This page was created by Anonymous.
Public Hearings - Riot (May 1935), 32-33, Subject Files, Box 410, Folder 7 (Roll 195), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
1 2023-06-21T01:48:07+00:00 Anonymous 1 3 plain 2024-01-30T23:25:12+00:00 AnonymousThis page is referenced by:
-
1
2023-06-14T14:50:23+00:00
The MCCH investigation of the shooting of Lloyd Hobbs continues
106
plain
2024-02-02T22:08:14+00:00
James Tartar, the MCCH's investigator, described two charges as the focus of the MCCH's effort to "get the facts" about the shooting:
Although Hays expected all three police witnesses to answer those charges on April 20, only Patrolman Watterson and Detective O'Brien testified. While no explanation was offered at the hearing for Patrolman McInerney's absence, Tartar recorded that the officer had been "granted a sick leave." Hays required that he be at the next hearing as his absence “gave the public a bad impression,” according to the Home News, but his leave extended until at least June 7, after the subcommittee final hearing, so he never testified publicly. The testimony of his partner, Patrolman Watterson, did not entirely answer the first charge about which the MCCH sought facts. He had not left the patrol car. While he had seen a man come out of the automobile store window with items in his hand, he could not identify him as Hobbs. McInerney told him it was Hobbs. Watterson heard his partner call out to the men outside the store to stop, but did not see what happened after that. He was reversing the patrol car to follow McInerney and the men as they ran north on 7th Avenue. He turned the car into 128th Street, and then saw his partner standing over Hobbs and a horn and socket set on the ground next to the boy. Contradicting the police reports, he testified that objects were not thrown at him and McInerney until after his partner shot the boy, when a crowd began to gather. Watterson then grabbed his rifle, leveled it at the crowd and told them to come no further while McInerney loaded Hobbs into the patrol car.1. Patrolman John F. McInerney deliberately shot Lloyd Hobbs without provocation
2. That Lloyd Hobbs was charged with burglary in order to justify the policeman's claim that he was forced to shoot in order to effect an arrest
Watterson's testimony was cut short when Hays took exception to heckling from an audience member, who had called out, "Will the dog bark a little louder, please?” Hays had warned, in his letter to Dodge after the grand jury's decision, that, "One of the most ominous features which emerges from the evidence we have taken appears to be a lack of confidence the people of Harlem have in the police, and their feeling that Negroes cannot expect justice." The heckling, hissing, and booing with which the audience reacted to the police witnesses that appeared in public hearings as the MCCH investigation of the killing continued bore out that warning.
While Watterson did not return to the stand after Hays adjourned the hearing to regain order, Detective O'Brien later appeared to testify about his investigation of the shooting of Hobbs. He was questioned about the items that Hobbs had allegedly stolen, which were not recorded in the police blotter or the report sent from the 28th Precinct to Commissioner Valentine that Tartar had obtained. O'Brien testified that while McInerey mentioned the stolen items when they spoke at the hospital immediately after Hobbs was shot, he did not actually see them until the patrolman brought them to the District Attorney's office on April 1. ILD lawyers questioning the detective seized on that twelve-day interval to suggest McInerney could have obtained the horn and socket set after he shot the boy to justify his actions. Hays asked for the items to be fingerprinted to see if Hobbs had actually touched them.
After the hearing, Tartar made further attempts to identify eyewitnesses and "to get information concerning the whereabouts of the stolen items." An interview with ADA Price confirmed that McInerney brought the horn and socket set to the DA's office on April 1st, while a visit to the property clerk's office at police headquarters revealed that those items were not delivered there until April 8, 1935. That meant that the patrolman had those items in his possession for nineteen days after the shooting. Hays questioned O'Brien about that information at the subcommittee's final hearing on May 18, to which the detective brought the horn and socket set. O'Brien said he did not know when they had been turned in, but countered that they were described in the arrest record. As Tartar later explained to E. Franklin Frazier, who led the MCCH's research, the arrest record was a book containing a form that was filled in as the next record keeping step after a summary was entered into the police blotter, the record the MCCH investigator had seen. O'Brien had made no mention of the arrest record in his previous testimony or the reports he filed as part of his investigation. He also testified that no fingerprints had been found on the items — or more precisely, that only smudges had been found.
Three additional eyewitnesses also testified in the MCCH hearing on May 18. Tartar reported that they had been found as a result of a survey of the neighborhood, implying that he had found them. However, at the hearing, Clarence Wilson testified that he had obtained the addresses of two witnesses from Lawyer Hobbs. One, John Bennett, did not respond when called on, but Wilson encountered another man who was an eyewitness, Marshall Pfifer, when looking for Joseph Hughes, the second witness. Hughes was too sick to attend the hearing, so Wilson recounted what he had seen. Warren Wright, the third man, provided no details of how he had been found. All three men told the same story as Malloy, Moore, and Pitts had in the earlier hearing: Hobbs was not carrying anything and McInerney had not called out for him to stop before shooting him. Wright and Hughes saw those events from different perspectives than the earlier witnesses: Wright was at the entrance to the apartments above 2150 7th Avenue, south of the automobile supply store, while Hughes was in 201 West 128th Street, toward which Hobbs was running when McInerney shot him. (Pfifer was on the same corner across 128th Street from the store as Malloy, Moore and Pitts, and, like the later man, had been there since around 10:00 PM.) Around April 20, Tartar also interviewed the owners of the businesses on the same block as the automobile supply store, to obtain information on when their windows were broken and what losses they suffered, providing some support for the testimony that the automobile supply store's windows were broken before Hobbs arrived offered by Pfifer, as well as Malloy and Moore.
The audience for the results of the MCCCH's continued investigation was clearly not simply the public. Hays informed the hearing on May 18 that Commissioner Valentine had told him the police department was still investigating the case, a reference to exchange of letters between the men on May 2 and May 3. Hays' letter made clear that even before the new witnesses testified, he felt that the "large number of witnesses" who had testified proved that Hobbs had not been looting notwithstanding the grand jury's response to their evidence. During the hearing, Williams raised that efforts were being made "to get this case to go to the Grand Jury" again, which likely included ILD lawyers. Hays responded that the case was "now being taken up with the District Attorney." -
1
2022-06-25T16:41:49+00:00
10:00 PM to 10:30 PM
37
plain
2024-05-29T15:38:53+00:00
Around 10:00 PM, violence away from 125th Street intensified. That change marked a shift in the disorder from a protest focused on the Kress store to a broader attack on Harlem’s white businesses and white men and women on the streets. The correspondent for the Afro-American and other journalists on 125th Street noticed what he described as a change to “promiscuous stoning and destruction of property” although they appear to have remained with police in the vicinity of the Kress store. The spreading violence also attracted the attention of the residents of the neighborhood, with some gathering on 7th Avenue to see what was happening.
While some of those in the crowds unable to get near the Kress store had been moving south on 7th Avenue since around 8:30PM, it was not until 10:00 PM that violence was reported below 125th Street. Some of that violence targeted police. Patrolman Charles Robbins, a crew member of one of the emergency trucks that served as the Police Department’s riot squad, was hit over the head with an iron bar in the vicinity of 124th Street by someone who police did not apprehend. Those circumstances indicated considerable disorder in the area despite the presence of police. Somehow Robbins must have ended up in the midst of the people on the sidewalks and in the street, as he was hit by someone rather than by an object thrown from a distance, as Detective Roge had been minutes earlier at the other end of the block. Police must have been outnumbered and not in control of the area to be unable to identify and arrest the person who hit the patrolman. It may have been during these clashes between police and some of those on the streets that Joseph Sarnelli was attacked while closing his barber shop in the Hotel Theresa, which spanned the block of 7th Avenue between 125th and 124th Streets. Three Black men smashed their way into the business, he alleged, and demanded his razors. As Sarnelli struggled with the men, Patrolman Thomas Jordan came to his aid. While he was able to prevent the attempted robbery, the officer failed to arrest any of the men. The struggles of police to control crowds outside the barber shop made this a possible time for robbery of Sarnelli, which was otherwise difficult to reconcile with the large number of police in the area. It could have happened earlier while crowds at 125th and 7th Avenue were at their height, although they were focused on police. The direct confrontations with store owners involved in a robbery were rare during the disorder, but could be examples of those willing to break the law taking advantage of the disorder.
If police were not in control of the area around 124th Street, officers had yet to be deployed further south around 121st Street where one or more Black individuals allegedly attacked another white man, thirty-four-year-old Anthony Cados. He reported the assault only to the ambulance doctor called to treat him for cuts to his head. Cados lived a little over ten blocks to the south, so was likely walking somewhere on the street or perhaps coming from work at a business that had recently closed. Those who targeted him were echoing the attacks on white men encountered on the street on 125th Street and in the blocks of 7th Avenue to its north. With groups only beginning to move from 125th Street, white residents and visitors were still likely unaware of the disorder and the danger it could pose to them. Edward Genest, a white sailor likely visiting the neighborhood, may also have been assaulted around this time. He was stabbed, allegedly by Black assailants, closer to 125th Street, at 7th Avenue and 123rd Street. Stabbing, typical at other times, was unusual during the disorder, when most assaults involved throwing objects or beatings. Whenever the assault occurred, no police were present to intervene or arrest whoever targeted the sailor. Groups moving down 7th Avenue likely also broke windows at this time. Channing Tobias, back at his home at 203 West 122nd Street, just off 7th Avenue, after being on 125th Street, heard “the real smash” of windows begin after 10:00 PM. Just which businesses were damaged was not reported.
Another attack on a white man encountered on the street occurred on 7th Avenue north of 125th Street around the same time. Forty-four-year-old George Anton suffered cuts on his hands, head, and knees at the hands of several allegedly Black assailants on the block between 126th and 127th Streets. Like Genest, he had come from outside Harlem, either to visit or to work. Police were beginning to be deployed in this area at the time of the attack but were not close enough to intervene or for Anton to report the assault. Again, only hospital staff who treated him recorded the attack.
Increasing numbers of residents began to appear on the street in response to noise of the crowds and breaking glass as well as the spread of news about events on 125th Street. Not everyone who became aware of the disorder was moved to investigate. “The real smash” of windows Channing Tobias heard begin after 10:00 PM did not cause him to venture back to the street, perhaps because he already knew the cause. Mary Hobbs, whose sons Lloyd and Russell had walked through the crowds and passed damaged windows to go to a show at the Apollo Theatre at 7:30 PM, heard about the “riot” at her home on St. Nicholas Avenue and 126th Street around 10:00 PM. Although she “got all excited,” Hobbs decided it was a “fake.” Samuel Pitts, however, decided to “go and see what it’s all about.” His wife had woken him at 10:00 PM to tell him “she heard that a kid was killed in Kress store.” He went to the western corner of 7th Avenue and 128th Street to investigate. There he joined others standing on the wide sidewalk and sometimes in the street watching the crowds and police and “talking about the riot.” Pitts remained at the corner for around two hours. Marshall Pfifer arrived on the corner across 7th Avenue opposite Pitts, having come from his home to the east on 128th Street around the same time. A crowd of spectators gathered there too. Pfifer would watch events on the avenue for even longer than Pitts, not leaving until 2:30 AM.
As Pitts, Pfifer, and the other spectators arriving on 7th Avenue watched, more windows were broken in Lazar’s cigar store and Alfonso Principe’s saloon in the block between 127th and 128th Streets. Spectators would also have seen more police deployed from 125th Street arriving and driving by in radio cars. Residents watching events added to the complexity of the disorder. Not only did their presence make it difficult to assess how many people participated in the violence, they also contributed to the fluidity of that violence. Watching provided the opportunity to participate. A change from breaking windows to taking merchandise from those windows was likely fueled in part by spectators who decided to act. Leroy Gillard, a forty-six-year-old unemployed Black man, may have been one such resident. He lived on 128th Street just off 7th Avenue so may have been drawn to the street as Pitts and Pfiffer had been. Gillard would have been familiar with the tailor’s shop behind the building that faced 7th Avenue, across 128th Street from where Pitts stood. While staff remained in the businesses in the block of 7th Avenue to the south whose windows had been broken, the owner of the tailor's shop, Morris Sankin, had closed his business at 9:00 PM and left for his home in the Bronx. Likely because he was not there, when a group of people broke the store windows at 10:10 PM, several people went into the store. Gillard was allegedly among them, taking two suits of clothing, items of which he was likely in need. Patrolman Irwin Young saw that happen and arrested Gillard. Police must have only recently arrived at the intersection from 125th Street as the arrest was the first this far north on the west side of 7th Avenue. It was not, however, the patrolman’s first arrest of the evening. Young had arrested Harry Gordon on 125th Street four hours earlier. Further south, in the block north of 125th Street, where Max Greenwald had given up moving merchandise out of his window displays when repeated attacks left him exposed to being hit by rocks and stones being thrown at the store, it would have become possible for individuals to enter the store and begin to take the “about twenty suiting lengths of woolens” that Greenwald reported he lost.
What was happening on 8th Avenue to the west was less clear. Narrower and with the elevated railroad line looming over it, the street was not a major thoroughfare like 7th Avenue and was near the boundary of the area of Black population, so would have been accessible to Black residents. On the other hand, white-owned businesses predominated to a greater degree than on 7th Avenue. The groups of people that James Hughes had passed around 9:30 PM moving up the avenue from 125th Street breaking windows likely continued north but there are no reported incidents to confirm that. The broadening shift to a more general attack on white businesses and individuals on the street saw groups also moving south with similar results. Andy's Florist on the southeast corner of 125th Street, the Arrow Sales 5 & 10c store at 2318 8th Avenue, and vacant storefronts at 2314 8th Avenue, 2320 8th Avenue, and 2324 8th Avenue all likely had windows broken around this time. There were now sufficient police on 125th Street to respond to those attacks, making it likely that it was around this time that Officer St. Louis of the 28th Precinct arrested Viola Woods, a twenty-eight-year-old Black woman, for allegedly smashing the window of a vacant store at 2314 8th Avenue with an umbrella. Her arrest also indicated that women remained a prominent part of the crowds around 125th Street even as observers associated the increasing violence with men. Woods, however, proved not to be involved in the damage to the store. The charge against her was later reduced to disorderly conduct, placing her in the crowd near the store, and then dismissed by the magistrate, leaving Woods as simply a bystander mistakenly arrested by police.