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JULY 1951

COMMUNISTS IN QUEENS
MARIJUANA IN QUEENS
THE MAFIA IN QUEENS

Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to July 1951!

Talks to produce a cease-fire in the Korean War began on July 10. The Star-Journal reported daily on their progress. Initially, there was a positive feeling about the talks, but they soon bogged down. It was not until November that the Allies and Communists could even agree on a cease-fire line along the 38^th parallel. Almost immediately military operations slowed down, but did not cease. It was two years later, on July 27, 1953, that the United States, North Korea and China signed an armistice, which ended the war but failed to bring about a permanent peace.

The Star-Journal posed the question: "Is Queens the capital of the new Red underground?" The paper went on to report that federal and city officials placed the number of "Commies" in Queens at between 3,000 and 5,000. At the same time, Robert G. Thompson, of Sunnyside, chairman of the New York State Communist Party, and three of 11 other convicted top "Reds" failed to show up to surrender to begin their prison terms, after being convicted in 1949 for "conspiring . . . to organize as the Communist Party and willfully advocating and teaching the principles of Marxism-Leninism," They were also accused of conspiring to "publish and circulate . . . books, articles, magazines, and newspapers advocating the principles of Marxism-Leninism." The first place the authorities looked for the fugitives was, of course, Queens.

The Mayor’s Commission on Drug Addiction released a report and recommendations for solving the problem. The Star-Journal ran a four-part series, entitled "90,000 Addicts!", on this. The Committee estimated that 1 of every 87 people in New York City was an addict. Heroin and morphine were the number one evil, not marijuana (which flourished in the gravelly soil of Queens) or cocaine. The report went on to say that drug addicts were sick people, not criminals! The committee recommended a two step program to wipe out drug addiction: 1) Strict control of the supply of drugs available to addicts, and 2) Reduction of the demand for drugs to an "irreducible minimum" by the cure and rehabilitation of existing addicts and the education of potential addicts.

In related news, during "operation marijuana," Sanitation Department crewmen descended on Maspeth to wipe out the biggest marijuana "farm" found anywhere in the city. It was estimated that enough plants to make 2,000,000 "reefers" were destroyed. About 2,000 pounds of the "dope weed" were yanked out and carted away to an incinerator. Some of the plants were as much as eight feet high. Even without the Maspeth farm, Queens’ marijuana crop was the largest of any borough. It was estimated at 11,000 pounds, enough to make 11,000,000 "reefers", worth at least $5,500,000 on the drug market.

Twelve Queens doctors faced arrest as principals in a baby-selling racket. They would probably be seized after Grand Jury indictments in September. The babies, all born to unwed mothers, were sold to childless couples. The sales netted the operators over $100,000. At least 20 of the infants came from a private Queens hospital, and were sold for $1,400 to $4,500. So smoothly did the sellers operate that the parents of some of the unwed girls never knew their daughters were pregnant. The District Attorney’s office said that, in almost all cases, the infants involved would not be taken from their foster parents. "Our first consideration will be the well-being of the child," said Assistant District Attorney J. Irwin Shapiro.

The bread supply dwindled during a strike by 4,000 AFL truck drivers, as 16 major baking companies in the city were shut down. Independent drivers in the city refused to report to work after threats of violence. The strike began on July 3, and, by July 7, Queens residents munched on cake or other bread substitutes. Some housewives bought mixes and turned on their own ovens to bake bread. Some went even further and started with the basic ingredients, just as their grandmothers had done. Mayor Impellitteri appointed a three-man fact finding committee, which made a strike-settling recommendation, which the union accepted on July 11, thus ending the 9-day-old strike.

Uncle Sam opened an unusual opportunity for Long Island youths, aged 16 to 22, and veterans over age 22 to lean any one of 18 trades at the Brooklyn Navy Yard-and get paid while learning. Civil service examiners issued applications for a written test for apprentice, fourth class, at starting wages of $9.44 per day. Candidates who were appointed would serve four-year apprenticeships. Promotions to higher classes would be made annually. Some of the trades were: blacksmith, boatbuilder, coppersmith, machinist and sailmaker. Technical shop subjects included mechanical drawing, mathematics and blueprint interpretation.

On July 25, gamblers Frank Costello (the reputed kingpin of the Mafia) and Joe Adonis (Joseph Doto) and imprisoned Forest Hills bookmaker Frank Erickson were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of contempt of the Senate. The indictments stemmed from their refusal to answer questions in the widely publicized New York hearings of the crime committee in March. Costello was indicted on 9 counts, Adonis on 16 and Erickson on 74. The maximum penalty for each count was one year prison and a $1,000 fine. Adonis, on constitutional grounds, refused to answer any questions about his underworld or political activities. Costello refused to answer any questions about his net worth. Erickson, refusing to incriminate himself, refused to answer any questions about his life after the fourth grade, but, to the amazement of hundreds of spectators and thousands watching on television, he did admit that he and Costello had played golf on Queens’ golf courses several times. When asked by the committee when they played, Erickson folded his hands calmly, gave the Senators a bemused look, and asked blandly, "What’s that got to do with interstate commerce?" The Senate’s answer was the 74-count indictment against him.

On July 31, sports fans were astounded to read that, the previous evening, Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, had committed the first "rock" of his major league career, which began in 1936. Before 39,684 unbelieving fans at Yankee Stadium, with one out, DiMaggio caught a deep fly ball; a runner on second tagged to move to third after the catch; DiMaggio, believing there were already two outs, started to walk off the field with the ball, and the runner simply continued on home to score a run. In typical Yankee style, DiMaggio atoned for his blooper by driving home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Television star "Uncle Milty" Berle blamed "newspaper talk" for the attempted suicide of his former wife, Joyce Mathews of Merrick, in the bathroom of showman Billy Rose’s Manhattan apartment. Police, at Rose’s insistence broke down the door to his bathroom and found Joyce on the floor with both wrists slashed by a double-edged razor blade. She was taken to Roosevelt Hospital.

Playing at the movies were: "Sirocco," starring Humphrey Bogart; "Samson and Delilah," starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr; "Ma and Pa Kettle on the Farm:" and "Strangers on a Train," starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman and Robert Walker.

That's the way it was in July 1951!