Other days

100 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1918

A crowd of several thousand yesterday morning witnessed the impressive ceremonies with which the new Knights of Columbus building at South avenue, and Twenty-fourth street was dedicated for service. Pontifical high mass was celebrated by the Rt. Rev. John B. Morris, bishop of the diocese of Little Rock, assisted by the Rev. Father Clarendon, D. D., of Texarkana. Others taking part in the ceremonies were: Arch priest, the Rev. Father T. J. O’Sullivan, chaplain of the Second Training Regiment, acting as deacon: the Rev. Father Fisher, D.D., of Little Rock College, as subdeacon, and the Rev. Fathers Sefert and Donavan as deacons of honor. The Rev. Father Eritz of Little Rock College was master of ceremonies, assisted by the Rev. Father Neilis and 12 accolytes, six of whom were lieutenants and six enlisted men. The Rev. Father O’Sullivan preached the dedication sermon.

50 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1968

A federal prisoner who had escaped from a Tennessee jail nearly three months ago was shot three times and captured after a gun battle with an FBI agent Sunday morning at Mena. William Moore Pegram, 52, of Albany, Miss., was shot by Herbert E. Hoxie, the special agent in charge of the Little Rock FBI office, at a motel at Mena. Pegram was hit in the wrist, shoulder and groin, Hoxie said. Pegram fired one shot at Hoxie with a .32-caliber pistol but missed, the FBI agent said. … Two pistols were found in Pegram’s motel room, Hoxie said. One was a .45-caliber automatic loaded with seven rounds of ammunition and the other was a 9-mm automatic loaded with 14 cartridges. Pegram had stated that he would not be taken alive and would kill anyone who got in his way.

25 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1993

A federal judge set aside the death sentence Wednesday of condemned killer Barry Lee Fairchild, blocking Fairchild’s scheduled execution Wednesday night. U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele ordered Fairchild’s death sentence reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He said that Fairchild was not the triggerman in the death of a Little Rock Air Force Base nurse and therefore was ineligible for the death penalty under Arkansas law. Wednesday night, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis denied a state motion to immediately reverse Eisele’s decision. The judicial panel issued its ruling shortly after 8:30 p.m., about 30 minutes before Fairchild had been scheduled to die by lethal injection.

10 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 2008

The number of state employees increased by more than 1,000 under Gov. Mike Beebe last fiscal year, the fourth 1,000-plus increase for the state government in 10 years, when Mike Huckabee was governor most of that time. According to state budget office figures, 1,140 workers were added to the state payroll in the first full fiscal year of the Beebe era. That fell short of Huckabee era increases of 1,336 in fiscal 2001 and 1,360 in fiscal 2006. And the increase in payroll benefits costs in Beebe’s first full fiscal year, which ended June 30, was nearly $167 million, the sixth fiscal year in the past 10 years to see a $100 million-plus jump.