Fernando Gonzalez Rodriguez worked on the Hathaway and Steane Tobacco Plantation in Southwick, Massachusetts. He lived in the company's barracks with the other tobacco workers of Farm C; the sleeping quarters were on the second floor of the bunkhouse.   On the evening of September 20, 1958, Rodriguez went to the Estes Club, a popular gathering place for Puerto Ricans, on the third floor of 50 Ferry Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. There, he saw his crush, nineteen-year-old Otilio Vaxeo, who, repulsed by him, brushed aside his advances as she did in previous run-ins with him.  Rodriguez left the club.  Luz Maria Reyes Escribano Otilio left the club at about 12:15 a.m. with her brother-in-law, thirty-seven-year-old Nazario Gutierre Mendoza. Outside, they ran into Rodriguez, who pushed Otilio before producing a .32 caliber revolver. As Otilio turned, Rodriguez fired a shot point-blank into her back. He reportedly fired a second shot that entered the bicep of h...

Barnett's Grave in Suffield In November 1930, John F. Barnett Jr. submitted plans and an application to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Works seeking permission to place fill in Congamond Lake to provide a bathing beach.   After receiving state approval, John spent three years developing Barnett's Beach before it opened at Congamond Lake on July 4, 1935. It featured a dine-and-dance pavilion, live entertainment, "fine sandy bathing, picnic grove, boat livery, and recreation fields."   The resort, located on the south end of Middle Pond, had valuable frontage along the new Suffield-Congamond State Highway. The main building was five stories tall, about 300 feet long, and 75 feet wide. The ends were 50 feet wide. On one end was the dance hall and dining; the other was living quarters and cottages. Barnett's Beach held a dance until midnight on August 10, 1935. Following the dance, the night watchman made his usual rounds before calling it a ni...

Some 300 people visited Balch's Beach on the north end of Middle Pond at Lake Congamond between June 17 and 18, 1929. The amusement center held its grand opening on July 1. (Balch's Beach stretched across Point Grove Road to North Pond.) Balch's Beach featured a concession stand, live entertainment, a dancing pavilion, row boats and canoes, fishing, and a speed boat that provided lake tours. It also had a picnic grove, a bathhouse, and a merry-go-round. Cottages, campsites, another bathhouse, and a ballroom were later added. (A powerful searchlight was installed atop the bathhouse in 1931. The light mimicked daylight and illuminated the water for night swimming.) The Balch's Beach Ballroom became the Ritz Ballroom in 1930.  The original owner, Benjamin Babb, held a $5,000 first mortgage. Clayton Balch was the director, presumably until William P. Marcoullier of Westfield operated it under a trust agreement circa 1930-1. (However, Thompsonville Bottling Works filed a $50...

Police in Pennsylvania arrested Frederick Davis in 1959 on an outstanding warrant for multiple burglaries in Vermont (including a post office in Pownal); they also arrested his girlfriend, Mary Backus. (Police set a trap for the couple after Mary's father tipped them off to their whereabouts after she wired him asking for $40.) During his interrogation by police, Frederick implicated his brother, Hilton. Police in Granby, Connecticut, contacted their counterparts in Westfield, Massachusetts, after finding a 400-pound arc welder, welding cables, a welding helmet, and other items stolen from the abandoned Fruehauf Trailer plant at James Cavanaugh's home in nearby Windsor. Police picked up Hilton shortly after Cavanaugh told them that Hilton was his partner in crime. Authorities in Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut became aware of the Davis brothers after police from Rutland, Vermont, arrest warrants in hand, traveled to Southwick, Massachusetts, believing that was wh...

Warren Barden and William Olden went on a day-long drinking spree in Connecticut on August 26, 1967. The drunken duo crossed the state line into Southwick, Massachusetts, which they were familiar with, having lived there once. They went to various places around town as they continued drinking. Warren's estranged wife, Dorothy Ann (LeClaire), called the Southwick Police Department on September 10, telling them that her husband told her that he killed a man there back in August. Southwick notified Connecticut State Police, who, along with authorities in New Britain, questioned Warren and held him as a fugitive from justice as Southwick Police Chief James Curran obtained an arrest warrant. (Police also learned that William Olden's family, who described him as a "heavy drinker," had reported him missing to authorities in Connecticut on August 27.) Warren waived extradition, so Connecticut State Police immediately handed him over to authorities in Southwick, with two offic...

The Harger Farm The Umansky family lived at the old Nelson Harger place near the crossroads of the Otis and Tolland roads in West Granville, Massachusetts. When Minnie Umansky returned home from Tolland (Massachusetts) around three o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 27, 1911, she found it odd that all the doors were locked, one barricaded with a beer keg. She heard her baby crying inside the home and called out for her mother-in-law, Rosa "Rose" Umansky, but there was no response. After finally gaining entry, Minnie found the kitchen smoky; her mother-in-law's bedroom ransacked. She quickly grabbed her baby and ran to her nearest neighbor's house, Charlie Sheets, which was less than 3/4 miles away. Charles' son Albert accompanied Minnie home. While searching the house for Rose, they found a pillow smoking in the oven in the kitchen. When their search of the house turned up nothing, they checked the barn and walked around the property. Again, ther...

Alton E. Holcomb of Granville, Massachusetts, married Pauline B. Lathrop of Hartland, Connecticut, on June 8, 1875. The couple welcomed two daughters, Clara, born on March 9, 1877, and Maud on July 15, 1880. (Pauline's mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in Hartland.) When Pauline fell ill sometime around 1882, she traveled to Bridgeport, Connecticut, for medical care, leaving her husband to raise their girls and attend to the household alone in her absence. After a few months, Alton sought help. In May, he induced Pauline's friend, Miss Mary Giddings of Hartland, to move in with him and the girls, and in doing so, it did not take long for neighbors to become suspicious of the pair's rapidly developing relationship, one of intimacy.  Mary returned to Connecticut in October, first visiting relatives in Hartland. Alton showed up there on or about November 28, and he and Mary then headed to Torrington, where th...