[From Det. Henry Ostermann's private notebook, 1922 volume.]
BLACKWELL STRIKE — 18 July 1922. Three dead.
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Called to the scene at 1:47 p.m. On arrival body of Vasko being covered by parish sisters; bodies of the other two still where they fell. Reilly the first beat officer had taken down the positions of the shell casings before anyone trampled them. Reilly's a good cop. He had drawn a sketch.
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Reilly's sketch shows shell casings in a pattern fanning outward from the warehouse doorway across Ironside Lane, not from the picket line. The pattern is unmistakable. I photographed the sketch with my Kodak in my office that evening, then returned the original to Reilly's locker.
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Casings recovered: four .45-caliber Colt automatic pistol, three .38-caliber revolver. At least two shooters. The .45s from the doorway; the .38s probably from a side window on the upper floor of the same warehouse (scratches on the brick sill consistent).
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Warehouse is Cadenza & Sons. Night-watchman was one Herrick, a reliable older man. Herrick was absent from his post at the time of the shooting. He says he was "called away" by a man who appeared at the watchman's entry with what he took for an official Cadenza badge. He cannot describe the man further than "well-dressed, a slight limp in the left leg."
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Limping well-dressed man also seen entering Cadenza's offices at 11 a.m. the same day by a Clarion stringer who happened to be on Ironside on unrelated business. Same man. No name.
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I asked Mr. Brecht, Emil Cadenza's engineer, who had been received in the offices that morning. Brecht said "no one of consequence." Brecht is an unusual man — scrupulous about figures, uncommunicative about people. I do not press Brecht because pressing him would cost me his cooperation on other matters. But I note the answer.
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I went on the 21st to Doyle's. M. (Mrs. Doyle) will never lie to me outright, but she answers only what is asked. I asked if a man with a slight limp had been at her establishment in the preceding week. M. said yes — a man had taken his supper in the back room on the evening of the 17th, alone except for Julian Thorpe, who joined him for a half hour. The man had paid in cash. M. did not know his name. M. also said "he had the manners of a man who knows police, Henry, and not from our side of the desk."
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Pinkerton-type. Strike-breaker. Plainclothes. Colt .45. The pattern is familiar from Pittsburgh, from Homestead-type matters.
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The motive is the straightforward one: to end the strike. The man is paid, fires into a picket, decamps. The local authorities are encouraged to ascribe the gunfire to the picket itself. The public narrative follows.
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On the 22nd Chief Royland called me in. He said the case was to be closed. He said a review of the available evidence had established that the casings could not be conclusively sourced and that the "outside agitator" theory advanced by the Company was consistent with "the preponderance of witness testimony." I asked which witnesses. He said "the witnesses whose testimony is in the file I've reviewed, Henry." He said this without looking at me. I said I understood. He said "we close this."
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I have, not in the official file, kept the following:
- Reilly's original sketch (copy: my Kodak; original: Reilly's locker)
- Herrick's description of the limping man
- Mrs. Doyle's observation re the back room supper of the 17th
- The Cadenza office-clerk's pay-book entry for "I. Prendergast — consulting" of the 28th of July. A friend at the city records office photographed it for me. The entry is for $600 balance due. Prendergast is the name I now attach to the limping man in my mental file.
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I have no means of taking this forward. The Chief will not reopen. The press has published the Clarion piece and been roundly ignored by the respectable reader.
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I keep this in case a time comes when it is wanted.
[notebook ends, 1922 entries.]