Brooklyn Boro

September 28: ON THIS DAY in 1948, U.S. aims to prosecute Soviet spies

September 28, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Washington, Sept. 28 (U.P.) — House spy investigators said today they may add two more names to the list of four persons they want prosecuted for trying to steal U.S. atomic secrets for Russia. They are Arthur Adams, mysterious Soviet super-spy and old-time revolutionary, and a scientist identified only as ‘X.’ Both were mentioned prominently in the espionage report of the House Un-American Activities Committee released last night … The committee’s list already contains the names of two atomic scientists, the former wife of one of them and the Communist Party functionary who received the formula from ‘X.’ They are: Clarence Francis Hiskey, 36-year-old chemistry professor at Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, who worked on wartime atomic research at Columbia and Chicago Universities; Marcia Sand, Hiskey’s former wife, who allegedly helped him arrange contracts with Adams; John Hitchcock Chapin, 35-year-old chemist who allegedly associated with Hiskey in atomic research at Columbia and Chicago and is now employed in a Newark brewery; Steve Nelson, chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Communist Party.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1848, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Committee having in charge the duty of furnishing the new Common Council chamber have acted quite consistent with “refugee” character. They have gone over to New York and ordered their chairs and desks instead of giving the work to our own citizens, and that, too, at prices much above those which are current in this city. The chairs have already been brought into use and we see that the bill was passed at the late meeting, by which it appears the 25 chairs cost $250 or $10 apiece exclusive the castors for which there is a separate bill of $7. The same article could have been obtained in this city for $6 or $8, but it seems that, in the opinion of our New York aldermen, gold is not gold unless it has the guinea stamp. We hope that the people will see to it next spring, that they elect Brooklyn men. It is this everlasting New York toadyism which keeps Brooklyn in the shade, and makes it only a wing of our overgrown neighbor.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1888, the Eagle reported, “Has a Whitechapel Murderer Confessed. — London, Sept. 27. A man giving his name as John Fitzgerald has voluntarily confessed the murder of Chapman. He has been detained. Later information is to the effect that the victim of the murder to which Fitzgerald confesses is Annie Chapman, the fourth woman murdered at Whitechapel, instead of the sailor Chapman on the steamer Erie.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1921, an Eagle editorial stated, “Ever since the days of Karl Marx, socialism has enjoyed the nebulous advantage of being an untried panacea for social ills. Until the Bolshevist revolution in Russia, socialists everywhere had nothing to do but find fault with governments and make claims as to what socialism would do if given a chance. Lenin’s great contribution to socialism has been in the form of a horrible example. If communism is socialism, the case for socialism has flown out the window.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “Despite a last-minute move by a belligerent group of common stockholders, security holders of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation today voted approval of the transfer of the line’s properties to the city for $175 million. This further step in the plan of unification was taken at a special stockholders’ meeting held in the B.M.T. offices at 385 Flatbush Ave. Extension. The vote was 676,157 for and 7,261 against the plan … The twice-adjourned meeting developed into a stormy session when a minority of the common stockholders charged the executives with high-handedness and railroading through the plan without setting a minimum price to be paid them.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “Hollywood, Sept. 28 (U.P.) — Lights blazed into the small hours today at Angelus Temple, where the followers of the Four Square Gospel prayed for Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s return to life. At Oakland, Alameda County Coroner Mark L. Emerson ordered an autopsy on the body of Mrs. McPherson after a half-used bottle of sleeping tablets was found near the bed in her room at an Oakland hotel where she died. Mrs. McPherson’s son entered her bedroom shortly before her death and found her nearly unconscious, gasping for breath. He summoned doctors, who called for the fire department inhalator squad. She was dead before the equipment could be used. As the hours passed and emotionalism gripped the flock of perhaps the most spectacular evangelist of modern times, elderly women walked to the pulpit on their knees. ‘Oh lord, please send Sister Aimee back to us,’ they prayed.”

 

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment