Schaffer Online Library of Drug Policy

Sign the Resolution
Contents | Feedback | Search
DRCNet Home
| Join DRCNet
DRCNet Library | Schaffer Library

Historical References

General Histories | Ancient History | 1800-1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890
1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990

The New York Times April 2, 1913
_____________

CARVING KNIFE HIS SABRE FOR CHARGE
_____________

Ex-Soldier, Crazed by Cocaine,
Raids a Saloon on Seventh Ave.
_____________

SHOUTS MILITARY ORDERS
_____________

Two Policemen, Three Civilians,
and an Ambulance Surgeon
Finally Win the Battle.
_____________


Frank Farmer, a piano mover, who was formerly In the United States Army, raided a saloon at Twenty-seventh Street and Seventh Avenue and tossed policemen and customers of the place around like shuttlecocks last night before he was landed In Bellevue Hospital suffering, it was said, from cocaine poisoning.

Farmer who is 32 years old and lives at 317 West Twenty-sixth Street, weighs almost 200 pounds. He rushed into the saloon, and, going to the free lunch counter picked up several sandwiches and swallowed them. Then he shouted at John Bellos, the proprietor, and leaping over the counter, seized a huge carving knife. Bellos fled, and Farmer picked up a tray of dishes and hurled them to the floor.

"Forward boys, forward," he yelled, and flourished the carving knife as a sabre. He ran to the street, where he pursued an Italian woman, who fled screaming and managed to escape. Farmer then ran after a boy, who also eluded him. Policeman Connor of the West Seventeenth Street Station ran up, and Farmer leaped through the glass panel of the saloon door. He fell to the floor, bleeding from many cuts on the face, but gained his feet and ran at Bellos.

Two men in the saloon, John Martin and Richard Hyland, both of 217 West Twenty-Seventh Street, made a concerted rush at Farmer and succeeded in upsetting him, but he recovered himself and hurled Martin bodily over the bar.

Connor, who had blown his whistle and rapped for assistance, rushed at Farmer, caught him around the neck and bore him to the floor, but Farmer tore loose and, after knocking down Hyland, grabbed Probationary Policeman Guyer, who had just arrived on the scene. Guyer is six feet five inches in height, but Farmer picked him off his feet and slammed him to the floor.

Then the man leaped through the broken door panel and got to the street again. The two policemen and Martin and Hyland all rushed at Farmer, who had In the meantime lost the knife. They managed to get him to the sidewalk and sat on him until the arrival of Dr. Waters of New York Hospital, who said he was suffering from cocaine poisoning.

Farmer throughout the fighting had been shouting military phrases and the police humored him by doing the same. When they were getting him into the ambulance Farmer broke loose again, and Dr. Waters had to go to the aid of the other men before Farmer was finally put in the ambulance and strapped down.