Strange Times 128: Kills Husband in Street

While I’ve (hopefully) got your attention, I’d like to once again remind you that Westside Saints is now available in a groundbreaking “bendy” format. It is extremely good and you will like it, I swear.

Today brings a murder in the street, a theft in the Place, and barbarity in the Piazzas. Steal the finest pearls on…

May 8, 1921

• The successful test trip of a new “robber-proof,” high capacity rail card promises to revolutionize freight in the United States.

• Testifying before regulators, railroad executives attack calls for a “living wage,” charging that such a plan would “make employees ‘super-privileged’ and bring state socialism.”

• New York’s florists plead with the public to choose flowers other than carnations to give as Mother’s Day presents, saying that a short supply of the popular flower has caused prices to spike to as high as $6 per dozen.

• The Weather: Partly cloudy today and Monday; not much change in temperature; moderate, northerly winds.

Again with the horsewhips.

NEW ORLEANS, La., May 7.—Fred H. Levee of Los Angeles was shot and killed on the street here today by his wife, who was seeking a divorce, according to the police. The shooting was seen by hundreds of persons and followed a brief talk from which Levee had turned away. Mrs. Levee gave herself up and refused to make any statement.

LOS ANGELES, May 7.—The marital troubles of Fred. Levee, Los Angeles attorney and clubman, and his wife, Mrs. Matilda Levee, have been recounted in the newspapers here at various times in the last two years. Mrs. Levee publicly horsewhipped a woman in one of the leading Los Angeles hotels. A few months ago she was freed from a charge of insanity after a hearing before the Lunacy Commission, and admonished by the presiding judge to “cease her violent tactics and leave her husband alone.”

At the time of the horsewhipping Mrs. Levee was said also to have beaten still another woman and to have shot her husband in the arm. She followed this with filing a suit for separate maintenance, charging Levee with infidelity and with squandering her money on other women.

Nothing I like better than a gentleman thief.

PARIS, May 7.—A well-dressed man walked into Boucheron’s Shop, at the corner of the Place Vendôme and Rue de la Paix, yesterday and asked to see some pearl necklaces. he wanted something good, he said, and the salesman produced a dozen or so priced between 200,000 and 400,000 francs. Carefully the man scrutinized each one, for there has been a scare among the public during the last few days on the subject of artificial pearls.

The assistant thought he had his eyes open. But he had not. After ten minutes examination the purchaser could not make up his mind. “I’ll come back,” he said, and walked out.

Disappointed that he had lost a commission, the salesman started arranging his goods again. Inevitably, there was one necklace missing, and that, of course, the most valuable. The well-dressed man was evidently a pearl expert of no mean sort.

This story made me furious for so many reasons, but perhaps the thing that had me grumbling loudest was the Times’ blithe acceptance of the Fascist claim to never instigate violence, despite their own reporting to the contrary! Thankfully, this marked the last time a major news outlet would put their thumb on the scale when reporting on the far right, so it’s not that big a deal.

ROME, May 7.—As the day for the general elections draws nearer, clashes between the Fascisti and the Socialists are becoming more frequent and fiercer. The Communists, perhaps, fight with the greater hatred and ferocity, as they realize it is through the influence of the Fascisti that their power is on the wane and that many of their former followers are passing to the ranks of their enemy.

Wherever conflicts take place between the two factions, the population almost always sides with the Fascisti, while the authorities very often close their official eye or arrive just too late to prevent the Fascisti making a punitive expedition. This partiality, of course, enrages the Socialists and very often makes them lose all sense of proportion and commit acts of utter barbarity.

The Fascisti movement is gaining ground in every town and village of Italy. It is organized on strictly military lines, with iron discipline. Its members are almost all former officers or former legionaries of d’Annunzio. Their leaders are men who fought in the great war. In fact, their Supreme Chief is General Capello, the hero of Gorizia.

The Fascisti have the strictest orders to never be the first to attack, never to provoke their adversaries, but if the Socialists commit acts of violence against the community, they are to show no mercy in their reprisals.

There are also sections of women Fascisti who in many instances have shown their worth not only for propaganda purposes and in nursing the wounded during conflicts, but in a fighting capacity. Two of them are at the present moment lying in prison, involved in the killing of the Communist Cammio.

Another example of their fearlessness and earnestness was demonstrated in Florence. A young girl, still with her hair down her back, was crossing the Arno River when a Socialist accosted her and tore off the Fascisti badge she was wearing. Without a moment’s hesitation she sprang on the man and they grappled. When the girl saw that the Socialist was gradually forcing her to the parapet of the bridge, with the intention of throwing her over, she drew a revolver from her pocket and cried, “This is the way the women of Italy defend themselves!” But at that moment passersby intervened and there was no unpleasant incident to be deplored.

So far the Fascisti in reprisal have destroyed 200 labor bureaus and printing houses where subversive newspapers and literature are published, and probably before election day many more will be added to the list.

Their program in the present political campaign is threefold: First, to free the country from her internal enemies and protect her from foreign ones; second, to restore the authority of the State; third, to force the resumption of work in all fields in order to restore the economic and financial equilibrium of Italy. As their chief object is to fight socialism, communism and anarchism, they stand alone politically in those constituencies in which they are strong enough, or as in Rome, they join one or more of the constitutional parties which have in common with them all or part of their program.