Summaries of local news stories from the pages of the Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era appear in this space each Monday. They are researched and compiled by staff member Tim Buckwalter. Full versions are available on microfilm at Lancaster Public Library, 125 N. Duke St.
25 years ago
PLANT CLOSING: Slaymaker Inc., one of Lancaster city's oldest manufacturers, closed its doors after 98 years in business. Formerly Slaymaker Lock Co. Inc., the South West End Avenue company had been bought by local management and an investment group in February 1985 in an attempt to save the struggling operation.
But officials said two factors were too difficult to overcome: declining sales due to competition from locks made oversees and the rising cost of insurance. (April 4, 1986)
COPTER CRASH: A rescue attempt turned into a near disaster when a helicopter crashed in darkness into the Susquehanna River while its crew was searching for a young man stranded in a boating accident. Other rescuers pulled the pilot and his two passengers onto a boat, and the helicopter sank out of site.
The helicopter was owned by International Signal & Control Group, which had volunteered its use for the search. On board were James H. Guerin, 55, the firm's chairman, pilot Duane D. Heist, 43, and co-pilot Robert J. Rummel, 36. The boater remained missing. (April 5, 1986)
'WITNESS' VIDEO: Local video stores reported huge advance demand for the movie "Witness," starring Harrison Ford and largely filmed in Lancaster County. Local stores planned to price the soon-to-be-released videocassette at $59.95 to $60. (April 7, 1986)
NW TRIANGLE: The administration of Mayor Arthur E. Morris announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Conrail to buy a 20-acre tract known as the "Northwest Triangle," bounded roughly by Harrisburg Avenue, North Prince Street and West Liberty Street. The city hoped to create an industrial park on the site. (April 8, 1986)
NEW STUDY: Mayor Arthur E. Morris announced the formation of a 14-member steering committee to examine the concept of a convention center in Lancaster and to determine if the city could afford to support it. He named Elaine Ewing Holden, former director of Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, to chair the panel. (April 10, 1986)
50 years ago
CITY RAMPAGE: A 55-year-old city man, who wired himself with dynamite caps to become a walking bomb, shot his nephew and a city policeman during a spree that ended when he surrendered meekly to two other officers. Both victims were shot in the leg and were in satisfactory condition at Lancaster General Hospital.
The suspect was not cooperating with police, but his brother said in an interview that "he must have flipped his lid." (April 5, 1961)
NEW FACTORY: Universal Trailer Corp. purchased a 10-acre tract in the northeastern section of Quarryville for construction of a truck-trailer plant. Company officials said the plant would start with 25 employees, with the goal of expanding to 100. (April 7, 1961)
TOURIST BOOST: With full confidence that a new "Tourist Promotion Law" would soon pass the state Legislature, the local Pennsylvania Dutch Tourist Bureau was preparing to move out of "small change" promotion efforts into a full-blown agency. The county expected to receive $27,000 in state funding under the new law. (April 7, 1961)
CURTAINS: The city police chief and the county district attorney ordered the owner of Fulton Art Theatre to end its brief but booming run of "The Immoral Mr. Teas." The order was issued after a detail of law-enforcement reviewers saw the first screening of the film and reported to the chief that it was indeed "lewd and obscene." (April 8, 1961)
75 years ago
EXECUTION: A large crowd gathered outside the offices of Lancaster Newspapers to await word of the execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted of the murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., infant son of the famed aviator.
Some in the local crowd, noting previous delays in the execution, were laying down 10-to-1 bets that "he won't burn tonight." The crowd surged when the final flash came across the bulletin board: "Hauptmann died at 8:47."
Then the crowd slowly dispersed, though some stayed a few minutes longer to settle up bets. (April 4, 1936)
POISONINGS: City police were working to solve a mysterious series of dog poisonings, mostly in the city's West End. Six dogs had died in two days from strychnine poisoning. The dog owners lived on College Avenue and West Chestnut and Pine streets. (April 8, 1936)
CADET KILLED: A Lancaster orphan's brief military career came to a sudden end in the charred wreckage of a TWA airliner that crashed into a mountainside three miles south of Uniontown, killing 11 people. The 18-year-old was a cadet at Valley Forge Military Academy. He was on his way to visit a classmate in Pittsburgh for the Easter holiday. (April 8 and 10, 1936)
100 years ago
DOC ATTACK ATTEMPT: A Lancaster doctor narrowly escaped injury when an intruder tried to attack him in his home in the first block of West Orange Street. The doctor rolled out of bed in the dark just before the intruder struck four vicious blows on the bed.
The doctor retrieved a pistol from a bureau and fired several shots as the intruder ran out of the building. A suspect was later arrested in Columbia. (April 6, 1911)
BODY IN RIVER: The mystery surrounding the disappearance of a city cigarmaker was solved when his badly decomposed body was found floating in the Conestoga Creek at Engleside three months after he went missing.
He reportedly had been drinking heavily at the time of his disappearance, and authorities suspected he had fallen into a sewer inlet at Dorwart and Fremont streets, with his body eventually making its way down the Water Street sewer to the creek. (April 10, 1911)
