I remember walking up Orange Street to go to Bodholt's Diner with Billy Tortoriello and two other people. It was about 8 P.M. and it was still light but Bodholt's Diner was neary empty as there were only 2 or 3 other patrons in the place.
I worked for the Roseville Deli that summer, and the store was closed down because they sold liquor. Gus Janulis, the owner, had already had his bakery going and had all these donuts. He sent me over to the Newark Armory where the National Guard were stationed with trays of these donuts and pots of coffee. I thought he was doing a nice thing, but he told me to try and sell them over there. That, I didn't do. I gave the food away and spent a nice morning talking to lots of cute soldiers. Later, I went back to the deli, and we hauled the liquor downstairs to the cellar because Gus was afraid the rioters would break the glassfront to get at the liquor.
The next day, I worked in Gruning's and spoke with reporters from around the world who had been sent to cover the story.
The nights were scary, though, with the gunshots seemingly everywhere.
I can't remember where I was exactly on those days, but I was sitting on top of a bunker in a firebase near Lai Khe, South Vietnam a week later, reading an account of the riots in Newark, and thinking of how ironic it was that it had so far been a quite month. We were mortared the following night. :-)
Not quite. :-) Of course if one gets hammered, one probably doesn't mind getting mortared. :-)
Actually I do recall one of my men, a guy from NYC whose last name was Ferri, saying something to the effect of "hey lieutenant, you come from Newark, right? Hot town these days!" By the time I came home at the end of the month, things had calmed down quite a bit, though, at least on the surface.
I was at the corner of Sussex Ave. and 2nd St.
Where two men with shotguns stopped a bus with about
8 or 9 people in it. One boarded the bus and the other
ran down the street. The one on the bus killed all the
passengers, including the driver, then just walked
away, leaving the bus right there, still running.
Minutes later, national guardsmen arrived and opened
fire on a whole group, killing several. Never forgot
that night. I was arrested and held overnight in protective custody, you might say. Next morning there was a guardsman directing traffic with one hand, and holding on to the strap of his carbine with the other.
I can't help it i'm LMAO i'm like wtf. what "state" was Dennis in, I lived on No.5th.St. between Sussex & Dickerson St. and never heard anything like that happening, and if it was the bus, it would have been the 2 Ampere (sp) now the Shoprite across from Sussex Ave. School, thats a different story that place was trashed then we had to go to the Good Deal on First St. to do our shopping.
I know I saw what I saw. The bus was diverted I think
from another route. The national guard got It out of
there ASAP. Why none of you heard of that incident,
I don't know.
Dennis, If what you say is true, it is the best kept secret of the riots. The total death toll of the riots was 26 or 27 including the policeman and the firefigther. Your story claims that 11 or 12 civilians died at Sussex and 2nd St. almost one- half of the civilian death total. I looked at the Star-Ledger website and according to the State Police list of the dead the nearest death to Sussex and 2nd happened at Central Ave. and 7th St. with the shoting of the firefigther. Is it possible that the incident happened but no one was killed?
I have heard many off-the-record reports that the reported number of deaths from the Newark Riots was approximately 200. I have heard this from both Police Officers and National Guardsmen that were on the scene.
We all know that not everything that happens makes it to the Newspapers. Being aware of that, I keep an open-mind to Mr. Stawarski's claim. Is there any way that we can find out if this really happened?
The Newark riot has been examined, parsed and dissected in great detail by state and local police, National Guard officers (I have read their after action reports and no references to such an such incident appear.), ideological activists, journalists, an investigatory commission, historians and, more recently, documentary filmmakers. While anything is possible, as a former investigator and a historian myself, I would imagine that any such incident would not have escaped detection. Heresay, anecdotal information and recollection filtered through forty years of time often do not stand up under examination, in court or out.
This is not to say that people do not see things under the considerable stress of a moment, then interpret, reinterpret and reinforce their initial impressions over the years and come to an honest conclusion about what they saw, even though considerable availabile evidence may suggest otherwise.
Arthur Fonden is my witness to my story,
a/o first week in August, 1967, he returned
to Newark from Rhode Island, asking me
what it was like to experience the riots,
that's when I told him of the bus incident,
he verified that just last night on the
phone. But since all I have is my story,
we'll let it go. I agree with Dennis M, no
way is the official death count of the Newark
riots accurate, I think more deaths happened
than that, it's too small a count.
it was a tuna sandwich...tuna sub actually...that she got at Lenny and John's located 161 Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ!
if you want the best go to Lenny and John's...and don't forget tell them Mama Cass sent you!!
;)
seriously, at that time i was living on Lake Street...my uncle Irv was a bike cop in Newark and I remember him and my dad taking turns keeping watch on the front porch.
nothing ever came into our neighborhood, but I remember the stories he told for years...one regarding a rookie cop...this cop and his partner were in the north ward...and they chased a youth for breaking windows with some rocks..they went over one fence, then two fences...then three...
they lost him when he scrambled onto a garage roof and leapt from roof to roof and disappeared before they could get up to him...over on 12th street where the garage roof's are connected.
any way, there nerves were pretty tense, with the riots and working overtime, etc.
during the chase, this kid had knocked over a garbage can or two while he was running...any way the rookie saw this tin can lying on the ground, and out of frustration (this is what he said later on) he gave it a huge KICK! it went sailing into a window that was at driveway level and broke it!
huge crash, his partner whirled around the rookies jaw dropped, lights went on in the houses on both sides of the driveway...he said 'do that again and I WILL SHOOT YOU!'
people came out, the cop was apologetic...i think they cleaned up the mess from the garbage cans and but he definitely had his partner go back in the morning and fix the window...I remember Uncle Irv saying that it cost something like $1.17 for a new piece of glass and putty...which I guess was big money in 1967.
I researched this further and guess what......
I had the intersection wrong, It turns out that
that corner I witnessed those killings was Sussex
Ave. & Duryea St. several blocks down from Second.
Time will do that to you.
By "researched" you must mean that you remembered that you were locked up in the Youth House during the riots, Dennis, not standing on my corner. In 40 years, no one else has ever mentioned seeing or hearing about such a monstrous crime. At the very least the bus company would have mentioned it, if not relatives of the "victims." So let's drop it.
"...one who has explored the traditional boundaries of society and its conventions...in order to determine the point at which their is a breakdown in the social fabric..."
