INNOCENT PASSERBY SHOT IN GANG FIGHT
Only Person Hurt When Fourteen Bullets Fly in Park in Maspeth
Adam Zutlansky, 18 years old, of 2 Hull street. Maspeth, L. I., is the one champion spieler of his neighborhood. If it had not been for Adam's proficiency in this accomplishment, James Peterson, 19, of 174 Fisk Avenue, Maspeth, would not be in the German Hospital today, with a bullet in his side.

This was the way of it, if the police got the right version of the Story today. Adam was a great favorite at all the dances of the Little Otto and Charlie Association. His discomfited rivals fed on their rage in their hearts, until two weeks ago, when somebody had a fight with Adam and informed him that his company was not desirable. Last night Adam returned to a dance of the Little Otto and Charlie Association, in Sperling Hall, Fisk Avenue, near Pinkney street. Behind him were several hardy members of the Polack alley gang.

Within half an hour of midnight two gangs clashed in the park near the dance hall and there was shooting. Fourteen shots were fired. None of the bullets seemed to find any mark, except in the body of an innocent bystander, as usual.

At 11:30 o'clock Peterson staggered into the cafe adjoining the dance hall and sprawled across the bar with a bullet in his side. An ambulance call was rung in and Dr. Kortz responded on the gallop from the German Hospital.  Petersom revived sufficiently to say that he was not an attendant at the dance, not a member of the warring factions, but only a passerby.

When the ambulance had removed Peterson, badly hurt, the bullet so deeply lodged that the surgeons fore bore to probe for it, Detectives Charles Krummel and William Hemmerich were on the job. They picked up Zutlansky, Daniel Kania, 19, of 18 Second Street, Julius Kish, 18, of 170 Maspeth Avenue, and Mike Gaser, 21, of 176 Hull Avenue.  They were to be charged with assault, the police said, with the exception of Kish and Gaser, who are alleged to have revolvers and cartridges.

Zutlansky wasn't hurt. – Brooklyn Eagle, May 12, 1917

Murder suspected in death of newlyweds in Queens home
“Possible homicides” police said today of the deaths of newlywed George Chinery, 28, and his wife, Ella, whose bodies were found in their home on the second floor of a two-family house at 53-57 65th Place, Ridgewood Plateau, Queens. The bodies were discovered last night by George Sherbejean, owner of the house. It is believed that the couple had been dead about four days. According to the police and authorities at the Queens County morgue in Jamaica, both bodies were splotched with blood. The woman was in bed, clad in night-clothing, the man was discovered in the bathroom of their apartment where he had presumably gone to obtain medicine after suddenly becoming ill. No theft had been committed, police said. In the drawers of the vanity in their bedroom $100 was found and several pieces of Jewelry. The husband was an employee of the Eastern District Terminal in Brooklyn, his wife was employed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in Manhattan. They had been married in February. At the Terminal, where Chinery was employed as a checker, it was learned he had left work at 6:30 Friday night, but did not report Saturday morning. He had not missed a day in five years, his employer said. The parents of Mr. Chinery, Mr. and Mrs. George Chinery of 66-49 Grand Ave., Maspeth, were notified, as was Margie Wyniski, a sister of the dead woman, who also lives at the Maspeth address. An autopsy was to have been performed this morning by Chief Medical Examiner Howard W. Neal of Queens. The cause of death will be difficult to determine, he has said, because the bodies had decomposed rapidly. Among the theories is that the couple died of food poisoning.  – Brooklyn Eagle, July 20, 1937

Hundreds of gypsies mourning while they plan big funeral for Stephen Georgovitch
The rear-room of a two-room shanty in the gypsy camp are where Maspeth Romanies from all over the Metropolitan area are gathering to have a last look at one of the leaders of their race. Steven Georgovitch, wealthy and wise by the standards of the Romany, died suddenly of heart failure Thursday morning. By 6 o'clock last night the word had spread far and wide and the members of the Georgovitch clan, which are many, were hurrying by train and automobile to pay their respects to the old man.

The low ceilings, un-papered rear room presented an unusual scene last night, a section of the gray rear wall was blotted out by the green of many potted palms, and before this was placed on silvered stands a great oaken casket, beautifully and expensively lined with soft white silk.

Within this casket, as fine as any ever used by their supposedly more prosperous “gajos” neighbors, lay the white haired, white mustached leader, attired in a suit of fine grayish material. At head and foot burned candles in great silver candlesticks, while from the center of the room hung an old fashioned oil lamp.

A constantly changing crowd filled the room. There were old men in shabby suits and young men in the latest cut styles of the gajos, old and middle-aged women in the flowing, many colored dresses and blouses characteristic of their race for ages, and young girls in the latest creations of Sixth Avenue modistes.

The members of the family were easily distinguished by the fact that they were seated and either crying or calling out loud their grief. The others stood by quiet, gazing for a while, then leaving with brief comments to the bereaved.

Outside there is talk of the funeral. It will be Sunday, in a church in Brooklyn. And the talk is of the band that is to be hired. A great band, as befits a great man. The band will play “all the way to the church in all the way back again to the cemetery and Maspeth.”

Meanwhile the camp is in mourning and between now and Sunday will take place a peculiar mixture of century old customs and modern American ideas, for the Romany in America does not forget his forefathers' customs nor does he reject the ways of those about him. – Brooklyn Daily Eagle December 8, 1928

Maspeth Boy Killed As Wagon Hits Auto
John Tormey, 12, of 60-29 59th Road, Maspeth, was killed last night when his scooter wagon collided on 60th Lane near 59th Road, Maspeth, with an automobile driven by Matthew Ferrizz, 48, of 58-17 60th Lane, Maspeth. Ferrizz was questioned at the Maspeth police station and after an investigation by police was released. Authorities said the boy apparently lost control of the wagon on the steep hill where the accident occurred. He was a student at Public School 153. – The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 17 Nov 1939. 

COPS COLLAR 18 TEENERS ‘SET FOR WAR'
Boro Gang Invades Queens After Pals Run into Row There
Eighteen teenage boys of the Moondoggers Gang of Williamsburg were held by police in Queens today on charges of having “invaded” Maspeth last night, armed for a street gang fight that didn't come off.

Of the total, 13 were juveniles under 15. They were sent home with orders to appear in Queens Children's Court Monday. Four 16-year-olds and one youth of 18 were held for arraignment in Long Island City Magistrates Court this afternoon.

The 18 were taken in tow in the vicinity of 61st St, and Flushing Ave, after Patrolman Edward J. O'Brien of the Maspeth Precinct, noting a milling crowd of boys, some carrying sections of rubber hose, summoned 12 other patrolmen and three detectives to help him in the roundup. Questioning of some of the teenagers disclosed that the invasion followed an attempt by John Callegart, 16, of 669 Bedford Ave, accompanied by an under-16 friend, to call on a girl in Maspeth. A local gang of boys intercepted the visitors, called them a “couple of wise guys trying to steal a Maspeth girl” and ordered them to “go back to Brooklyn.”

They went but promised to return with reinforcements. They, with 16 fellow Moondoggers, were looking for the Maspeth gang when police intervened.  Some of the 18, police said, carried knives, steel chains, iron bars and can openers, as well as rubber hose weapons.

Those held for Magistrate's Court, in addition to Callegari, were Raymond Millwater of 141 Middleton Street, Kenneth Kenyon of 217 Heyward St. George Kafka of 342 Marcy Ave and Vincent Audeffret , 18, of 650 Wythe Ave. – Brooklyn Eagle, May 21, 1954