gets out.
"Pretty soon it come down the hill lad stopped in front of us, and
ONO these two cops get out and c ome 0 that' s go in' on, boys?'
sa ye one of them. So I tell them the whole story ,beginnini with
th- pleftx guy to the hospit-1. 04k_ne of them says 1J eez the
y that old lady squawked I thourht thk.,re wa, j an attempted murder
here. :1-.r1 the other one giffixawodialitsrms -IOW says,' Come on with us,
we'll show you where to get that thing f Ixed.
So they to^k us up to s Tire Shop, and they worked on it for
s ix hours. It cost that guy eleven bucks. But what I wanted to say was
that some of those cops are pretty good lad s
2mr. MacCurrie: "This lad imontiom they brought in while I was
down to the hospital
Mr. Ryan: Some of them are all right.
th a t does traffic duty at the corMr of North Main street, in laterbury.
The y can say what they want, old J Ingle smillailMinimi( Donahue is about
He wa„,s givLp' me a t icket one day, just
up to get in ca__T and drive away. He
as good as
any them.
thJ as I was comin' AIM
Okay, B ud you' re 1 uc Ucy this time.
I never liked that lad
me
and says:
the judge in Nichols.
asked him to ser what;he coul a do
down with Morton the day of the tom trial tand he was
that everything was a,11 sej,.
called about fifteenttr- as a heavy docket- -and
fan e fell about a foot
Am*,
letter and
I went
confid ent
'His Cas(--,
W9,8
of a smile
:Rut hj.13
-4-
M r. Mac Currie "There waa a piece in the Express (local weekly)
y esterday,abOot, the Iraterbury cops pic kk_ja' on Thomaston drivers.
ys if the same thing happened kiniiierx up here, they' d be hollerinl
a, boot the small town coorts.
C. Mr. Coburn: "If vu know the right), pecuple you can get things fixed
One time Morton got Tu, ire tied down in Nichols for
against
up in
d oin'
him. 'Tell, it ha.npens that MIIIIIIPgibc dy Gr eenl brother in
doctor down in Bridgenort ariliakftheidurst x he's a very good
So Mandy 1411krffloshilmic wrote his brother in law a
any court.
eighty miles an hour. They haL.A at./bout It six charges
law is
friend
of
pretty
on him. lie found out
The whole thing C0171,3 to liwomilitcarra bec aU se they had him
on two or three different co'Ints. waL, pretty worried. He went
up to t. -e cop that pinc bed him and told him he as afraid he' d
lose his lialiex license. The cop says
court's over and talk to him. we
judge spots us and he says, 11+.tjx:e
"So the cop g -ts up and he saors,'Yer
Nytomohile dealer and needs his dr iving license to earn a livin
He's 31wie afraid he might lose it.
All right,' says the judge,' I'll c the charge. But mow not
the fine.
Mr. Ryan: "I guess Morton didn't r e so much. abo
tepped up 77ith. kind
when the judge socked. a fine d costs
afterwards Green's brother in law forgo t to do anything.
about 123,
11.1111111W Itait till after
t down up in back. The
y cu waitin' for?'
tk..ctior this man is an
t the fine."
Mr. Coburn: "No0.11 he W`32 thinkini a bcyut was his driver's license.
-5
If they took that away from him he'd be in a bg, d vay"
Mr .MacCurr ie 41Morton is a kind of recklejs driver. I see him one
time.
11
Mr. Ryan: "He was lucky he kept, away from the liapine lawyers
anyway. Young lnderson got pinched 1 n t r'.-)ury for drunk drivin'.
He h-l.r•-d a shyster to get him out rf it 1-1.1t, the judge soaked him.
the usual hundred and costs. After he ics sed the sentence, the judge
says in kind of a low voice 3,,e.venty five dollars remitted. And
Anderson never heard, him He went up arid, give the hundrF.d to his
1-,.wyer, and th shyster 7.7.ep- it. %a derson saw in the paper n,,';xt morning
-,7h-Te 77-7 loll. ars had be -n re,mitte d, 'hut he never went', after it. He
said what the hell was the us, e, the 5.i,hyster would just claim
it was part o't.e fee.
Mr. Coburn: It don' t pay to have .3t.}1yhing to 1 o with those lads
if you c,,.n set. out o it.
Mr Ryan looks at the clock: "'Tell ,my kid is coming home this
at ternoon and I -ant to be -r ound wh o n gets in. I think be
movin' along.
Mr. Coburn "Tait a minute n 11 wlk down with you. Pretty
near my sunrer time. n
They leave Mr MacCurri- and me toae V.k.jer and ,Iter they have gone
Mr.K.acCu-r ie remarks °Great takers, t
"I think I' 11 take a littl„e walk mys elf before supper. I've 13, -;en
lip in` lately,with this cold weather weve be. -.n hav in'