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INDICT 3 FOR SCHMITT MURDERDEATH TAKES THOMAS McNALLY, GEORGE HOLLENBACHSTRONG-ARM ROBBERY LEADS TO CAPTURE, CONFESSIONS'I Was at Cash Register’I Turned Out the Lights''And I Fired the Shot’Amazing Story Told by Trio Eeveals How They Chose Scene for CrimeFireman’s Intervention in Strong-Arm Robbery Leads to Arrests, ConfessionsPETER SINKUS RAYMOND HALVERSON JOSEPH ZVIRBLISThese three boys Sold police Saturday that they committed the holdup of the Schmitt bakery, 7745 Halsted St., in which Mrs. Anna Schmitt was murdered. It is for the capturd »nd conviction of ’Mrs. Schmitt s murderers that the Southtown Economist has raised, a reward fiind of $305FIREMAN SPERLING TELLS OF HAND-TO-HAND BATTLEHollenbach, Pioneer and Banker, DiesStricken With Pneumonia, Succumbs at Home After Illness of Only Two Days.George Mollenbaeli, for 31 years one o[ South town's heat known manufacturers and business leaders, was buried Monday at the Oak woodsMr, Kollenbfic.li died ai. his borne, 1*920 Green si., last Thursday. He bad been ill with pneumonia Cor only two days. Although no was 79 years old, be was si ill active in business and social life up lo the time of his illness.He was bead of the George Hoilen-bach sausage manufacturing company, 1300 W. Marquette rd.. which rganixed 3-1 years ago. He was (Continued on Page .12)Street Blocked by Throngs as State Senator Is WedRoyal Pomp Marks Marriage Ceremony at St. Sabina Church.Services of a riot squad -were almost needed to deal with the thousands of persons who blocked the streets and sidewalks surrounding the church where pretty May’Kalla fn Luby and South town's popular bachelor, Stale Senator John M. Lee, exchanged their -wedding vowsAn hour before the ceremony 1 hero wasn’t a single vacanL seat left, ill I lie Si. Sabina dmrcli. 78thSees Holdup Across Street—So He Cuts Loose His Fists!Peter W. Sperling, who is 37 years old and lives at 2032 Union ave., is a fireman attached to Engine company No. 25 at 1975 Canalport ave., in the Maxwell street police district.Friday night at about 10 :30 o’clock Sperling walked to the front doors of the engine house to look idly out into the street.Diagonally across the road he saw a strange sight. There were four figures tussling. In an instant Sperling knew what was happening. A strong-arm robbery. Sperling dashed out the station door and across Canalport. As he ran, vision became better in the darkness. He saw that three young fellows were grappling with an elderly man.“Stop!”“As I ran,” Sperling' told a Southtown Economist reporter, “1 yelled to them to stop. When they heard me, they let go of the man and ran, two of them going east, the other west. 1 ran after the biggest one.Half a block down the street 1 caught up with him. He stopped and turned around. Cursing me, he reached for his hip pocket. 1 thought he was drawing a gun. 1 pulled back my fist and hit him in the face. HeTwo-FistedPETER SPERLING HI. Interference with Strong-arm Robbery Led to Arrest of Trio,fell down. Then he got to his feet and we began to exchange blows. 1 hit him on the jaw and knocked him down again. .1 guess that last punch knocked him unconscious.”Call Police.At about that Lime culier firemen reached the scene. Together they dragged the limp form of the fallen banditto the engine house and caJled the Maxwell street police. The firemen searched their captive .and found that he was unarmed. In. his hip pocket he did have a half-filled bottle of whiskey.From that point, the solution of the mystery of the murder of Mrs. Anna Schmitt followed with rapidity. In a few hours the towering Peter Sinkus, the youth captured by two-fisted Fireman Sperling, mentioned the “murder of a woman on S. Halsted st.” The Money. Saturday, during the re-enactment of the crime at the Schmitt bakery, a Southtown Economist reporter asked Sinkus what he and his companions did with the money they obtained through their holdups.- “We went to shows and stuff like that,” he answered.“What will your folks think of this jam?”“1 haven’t got any folks.” “No father or mother?” “Father, yes.”“Where is he ?”“He works.”“Where’s your mother?” “Dead,”“How long?”Sinkus winced. “She died . . . he began, and then, “Last Thursday was the second anniversary of her death.MournDeath Of McNally In AuburnRites for Owner of Well-Known Building at 79th and Halsted Conducted Saturday.Auburn Park's pioneer realtor, Thomas McNally, owner of the office building bearing his name at the southeast corner of 79th and Halsted sts., -died Wednesday of last week at. i be age of fiS years.Mr. McNally bad been ill six months. Death occurred at his home, T95F Peoria si.One of i lie first business men 10 locale in Auburn Park, Mr. McNally opened a real estate office at 79ih and Halsted sis. 25 years ago. Al the lime of his deaili he was associated wirli hi3 brother Martin and one of his seven sons, James, in tlie McNally company, 757 \\\ 79th si.(Continued on Page 12)The Capfives and the Captorstheiveddiilook place ai I o'clock.On Roof Tops,By the time the wedding was scheduled to begin thousands of persons were crowding around the entrance of the church, and literally hundreds of youngsters were perched on nearby rnof lops, porches and window Bills. To use the ex-(Continued on Page 5)Here are member* of the police iqud which made the arrests and obtained confessions, and their three prisoners. Left to right, Edward Hennig, George Miller,’ Joseph Lervert, Thomas Torpy, Joe Zvirblis, an unidentified policeman, Raymond Halverson (with c*p)t Peter Sinkus, John Jouhy and Eugene Waehowtki, assistant state's attorney.Economist's S305 Reward FundUpon conviction of the slayers of Mrs, Anna Schmitt, the Reward Fund of $305 created by the Southtown Economist will be paid to those persons responsible for the capture of the guilty. If the three youths now under arrest for the murder are found guilty, the probable claimants of the reward will be the Maxwell street police squad which made the arrests and Fireman Peter Sperling.Meeting to Spur Rapidly Booming Housing CampaignPeters Calls Session to Boost Activities to New High Levels.Despite the admitted success of the better housing campaign thus far in Southtown, Harry A. Peters, general chairman, of the Englewood-Auburn Park-G re sham housing committee, is calling a mass meeting tomorrow night al the local headquarters, 711. W. Englewood ave,, to spur all persons involved in the campaign Ici Increased acliviiy.Il is ex peeled nearly 300, including members of the Southtown FHA advisory committee, contractors, tradesmen and merchants, will be in attendance tomorrow night.“The results of the housing campaign here in the seven weeks of Ils existence have been more than satisfactory,” Mr. Peters “We (Continued on Page 12)At 7 o’clock the night of January 31, three boys who live ■ in the squalid Maxwell st. neighborhood, one 15, one 17 and the other 20, decided to go out and commit a holdup. They had no particular scene in mind. But they boarded a Halsted st. car going south. At 74th st., they decided to get off. Then they walked south on the east side of Halsted St., looking, they said, for the easiest place to hold up.They came to the Schmitt bakery at 7745 Halsted st. It looked easy. They went in. Five minutes later Mrs. Anna Schmitt, 36 years old, widely respected business woman and wife and mother, lay dead on the floor of the bakery, murdered by a bullet fired “to scare her.” And the three bovs were scuttling- dofrn dark ^streets arid through all eys with * a total of $12 loot and three pies in their fists.That’* the Story.-nr oi ls-J!ie S^01^ k-0w‘ • • • and why , , . the murder ofMrs. Schmitt occurred.Last Saturday morning, just 30 days after the killing of Mrs. Schmitt, the Southtown Economist, which had launched a Reward Fund totaling $305 for the capture and conviction of her slayers, was telephoned by Officer Thomas Torpy of the Maxwell street police station.“We have arrested three boys who have confessed the Schmitt murder,” Torpy said.Saturday afternoon, in the Schmitt bakery, the three THE CUNboys recounted in detail and P»!\e« S.id The, Found Thi, Hidden in their own words exactly 'n Tank of . 8«threem.how the store had been held up and how Mrs. Schmitt met death.At 1 p.m. Tuesday the grand jury returned indictments against the three boys on charges of murder and holdup. By no later than next Monday they are expected to be arraigned before Judge Dennis Sullivan in the Criminal court.The boys are Joseph Zvirblis, 17 years old, 2016 Canalport ave., who said he fired the bullet that killed Mrs.:Schmitt, six-foot-five Peter Sinkus, 20 years old, 1816 Ruble St., who said he took the money out of the Schmitt cash register, and Raymond Halverson, 15 years old, 727 W. 21st St., who said he turned out the lights in the bakery just before the shooting occurred.Confessions.The confessions given to the police and to the state's attorney's investigators last Saturday afternoon constitute an amazing story.The confessions were given by the boys while a throng of 500 residents,, ■- ........ , of Auburn Park pressed close againstt he windows of the Schmitt bakery, waiting for a glimpse of the captives inside. “Here s what the three boys said, according to Assistant State s Attorney Eugene Wachowski, who took their statements on the scene of the murder and who will prosecute them when they come up for trial r Talk It Over.“According to their signed confessions, all of which tallied,” said Wachowski, “the three boys met about 7 p.m. on the night of the murder at the corner of Canalport and Union aves. There they discussed the possibility of making a heist that night. They decided to go south on Halsted st., and boarded a street 8X j car. They got off al 74th and Hal- Aj4“ sled sts., walked south on the east ' vircinia schmitt side of Halsted St., looking, they said, w.tch., Ruiuctnnt « for Hie easiest plate to hold up. MunUr.“They passed .he Schmitt bakery and glanced insid They said they saw only one woman and one man inside an (Continued on Page 12)FRANK SCHMITTwish they would let i lettle with theRECKLESS DRIVERS Can Make a Safety Zone a NO-MAN'S
Newspaper Details
Southtown Economist
Chicago, Illinois, US
Thu, Mar 07, 1935
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Joe C.
USA 01 Jan 2025
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