Thirty Years Ago a New York Judge and '''5Th Street from Times Square
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DfHCTIYf DIYISION B E S U RE TO FILE CIRCULAR No.11 POLICE DEPARTMENT THIS C IRCULAR SfPTfMBfR 17. 1930 CITY OF NEW YORK F O R REFERENCE Police Authorities are Requested to Post this C ircular for the Infol'matlon of Polic e Officer. and File a Copy of It for Future R.ference. , • The CITY of NEW Any Intormatlon should offers $5,000 reward be forwarded fo the Detec· to any person or persons tile OIllslon of the Police furnishing this Department Department of tile City of with Information resulting in New YorX, 240 Centre Street, locating Joseph Force Crater Phone Sprtng 3100. JI' ",· ,,: .-.: 101' 'rill, '01' 1'''''; :>1'-: COt ' NT. ~TA.T t:: 011' !'OIl, " ' "ORK UEse RI PTION-Unrn in the U nited Siale s- Age, .. I ye.rs; height, 6 feel; wei,hl. 185 pounds ; mixed arey h.ir, ori,in.II)' dIrk brown, thin 1.1 lOP, parted in middle " slicked" down; complexion, medium dirk, eonsidcnbly 'Inncd; brown c)'c s ; f.lse tcclh, upper and lowe r jaw, good physica l and ment.1 conditio n I' lime 01 dislppearance, Tip of right index finger , omcwhlt mulill ted, due to hiving been recenll)' crusbed, Wore brown sack cOltlnd trousers, nirrow .reen ' tripe, no ve51; either I Pl nlml or soh brown hit worn It rlkish Ingle, si1.e 6)1. unusuIl siu lor h i, hei.ht Ind wei.hl. Clothes mlde b)' Vroom. AHeCled colored ~hirls, 5ize Ii culllt, problbl)' bow lie. Wore lonoise' 5hell ,lines for reid in.. Yellow , old Mlsonic rin", ~omewhlt worn ; ml), be welrin. I )' ellow ,old, 5qulre-shlped wriSi wIII:: h wllh lellher Slrlp. EDWAR D P. MULROONEY. I'kllne Spring 3100. Ilulicc C ummiu ioncr • The evening was tropically hot and sticky, as By JACK ALEXANDER summer eve nin g~ in Manhattan can so me times gl't, but it didn' t St."e m to oppress the tall. nattily dressed man walking west on Thirty years ago a New York judge and '''5th Street from Times Square. He moved along briskly, as was his custom, with head and shoulders held high and his fect darting " ladies' man" entered a taxi in midtown out in rapid and, for a long-legged man, in congruously short steps. He was wearing pearl-gray spats, and his suit was a well Manhattan. H e hasn't been seen since. A tailored, double-breasted number, brown with thin stripes of green. His hat, a pristine Pan Post editor reports on the most notori ous ama, was cocked at a sporty angle. The most commanding item of his haberdashery was his • • collar, an old-fashioned detachable c hoker of mI ss] ng -person case of o ur century. starched linen. I t was higher than the ra mpart ' 9 20 ! ! :c ['1::<: oc.. • ......-- T he hunt for the errant j udge gre..... into a national cra.:c. The N. Y. Missing Penons Bureau was Aoodcd with many false leads such as the above-scrawled on the race or II playing card- and the note shown below. August 9. 1930: J udge Crater and his wife, Stella, at their summer Cltate in Maine, just three days before he disappcaN:f coming Novem ber electio n, when he was to The trio chatted for a few minutes on the ..k.~ , • ·,tt· + ' 6~-x-~ w--c-< run ror a rull fourteen-year term . sidewalk. Then Justice Cra ter hailed a taxicab Crater had it j ust about made. From boy and got in. Klein and M iss Ritz watched it t, · .,,{ c.....a . • ~ 0 .1( 7 J.. ... ~ ... ' . <- - hood his dominating a mbitio n had been to d epart westward- 45th being a westbou nd 1.;-.,.., ;1 ..... become a j udge, and he had worked whole street- before they turned and walked east ( ~( ~. L t···t · . ~ heartedly to a ttain it. A rastidious ma n, he had toward the Shu bert o ffice. s......., I •. -:.t -toi t ~. ,.{..., no t ba lked a t perrorming the sweatier chores In the thirty years wh ich have elapsed since that came his way. He had pride a nd vanity the friends pa rted ou tside the chophouse, hun ,.)t -fr .•• w _ ~ ".f' - and, at times, more tha n a touch or arrogance; dreds of persons have reported having seen but he could subordin ate a ll to play dderen j ustice Crater, bu t not one such claim has - tia l courtier to a politician for who m he might been convincingly authenticated . The police have a secret contempt but whose influence were to sean mountains of the trip sheets might be useful in ad vancing his fortunes. which the law requires taxi drivers to keep, Withal, he wns no hack clubhouse lawyer. wit hout find ing a ny record or this pa rticular Ra thcr, he was learned in the law a nd skilled ride. T he d river has never seen fit to come in interpreting its intricacies. He wrote facile forward. Neither Klein nor Miss Ritz got a briefs fo r less-gifted attorneys, a nd his onl y clear look at his face; nor could ei ther remem courtroom appearances were in the a ppellate ber the color of the ca b. courts. Cra ter was in his clement in arguing The single ticket to Daneing PurIna was an a ppeal. Clad in cutaway a nd striped for picked up by a ma n-by Crater, pro bably, mal trousers-he was a very clothes-happy since only a few persons knew it was therc man-he spoke q uietly, logically a nd as briefly but the box-o ffice clerk couldn't recall what he as possible . Up to the time he got the judge looked like. j oseph Force Crater, who had ship he had for yean been a popular lecturer been o n the bench scarcely long enough to in the law schoob of Ford ham and New York wrinkle his black j udicial robe, had disap universities. To man y of his associates it seemed peared as thoroug hly as if he had been swep t In 1956 prolpector " Lucky" Blackiet said that he had possible tha t he might eventually land on the off the planet wi th a b room . It was to become seen the judge. Bu t his story was just another bum sleer. Supreme Court of the United States. a case of a thousand a nd o ne clues a nd a thou At abou t eigh t o'clock Crater entered the sand a nd one d isappointments; a case of con chophouse, intending to d ine quickl y a nd get tinuing frustration for ' the M issing Persons model made fa mous by President Hoover, but, to the Belasco T heatre by curtain ti me. The Bureau of the New York Police Departmenl with a knack M r. Hoover never qui te acquired , pl ay at the Belasco was Dancing Partna, a spicy and of g nawing u ncertainty for Cra ter's wife , it was worn with complete self-assurance. Hungarian confectio n whose tryout he had Stella, and for those connected wi th him by The q uick-stepping man was headed for seen in Atlantic City. His theatrical ticket blood. Billy Haas's restaurant, a currently popula r broker had promised to leavc a single ticket His sister, M argar et, believes tha t he was c hophouse located a t .'JS2 West 'J.!'Hh Street, ror him a t the box o ffice. murd ered , possibly by a felon who , as he was j ust beyond Eighth Avenue. Whether he knew Cra ter had scarcely c hecked his hat at the being ta ken to Sing Si ng for a long term, it or nOI-and the poin t has been debated ever restaura.nt when he was ha iled by a friend, shou ted that he would " gel" Cra ter when he si nce-he was a lso head ed for oblivion. William Klei n, who was a Horney for the got ou t of prison. T his inciden t was related to It was a rew minutes berore eight as the Shubert brothers. Klein was having dinner M argaret by her brother , j oseph, during the man crossed Eighth Avenue. T he d ate was with a Shubert show girl, na med Sally Lou earliest days of his career, whcn he practiced August 6, 1930, a \\'cdnesday. T he man was R itz, and invi ted Cra ter to join them . criminal law briefly. a high-ranking Tam many legal light named Cra ter accepted. He had a deep a ffcction A brother of the j udge, Mo ntague Crater, is joseph Force Cra ter . He was rorty-one years fo r the theater a nd he loved to talk show busi still cautiously optimistic. For a good many o ld, and rour months earlier he had been a p ness. The food was good, the conversation was years M ontague traveled as a bill collector and pointed to fi nish the unexpired term or a Sta te good, and (as Klein was to tell the police la ter) claim adjuster, co\'ering the seamier residen Supreme Court justice who had retired. The Crater was in excellen t spirits. Before anyone tial sections and the skid rows of towns a long a ppointment had been made by Gov. Fra nklin realized it, it was ten minu tes after nine. both seaboards a nd in the northern tier of D.