Strange Times 57: In Love With Miss X

Strange Times is a weekly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. Issues 0-52 are archived here. Upgrade to a premium subscription to get every issue, every week.

Today brings a pimple-faced bank robber, a blue law punishment, dancing furniture, and cruelty through socks. Tighten your garters for…

February 26, 1921

• In rural Italy, bands of socialist peasants wage war against a party of extreme nationalists called the Fascisti.

• Augusta Maley, reportedly the first female lawyer to try a murder case, suffers defeat as her clients are found guilty.

• A Wisconsin woman suffering from "singing sickness" is said to talk or sing for hours after being startled by the slightest noise.

• Although Caruso's doctors refuse to allow any birthday celebration, the tenor's hotel room is flooded with flowers by well-wishers two days before the date of his birth: the result of a typo in the musical directory.

• The Weather: Fair and somewhat warmer today, followed by snow or rain tonight or Sunday; increasing south winds.

This may be the boldest crime yet recorded in this newsletter. In his entire career, it’s estimated that John Dillinger stole around $300,000 from the banks of the Midwest. Young William Dalton bested that in five minutes, and he didn’t even use a gun. Will he get away with it? Premium subscribers will find out next week.

CHICAGO, Feb. 25.—William Dalton, a seventeen-year-old clerk employed by the Northern Trust Company of this city, walked out of the bank at noon yesterday, carrying with him Liberty bonds of a par value of $772,000, which he had wrapped in a brown paper parcel. Dalton, who had been in the bank for three years, receiving a salary of $80 a month, has not been seen since. 

The theft was discovered two hours after Dalton left, but no clue as to the clerk's whereabouts has been found. The Northern Trust Company has offered a reward of $1,000 for his apprehension and $25,000 for the recovery of the stolen bonds.

Previous to the theft, the boy, according to his mother, had been a steady churchgoer, spent his evenings at the Y.M.C.A. College, and had no bad habits.

Although a blanket insurance policy covers part of the loss, the bank will suffer if the bonds are not recovered. The institution has $1,120,000 in undivided profits.

A private detective agency has been engaged by the bank to search for Dalton, the police have been notified, and the United States Secret Service has promised its assistance.

Dalton first went to work for the bank in June, 1918, as a page, carrying messages from one department to another. Three months ago he was made a junior clerk. He was bonded in the sum of $5,000.

The missing bonds were sent yesterday from the savings department on the second floor to the third floor for checking.… Six persons were working in the securities cage in the trust department, one of whom was Dalton, to whom the bonds were delivered for counting and checking.

No one, apparently, paid much attention to Dalton as he counted the bonds and checked them on a slip of paper. He left the cage for a moment and returned, according to one of his fellow clerks, with a sheet of brown wrapping paper. 

At 12:20 Irving Hanson, Dalton's immediate superior, remarked: "It's lunch time. Guess I'll be going."

Dalton placed the bond parcel under his arm, walked down stairs to the locker room, put on his hat and overcoat, and left the building.

Mr. Hanson noticed Dalton's absence at 2:30 o'clock, and a quick investigation showed that the bonds were missing.

Dalton's description, as made public by the bank, is as follows: 

"Seventeen years of age, 5 feet 3 inches in height, weight 103 pounds, slender build, dark hair combed pompadour style, cut recently; pimpled face. Wore a mixed gray-and-black suit, with cap to match, overcoat with belt, tan shoes and soft collar."

Dalton lived with his mother and two older sisters. His father is dead.

"This is perhaps the first time that Dalton has had the opportunity of handling negotiable paper in large amounts," said S.C. Stallwood, Treasurer of the trust company, tonight. "These transactions in Liberty bonds only come up twice a year.

"Dalton has only been in the cage three months. His habits, we have gathered, were regular. We have found that he kept a savings account in our bank and that on Thursday morning he drew $50, leaving a balance of $68.12. We have checked with all bond brokers in the city and found that none of the bonds has yet turned up. I don't believe that he had planned the theft, for he had no opportunity of knowing he was to count the bonds or have anything to do with them."

That Dalton apparently had no large sum of money in his pocket is advanced by detectives for their belief that he has not tried to leave the city, but is hiding in some obscure hotel or lodging house. These places are being systematically canvassed. Railroad stations and other points of egress from the city are being covered, while an alarm has been broadcast.

Lists of the serial numbers of the missing bonds were prepared, and stock ticker wires will carry them tomorrow morning in a general warning to all bankers and brokers.

Dalton's mother told bank officials that the boy had been acting naturally the last few weeks.

"William was always a good boy," she sobbed. "I can't account for this at all. God knows I've tried to bring him up as a mother should. He was a good boy and stayed at home nights. I brought him up to go to church and Sunday school.

"He has not been running with a fast crowd and he did not have any sweetheart that I know of. Several nights lately he has been out until about 11:30, but he always told me he had been to a movie, and he talked about the pictures he had seen."

Mrs. Dora Dalton, his mother, asked The Chicago Tribune to appeal to her son to get in touch by wire, collect, to the city editor, that arrangements might be made for his surrender and return.

I am, in some ways, not a lawyer, but I just don’t think you can sentence a 21-year-old man to Sunday school.

EMPORIA, Kan., Feb. 25.—Two young men who pleaded guilty to burglary of a drug store in Emporia must live for five years under "blue laws," according to parole terms laid down today by Judge W.C. Harris of the District Court.

They must go to work, keep out of pool halls, quit smoking cigarettes, go to church and Sunday school, open bank accounts, obey their parents and stay out only one night each week until 10 o'clock. One of the youths is 19, the other 21.

I love this story because of the implication that while the ghosts are annoying, neighbors are the real irritant.

LONDONDERRY, N.H., Feb. 25.—A representative of the Psychic Research Library of Boston and First Selectman Edward E. Kent started independent investigations today of mysterious happenings reported at the home of Mrs. Sedley Lowd. According to Mrs. Lowd and others, chairs and heavier pieces of furniture perform sudden gyrations, buttons take flight from a work basket into the air, and table forks and stove wood shoot through windows without warning. The psychic research investigator, it was announced, would make his visit contingent upon the Lowd family's consent.

The occurrences, as reported by Mrs. Lowd, her son Herbert, and their neighbors, have stirred the town to such an extent that the Selectman felt he ought to obtain some first-hand information if possible. Since the alleged peculiar manifestations began early in the week, the home of Mrs. Lowd has been besieged by inquisitive persons and self-appointed investigators. Their presence has not been entirely convenient for the family, as they have insisted on exploring every corner of the house to find the cause of the phenomena. Today they were confronted with a sign on the front door saying: "Keep Away."

A spiritual twin to “Strange Times 50: He Must Wear Shoes”, this article is the most extreme case I’ve seen of a recurrent trope in the ‘21 paper, which is women filing suit against their husbands for grotesque mistreatment. Misogyny takes all forms.

Although married to the son of a wealthy banker, she was compelled to wear his old hosiery and her mother-in-law's old clothes. Mrs. Grace M. Prisco said yesterday in an application to Justice Kelby in the Supreme Court, Brooklyn, for a decree of separation from her husband, George W. Prisco, son of Raffaele Prisco, a private banker at 73 Mulberry Street, Manhattan. Mrs. Prisco charged cruel and inhuman treatment and asked for $50 a week alimony and counsel fees of $500. She said that she eloped with her husband and was married to him in Knoxville, Tenn., on June 2 last.

"I was compelled to wear two old skirts previously worn by my mother in law," said Mrs. Prisco in her affidavit. "I had to wear my husband's socks. I had no coat, so I wore one given to me by my mother-in-law. It was thirteen years old. My husband left me alone at night to take other girls on motor trips. He refused to take me with him to Cuba when he went on Nov. 20, 1920. He ordered me not to laugh. He refused to speak English in my presence. He was in love with Miss X. I have letters to prove this. He woke me up one night to tell me of his life for Miss X."

Prisco, in his answering affidavit, said that his wife, who was a bookkeeper in a bank, married him because she thought he was wealthy and could lead a gay and frivolous life. He said that she liked to smoke, drink and indulge in all sorts of amusements, and once spent $21 in a beauty parlor to have her hair dressed.