This page was created by Anonymous. 

Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

Frederick Harwell arrested

Sometime during the disorder, Officer Murphy arrested Frederick Harwell, a nineteen-year-old Black man, for allegedly having "Burglarised store during riot," according to the 28th Precinct Police Blotter. There is no evidence identifying the store. Harwell appears in the list of the names of those arrested for burglary in Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Gazette, and in the list in the New York Evening Journal, which added his age and home address. No complainant is recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book. Harwell lived at 2075 8th Avenue, between West 137th and West 138th Street.

Harwell appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, and was held on bail of $1000. When he returned to the court on March 22, the clerk crossed out the charge of burglary in the docket book and wrote "Red[uced] to Pet[it] Larceny," recording a decision the prosecutor would have made, and Magistrate Renaud sent Harwell to the Court of Special Sessions for trial, reducing his bail to $500. The amended charge suggests that police did not have evidence that Harwell had broken into a store, only evidence that he had taken merchandise. However, that trial did not take place. Almost two months later, on May 13, Harwell was released, according to the 28th Precinct Police Blotter. That outcome indicates a lack of evidence against Harwell; commonly that resulted from a failure to locate a witness.

The docket book and newspaper lists record the name as Harwell; the blotter records it as Horwell. Blooter has address at 2578; NYEJ has at 2175

This page has tags:

This page references: