CRIME: Old Men

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Among 28 paupers in the Wetzel County, W. Va. Infirmary at New Martinsville were Alex Wilson, 75, and Nicholas Barcus, 74, friends since boyhood. Last week Nick was dead of a fractured skull and Alex in jail, charged with murder. Said Alex Wilson: "Nick and me, we never had any trouble. ... It was all over a little argument about Nick locking the door. He came up with a cane and said whoever said he locked the door was a liar. And I shouted back to him that he did lock it. Then he swung his cane at me ... so I swung back. ... I guess I must have hit him on the head. . . ."

> Among the paupers in Westchester County Home near Elmsford, N. Y. were Frederick Rupt, 75, and John Doyle, 70. From their tiny allowances they saved money for a spree, one night last week walked into an Elmsford tavern, split a dozen cans of beer. Near 1 a.m. they were rolling homeward, Frederick Rupt favoring his wooden right leg. They fell afighting and when Frederick Rupt clumped away, John Doyle was lying by the road. Somebody's fist, said a doctor, had fractured his skull, killed him. Frederick Rupt was jailed for manslaughter.