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Thomas Wijstem assaulted & killed
While many of those injured in the disorder suffered head injuries, Wijstem’s injury was one of the most severe, a fractured skull that rendered him unconscious. As a result, he appears in stories of the disorder and lists of the injured in the New York Evening Journal, Daily News, New York American, Home News, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide as a seriously injured "unidentified white man." The New York Post and New York World-Telegram did eventually name him, on March 22, reporting respectively that his neighbors or his brother had identified him. Three months later, a brief story in New York Herald Tribune reported Wijstem had died in Bellevue Hospital without regaining consciousness. However, as the attack on Wijstem led to an arrest and prosecution for assault, he is included among both those assaulted and killed (but not among those injured in assaults).
Like the man he targeted, Cornelius lived in East Harlem, at 52 East 118th Street, a mixed black and Puerto Rican section. He appeared in lists of those arrested for assault in nine newspapers, but only five of those reports link him to the unidentified man with the fractured skull. After appearing in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with felonious assault, he was remanded in custody. He appeared in court again on March 25, when Magistrate Ford dismissed the charge against him as he had been indicted by the grand jury. The 28th Precinct Police blotter simply listed the charges as "Dism[issed]," as it did with other men dismissed in the Magistrates Court so they could be indicted. However, there is no case file for Cornelius in the District Attorney's records, and no other information on the outcome of his prosecution.
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This page references:
- "Transcripts of Police Blotter - Precinct 28, March 19 & 20, 1935," Folder "MCCH - Juvenile Delinquency - 1935-36," Correspondence (Roll 13), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945.
- "Harlem Riot Damage is Figured at Half Million," Afro-American, March 30, 1935, 1, 2.
- "Injured," New York Daily News, March 20, 1935, 3
- “List of Victims," New York Evening Journal, March 20, 1935, 1, 3.
- "List of Dead And Injured In Riot In New York City," Norfolk Journal and Guide, March 30, 1935, 18.
- "Says Economic Conditions in Harlem Are Bad," Atlanta World, March 27, 1935, 1, 2.
- "5 dying and Scores Wounded as Race Riots in Harlem Subside," Home News, March 20, 1935 [clipping]
- "Snipers Fire on Police From Harlem Rooftop," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 20, 1935, 1, 2.
- “Riot’s Casualties," New York American, March 21, 1935, 2.
- C. C. Nicolet, "Deputies Smash Harlem Riot Club," New York Post, March 22, 1935, 1.
- "Riot Link Found in Typewriter," New York World-Telegram, March 22, 1935, 12.
- "2d Harlem Riot Victim Dies," New York Herald Tribune, June 25, 1935, 6.