Tales from the Morgue

Poe Awarded Police Sedan Contract

April 15, 1960

A.B. Poe Motor Co. was awarded a $40,000 contract by City Council action Thursday, to furnish the police department with 24 police sedans.

Other automotive awards for various City departments include International Harvester, $20,875, contract for three eight-yard dump trucks, $2,197 for a panel truck, $2,239 for a three-quarter ton truck and $6,275 for three carryalls.

Construction Supply Co. was awarded a $27,383 contract to supply the City with two motor graders after a lengthy debate over technical questions. Other contracts received by the firm include, $4,400 for one roller and $1,358 for one street sweeper. Equipment Supply Co. was awarded a $31,500 contract for one tractor.

El Paso Ford Auto center Inc. received contracts of $9,955 for three three-yard dump trucks, $4,302 for two stake trucks, $2,889 for two one-half ton pickup trucks, $1,828 for one sedan for traffic engineering department.

Lively Equipment Supply Co. was awarded a contract of $9,580 for one loader; Border Machinery Co., $4,683 for one spreader and McKeon Motors, $2,573 for one car for police department.

Sale Of Mitchell’s To Falstaff Brewing Expected Saturday

April 12, 1956

The sale of El Paso’s Mitchell Brewing Co. to the Falstaff Brewing Corp. of St. Louis appeared imminent Wednesday.

The final decision on the sale will come Saturday at a stockholders meeting in the brewery at 205 N. Latta St. At that time proxies will be counted and if the necessary 80 per cent of the stock is voted in favor of the move the sale will, in all probability, be confirmed.

Local bar owners reported this week that Mitchell’s sales representatives had stopped calling on some establishments.

Also, the Falstaff Sales Co. recently sent out a form letter to most local bar owners and liquor dealers setting up a new price schedule for their product, based on local production.

The letter stated that Falstaff beer will be furnished from other of the company’s breweries until such time as Falstaff is produced locally, one bar owner told the Times.

BEING SOLD LOCALLY

Also, for the first time, Falstaff draft beer is being sold locally and some 90 taverns in the El Paso area already have contracted for it, an informed source said.

Charles A. Kuper, president of Mitchell Brewing Co., would not comment on the sale Wednesday night. He confirmed, however, that the brewery has discontinued draft beer and that the company was making no beer at all, pending the outcome of the stockholders’ meeting Saturday.

It was learned Wednesday that existing stocks of Mitchell’s Beer were being sold at a reduced price.

Kuper said there are 850 to 900 individual stockholders in the Mitchell Brewing Co.

PRICE TO TOP MILLION

When it was first learned that Falstaff was negotiating for the local brewery, in February of this year, speculation was that the price would be “in excess of $1.5 million.”

It was learned Wednesday from a reliable source that if the sale does go through, Walter A. Vetter, now a vice president, will become resident manager of the brewery for Falstaff.

The local brewery was founded in 1935, just after the repeal of prohibition, by Harry Mitchell, a noted and colorful citizen of El Paso and the border.

Mitchell sold the brewery in July, 1951. The price was not disclosed, although it was said at the time that the brewery was valued at $3 million.

SALES, VOLUME UP

Sales and dollar volume of the brewery jumped 80 per cent in three years after the sale.

Falstaff, one of the nation’s largest brewing companies, now owns seven breweries.

It was learned after first negotiations began that one plan was to offer stockholders in the Mitchell Brewing Co. $4 a share at 4.5 per cent on 15-year debentures. The cash assets presumably would be distributed to stockholders in the form of a dividend of 50 cents to $1.

Justice McGill Will Stick To Bench, Leave Lift Alone

June 25, 1946

By STEVE BARKER

Joseph McGill, associate justice of the Eighth Court of Civil Appeals, Monday announced his voluntary retirement, retroactive to 4:30 p.m. Saturday – as an amateur elevator operator.

Justice McGill reached the decision as the result of complicating circumstances growing out of a belated visit to his fifth-floor office in the Courthouse when he already was late to meet Mrs. McGill for a movie date.

The elevator operator was gone for the day, the elevator was dark, and the doors were open. Hence, Justice McGill decided to pilot the lift.

All went well until the elevator stopped two feet short of the fifth-floor level. The lift is automatic. Justice McGill jiggled the control handle futilely. Courthouse cooling system was shut off and the temperature inside the stalled lift was something akin to accounts of the “Black Hole of Calcutta,” he related.

Also, the justice entertained visions of sweating it out in the coop until the Courthouse opened Monday or possemen located him. He pounded on the metal door, hoping to attract any lingering personnel on the fifth floor, but no luck.

Taking stock of the elevator gadgets, the justice noticed a red button, to be pressed in cases of emergency. That was down the trapped jurist’s alley, so he pressed it. In fact, he leaned on the buzzer until he was fearful that the battery might run down.

Time was fleeting, Mrs. McGill no doubt was waiting. And the justice’s hat brim was moistened by perspiration. After what seemed like a couple of eternities, the voice of a janitor floated down the shaft.

He shouted instructions how to free the jammed controls and the justice was a willing pupil.

The elevator lifted two feet, the doors swung open, and Justice McGill was on his way to the movie.

But Mrs. McGill, the ex-elevator jockey insisted Monday, still believes he just forgot to show up on time.

Mexico Bars Him, El Paso Attorney Is Nominated For Presidency

March 29, 1934

Gilberto Valenzuela, El Paso attorney who was nominated for president of Mexico by the National Anti-Re-elecionist party in Mexico, D.F., yesterday, charged last night that Mexican immigration officials would not permit him to enter Mexico.

Convention officials notified Valenzuela of his nomination by telephone and asked him to fly to Mexico, D.F. today. He told them that Chihuahua immigration officials had received instructions from Mexico, D.F., not to allow him to enter the country, and that an airline operating between El Paso and the Mexican capital had been warned not to sell him a ticket.

Former Cabinet Member

Valenzuela is a former member of the Mexican cabinet. He fled here after the abortive Escobar revolution in 1929.

“I don’t know why I have been denied entrance into Mexico,” he said. “The constitution gives a Mexican citizen the right to leave and enter the country when he desires. There is no legal reason for the action.

Awaits Further Word

“I will make no effort to bring any case before Mexican officials, but will do what the convention wishes. I had planned to fly to Mexico City Thursday, but under the circumstances I will wait further word from the convention before trying to enter the country.”

Juarez immigration inspectors said they had received no instructions to bar Valenzuela from the country.

Weather Forecast Comes From Many Sources

May 22, 1967

By DAN LAZENBERRY

Weather forecasting to most people is a complicated business, but to Arthur Brooks, chief meteorologist for the Environmental Science Service Administration (ESSA) of the U.S. Weather Bureau at El Paso International Airport, it represents many years of experience and training.

Brooks says that the Weather Bureau is able to quickly make accurate forecast by combining local weather data with information received over teletypes.

“We make composite charts by using information sent to us, much of which comes form Washington, D.C. and Kansas City. But the greatest contribution to forecasting today is made by satellites which transmit pictures of cloud formations.

“This is a considerable aid,” he said, “in view of the fact that ground weather stations only cover about one tenth of the globe.”

Brooks also pointed out that while variability in the weather makes for less overall accuracy, El Paso’s record has been 85 to 90 per cent.

“This is partly due to El Paso’s unique geographical location, and additional datum covering points north, east, and west is available to our bureau,” he said. “Some stations, because of their isolation, are unable to forecast with desired maximum accuracy.”

Modern electronic equipment has been installed to provide maximum efficiency and accuracy, Brooks said, and it has eliminated a lot of time consumption. “Most of our equipment is paneled to give fingertip control. And this makes us happy and gives us greater opportunities to offer better service to El Pasoans.”

CLOCKS ON MST

The Weather Bureau’s clocks are set on Mountain Standard Time locally because it is the closest to Greenwich Time. Weather balloons are put in flight normally within a few minutes of all other weather stations throughout the United States in order to calculate weather conditions at Greenwich Time.

The Weather Bureau almost dates back to when El Paso was first inhabited.

The first published forecast in an El Paso newspaper came Feb. 5, 1889, in “El Paso Daily Democrat.” Prior to publication of forecasts, they were hand delivered until the Bureau got its first telephone, March 3, 1903.

From the first office on San Francisco between Santa Fe and El Paso Streets, the Downtown office was moved from time to time.

In November, 1931, an airport office was opened and in December, 1942, the two offices were combined into one at the airport.

Weather watching was started as a precipitation and temperature recording operation, but it has now become a full-time business, which includes complicated studies of ground and aerial temperature, humidity, pressures and wind speed.

Today El Pasoans can obtain the latest weather outlook by picking up their telephone, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio or watching television.

In addition to providing weather information to the public, the Weather Bureau, presently located behind Champs Aviation Service, offers immediate service to pilots in making flight plans. Or, for that matter, anyone who want to check on the weather.

Monday’s forecast, by the way, calls for fair skies and warmer temperatures with a high of 86 to follow overnight lows of 45 in the Heights and 40 in the Valleys.

Meteor explodes over El Paso

October 10, 1997

Various landing reports send searchers scurrying

By Jim Conley

A meteor streaked southeastward and exploded in a huge red-orange fireball east of El Paso at about 12:50 p.m. Thursday, treating residents to a rare daytime spectacle, scientists and observers said.

The spectacular blast sent out shockwaves that rattled windows, triggered car alarms and sent people scrambling for their telephones to find out what happened.

The space rock, which could have been billions of years old and as big as a car, was estimated to be traveling at least 30,000 mph - the equivalent of flying from El Paso to San Antonio in one minute - before it seemed to evaporate in a cloud of white smoke.

By late Thursday, no debris had been found, but people chased many reports throughout the day.

Police helicopters searched scorched land on Cooper Cattle Co. property about 20 miles north of the Border Patrol checkpoint outside El Paso on Highway 62-180, but the burn marks weren't thought to be caused by a meteor strike.

"We had two different fires out here a couple of days ago during the lightning storms," ranch foreman Dub Pruitt said.

People from Anthony, Texas, to the Davis Mountains reported seeing or hearing the entry of the interplanetary object into Earth's atmosphere. The flash and boom caused many people to fear the explosion of an errant test missile or the crash of an airliner.

But within an hour, an off-duty public information specialist at McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains cleared up the mystery by describing what he said could only have been a rare daylight sighting of an exploding meteor perhaps 10 to 15 miles high.

"I saw a very bright flash of light, bright orange-red, similar to a distant sunset," said Robert Simpson, the McDonald spokesman, who was outside his Davis Mountains home about 185 miles southeast of El Paso.

"It covered about 10 percent of the horizon and was moving down at about a 70-degree angle. I looked at my watch and it was 1:47 (12:47 p.m. MDT). It lasted about one second, but left a white smoke trail for 10 minutes.

"I knew it had to be a meteor, although space debris can look like that," said Simpson, who said daylight meteor sightings occur only about once a year on the planet.

But no manmade space debris had entered the atmosphere since about sunup, and that was south of the equator, said Maj. Steve Boylan, U.S. Air Force North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman in Colorado Springs.

People living along a 200-mile stretch of southern New Mexico and West Texas reported seeing a flash and hearing the blast, which most likely was the result of the meteor exploding or producing sonic booms on its rapid descent through the atmosphere.

"It was strange, but it felt like it was right in my back yard. I searched my roof thinking someone threw a rock or was trying to break in," said Martha Senteno, who lives in East El Paso near Montwood High School. After hearing about the meteor, she returned home to search for debris.

"Who knows, there may be a piece of history here," she said.

Command post in NM

The Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department, New Mexico State Police and Las Cruces police set up a command post at about 2 p.m. west of the Organ Mountains near Baylor Canyon after several witnesses reported smoke rising from the base of the mountains.

"I saw a large flash like an explosion in the sky," said Steven Marquez, 25, who was working in his yard near the Organ Mountains outside Las Cruces. "Something fell off of it and left a huge cloud of smoke over there by the mountains."

Marquez called 911 and reported the sighting, fearing that a small plane had crashed.

The police command post was set up near at the head of Baylor Canyon Trail east of Las Cruces as U.S. Army Reserve helicopters used infrared sensors to look for pieces of debris from the object.

"What they are looking for is any debris that is still hot or anything that came off the object," Cano said.

No debris was found.

"Hearing the explosion means it was very close, probably within 20 miles as a general rule of thumb," said Bill Wren of McDonald Observatory. "This one is a very exciting event ... very rare."

"I've seen thousands of them at night but never one in the daytime before," Simpson said. "I'd jump in my pickup right now and come look for it if I didn't have to work (today)."

"A meteorite (a space rock found on Earth) can be quite valuable," Wren said, "although that depends on the composition and quality. Typically, meteorites wholesale for about $50 a pound."

The observatory's largest one on display is about the size of a small end table and weighs 1,500 pounds, Simpson said.

They're usually composed of nickel and iron. But most of the objects that enter the atmosphere are of low-density material that never reach Earth, scientists say.

Estimates are that more than 19,000 meteorites heavier than 3.5 ounces land annually, but most fall in deserts and oceans. Fewer than 10 a year are ever known to science, according to astronomy writer Patrick Moore's definitive "International Encyclopedia of Astronomy."

A solar system clue

Donald Rathbun of El Paso, a medical doctor who also teaches a meteorite course for UTEP's continuing education program, said meteorites are important "because these are samples of our solar system that were the only objects we had to study how our planets originated - until we got the moon rocks.

"Chemical analysis of the meteorites yields a lot of information," said Rathbun, who owns a few meteorites himself,including a 6.5 pounder the size of a cantaloupe he found around Santa Teresa.

"The theory is that they formed at the same time as the solar system," said Neal Miller, spokesman for New Mexico State University's astronomy department. "They're billions of years old so they do lend clues as to how the solar system was found."

UTEP physics and astronomy professor Verne Smith said the object easily could have exploded without anything of size hitting the ground.

"For something to do major damage, you would need one the size of an airplane," Smith said. "The one that created Meteor Crater in Arizona about 50,000 years ago would have been about the size of a 747.

"This thing sounded like it wasn't terribly large," Smith said of Thursday's meteor. "I don't think people should be terribly preoccupied about these things hitting the earth. There's nothing you can really to prevent it from occurring."

John Peterson, director of the El Paso Independent School District's Planetarium, said the event could have been associated with the periodic Draconid meteor shower.

The event, which occurs rarely but customarily on Oct. 9 or 10, can result in only a few or as many as 5,000 meteors an hour. Peterson said further study is needed to see if El Paso's meteor was part of that group.

Wren explained meteor events as occurring when the particles of space matter, which can range from speck size to as big as a house, heat up from friction as they enter Earth's atmosphere, resulting in light being emitted.

"Earth acts like a big broom that sweeps through all this matter as we orbit the sun," Wren said. "Most of it just burns up. But the larger ones survive the fiery trip."

Rock talk

Some astronomical distinctions:

· A meteoroid is a rock flying through space.

· A meteor is the streak of light a meteoroid makes as it burns out in Earth's upper atmosphere.

· A meteorite is a space rock found on Earth.

El Paso Times reporters Patrick C. McDonnell, Robert Holguin and David Bennett contributed to this story.

Clay, Marciano Fight to Be Shown In Coliseum

January 4, 1970

“I’m the greatest!”

This line has been repeated by Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) so many times that many people have come to believe it. And, of course, the defrocked heavyweight boxing champ has gone a long way toward backing up his claim.

However, a little over a year ago, Woroner Productions of Miami electrified the boxing world with its presentation of the all-time computerized heavyweight championship tournament, which was broadcast over successive weeks on over 600 radio stations throughout the world.

The results of the tournament: Rocky Marciano was declared the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.

This verdict also electrified Muhammad Ali, who proceeded to file a $1 million suit against Woroner Productions contending that he would have beaten Marciano had the computer matched them. In the computer series, Muhammad had been eliminated by Jim Jefferies in a 15-round decision.

The law suit was settled for one dollar, but with the proviso that Clay be given a computer shot at Marciano.

At this point, Murray Woroner, president of the production company, became aware of the fact that he had all the ingredients for a truly “Super Fight” and proceeded along the lines of literally getting the two men into the ring and filming an actual fight.

Incredibly, both men jumped at the opportunity and agreed to meet in a secretly filmed match with the results being called by the computer.

Who won?

The results are more of a secret than was the atomic bomb in 1946, and no one will know how the fight ended – except Woroner and two technicians – until the 84-minute film is shown simultaneously in over 500 theatres throughout the country on the night of Jan. 20.

The “Super Fight” is being staged in El Paso at 8 p.m. Jan. 20 in the Coliseum by Gory Guerrero. Tickets for the fight are on a first come first serve basis and are on sale daily at the Central Ticket Agency.

Woroner has taken elaborate precautions to determine that none of the over 500 outlets which will show the fight at the same time are able to sneak a preview. A copy of the film will be sent in bond to a Western Union office in each of the cities which have booked the fight. It will be delivered to the theatre or hall where it is to be shown by bonded messenger some 30 minutes before the fight is scheduled.

Marciano immediately went into an intensive training schedule and got himself into nearly the same width and condition as during his championship reign. Clay, too, rounded into shape.

Biggs B-29 Group Families Seek Homes

May 20, 1948

Crowds of officers, enlisted men and their families have invaded El Paso in the last few days with the moving of the 97th Command Bomb Wing to Biggs Air Force Base, and are seeking housing accommodations off the base.

The newcomers have been contacting the Chamber of Commerce, which has no housing listings due to the rapid occupancy rate in El Paso.

Any El Pasoans having a room, apartment or house available as asked to call the Housing Officer of the Base, Phone 5-1411.

The groups are part of 800 men who, accompanied by their families, were to motor to El Paso from the Smoky Hill Air Force Base in Salina, Kan. The single men are being accommodated at Biggs in the barracks of the 47th Air Drome and the 47th Bomb Group.

The 14 B-29’s expected for the Wing are expected to arrive Monday. Total personnel will number 1750.

Alameda Avenue gets street lights

15 APR 1948 - MAKES A DIFFERENCE - City, police, and El Paso Electric Co. officials took part in a ceremony Wednesday night at Piedras Street and Alameda Avenue, when the one lighting system went into service. Watching distant traffic (left to right) were Police Chief L.T. Robey; President F. Carter Womack of the utility company; Alderman Karl Wyler, Police Inspector J.W. FitzGerald; Alderman Jules Carlin, and W.V. Holik, electric company vice-president.

Capt. Good Writes Breezy Police Reports To Avoid Phone

June 8, 1943

Secret of the breezy and homey style developed by Police Capt. Stanley Good in making out shift reports was discovered Monday.

The captain, usually a model of reticence and shy in the presence o reporters, confided that an allergic condition was the underlying motive for his all-inclusive shift reports, which group all basic details in black and white, complete with names, addresses and next of kin.

“If there is anything that ruins the day or night for me, it is for the telephone to jangle me into wakefulness to have me tell someone about something that happened on my shift,” the captain explained. In parenthesis, he added that newspapermen, policemen and detectives were the worst offenders along that line.

“Since the theory of allergy has come along, I have discovered that I am allergic to telephone calls and have attempted to perfect a defense against them,” he explains. “For that reason, I put everything in my reports that I believe anyone might think to ask me in case they weren’t there – if you follow me.” The reporter didn’t, but the captain went ahead anyway. “And you never can tell. I might be in the market for a job as police reporter some time, and it wouldn’t hurt anything to have a basic reputation to fall back on. A sheaf of shift reports might be worth something to me to show an editor.”

At this point, even the reporter recognized that the captain had strayed from the sublime and was rushing headlong toward jocularity. So, he glanced through the latest shift report and quoted Captain Good’s notation on the failure of an officer to report for duty on account of illness.

It read: “Mrs. -------- called me up to say that ---------‘s tummy was all upset and he didn’t feel like working.”

A South El Paso householder, nameless here for obvious reasons, “was raising a rumpus with his family, but members of the family don’t want to file a complaint.” So, the offending husband was “jugged” on a drunkenness charge, accompanied by a $10 bond notation.

An East El Paso fracas was noted as “------- ------- got slapped over by ------- -------. Said the fellow hit him with a bottle.”

“Besides,” said the captain,” I have a lot of fun writing them up.”