A Little History In and Around Buffalo, NY

  AS PUBLISHED IN THE BUFFALO EVENING NEWS:  MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1926 CONFINED 18 YEARS; NOW ASKS $200,000 North Tonawanda Man Alleges He Was Detained "Unlawfully, Maliciously, Wrongly." Suit to recover $200,000 for damages which he says he suffered by reason of 18 years confinement in the Buffalo State Hospital for the Insane, was begun Saturday by Owen J Doody of 564 Schenk St, North Tonawanda. Complaints in the action have been served.  The complaint alleges that the defendants "willfully, maliciously and wrongfully cause the plaintiff's detention in the Buffalo State hospital for many years, to the plaintiff's damages in the sum of $200,000." The defendants named in the action are not all living. Two of them, Michael Collins and George Fisher, have been dead for more than a year. The others are A F Premus, former city attorney, John F Ryan, a former police chief, William J Nellie, commissioner of charities, the international Railway and New York Central R...

  as published in the Tonawanda News  7 LUCIDOL SUITS WILL BE HEARD IN ONE COURT CASE Legal actions steaming from seven deaths in the Sept. 23, 1953, Lucidol explosion will be tried together, Justice Jogn S. March of Supreme Court ruled in Buffalo yesterday.  Under his ruling, four injury suits, which with the death actions total about $1,250,000, will be heard in a second suit. Four of the original 11 death actions have been settled.  An explosion at the Lucidol plant of Novadel-Agene Corp. in Military Rd., Town of Tonawanda, took 11 lives and inured scores of others.  All the lawsuits are against Buffalo Electric Co. Inc., and Joseph Davis Inc., both of Buffalo. The concerns were doing work at the plant at the time of the explosion.  The trails are expected within the next few months, with the death actions given priority.  Plaintiffs in the seven death actions are: Delores Holzman, 31 Calhorn Pl, Town of Tonawanda, for the estate of Allan T. Holzman...

  as published in the Buffalo Courier-Express SUICIDE THEORY GIVEN; CALABRO BOX MYSIFIES Police learn nationally known racketeers visited Niagara Falls this week  special to Courier-Express Niagara Falls, Dec 12 - Police admitted today they had no progress in their effort to solve the mystery surrounding the finding of a box containing clothing and personal papers of John G Calsbro, 301 Monroe Street, Brooklyn, including a telegram from Al Capone, Chicago racketeer, in an automobile owned by Joseph Duce, 181 Sixteenth Street. They gave some consideration to the theory Calabro may have committed suicide here, because the box is believed by Duce to have been placed in his car while it was parked in Riverway a short distance from the brink of the American Falls. Search of the riverbank revealed nothing to bear out the suicide theory.  Police are still waiting to learn the whereabouts of Calabro. According to press dispatches from New York he is at liberty on bail, pending an...

  as published in the Niagara Falls Gazette CRIMINAL CASES MONDAY Judge Charles Hickey Has Several Cases Ready for Trial.  Lockport, Dec 18 - County Judge Charles Hickey will resume trail of criminal cases on Monday morning with the following calendar marked ready for trail: Michal Ziordello, Lewiston, charged with assault, first degree, for the alleged stabbing of Joseph Mandia, foreman of a section gang working for the Great Gorge railway last summer. Frank J. Clark, Niagara Falls, charged with abandonment.  John Scarpula, proprietor of the Frontier House, Lewiston, charged with operating a disorderly house.  Joseph Yanik, La Salle, criminal assault, second degree, for an alleged offense against a girl under 17 years of age. 

  as published in the Jamestown Evening Jornal STELLA HODGE IS ARRESTED Woman Involved in Andrews Murder Trial a Prisoner.  ON EXCTORTION CHARGE She is accused of Using the Malls To Obtain Money of E.L. Silcox of Philadelphia. Formerly a Private Detective - The Arrest Was Made At Erie Saturday Afternoon By Federal Officers.  Erie, Oct 20 - Charged with using the United States malls to extort and defraud, Stella Hodge, notorious in connection with the case of the murder of Emill Amann in Warren, was arrested here Saturday by Postoffice Inspecter Robert Lewis. It is charged that the woman wrote a threating letter to H.L. Silcox, of Philadelphia, in which she threatened him with death unless he gave her $500. Mrs. Hodge was arraigned before United States Commissioner Harry L. Moore and held under $5,000 bail for a hearing Tuesday afternoon. In default of the bond she was committed to jail. Mrs. Hodge expressed her willingness to waive a hearing and go directly to Philadelphi...

  as published in the New York Times BUFFALO, Sept. 2.- John Kalf, forty-five years old, a patient at the Buffalo State Hospital, died today of strangulation. Kalf became violent, and was placed in a strait-jacket. His struggles in the jacket worked one of the straps tightly about his neck. With his hands strapped to his sides, he as unable to help himself, and strangled.