This day in The Record in 1916

Thursday, July 27, 1916

A burglar fatally wounded by Albany police today was arrested in Troy earlier this month for stealing drugs from a Hoosick Street pharmacy, The Record reports.

John Connolly dies at the Albany Homeopathic Hospital tonight after he is shot twice in the back while fleeing from a policeman early this morning. He is caught apparently red-handed removing dresses from the Surprise Clothing & Suit Store on Pearl Street, but briefly manages to slip police by asking permission to put on his coat. Having done that, he slips out of the officers’ grip and runs for it. The officer fires twice after Connolly fails to respond to his command to stop. Whether Connolly is armed is unclear.

Back on July 14 Connolly and Roland Walters were arrested while trying to enter the Cavanaugh Pharmacy at Hoosick and Fifth for a second time. They were freed on bail put up by Connolly’s mother and were scheduled to appear in Troy police court tomorrow morning. Walters is currently in an Albany jail for an unrelated offense.

Connolly and Walters’ Troy residence on Earl Street was suspected of being “a rendezvous for drug users. Two women who claim the Bitner Hotel on Broadway in Troy as their residence are arrested as accomplices in Connolly’s dress-store racket, but it’s unclear whether Maggie Myers and May Lawrence are the women who lived with Connolly

MAYOR ATTACKS CORPORATIONS

and Walters on Earl Street and were recently ordered to leave Troy. “All are believed to be addicted to the drug habit,” our reporter notes.

The plan to charge Troy $40,000 for repairs to the Twelfth Street Bridge is little more than a scheme to benefit the United Traction Company without the streetcar company having to pay its fair share, Mayor Cornelius F. Burns tells the county board of supervisors tonight.

The bridge has been deemed unsafe for heavy vehicles, but United Traction streetcars can still cross. The mayor claims that “the company wants to run thirty-ton cars over that bridge and in its present condition it cannot be done. The Traction company wants the bridge repaired and their officials are behind the whole agitation.”

The mayor has urged county officials to delay repairs until the city can renegotiate its contract with United Traction. Under the current deal, negotiated with the former private owners of the bridge, the streetcar company doesn’t have to contribute to repair costs.

The bridge is currently owned by the state and maintained by Rensselaer and Albany counties at the expense of Troy and Cohoes. “Whoever drafted that act had something loose in his head,” the mayor remarks.