July 4, 1927
Some youths hanging around the local ball field on New Road (Granville Road near Loomis St.) in Southwick on July 4, 1927, set up a metal bomb that looked like a firework.
John Battistoni, Peter Monczka, and Stanley P. Brzoska, all of Southwick, had just arrived in Battistoni's Ford. As they were exiting the automobile, the dynamite exploded. The explosion shattered the Ford's windshield, covering spectators in glass. The blast blew off a portion of Battistoni's right leg, which doctors later amputated above his knee. He also suffered significant blood loss, so much so that witnesses thought he would die.
The blast blew off Peter Monczka's right hand at the wrist; it, too, had to be amputated. Brzoska's right knee was fractured. A piece of metal tore a baseball-sized hole through his left leg, which was also fractured. He had small holes blown through every one of his fingers on his right hand.
When Battistoni's sister visited Brzoska at Noble Hospital, Brzoska's first question was, who won the baseball game?
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
The
explosion occurred at the gravel pit next to the Lambson ballfield,
where a big Fourth of July baseball game was being played.
About
a week prior, Peter's brother Jacob was shot in an altercation after
being accused of assaulting a nine-year-old girl. The resulting medical
bills sent the struggling Monczka family into further financial turmoil.
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