The Yellowed Pages: News from 25 years ago in The Baltimore Guide
by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com
May 20, 1982
Longshoremen unloading the container ship Kazmierz Pulaski got a surprise when two men, slightly the worse for wear, kicked out the wall of a compartment in one of the containers and indicated that they wanted asylum.
Witnesses on the docks said the men, looking haggard and weak, spoke Polish and pointed to a booklet with the word “Solidarity,” the name of Poland’s independent labor union.
Dock workers drove them to the Polish National Alliance and then to the Polish Home Club, where they were fed and greeted by the organization’s president, Joe Borzymowski. The men said they had been living on crackers, chocolate and three cups of water a day, and had not eaten at all for four days.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service released the two men, called “Jas” and “Stas,” without bond. Borzymowski said the two men could never return to Poland, where the government had declared martial law.
John Lacey, the Georgia house painter clinging to life at City Hospitals after an accident involving paint solvent left him burned over 95 percent of his body, remained in critical and unstable condition, but at least he wouldn’t have to worry about paying his hospital bills.
The Social Security Administration announced that Lacey’s limited income and his total disability qualified him for Supplemental Security Income and medical assistance that would pay for his care.
Lacey was making $5.50 an hour painting houses at the time of his accident. Forty medical centers turned Lacey down before City Hospitals’ renowned burn unit took on his care.
Three men, one armed with a shotgun, held up a restaurant in Dundalk and 11 of its customers in the bar.
Evelyn Page, a bartender at the restaurant in the 6700 block Holabird Avenue, said a heavyset man came into the bar and asked for a pack of gum. She told him the bar did not sell gum, and he left, but returned about 15 minutes later with two companions, produced a sawed-off shotgun and announced a holdup. One of the bandits concentrated on Page and the cash register while the other two convinced bar patrons to empty their purses and pockets into a green bag.
Then they herded Page and patrons into a restroom and told them to stay there, then made off with more than $1,900 and an assortment of wallets, jewelry and other personal items. The 1982 Guide story did not identify the restaurant.
A seven-year-old boy was helping his older brothers size and cut beams for their back porch when a circular saw sliced through his left forearm. His brothers, ages 18 and 21, acted quickly, though—they got him to a doctor who managed to get a State Police helicopter to take him to Raymond Curtis Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital. There, surgeons were able to reattach the arm and restore blood flow to the boy’s left hand.
Mayor William Donald Schaefer, reacting to public outcry that followed an announcement that six Enoch Pratt Free Library branches would close, added $450,000 to the Pratt’s budget to allow all of its 31 branches to remain open.
The Pratt, faced with steadily declining budgets during Schaefer’s tenure in office, had already closed branches for one month a year and had cut most bookmobile service citywide.
Councilman Kweisi Mfume (D-Fourth) was particularly miffed at the announcement that one branch in each councilmanic district would close. “Literacy ought to be considered a top priority and I think the Board of Estimates has the financial wherewithal to resture the funds,” he said.
Police wrapped up work on one homicide but had no leads on a second. Police said a simmering feud came to a boil in the murder of Darrell Washington, 23, of the 200 block Dallas Court. Police said that Washington bullied John Cunningham, 19, of the 1800 block E. Fayette Street into giving up his moped at about 11 a.m. on May 15, 1982.
They alleged that Cunningham spent the rest of the morning looking for a handgun, and then went looking for Washington. Cunningham found Washington at the corner of Caroline and Fayette streets at about 1 p.m. There was an argument, and then Cunningham allegedly shot Washington in the head. Police were holding Cunningham at the Southeastern District pending a bail hearing.
Homicide detectives had no leads in the shooting death of Edward Johnson, 23, of the 200 block N. Duncan Street. Police received a call about a shooting in the alley behind the 2100 block E. Fayette Street, and found Johnson suffering from several gunshot wounds to the chest. He died at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
