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• 1 2021-04-19T19:49:20+00:00 Clifford Mitchell arrested 25 plain 2024-02-10T21:33:48+00:00 At 5:40 PM a day after the disorder, March 21, Detective Mark Redmond arrested Clifford Mitchell, a forty-six-year-old Black laborer, in 363 Lenox Avenue. He allegedly found "wearing apparel" worth "about $20" in Mitchell's possession, goods identified by Louis Levy as having been stolen from his dry goods store at 374 Lenox Avenue. There is no mention in the affidavit of why Redmond went to that address, or why Mitchell was there. Mitchell lived across the street, in an apartment in 362 Lenox Avenue, the building next to the one in which Levy's store was located. It would seem more likely that he was arrested at that address, rather than at 363 Lenox Ave, with the clerk mistakenly recording the building number. The other man charged with looting Levy's store, Daughty Shavos, was arrested at his home ten blocks to the south, at 40 West 119th Street around an hour later by another detective. There was also no mention of how police found him.
  
  
  
  A note on the Magistrate's Court affidavit recorded the value of the goods found on the men as $50; the typewritten narrative on the form noted that the goods found on Mitchell were worth "around $20," so those found on Shavos would have been worth around $30.
  
  Mitchell and Shavos are two of only nine men identified in the sources as having been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, a group making up one third (9 of 27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27 of 60).
  
  Mitchell and Shavos were charged with burglary in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 22, the last individuals arrested during the disorder to be arraigned in that court. The magistrate sent both to the grand jury, which on April 4 dismissed the charges against Mitchell and sent Shavos to the Court of Special Sessions to be charged with a misdemeanor. That outcome indicated that the grand jury had declined to charge Shavos with burglary, a felony, likely because of a lack of evidence he had broken into the store. Given that goods had been found in his possession, the charge against him would have been petit larceny, a misdemeanor, as the goods allegedly found in his possession had a value less than $100. There is no evidence of the outcome of that prosecution. Shavos' criminal record included an arrest as a disorderly person in Jersey City in June 1932, with no recorded disposition, while Mitchell had no record. While his record could conceivably have influenced how Shavos was treated, it would not explain the charges against Mitchell being dismissed. That outcome likely indicated a problem linking the clothing allegedly found with Mitchell either to him or to Levy's store.
  
  The only newspaper coverage of the looting are stories in the Home News, New York Evening Journal, Daily Mirror, and Daily News reporting Mitchell and Shavos' appearance in the Magistrates Court. The stories in the Home News and Daily Mirror identified Levy and the store; the other two stories simply noted that the men had been held for the grand jury.
• 1 2021-04-19T18:25:16+00:00 Louis Levy's dry goods store looted 24 plain 2024-05-31T02:14:43+00:00 Around 11:00 PM, Louis Levy locked up his dry goods store at 374 Lenox Avenue and left for the night, likely going to his home at 636 West 174th Street. When he returned to the store around 3:00 AM, he found the window broken and $10,000 worth of textiles, clothing, and sundries stolen, the store "entirely cleaned out of its stock," according to the Daily Mirror. The owner of the jewelry store next door at 372 Lenox Avenue, Benjamin Zelvin, locked up his store around thirty minutes after Levy, so the store was likely attacked soon after that time. The Magistrates Court affidavit recorded Levy closing the store on March 18, the night before the disorder, and returning on March 22, two days after the disorder. It was likely that those dates are mistakes, and that he closed the store on March 19 and returned in the midst of the disorder, as several storeowners did on hearing what was happening in Harlem. But it was possible that Levy had been away from the store for some reason, as the two men charged with looting his store did not appear in court until March 22, among the last of those arrested to do so. Both Clifford Mitchell, a forty-six-year-old Black laborer, and Daughty Shavos, a twenty-one-year-old Black peddler, had been arrested the previous evening, a day after the disorder, at two different locations, in possession of "wearing apparel" with a combined value of $50 that Levy identified as part of his stock. How police found the men was not mentioned in the sources.
  
  Levy appeared in Harlem Magistrates Court on March 22 to charge Mitchell and Shavos with burglary. The Magistrate sent both men to the grand jury. They dismissed the charges against Mitchell and sent Shavos to the Court of Special Sessions to be charged with a misdemeanor. There was no evidence of the outcome of that case.
  
  
  
  The only mention of the looting in the press were stories in the New York Evening Journal, Daily Mirror, and Daily News that reported the appearance of the two men in the Magistrates Court. The story in the Daily Mirror identified Levy and the store and the value of the goods stolen; the other two stories simply noted that the men had been held for the grand jury.
  
  Despite the scale of the damages claimed, Levy appeared to have continued to operate the dry goods store. In the second half of 1935, a white-owned dry goods store was recorded at 374 Lenox Avenue in the MCCH business survey. "L. Levy" was also visible on the signage for the storefront in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.
• 1 2021-04-19T19:49:35+00:00 Daughty Shavos arrested 15 plain 2024-02-10T21:34:49+00:00 At 7:00 PM a day after the disorder, March 21, Detective Frank McKenna arrested Daughty Shavos, a twenty-one-year-old Black peddler, at his home at 40 West 119th Street. He allegedly found "wearing apparel" in Shavos' possession, goods identified by Louis Levy as having been stolen from his dry goods store at 374 Lenox Avenue. There is no mention in the affidavit of why Detective McKenna went to Shavos' address. He had lived at the address, in an area with a mix of Black and Puerto-Rican residents, for about four months. The other man charged with looting Levy's store, Clifford Mitchell, was arrested just over an hour earlier ten blocks to the north, at 363 Lenox Avenue, across the street from Levy's store (or perhaps the clerk misrecorded the address and Mitchell was in his home, 362 Lenox Avenue, in the building next to the store). There is also no mention of how police found him.
  
  
  
  A note on the Magistrate's Court affidavit recorded the value of the goods found on the men as $50; the typewritten narrative on the form noted that the goods found on Mitchell were worth "around $20," so those found on Shavos would have been worth around $30.
  
  Mitchell and Shavos are two of only nine men identified in the sources as having been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, a group making up one third (9 of 27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27 of 60).
  
  Mitchell and Shavos appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 22, the last individuals arrested during the disorder to be arraigned in that court. The Magistrate sent both to the grand jury, which on April 4 dismissed the charges against Mitchell and sent Shavos to the Court of Special Sessions to be charged with a misdemeanor. There is no evidence of the outcome of that case. There is no difference between the two cases in the district attorney's case file that would explain those different outcomes. Shavos' criminal record included an arrest as a disorderly person in Jersey City in June 1932, with no recorded disposition, while Mitchell had no record. However, while that could conceivably influence how Shavos was treated, it would not explain the charges against Mitchell being dismissed.
  
  The only newspaper coverage of the looting are stories in the Home News, New York Evening Journal, Daily Mirror, and Daily News reporting Mitchell and Shavos' appearance in the Magistrates Court. The stories in the Home News and Daily Mirror identified Levy and the store; the other two stories simply noted that the men had been held for the grand jury.