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John Henry arrested
Henry and Leacock were two of nine men known to have been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, one third (9 of 27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27 of 60).
Henry lived at 313 West 118th Street, near 8th Avenue. Leacock lived at the opposite end of the same street, at 39 West 118th Street, near 5th Avenue. Henry was one of the youngest people arrested during the disorder; James Hayes was also sixteen years of age (two seventeen-year-old men were also arrested, one of who, Robert Tanner, was the only other identified as a student). There is no indication how the he and Leacock came to be together on March 19.
Zelvin later identified the jewelry found on the men as coming from his store. In the charge against Henry and Leacock the value of the jewelry was initially typed as $100, but then struck out and $75 handwritten in its place. The grand jury reduced the felony burglary charge against the men to a misdemeanor, a decision that likely reflected the lack of evidence that the men had broken into the store that a charge of burglary required. Given that they had been arrested with merchandise in their possession, the grand jury likely charged them with petit larceny; a felony larceny charge was not an option as the jewelry they had allegedly taken was worth less than $100. Zelvin appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 21 to charge one additional man, a thirty-one-year-old Black man named Henry Goodwin, with burglary. That charge was reduced to petit larceny, suggesting he too had only allegedly taken jewelry worth less than $100.
There was no newspaper coverage of the looting; Henry and Leacock appeared only in the most comprehensive lists of those arrested, published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and the New York Evening Journal. The details came from the District Attorney's case file; as the grand jury sent the cases to the Court of Special Sessions, the only information was from the Magistrate Court affidavit. Although arrested together, the men appeared in the Harlem Magistrate Court at different times, Leacock on March 20 with most of those arrested during the disorder, and Henry not until the next day. Despite Patrolman Astel's report that the men had confessed at the time of their arrest, they pled not guilty in court. Both men appeared again on March 22, when the Magistrate sent them to the grand jury charged with burglary. The Home News reported that appearance in court. It was not until April 2 that the grand jury heard their case, sending them to the Court of Special Sessions not the Court of General Sessions. The 28th Precinct Police Blotter recorded that the judges convicted both men. Although they likely were tried and convicted together, Leacock and Henry appeared separately for sentencing. On April 17, Henry was sent to the House of Refuge, a juvenile reformatory on Randalls Island (which would close less than a month later, on May 11). The next day Leacock received a suspended sentence.
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This page references:
- "Transcripts of Police Blotter - Precinct 28, March 19 & 20, 1935," MCCH - Juvenile Delinquency - 1935-36, Departmental Correspondence. Box 34, Folder 1 (Roll 171), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945.
- New York Penal Law, § 404, 407: Burglary in third degree.
- New York Penal Law, § 1298-1299: Petit Larceny
- District Attorney's Closed Case Files, 204032 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives)
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- "Business Men Score "Pampering" of Reds in Protest to Mayor on Riots," Home News, March 22, 1935, 1, 11.