Edwin
Thomas Mills


 

EDWIN THOMAS MILLS was born in Ossining, New York on April 13, 1891 to Jacob and Katie Mills. His father was a shoemaker. When the census was taken in 1900 the family, which included a younger brother, lived on North Highland Avenue in Ossining. The Mills family was still on North Highland Avenue in Ossining as late as 1910. Edwin Mills was by then working as a driver for an express company.

Edwin Mills had moved to Camden by 1914. He was then working as a driver and living at 2614 Federal Street. When he registered for the draft in June of 1917 he had married. He was at that time working at the Keystone Leather Company plant at 16th and Mickle Streets. By 1919 he had taken another job as a machinist at one of Camden's shipyards. Edwin and Eulalia Mills were still living at 2614 Federal Street as late as 1920.

By 1924 Edwin Mills had joined the Camden Police Department. 2614 Federal Street was by this time the location of the East End Trust Bank. Edwin and Eulalia Mills had moved to 2214 Federal Street when the 1924 City Directory was compiled.  By 1929 he had moved to 240 Eutaw Avenue. Edwin T. Mills had been promoted to Detective by February of 1933. 

Edwin T. Mills was traveling in a police radio car with detective George Zeitz when a bus collided with their vehicle on March 16, 1943 at Broadway and Mickle Street. Both officers were injured.

On June 9, 1944 Detective Mills was granted a disability pension by the Camden Police Department. He had been suffering with kidney disease. Sadly, his kidneys failed completely while he was at his summer home in Wildwood NJ. On June 11, 1944 he died from uremic poisoning at Atlantic Shores Hospital in Somers Point NJ.

Mrs. Mills and daughter Ruth Mills were still living at 240 Eutaw Avenue when the 1947 City Directory was compiled. 240 Eutaw Avenue was later the home of Camden Fireman Earl A. Smith Sr.


World War I Draft Card

Click on Image to Enlarge


Camden Courier-Post * August 22, 1931

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ity.

Stephen Kirby - Roy R. Stewart - Eugene Lorenzo - Garfield S. Pancoast
North 5th Street - Walter Smith - Alfred Shire - Edwin Mills - Gus Koerner
Bernard Dempsey - Sydney Wilkins - Robert Sweeney - Betty Doyle
Helen Wright - Albert Malmsbury - Frank Smith - Joseph A. Kirby
John C. Gibson - Main Street - Pearl Street - Bailey Street 
Borton Street - York Street - Dayton Street
Marlton Avenue - Haddon Avenue - Newton Avenue
South 7th Street - Cedar Street

Camden Courier-Post - March 21, 1932

CHAIN STORE HELD UP BY 3 ARMED BANDITS
Take $40 From Cash Drawer, Flee After Threatening Manager 

Three armed bandits held up and robbed the manager of an American Store at 752 Ferry Avenue, Saturday night and escaped with $40 taken from the cash register.       

The victim of the robbers was F. M. Willis, of 109 Wayne Terrace, Collingswood. 

Willis told police the three men entered the store shortly before 10 p. m., all flourishing revolvers. They commanded him to stand against the wall and while two of them kept their guns leveled at him, the third man ran to the "cash register and took its contents, about $40.

"If you make any noise for the next five minutes we'll come back and kill you," one of the bandits said as they bolted out of the door.

Willis waited several minutes before venturing out of the store to summon police.

He gave Detectives Edwin Mills and Robert Ashenfelter descriptions of the bandits but was unable to tell whether they had made their escape by automobile or on foot.


Camden Courier-Post
June 6, 1932

Sherman Avenue
Watson M. Mervin
John H. Evans
Edwin T. Mills
Garfield S. Pancoast


Camden Courier-Post
June 15, 1932

Walnut Street
Rudolph Spicer
Ivins Street
Emma Pollard
Pine Street
William Epps
Edwin T. Mills
Garfield S. Pancoast


Camden Courier-Post - February 6, 1933

LIGHT IN BASEMENT STARTS BURGLAR SCARE

Abe Block had a burglar scare at 1 :30 a. m. Saturday in his tailor shop at 527 North Eighth Street. Block was passing the shop on his way home when he saw a light in the basement. He thought thieves were ransacking the place. He telephoned police and Detectives Walter Smith, Edwin Mills and John Trout sped to the shop.

Letting themselves in cautiously, they made their way to the cellar, and found that occupants of the second floor of the house were fixing the heater fire for the night.


Camden Courier-Post - June 2, 1933

EMPLOYEE CHARGES E. C. CADES WITH ATTEMPT TO KILL
Apartment House Owner Held Under $500 Bail on Man's Complaint
ACCUSATION IS DENIED

Edwin C. Cades, 26, one of the owners of the Cades apartment houses in North Camden, was held under $500 bail yesterday pending grand jury disposition of a charge that he assaulted an employee In an attempt to kill him.

His accuser is Walter Devlin, 54, of 111 North Third Street.

When asked why his employer would want him dead, Devlin testified In police court that he has two insurance policies, one for $3000 with double indemnity for death by accident and another for $1500. In both policies, Devlin declared, Cades is named as the beneficiary.

Cades did not testify yesterday, but entered a plea of not guilty.

Devlin was found unconscious at Nineteenth street and River road late at night on May 16. Taken to West Jersey Homeopathic Hospital, he was found to have suffered a fractured skull and broken jaw. Police at first believed he was a hit-run victim but nevertheless, City Detective Edwin Mills was assigned to investigate the case.

Devlin testified yesterday that Cades invited him out for an automobile ride, alighted somewhere to look at a soft tire. Devlin asserted he found the tire to be hard and was getting back into the car when something struck him on the head. That was all he remembered, he said until he regained consciousness in the hospital.

He could not positively say that Cades was his assailant, but asserted that no other person was present.

L. Scott Cherchesky, attorney for Cades, said he had a statement obtained by Cades from Devlin in the hospital on May 17 in the· presence of Detective Mills. In the statement, Devlin purportedly asserted that Cades did not attack him and he did not know who his assailant was.

Tells of Affidavit

Cherchesky also had two affidavits from tenants in the same apartment house where Devlin resides. They are William H. Dougherty and William Widerman. Dougherty attested he saw Cades return at 8.30 p. m. with Devlin and the latter went into the house, "mumbling drunkenly." Widerman also added that at about 9:45 a. m., he saw Devlin leave the house, alone.

Devlin declared he did not remember making any statement in the hospital to Cades, but that a nurse told him "later, when I came out of my daze and the room stopped swirling", that he had made such a statement.

The accuser's complaint charges Cades with assault and battery with intent to kill by beating him over the head with a blunt instrument.

Cherchesky objected to Detective Mills testifying, demanding that Devlin go on the witness stand.

"I've been working for Cades for 13 years," testified Devlin. "On the evening of May 17 at about 7 o'clock Mr. Cades called for me to take a ride with him in his car. We rode around the city in circles and while we were passing over a rough road somewhere Cades told me he thought he had a soft tire. He got out of the car and looked at it and then told me to get out and come around and help him fix it.

"I looked at the tire, felt it and it was hard. I told Cades it was all right. As I started to get back into the car, I was struck over the head and that is all I remember until I woke up in the hospital."

Under questioning by Judge Pancoast, who held a statement given earlier to the police by Devlin, the latter said that Cades bought him a bottle of whisky on that night. He asserted it was his job to collect rents and take care of the apartments in the North Camden section and as pay he received an apartment and food gratis.

Did Not See Assailant

Devlin said he could not positively swear that it was Cades who struck him as Cades was behind him. He declared, however, that he saw no one else in the immediate vicinity and no one else was in the car.

"Why did you say in this statement which you gave to Detective Mills that you thought Cades positively struck you?" asked Judge Pancoast.

"Because there was no one else there," declared Devlin.

"Why would Cades want to strike you or kill you?"

"Because he is carrying a big insurance policy on me and has been for two years," responded Devlin. ,"One is a $3000 policy with double indemnity for accidental death, and the other is a $1500 newspaper policy.

In both of them Cades is named beneficiary.

Planned to Retire

"The payment of the premium on the policies was to come out of the wages I was entitled to and I was to be retired in 10 years, when I was 64, and kept for the rest of my life."

"Were you ever hurt before?" Judge Pancoast asked him.

"Yes, I was struck on the head with a brick once before and I told my wife to notify my brother im­mediately if anything happened to me as I thought I was in danger because of these insurance" policies."

Devlin was then cross, examined by Cherchesky and admitted, that several months ago he had been beaten by a son-in-law and on another occasion was struck by a man named Conway.  

Cades in a statement he requested the Courier-Post to publish after his arraignment in police court, emphatically denied the 'charges made by Devlin.

"I took Walter Devlin out in my automobile, as had been my custom, at 7 o'clock and took him home at 8 o'clock on the night of May 16. William H. Dougherty, who lives in the first-floor apartment at 111 North Third Street, saw Devlin get out of the car and walk up to his apartment, and has signed an affidavit to that effect, which I have.

"William Widerman, who also lives at the same address, saw Devlin in his apartment that same evening, and also saw him leave the apartment about 10 o'clock that night, and has given me a signed affidavit to that effect.

"I did not see Devlin until the next morning' when I was called to the hospital by detectives. I cannot account for Devlin's whereabouts after I left him at the apartment house at 8 o'clock.

"I voted at 8:30 at the polling place at Cooper School, and after that spent the evening with my family. This case appears to me as one of extortion by either Walter Devlin or some other interested party.

"Devlin has been working for me for the past 13 years, and our relations have been extremely friendly. I am at loss, therefore, to account for this action."


Camden Courier-Post - June 6, 1933

Woman Fires Gun After Mistaking Cop for Prowler

A wakened by a noise at 3 a. m. yesterday, Mrs. Prossie Corbett, proprietor of a drug store at 725 Broadway, looked out of her third-story bedroom window and saw a man get in a car and hurriedly drive away.

Mrs. Corbett, whose store burglars attempted to enter last Friday by climbing a ladder and removing a window on the second floor, fired three shots to attract the police, but the car already had disappeared down Broadway.

A few moments later, in answer to her call, half a dozen motorcycle patrolmen were outside her place. Just then Detective Edwin Mills came along in his car.

Told of what had occurred, Mills declared it was he who had gotten into the car Mrs. Corbett described to the police. Mills said he had left the car parked there while he made a routine inspection of the neighborhood.


Camden Courier-Post - June 10, 1933

FATHER HELD ON CHARGE MADE BY DAUGHTER

Charles Hellings, 52, of 2164 Berwick Street, was held without bail yesterday on a statutory charge by Police Judge Garfield Pancoast after he heard testimony from the man's daughter, 14, and a granddaughter, 12. 

The children made their complaint to Detective Edwin Mills and Hellings was arrested at his home by Detective Louis Schlam. Hellings said he had been drinking regularly.


Camden Courier-Post - June 19, 1933

PRIZE PRISONER HELD SECRETLY
SEVEN WEEKS SAWS WAY OUT 

Guarded Rigidly, Segregated From Others,
Accused of Two Robberies 
SLIPS THROUGH HOLE 'TOO TINY FOR ANY MAN' 
Drops to Yard by 'Rope' of Sheets; Saw Horse Helps Him Over Wall 

"Eddie" Adamski, most notorious of local gangland's safecrackers, has escaped from Mt. Holly jail. 

He was in solitary confinement, allegedly under special guard and allowed no visitors other than his sister. He sawed away the bars of his cell early yesterday and fled hours before his 
disappearance was discovered. 

The famed "Jimmy Valentine" of Camden-Philadelphia mobsters was a mystery prisoner at Mt. Holly. In February Adamski, alias Harry Burns, was sent to State Prison for a three-year term by Judge Samuel M. Shay, following conviction on a gun-toting charge. Several weeks ago Judge Shay issued a secret writ ordering his appearance in the local court and the sentence was 
suspended and Adamski turned over to Burlington county authorities. 

Ellis H. Parker, chief of the Burl ington county detectives, said yesterday Adamski was being held on two robbery cases- one at the home of Circuit Court Judge V. Claude Palmer, Moorestown, and the second at the home of Kirkland Marter, Burlington. Parker declares Adamski was indicted on both robbery charges by the Burlington county grand jury last week. The indictments were among the 45 impounded by the court and not made public, Parker said. 

Adamski was tn the south wing of the jail, in a cell block known to inmates as "murderers' stir." Forty other prisoners were in the north wing of the jail. The wardens office separates the two wings, with the prisoners exercise yard, surrounded by a 30-foot wall, in the rear.

At 11 p. m. Saturday Deputy Warden Atwood Wright and Lovando Pond, a special assistant only recently hired by Sheriff George N. Wimer. visited the south wing and "put the prisoner to bed." 

That is the last seen of Adamski by jail officials. 

At 7 a. m. yesterday, one of the two jail attaches- Wimer refuses to reveal which- went to Adamski's cell with his breakfast.

His cell was empty. 

Three bars had been neatly sawed away from the lone window, leaving a space 13 by 7 inches, hardly enough for anyone to squeeze through. 

Helpful Saw Horse 

Attached to one of the remaining bars was Adamski's bed clothing, knotted together and stretching to within a few feet of the ground, 20 feet below. While his fellow prisoners had been asleep- and the guards apparently busy elsewhere- Adamski had filed the bars, made his rope of bed clothing and fled. 

But even then he was not free. 

He had to get out of the jail yard. A saw horse placed against the wall of the yard at the sheriff's house, where Wimer has his offices and a deputy sheriff lives, showed where Adamski had made his final bid for freedom. The wall at this point is slightly lower than around the rest of 
the yard. 

Prisoners Grilled 

It is believed that "Eddie" climbed the wall, and then used the roof of an outhouse adjoining the rear of the sheriff's office, to reach the ground. 

As soon as his disappearance was discovered, Parker, at his summer home in Brant Beach, was summoned, as were Sheriff Wimer and Prosecutor Howard Eastwood. All of the prisoners in the north wing were questioned, but little information gathered from them. Eastwood then questioned both Wright and Pond. Deputy Warden Benjamin F. Farner, who was off duty and asleep in the sheriff's apartment, also was questioned.

No one could tell how Adamski came by he saws. His last visitor and the only one he has been allowed since put in the jail was his sister, who talked with him last Friday. 

Rigidly Guarded 

A deputy warden stood by her side during the conversation and she was not allowed within arm length of the prisoner. Only once in the last seven weeks has Adamski been allowed 
in the yard for exercise. And on that occasion two guards watched his every move. No explanation of the care in guarding the prisoner was advanced by Burlington authorities other than their claim that he was "a tough guy and very tricky."

Parker sent flyers to every police department in the east immediately following notification that his prisoner had escaped. His two secretaries, Mrs. Anna Bading and Mrs. Anna 
Lippincott, and Detectives Clifford Cain and Clinton Zeller, worked throughout the day on the case. State police under Corporal Jarvis Wood, of the Columbus barracks, also assisted in notifying other departments. 

Adamski is said to be wearing a brown suit, with a light hat. He is five feet, ten inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. 

Gang's Lone Survivor 

Adamski is the lone survivor of a gang of 12 men, known to Philadelphia police as the "Seventh and Parrish streets mob." His delicate sandpapered fingertips have opened a thousand 
safes without the aid of knowing the combination, police said. He has been arrested scores of times and spent much of his 28 years in jail.

His last arrest was when Camden Detectives Benjamin Simon and Edwin Mills led a raid on a Gloucester cafe, where Adamski and two others, suspects in the $150,000 bond robbery of the George K. Bartle home in Philadelphia, were. 

Adamski pulled a pistol from' his pocket and was about to "shoot his way out" when the weapon was knocked from his hands by Simon and Mills

Parker Sends for Him 

The two arrested with Adamski, Adam Szewezak and Solomon Lutz, were turned over to Philadelphia authorities. Szewezak was convicted in the bond job and is serving a 15 
year term in Eastern Penitentiary. Lutz was sentenced to a year in Moyamensing for another robbery. Adamski was given three years in New Jersey state prison on the weapon charge by Judge Shay

After Adamski's imprisonment there, Parker learned of his connection with numerous Burlington county robberies and sought to have him brought to Mt. Holly to answer for these 
crimes. 

Special Guard Denied 

Parker said he had recovered part of the loot of the Palmer-Marter home on information he received from Adamski. He said he "had enough on him to send him a way for 15 years." Parker denied knowledge of a special guard over Adamski. Sheriff Wimer also denied the guard. He said Pond had been hired recently "to fill in when the regular men went on their vacations." He has been "learning the ropes" at the jail in preparation for the other men's absence.

Philadelphia detectives were assigned last night to "old haunts" of Adamski in the hope that, penniless, he would return there .

Authorities were puzzled how he got the saw. He filed through three bars, each an inch and three-quar ters thick.

Did He Go Through Hole! 

Wimer believes the saw was concealed in his shoe when he was brought to prison. At Trenton this was denied. Prison officials there said they were certain nothing was concealed on his person when he was turned over to Burlington authorities. 

Parker, too, was skeptical about Adamski's escape through the hole in the window bars. "I can't see," Chief Parker said, "how any man could get through such a small hole. But Adamski must have done so because he's sure enough gone."

The photo shows jail wall surrounding Burlington County jail which "Eddie" Adamski (Inset) scaled early. yesterday to escape. "Eddie" filed away the bars of his cell, climbed down a blanket rope and scaled the wall, which at this point is 25 feet high. He reached the ground by way of the roof of the sheriff's house next door.


Camden Courier-Post - June 22, 1933

Boys Smash Desks In Camden School But Take Nothing 
Suspects Believed to Have Resented Teachers Refusing Promotion

Hiding in the H. B. Wilson School, Ninth and Florence streets, until a Parent-Teacher Association meeting was over and the school locked for the 
night, several boys turned vandals by forcing open desk drawers, breaking the glass in book cases, marring desks and strewing papers about. 
A check-up revealed nothing was stolen. 

Lawrence Miller, of 814 Florence street, janitor, reported the incident to police yesterday. Detective Clifford Carr after an inspection of the school 
obtained finger prints from several papers and turned them over to Detective Edwin Mills for duplication. The prints will be compared, Carr said, with 
the names of suspects taken by him following a conference with teachers. 
The names included those of boys' who had failed to gain promotion or who were troublesome to teachers in the school. The Parent-Teacher 
Association meeting was closed at 10.30 p. m. Tuesday night. With no windows or doors forced in the school, Detective Carr was confident the boys gained admittance by secreting themselves about the school during the meeting. 


Camden Courier-Post - February 11, 1938

DETECTIVE RECOVERS 300-POUND STOLEN PIPE

A pipe 25 feet long, 10 inches in diameter, weighing 300 pounds and valued at $25, stolen from in front of the blacksmith shop of Horace S. Greenwell at 7 North Second street, was recovered today less than an hour after its theft had been reported.

The pipe was recovered by Detective Edwin Mills in a junkyard at Second and Pine streets. Joseph Fugaro, an employee at the establishment, told Mills that two boys, about 16, brought the pipe last 
night in a pushcart and that when he refused to buy it, dumped it in the street. Fugaro said he rolled the pipe in.


Camden Courier-Post * February 15, 1938

RACKET IN CLEANERS LAID TO PRISONER
Police Charge He Got One on Credit, Sold and Then Reclaimed It

One of the strangest gyp rackets discovered in Camden in recent years—a vacuum cleaner sales scheme—was believed broken up yesterday with arraignment of Leonard Hauser, 218 North Eighth street, before Police Judge Mariano. Hauser was arrested at his home by 
Patrolman John Ferry after an investigation by Frank Thompson, representative of a nationally-known vacuum cleaner company with offices at Sixth and Cooper streets.

Ferry testified Hauser paid $10 down on a cleaner for a certain trial period. Then, Ferry said, he represented himself as a salesman for the company and sold it to Mrs. Mary Kirby, 552 Bailey street, for $25, plus her old cleaner for a trade in.

Later, the cleaner mysteriously broke down. Hauser called and said he would take it back, Ferry testified, and bring a new one. He took the cleaner, said Ferry, but never was seen at the Kirby home again.

"If he had taken the broom," remarked City Prosecutor Cohen, "would you call it a clean sweep?"

Mariano said he had information that Hauser was "working a real racket and that a number of other North Camden residents had been similarly defrauded."

C. Lawrence Gregorio, defense counsel, waived a hearing and the suspect was held in $2000 bail for the Grand Jury.

Detective Edwin Mills said after the hearing that Hauser did not restrict his activities to vacuum cleaners.

William Shaw, of 1474 Broadway, i dentified Hauser, according to Mills, as the man who collected $5 from him for an electric toy which was to have been Shaw's little son's Christmas present.- The toy never arrived, Mills said Shaw told him.

Mrs. Emily C. Hedley, of Berlin, and Mrs. Howard Brown, of Williamstown, also identified Hauser as the "vacuum cleaner salesman" who duped them, Mills declared..


Camden Courier-Post * February 21, 1938


Edwin T. Mills - Anthony Chico - Albert Covitto - Daniel Chico
South 3rd Street - South 4th Street - Winslow Street - Viola Street


Camden Courier-Post
February 25, 1938

South 8th Street
Liberty Street
Walter Gintoft
Edwin Mills
Frank Crawford


Trenton Evening Times * August 21, 1938

Edwin T. Mills - Mitchell Cohen - Dorothy Pearce - Rose Cavalier
Joseph Rocco - Ernest Whilden - Franklin Dyer - Edward Henry - Roy Ludwig


Camden Courier-Post - January 8, 1940
FRED KLOSTERMAN HIT
BY PUMP GUN FIRE
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Camden Courier-Post - January 10, 1940

GUNMEN IN PHILADELPHIA
MURDER COLOZZI IN NUMBERS WAR
Westmont Victim Reported to Have Been Aide of Klosterman
SCARDUZIO DEATH TIEUP ALSO SEEN

A reputed employee of Fred Klosterman, Camden numbers baron, was shot and killed in Philadelphia last night in what police there believed was an inter-city fight for control of the numbers racket.

The dead man was Joseph Colozzi, 49, of Westmont, known in the underworld and police circles as a “cheap thief”.

While Captain John Murphy, of the Philadelphia vice squad, expressed belief the slaying of Colozzi and shooting last Sunday of Klosterman were related.  County Detective Chief Lawrence T. Doran was working on another angle.


Visited
Colozzi’s Home

Doran said Colozzi had been closely associated during the last 10 days with John Lenkowski, 22, a fugitive wanted here in connection with the murder of Andrew Scarduzio.

“Both of them were convicted of similar offences- thievery, and they apparently were hooked up together lately. I could not say whether either of them ever was In the numbers racket."

Philadelphia police, however, seemed certain Colozzi was shot as a result of a new “numbers war”. They said they had Information that the dead man apparently was in the employ of a Camden numbers bank.

Credence was given the report that local numbers barons are attempting to “muscle in” on the “Philadelphia play” when Irving Bickel, 34, who admits being friendly with Klosterman was arrested yesterday.

New Setup Alleged

Bickel, Murphy said, declared he had been contacting numbers writers in Philadelphia to inform them of a “new setup” and invite them to join.

Detective Sergeant Benjamin Simon and Detective Edwin Mills questioned Bickel in Philadelphia yesterday and said he admitted “knowing Klosterman” but denied he worked for him.

Simon and Mills were in Philadelphia again today working on the Colozzi shooting to ascertain whether there was any connection between the slaying and shooting of Klosterman on Sunday. Simon said he would investigate to learn if the slain man ever had been in the employ of Klosterman.

A theory advanced yesterday by police that Klosterman had been shot by killers hired by Atlantic City gamblers brought on an expression of surprise from shore police.

Detective Captain Frank Feretti said he did not know of any gambling house near the Union Station in which Klosterman may have been interested. He said no request had “been made by Camden police for an inquiry at the resort.”

Colozzi was murdered at Eleventh and Carpenter Streets, South Philadelphia, last night. The top of his head was blasted by shotgun slugs to end1a career in crime that extended over 30 year, with at least 30 arrests.

Colozzi's body was found lying across the trolley tracks in a darkened section near the Bartlett Junior High School.

Police of the Seventh and Carpenter streets station a few minutes before received an anonymous telephone call that "there's been a shooting at Eleventh and Catherine.” The caller hung up.

No One Sees Shooting

Homicide squad detectives under Acting Captain William C. Bugle rounded up a number of persons in the neighborhood but could locate no one who admitted he saw the shooting. That was what the police expected, for the section has been the scene of unsolved gang killings in the past.

Captain Engle admitted the possibility that Colozzi, may have been allied in some way with Jersey gamblers attempting to poach on Philadelphia territory,  and had met sudden death for that reason.

Though Captain Engle described the murdered man as a “cheap thief" he wouldn't deny the possible link to the threatened outbreak in a numbers war between rival operators as evidenced by the Klosterman shooting.

“I won't say there’s a tie up, and I won't say there's not” said Engle. “We can't tell, right now”.

Syndicate Under Way’

But the story told Captain Murphy, head of Philadelphia's vice squad, by a Camden man known to be a pal of Klosterman, put further credence in the rumored attempts at revision along the numbers front

The man Is Bickel of a hotel at Delaware Avenue and Market street, who yesterday was held in $1000 bail for a hearing next Tuesday by Magistrate Thomas Connor in Philadelphia’s central police court on suspicion of being connected with the numbers racket. He was picked up in Germantown.

Captain Murphy said Bickel admitted to him he was contacting various numbers writers for the purpose of having them pool their resources.

"He admitted verbally he had the names of several Philadelphia writers and that he was trying to line up the boys,” Murphy said. “He is trying to coerce them with a new numbers set-up. That will cause a revival of gang warfare”.

Although the murdered man was never known to have had theatrical connections police said he often boasted he was an entertainer in a New York cabaret. 

Brother of Philadelphia Cop

The body of Colozzi, brother of a Philadelphia policeman, was identified by the officers wife at the Pennsylvania Hospital, Eighth and Spruce Streets. Five bullets had penetrated his skull.

Police said Colozzi lived at 113 Westmont Avenue, Westmont, since his last release from prison, some time during September 1939.

He lived with his wife Rose and most of their eight children.

In Colozzi’s pocket, when a police ambulance arrived at the scene, was a card bearing his name and the Westmont address.

He was one of two brothers of John Colozzi, whose police record was said to be longer even than Joe’s, and is being sought.

Police of Haddon Township said Colozzi was known to them only as an "innocent” junk dealer, who plied his trade picking up old car parts in and around the section/

Colozzi's last brush with the law according to the Philadelphia police records, was last Spring when he was implicated in a dress robbery. He was freed in September after serving part of his sentence.

Meanwhile Camden city and county detectives continued their investigations into the pump gun shooting of Klosterman, who remained in critical condition at West Jersey Hospital.

Klosterman was shot down in front of his saloon at Mount Ephraim Avenue and Mechanic Street at 10:00 PM Sunday as he went to the street to drive his car to a garage. The would-be killer sped away. 

Seldom In Jail Long

Colozzi had run afoul of the law since early school days, but he often boasted that “with all the friends I got, I can't stay in jail long." He invariably managed to regain freedom, only to renew his jostles with police.

The stiffest sentence he ever got was on December 13, 1934 when Judge Frank F. Neutze sent him and an accomplice to state prison for robbing a coat factory at 7 South 3rd Street four months before.

          In passing sentence on the much arrested “Manayunk Joe”, Judge Neutze put aside pleas the prisoner was the father of eight children and sent him “up the river” for a term ox six to seven years.

          "You're a typical criminal and a menace to the public" Judge Neutze said in a searing rebuke. "A light sentence won't do you any good. Your record is one of the longest shown to me since l have been on the bench. You represent a type that is better off behind bars, for outside of prison you are a menace to the public. I’ll go the limit with you” 

Obtained Police Badge

But Colozzi merely nodded, apparently thinking of which “friend” he would call on this time to get him out.

Previously Joe had established a second-hand tire shop on the White Horse Pike at Lindenwold and escaped serious penalty as police held a continuous club over his head for suspected escapades.

On one occasion he diverted his talents to another “profession”- extortion. By some means he obtained a police badge in Clementon township. A few months later he and several other members of the police department were rounded up for wholesale extortion of money from motorists and truck drivers

Those were the day of Prohibition, and the White Horse Pike was a frequently used. Highway for passage of beer trucks between Philadelphia and Camden and Atlantic City and other sea shore points.

The extortion continued among other motorists most of them guilty of petty violations. There were times when Colozzi took “anything they had”, police said. 

35-Year Police Record

Colozzi’s police record dates back to1904, when as a a child of 12 he was committed to the Glen Mills, Pa. Home for Boys for petty larceny.  He served 19 months.

In 1909 he was given a two-month sentence In the Montgomery county .jail at Norristown PA, after another conviction for larcerny.

Then: followed a series of brushes with the law, with Colozzi landing behind bars a dozen times, but invariably obtaining freedom before the expiration of his term.

The record continues: 1914, committed to Philadelphia County Prison, larceny, three months;

In 1915, for receiving stolen goods, Eastern Penitentiary, four years and six months;

In 1919, at Newark, larceny, sentenced to two to seven months and pardoned in December, 1920.

A 10-year stretch followed during which his name failed to appear on police records. 

Acquitted of Charge

 In 1929, State Police of the Hammonton barracks arrested him for extortion, but he was acquitted in Camden County Criminal Court May 90, 1930.

In 1930 he was arrested in Trenton for breaking and entering and sentenced to a year and six months in Mercer County jail.

In 1933 he was taken in custody by the U.S. Marshal at Trenton. No disposition of the case is listed.

Later in 1933. he was arrested for Larceny in Philadelphia, and no record is known further of the case.

Later the same year Camden police arrested him for attempted larceny. No disposition.

In October 1933, he was jailed  by U. S. Marshals for violation of the Dyer Act, interstate transportation of a stolen auto, but was placed on five years’ probation.

In July. 1934 he was arrested in Camden for breaking and entering and in December of the same year was sentenced to six to seven years in State Prison.

The last time he appeared in local police records was less than a year ago, when he was arrested on a detainer for violation of federal parole and sent to Mercer County jail. A few days later he was freed.

 



World War II Draft Card - 1942


Camden Courier-Post * July 16, 1942

American Legion Post 274
Robert Ashenfelter - Pietro Damario - Charles Flacco
Albert diGiacomo - Giustino Fizallo
Fillmore Street - Broadway - Viola Street 

Camden Courier-Post
June 14, 1944

George Zeitz - Arthur Holl
Fillmore Street
- Broadway
Eutaw Avenue 

 

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