CRIME: Old Men

  • Share

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.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

SARAH PALIN, writing in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, on the ongoing climate-change conference President Obama is scheduled to attend; Palin came under fire from critics for slamming the long-awaited conference that many hope brings global-warming action
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.