May 21, 1995
25 Years Ago
Drinking Drivers Cause Half of Highway Deaths – Solution Of This One Problem Could Result In saving 28,000 Lives Annually In U.S. – “If we could eliminate all causes of highway accidents but one, we would still be faced with 50 per cent of the problem – drinking and driving,” according to Howard Pyle, president of the National Safety Council. At total of 56,400 Americans died in traffic accidents during 1969, and more than half of these deaths were caused by drinking drivers. More than 28,000 lives might have been saved last year if drivers had either refrained from drinking altogether or had drunk in such a way that their skill and judgement would not have been impaired – and that means waiting at least one hour per average drink before attempting to drive, according to the Council. Under normal circumstances, the driver’s brain constantly receives information which helps him keep his vehicle moving safely through traffic. Alcoholic beverages hinder this process in many ways. Because the driver’s senses are dulled, the information his brain receives may be distorted. His judgement is
impaired and his normal inhibitions are dulled. He cannot think as clearly, quickly, or rationally as he normally does. Community Reporter, May 22, 1970.
50 Years Ago
German Prisoners For Farm Work – More than 5000 German prisoners will be among approximately 15,000 laborers recruited to work this season on Maryland farms and in food processing plants and canneries. Paul E. Nystrom, State supervisor of the emergency farm labor program for the Extension Service, University of Maryland, revealed. From 100 to 200 conscientious objectors in Soil Conservation Service camp in Washington county, Carroll county and Worcester county also will be assigned to farmers for work in the fields, going out daily from the camps. The Newfoundlanders have been assigned to dairy farms in Kent, Harford, Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties. New camps have been completed in Dundalk, Baltimore county, and at Fort Washington, Prince Georges county; two others at Gaithersburg, Montgomery county and Westminster are nearing completion. Democratic
Advocate, May 18, 1945.
75 Years Ago
Mrs. Fabrizzi Acquitted – The trial of Mrs. Dominies Fabrizzi aged 29 who admitted killing her husband near here on January 29, then placing the body on the R. R. tracks, was begun in
Westminster on Monday morning, It was with considerable difficulty that a jury was secured which occupied the greater part of the day. After hearing evidence the case was given to the jury Tuesday afternoon and after an hour’s deliberation, she was acquitted of the killing of her husband Dominick Fabrizzi, on January 9. The State had asked for a verdict of murder in the first degree. While the jury was deliberating over its verdict the trial of Ernest Potenziani, a boarder at the Fabrizzi home when the crime was committed and who was accused of assisting Mrs. Fabrizzi in the murder, was started. When the jury declared Mr. Fabrizzi not quilty State’s Attorney Theodore F. Brown stopped the trial of Potenziani. In view of the verdict in the case of the woman he entered a plea of not quilty also for the man. Mrs. Fabrizzi in a signed confession before her trial started and on the witness stand exonerated Potenziani. A dramatic scene was injected into the trial when Mrs. Fabrizzi, with an interpreter in the place of her dead husband, re-enacted the shooting and the placing of the body on the railroad tracks, using the
same shotgun which she admitted was used in killing her husband. Her plea was self-defense. Union Bridge Pilot, May 21, 1920.
100 Years Ago
Mr C. L. Grossnickle, who occupies as tenant, the farm of Mr. D. H. Zile, near Taylorsville, has, piled in his woodyard, fifteen cords of wood cut from one tree. The assertion seems almost beyond belief, but the wood can be seen and measured by anybody who doubts it. The tree of which it is the product was a venerable chestnut, which grew on the farm, the trunk of which measured eleven feet in diameter. It had to be split to pieces with dynamite before it could be worked up into cord-wood, even some of the limbs having been so large that a six-foot cross-cut saw was unavailable in cutting them to pieces. It was felled by Mr. Grossnickle and two of his employees, who were occupied from early morning until two o’clock in the afternoon in cutting it down. In addition to the wood two large wagon loads of chips were obtained from it. It was probably the largest tree in the county, if not in the State. American Sentinel, May 18, 1895