Other days
100 YEARS AGO
Sept. 28, 1921
EL DORADO — Two masked bandits held up and robbed H. B. Lake and Mack Anderson, employees of the Edgar Lumber Company of Wesson shortly after 3 o’clock this afternoon and escaped with $6,700. The men were returning to Wesson in a railroad car, using the tracks of the El Dorado & Wesson railroad. They had just drawn the money from a local bank. About six miles from El Dorado, near “Shotgun Valley,” the driver of the car saw an obstruction on the track. When he stopped the car, the two bandits emerged from a dense pine thicket and leveled revolvers at the victims. After taking the money, the hold-up men disappeared in the thicket.
50 YEARS AGO
Sept. 28, 1971
■ Mrs. Sodie Howell, 77, and Mrs. Bess Fowler, 81, fought off three teenage boys, who were trying to snatch their purses about 5 p.m. Saturday at Twentieth and Main Streets, the police said. George Ed Talbert…saw the incident, stopped his car and chased the youths, the police said. Mrs. Fowler kicked one of the youths as they twisted her arm, the police said. Talbert, 47, said he was driving south on Main and saw the three youths “jump on the two women down into the street.” Talbert said he turned east onto Twentieth and stopped. The youths fled when they saw him, Talbert said. He said he chased them for a short distance before they ran behind some houses. He said he helped the women up and then found a police car.
25 YEARS AGO
Sept. 28, 1996
WYNNE — Fire and police officials said Friday that unusual circumstances surround a Thursday night fire in which three small children were killed and their mother escaped with burns to her face, hands and chest. The bodies were found about 10 minutes after firefighters arrived and controlled the fire. Gwendalyn Collins, the children’s mother, apparently discovered the fire and was able to escape, Wynne Fire Chief Dan Curtner said Friday. “The mobile home had no electricity or gas,” said Sgt. Oscar Wilson of the Wynne Police Department. “It had been shut off some time earlier. We were told that the mother said she was using candles for light and one of the children knocked the candle over.”
10 YEARS AGO
Sept. 28, 2011
■ Sean Popejoy, 20, of Green Forest was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Harrison for his part in a racially motivated attack that began at an Alpena gas station. Popejoy reached an agreement with federal prosecutors May 18, pleading guilty to one count of violating the hate crimes act and one count of conspiring with Frankie Maybee, 21, of Green Forest to violate the act. A jury found Maybee guilty of using his Ford F250 pickup on June 20, 2010, to ram a car in which five Hispanic men were traveling, forcing it from U.S. 412 near Alpena, where it overturned and burned, injuring all of the passengers.