Date: Fri 13-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Laslo-Briscoe-fiction-history

Full Text:

FROM THE CASE FILES OF DETECTIVE LASLO BRISCOE: Tenth Installment in Series

By Andrea Zimmermann

As he made notes about his wartime experiences for inclusion in his memoirs,

Bob Stokes considered the evolution of military strategy, equipment, and

weapons. And, realizing no town in the states had been left untouched by the

Civil War, nor by the subsequent World Wars, the military history buff sought

mention of war in the case files of Private Investigator Laslo Briscoe. A 1917

entry indicates even the hardened Newtown detective was not immune to the

horrors of war.

No. 803 --

The Case of the Bargain Bay

Time moves forward but crime is slow to change.

Of all social behaviors -- how we dress, the language we

employ, the means by which we defend ourselves, and that which leads us

to cross rigid moral boundaries -- it is base activity alone which

greatly lags the advances of the others, as if villians are clinging to

the known and sure for fear they may find no comparable means by which to

fill their pockets in modern society.

Horse thieves are a primary example of the traditional criminal steadfastly

pursuing a trade that, if not today then tomorrow, must yield to the

mechanical and scientific advances which will facilitate tracking such

untoward endeavors. Even if they remain unaware of what transpires in the

world about them, logic will win out. There are many items of equal value that

may be removed more easily than a 1,300 pound bay. But, as has been proven

repeatedly within the small confines of Newtown, the criminal mind does not

regularly possess the sharpest of wit. And so it is that a second horse has

been stolen within a meager few months of another.

Mamert Woicehowski is satisfied his horse was taken from his Sugar Street

property, up through the lots to the Taunton road, and then over by the lake

towards Danbury. The bay has black points, with a light mane, and star in the

forehead. The horse must be greatly valued by Woicehowski as he offers a

reward of $50 for the conviction of the party responsible. And many a

townsperson would gladly receive that sum and contribute it to the YMCA

canvass for our men at war. Levi C. Morris, who is collecting the funds, hopes

to raise $2,000 in town.

Although the letters I've received from young Beers and Northrop have been

censored, there is scant doubt to the general conditions endured by our men

who are in the midst of the action. But it was not until I heard the following

description, offered by a general passing through town, did I find the all too

familiar visions of the war between the states returning to haunt my mind.

"You are cold and wet and dazed standing in water. You cannot leave the

trenches in the day time or you will be shot. You have no opportunity to rest

any and when you finally are relieved you go to your billet 15 miles away and

find it has been moved.

"The men march and march and march. They stumble along any old way. They get

five minutes' rest time and are supposed to go to the fields on the sides of

the road and sit or lie down. My regiment has never done that. They have

fallen down where they stood with their service packs for pillows, with

artillery wheels and trucks passing within a few inches of their heads. They

were so exhausted they did not care whether the trucks went over their bodies

or not. They feel sooner or later, `I'll be a casualty. I do not care whether

the next shell hits me or not.'"

No. 819 --

The Case of the

Forest Fire Fiends

Once bitten, twice shy. That is a reasonable man's response to a brush with

the law, especially when it takes the form of fire warden Austin Conger.

But four from Bridgeport persisted in their intent to have a blaze in the

forests of Newtown. They arrived during the day on Sunday, and early that

evening a fire was noted in the woods east of the Crowe and Keane Button

Factory. Francis Keane, Conger, and I went to the scene and found the four men

with a roaring fire. We made short work of extinguishing the blaze and issued

stern warning against kindling another. About 1 o'clock Monday morning, fire

warden Conger discovered a fire on the land of David Switzsky. He immediately

telephoned me, and I summoned Sheriff Beers and Constable H.M. Greenman who

were soon on the scene and the four men arrested.

Pere Berggre, Hilding Gustafson, David Rich and Joseph Bamph were arraigned

before Justice P. H. McCarthy on the charge of starting fires without

permission of the fire warden. They pleaded guilty and were fined $5 and

costs, amounting to $21.66, which was paid.

About a month ago, the Hydraulic Company of Bridgeport lost 175 cords of hard

wood, all cut and piled, through the carelessness of someone in the vicinity

of Botsford.