Windham County Observer

Brazen Midnight Attack,
Robbery Cleared Up By City Police In Record Time

Round Up Robbers Of Man Who Felt Sorry For Assailants And Accomplice Within 3 Hours Of Crime.

Joseph Makowski, 22, Putnam Inn Bellhop, Admits Guilt In Court Today.-Joseph Larrow, 24, Kitchen Boy At Inn, Pleads Not Guilty To Midnight Attack, Robbery Of Benefactor In Putnam Subway.

With the arrest of two Putnam Inn employees within three hours of the time the crime was committed, Putnam police set a record early this morning for rapid-fire investigation of one of the boldest cases of assault and robbery ever perpetrated in this city.

Charged with the brutal assault and robbery of a man who had been his benefactor only a short time before he aided an accomplice to beat him up and rob him of $32 in the subway of the Putnam railroad station, Joseph Makowski, 22, 42 Primrose Street, Providence, R. I., a bellhop at the Putnam Inn, broke down under the relentless grilling of Sergeant Homer Breault at police headquarters early this morning and confessed his part in the crime. Arraigned in City Court less than eight hours after the robbery occurred, Makowski pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and robbery.

Disposition of the case was put off until tomorrow when Joseph Larrow, 24, a kitchen boy at the Putnam Inn, who is alleged by police to have been Makowski's accomplice in the robbery, persisted in maintaining that he was innocent of the whole affair and pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and robbery upon arraignment in City Court.

Despite Larrow's denial of guilt, police said they had an air-tight case against this Putnam youth who was released as recently as August 31 from the State Reformatory at Cheshire where he served a year and a half for theft of an automobile. Police were convinced of Larrow's guilt, they said, because he had been identified by the victim and others as one of the pair of assailants who committed the crime.

Judge William Perry Barber continued the case against Makowski at the request of the prosecution and ordered him held under $1,000 bail. Larrow's bail was set at $1,500.

Kenneth D. Squires, 36, a crane operator employed on a bridge construction job at Mechanicsville, was the victim of the robbery which occurred shortly after 1 o'clock this morning in the subway of the Putnam railroad station.

Squires told police that he was on his way from the Putnam Inn to his lodging place on South Main Street when he was attacked. He said two men leaped at him from their hiding place on a stairway in the middle of the subway as he walked to his home. Ironically enough, Squires recognized the two men as a pair he had "set up" to drinks a short time before at the Inn. He told police that Makowski flung an arm around his neck and held him while another man, who he claimed was Larrow, punched him in the nose drawing blood, closed one of his eyes with a second blow and knocked him nearly senseless with another blow in the face.

One of the pair yelled at the other, "grab his wallet," and Squires said he was relieved of the pocketbook which contained $32 in cash and an operator's license. The men then fled, leaving their victim lying on the sidewalk shouting for help.

"Pop" Blanchette, a taxi driver with a stand at the railroad station, heard Squires' cries and rushed to his assistance. Learning of the assault he ran to the So. Main Street entrance to the subway in time to see the assailants fleeing in the direction of Grove Street. Blanchette yelled "You .... crooks, come back and fight like men," but the pair ran on without heeding his invitation. They disappeared from sight but not before Blanchette recognized one of them as a "red-headed" employee of the Putnam Inn.

Directed by Sergeant Homer Breault, every available officer on the Putnam night force started out to track down the pair. About an hour after the hunt started, a tip came in to the Putnam police station, "One of that pair you want just went into the lunch cart on Front Street." The information was relayed to Patrolman Alphonse Dubreuil, who arrested Makowski and had him locked up at police headquarters within ten minutes after receiving the alarm. Makowski's arrest took place at 2:30 a. m., within an hour after the crime had been reported.

The hunt for Larrow was continued and he was arrested on Main Street, as he made his way back to the Putnam Inn, at 4:20 a. m., by Patrolman Omer Allard.

The case took another ironic turn this morning when Makowski took
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police to the spot where he had hidden his share of the loot. Capt. Leo DuBois, who is continuing the investigation today with the aid of Sergeant Homer Breault, said that painters were walking all around a stone at the foot of a billboard at the intersection of Front and South Main Street when officers arrived on the scene with their prisoner. To the surprise of the painters, who had walked all over the stone while working on the billboard, they beheld the "red-headed" prisoner walk calmly to the stone, lift it and take from under it some of the bank notes taken from Squires.
Height of irony in the case, however, was the role of benefactor Squires played to his assailants. Feeling sorry for the pair he was led to believe were "broke," Squires bought them a few drinks in the taproom a short time before they assaulted him. Police theorized that the pair at the time noted the amount of money Squires had on his person and decided to rob him. The "setting up" incident at the Putnam Inn, however, served police to good purpose. Employees of the Inn were able to identify the men who had drank at Squires' expense when he recognized them at the time he was assaulted as the men he had "set up" but whom he did not know by name.
Capt. Leo DuBois said today that Larrow had been in the toils of the law here on two previous occasions. Arrested February 2, 1938, for theft of an automobile by Putnam police, he was subsequently sentenced to the Cheshire Reformatory by Superior Court. He was arrested on another occasion for stealing gasoline, police said.