National Affairs: Americana

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¶In less than seven hours of Spillane-like night duty, Manhattan Detective Walter C. Bentley 1) was attacked by an assault suspect, who slugged him with a 5-ft. iron pipe, 2) carefully shot his attacker in the right knee with his service revolver, 3) took his prisoner to the station house and was then treated at St. Luke's Hospital for bruises of both shoulders, 4) reported back to duty, 5) jumped into the Hudson River in near-freezing temperature and rescued a drowning man, 6) retired to a hospital again to have a gash in his leg stitched up, and 7) was put to bed and treated for chills, submersion and shock. Shrugged he, in character: "It's all in a day's work."

¶The federal alcohol tax unit arrested the chief of Charleston (S.C.) County's police and eight of his cops, charged them with convoying moonshine for friendly bootleggers, and engaging in the whole, sale sale of illicit whiskey themselves.

¶Indiana's house of representatives voted down a bill to legalize the arrests of automobile speeders trapped by radar; legislators argued that the radar clocking device, which Indianapolis has been using for over a year, violates fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and would make a "police state" of Indiana.

¶When a Honolulu jury was unable to settle a narcotics case during its first day of deliberation, Federal Judge J. Frank McLaughlin was forced to declare a mistrial—hotels were so jammed with tourists that court attaches could find no place to house the jurors overnight.

¶Connecticut's supreme court ruled that James Garrett Plunkett, 49, who killed his wealthy wife during a quarrel in 1949, may legally inherit her estate. Under state law, a convicted murderer is prohibited from inheriting a victim's valuables, but Plunkett was convicted of the lesser crime of manslaughter. Since he is serving a term of only five to eight years, he may be released from prison by 1956; as his wife's sole beneficiary, he stands to receive $279,888.