Document text
ORIGINAL MSS. OR FIELD NOTES (Check one)
Pup.-.14xlas.laca.LalajlikARA
(Crineeticut)
TITLE Connecticut caselowaker Clifetrirititu.)
WRITER Francis Regren
DATE 12/308'. iirit• Pr. 6
CHECKER
SOURCES GIVEN 01_ Interview
COMMENTS'
"Living Lore" Series
THE LAW
Francis Donovan
Thomaston, Connecticut--
December 30, 1938
There is a flurry of excitement at the Fire House today,
for we are honored with a visit from the Press. A Waterbury
paper has sent cameraman and reporter on some sort of special
mission. Gloom descends in a heavy pall on "our side" however,
when the two men enter the door of the other company. There is
much speculation on the nature of their business, and the
suggestion is facetiously made that Mr. MacCurrie be appointed
a committee of one to investigate and perhaps he will get his
picture taken. To this Mr. Maeurrie retorts indignantly that
he is not a seeker after "notoriety," and never was.
Apparently someone has his picture taken, however, for as
the newspapermen leave, we hear one say, "Thanks for posing."
We decide that they are doing a feature story for the Sunday
paper.
The factories being closed this week, some of the depart-
ment's active members are present at the afternoon sessions.
We have with us Mr. Coburn and Mr. Ryan,. Mr. MacOurrie„;the
only one of the old guard remaining, rinds himself outnumbered,
but guts up a valiant battle to set the conversational pace. He
leads off with the Waterbury scandal: "To my way of thinkin' their
goose is cooked, and they know it. They're beginnin, to be dom
well worried. They've got to convict tem. The temper of the
people is up, and they won't stand for any nonsense. They'll go
to jail, mark my words."
Mr. Ryan: "I was down there yesterday, and I see somethinl
that burned me up. I had my car parked in front of the
Immaculate Conception Church waitin' for my wife, and these two
cops come along, carryint a drunk. This fella was plastered,
there wasn't any doubt about it, but he wasn't given'them any
trouble* except that he was helpless. His feet kept draggint
on the ground, and his head was fallint forward. One of the
cops was ,a sergeant a big red faced bruiser. All of a sudden
he stops* and he doubles up his fist and brings it up from the
ankles. Hits this poor drunk right in the eye. His eye swelled
up so fast you could actually see it. Made me so damn mad I
felt like appearint in court for him, but then I thought, what
the hell's the use. It wouldn't help him any, maybe, and it
would hurt me.
If I had plenty of money I would have taken a
chance, but a.poor man is foolish to get mixed up in anything he
don't have to. Suppose I'd appeared against those cops. They'd
take my marker number and the next time I went to Waterbury,
they'd have MAI, on some fixed up charge."
Mr. MacCurrie: "When I was in the hospital, they brought
in a
Mr. Coburn: "They ain't all bad, the cops ain't. I remember
one time there was an accident up on Plymouth Hill, lad got his
leg broke. He was drivin' an old truck all by himself, and after
the doctor had fixed him up a little, they asked who'd drive him
to Waterbury. So I said I would and Hugh McColl and Jack Shearer
went along with me.
"We got down there all right* but all the way down the lights
IMO
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kept goin' off and the horn would start blowinv. We got the
lad in all right, and we started back, but the lights went off
again. I stopped right up there on Robbins street and.I says by
Jeez I'm gonna fix this thing before we go any farther.
"So we all gets out and I started monkeyint with the wires,
the horn blowint like hell all the time, I figured there was a
short, someplace. But there wasn't any short. While I'm foolin'
with it, somebody in the house across the street opens the window,
and this woman hollers: 'You fellas get right out of there, or
I'll call the police department.' So Hugh says, 'Go right ahead.'
The horn kept on blowint and I kept on tryii, to fix it and
pretty soon the window opens again, and a guy hollers, 'This is
your last chance, now, either get goin, or I'll call the cops.'
Somebody says 'Nuts to you,' but I says what the hell we better
get goin' we don't want to get in no trouble.
"So we go down to the foot of the hill, there's a light by
that rotary down there.
"I goes to work on it again, and the horn still blowin' and
pretty soon we see a squad car come tearin' up the street and
round the corner. It stopped up at the house where we was parked
before and this cop gets out.
"Pretty soon it come down the hill and stopped in front of
us, and these two cops get out and come over. 'What's goin' on,
boys?' says one of them. So I tell them the whole story, beginnin,
with takin' the guy to the hospital. One of them says 1Jeez, the
way that old lady squawked I thought there was an attempted
murder here.' And the other one says, 'Come on with us, we'll
show you where to get that thing fixed.'
So they took us up to Al's Tire Shop, and they worked on
it for six hours. It cost that guy eleven bucks. But what I.
wanted to say was that some of those cops are pretty good lads.'
Mr. MacCurrie: "This lad they brought in while I was down
to the hospital.."
Mr. Ryan: 'Same of them are all right. I never liked that
lad that does traffic duty at the corner of North Main Street,
in Waterbury. They can say what they want, old Jingles Donahue
is about as good as any of them. He was givin, me a ticket one
day, just as I was comint up to get in the car and drive away.
He looks at me and says: 10kay,Bud, you're lucky this time.'
Mr. MacCurrie: "There was a piece in the Express (local
weekly) yesterday, aboot the Waterbury cops pickint on Thomaston
drivers. Says if the same thing happened up here, they'd be
hollerin' aboot the small town coorts,"
Mr. Coburn: "If you know the right people you can get
things fixed up in any court. One time Morton got pinched down
in Nichols for doinl eighty miles an hour. They had about six
charges against him. Well, it happens that Mandy Green's brother-
in-law is a doctor down in Bridgeport and he's a very good friend
of the judge in Nichols. So Mandy wrote his brother-in-law a
letter and asked him to see what he could do. I went down with
Morton the day of the trial, and he was pretty confident that
everything was all set.
"His case was called about fifteenth --it was a heavy docket--
5
and he stepped up with kind of a smile. But his face fell about
a foot when the judge socked a fine and costs on him. We found
out afterwards Green's brother-in-law forgot to do anything.
"The whole thing come to about $23, because they had him on
two or three different counts. He was pretty worried. He went up
to the cop that pinched him and told him he was afraid he'd lose
his license.
talk to him.
The cop says, 'Wait till after court's over and
'So we sat down up in back. The judge spots us and
he says, 'What're you waitin' for?' "So the cop gets up and he
says, 1.Yer honor this man is an automobile dealer and he needs
his driving license to earn a living. He's Afraid he might lose
it.'
"'All right,' says the judge, 'I'll change the charge. But
not the fine.'"
Mr. Ryan: "I guess Morton didn't care so much about the
fine."
Mr. Coburn: "No, all he was thinkin' about was his driver's
license. If they took that away from him he'd be in a bad way."
Mr. MacCurrie: "Morton is a kind of reckless driver. I see
him one time
Mr. Ryan: "He was lucky he kept away from the lawyers anyway.
Young Anderson got pinched in Waterbury for drunk drivinl. He
hired a shyster to get him out of it, but the judge soaked him the
usual hundred and costs. After he passed the sentence, the judge
says in kind of a low voice 'Seventy five dollars remitted.' And
Anderson never heard him. He went up and give the hundred to his
lawyer, and the shyster kept it. Anderson saw in the paper next
morning where 75 dollars had been remitted, but he never went
after it. He said what the hell was the use, the shyster would
just claim it was part of the fee."
Mr. Coburn: It don't pay to have anything to do with those lads
if you can get out of it."
Mr. Ryan looks at the clock: "Well, my kid is coming home
this afternoon and I want to be around when she gets in. I think
I'll be movin' along."
Mr. Coburn: "Wait a minute and I'll walk down with you.
Pretty near my supper time."
They leave Mr. MacCurrie and me together and after they have
gone Mr. MacCurrie remarks: "Great talkers, ain't they?"
"I think I'll take a little walk myself before supper. I've
been slippin' lately, with this cold weather we've been havinl."