HOODLUM
It didn't take long after dad's release from military parole on October 3, 1950 for him to get back into trouble. As the newspaper records in this path show (from the Paterson Evening News, I suspect), he and a partner in crime named Arnold De Marzio were arrested for
a nocturnal burglary "bender"
that took place on November 1, 1950 in Totowa and Little Falls, NJ. So he lasted all of twenty-eight days before succumbing to the urge to steal, destroy, and otherwise disrespect authority.
They broke into (or attempted to) Passaic Valley High School, Alfano's refreshment stand, a bowling alley on Main Street in Little Falls, Lackawana Railroad Station, a gas station on Route 6, and the office of Hennie Coal Company.
Their loot in two places included candy and cigarettes
some said, or
cigarettes, cigars, candy and cameras
and they did
several hundred dollars damage to equipment and vending machines
and although they only got about $80 in cash from all their efforts, they eventually confessed when the police suggested that their fingerprints were found on the safe at Passaic Valley High School. Some reports say "De Marzio broke down" upon this news, while others say "the youths" broke down. I can picture my dad being tight-lipped, not wanting to crack. That's how I want to see him, and I bet that's the way he wanted to see himself.
De Marzio got out on $1000 bail after the arrest. My dad's was set at $2500 according to one article, and the court usually only requires 10% of the bail to be posted for release. So my dad stayed in the County Jail because he couldn't raise $250.
Did my grandma refuse? Could none of his friends gather the money? Had everyone given up on him? I wouldn't blame them if they did. I would have. He'd probably given up on himself, too.
My dad pleaded no defense, while De Marzio pleaded not guilty. At his January 8 trial with Passaic County Judge Alexander M. MacLeod he pleaded non vult (no contest), and on January 12, 1951 was sentenced to Annandale Reformatory for Boys.
He escaped dramatically (I couldn't track down the date), and was recaptured anticlimactically. Then, under circumstances I can't quite sleuth out (see The State vs. Thomas Wingate), he went free just long enough to get into sufficient trouble to enter the adult population of the New Jersey prison system in 1952, where he stayed until 1956.
What would I say to him now about it? "You reap what you sow, Daddy-O."
P.S.: It took me a long time to notice this, but his burglary-fest came almost exactly a year to the day after his refusal to put on his Army uniform. Was there something about Halloween that made him want to go howl at the moon and destroy whatever semblance of order and structure he had in his life?
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