An email exchange - Cops and Crime in Chappaqua
(Don is a '41 graduate of HGHS and an occasional reader of our site. Don is asking about the editor's previous account of having shot Chappaqua Patrolman Doug Hunter with a water pistol)
From: Don Reynolds
To: B Miller
Subject: Patrolman Hunter, CPD
Hey Bill.
Whatever happened with the story about you waterpistolwhipping one of Chappaqua's finest? /Regards , Don Reynolds '41
From: B Miller
To: Don Reynolds
Subject: Patrolman Hunter, CPD
Hello Don,
The event did happen - a can remember the expression on his face as I whipped out the gun and let him have it right in the eye. I remember my mother whacking me on the head when I got home. I talked to Doug in Florida recently and put a writeup about it on the website - www.hghs57.org/homeroom/hunter.htm . Doug doesn't remember it at all - could be an age thing - he only remembers a murder that occurred on North Greeley Avenue. Regards / Bill
From: Don Reynolds
To: B Miller
Subject: Patrolman Hunter, CPD
Bill,
Since you brought it up, I can remember two policemen. from 1940, Jim Cotter and Les Romaine. Jimmy was a patrolman and roared around on a motor cycle. Romaine was chief and he had a brother chief in Pleasantville. Then, in later years, maybe the 50s there was a HGHS patrolman Named Jack Graff who had been in high school about my years. About 1940 they put a police booth in Millwood at the intersection of 100 and Shinglehouse Rd. That gave us "protection" but it was occupied only infrequently. Sort of like the box at Buckingham Pallace.
If you want a hilarious home town anecdote, ask Dave Williams, '60, whose dad was station agent and had trouble being short changed by fast moving commuters buying the Times and Herald Trib. Story got NYCity coverage. /Regards, Don Reynolds '41
From: B Miller
To: Don Reynolds
Subject: Chappaqua Police
Don , Thanks for the memories - I do remember the train station incident with the camera in the ceiling. Created quite a stir and kept a few commuters worried for a while. I always wondered whether Stationmaster Williams actually had any film footage or, even if he did, whether you could identify the faces of the pilferers from straight overhead. The day the story broke I went into the station to see the camera in the ceiling. /Bill
From: Don Reynolds
To: B Miller
Subject: Chappaqua Police
Bill, Thanks to the Freedom of Information act we are learning a little, but not enough about the White House. Let's apply the act to Dave William's long guarded secret...."Was there actually film in that RR station camera?" Now it can be told! /Don Reynolds
(Dave is a '60 graduate of HGHS and the son of George Williams, the Chappaqua Stationmaster. Dave also maintains a website for the class of '60)
From: Dave Williams (class of '60)
To : B Miller & Don Reynolds
Subject: The Film in that Camera
Don and Bill,
Yes, guys, there was film in the camera. Dad told me years later though that it was not possible to actually tell who was pilfering or how much. But, since he knew it was going on, just the threat of exposure (nice little pun there) was sufficient to deter the malefactors.
It sure did stir things up though. Dave
Dave's Account of the Train Station pilfering.
I was in 4th grade when it all happened, so I don't know all the ins and outs of how the story built and died. Basically though, the NY papers picked it up because of the "rich businessman commuter vs. humble stationmaster" angle. I remember reading an article that said something to the effect of "People in posh Chappaqua had come to think of themselves as a little better than their surrounding towns and then the story of pilfering from the station agent came to light." It was unfair "class envy" kind of reporting, but it sold papers. Dad never thought of it in that light. He was just angry that one or two guys would do that. (We counted on that newspaper money to help make ends meet.) Once he had the film, he put up a blackboard in the lobby of the station with a narrative saying that he had "acquired some silent partners among the commuters on the 9:23 (or whatever) train." He went on the say that he had it all on film and unless the pilferage stopped, maybe we could "have and early showing" one morning. It did stop. He was actually later on a TV panel show called "It's News to Me" that featured celebreties trying to identify a news story from some hints. In dad's case the hint was the blackboard, with only part of the message showing. They got it immediately.
Anyway, the whole thing percolated for awhile then just ran out of legs and fell out of the paper, which was appropriate. Over the years though, I remember lots of people from Chappaqua and surrounding towns who recalled the story very well and kind of looked at dad as a kind of folk hero. When I first contacted Don Reynolds last year and introduced myself by mentioning that he may have known my father, who was the station agent, his message back started with his remembrance of this whole incident. That's a long time - 1951 (or maybe 52) was when it all happened.
A humorous epilog -- About three years later, the PTA in conjunction with various groups put on a very fun production there at Greeley that ran two or three nights. It was skits and playlets about the history of Chappaqua, current local events, and so forth. Two of the best received included a scene where my mom portrayed Edith Sliker as Roaring Brook principal and a "typical" day at the office. It was an absolute riot, ending up with Edith having to care for a pet one of the kids had brought in -- a gorilla (inside the suit was Mr. Harrington.) The other top draw was a scene at the RR station as the commuters milled about waiting for their train. Dad played himself, and near the end, there was one commuter sneakily sifting through the newspaper cash box. Suddenly there was a loud crack and he withdrew his hand, with a moustrap on one finger, and declared "Williams, you've gone too far this time." It got a big laugh. The scene ended with dad coming out of his "cage" with a roll of Kodak film in his hand, saying "I got it all in color this time." I don't think dad or any of us ever saved any of the newspaper stories. It's all an interesting footnote to town history though, and I've always enjoyed telling the story. A few years ago, I was in Chappaqua and was talking to the station agent there and told him about it, and pointed out where the hole had been. (There was still a wood plug over it then.) He got a big kick out of it.
Well, it's interesting to recall it all. Hope you enjoyed it too.
Best wishes, Dave
