Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1918:
Horse pool was given a jolt in Chester when the police swooped down on the new “subway” pool emporium in the basement of Thomas Burley’s restaurant on Seventh Street and arrested 17 habitues of the place. The raid came as a complete surprise and was “pulled” at a time when betting was at a full swing.
75 Years Ago – 1943:
Conditions in Delaware County taprooms are not as bad as they have been painted, was the opinion expressed by leaders of law enforcement at the conference of police, constables and public officials, held in the courthouse at Media. The meeting was called at the suggestion of the court following the receipt of the report of the March Grand Jury. District Attorney William B. McClenachan read from the report: “Taprooms keep open after hours, or on Sundays, sell to persons already drunk, sell to minors, are hangouts for numbers writers, thieves, prostitutes, etc.”
50 Years Ago – 1968:
A letter allegedly written by the only Delaware County man aboard the USS Pueblo was broadcast yesterday by the North Korean Central News Agency. The letter from Harry Iredale II, 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Iredale Jr. of Ridley Township, was written to a former classmate at Pennsylvania State University. The friend, William Emkey Jr. of Hellertown, Northampton County, refused to reveal the letter’s contents but indicated Iredale’s parent also had received a copy.
25 Years Ago – 1993:
A county woman was officially crowned a drug queen when she pleaded guilty to running a massive coast-to-coast cocaine and heroin distribution ring from her Chadds Ford townhouse. The woman confessed that she ran the “base of operations’ for a drug ring that relied on a private courier to ship more than 1.6 tons of cocaine from Los Angeles to points east and millions of dollars in cash back to the west coast.
10 Years Ago – 2008:
The fate of more than 300 trees within and adjacent to a PECO easement in Chadds Ford remains up in the air. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, however, is now showing interest in the matter. Joseph Feola, the regional director of DEP’s Southeast Regional Office, states in a letter to property owner Bruce Prabel that PECO will need to develop a plan that will contain controls to handle any erosion or sedimentation.