The Washington times., 1937-12-23

, But that's the head and tail Q
q fishy story. Here's the rest OF il
It was some of the school kid
who passed PaSquale's Pet Stor
every day who gave the alarm.
Four times a day they used t
push their noses against the glass
> A mighty interesting show 10
kids it was, too, with tanks tul
of goldfish, and catfish, and tror
ical fish that flashed and blazet
in iridescent colors like under
water butterflies.
But they noticed that the fisf
didn't look any too good. Their
wasn't any food floating on thu
top of the water in the tanks, anc
there wasn't any air bubbling ouj
of the little pipes from the aeratol
into the tropical fish tank.
And, on the second day, gooc
many of the fish had died. One o,
the kids tried the door, but it was
locked, so he found policeman
round the corner, and told him nc
pet storekeeper had any right to
commit murder by neglecting tt
feed his fish, or keep his aerators
going.
FINDS REASON
So the policeman went around
the store, and got in the back way
by breaking a window.
And then he found out the rea
son that the fish had died was be-
cause Pasquale himself lay dead
under the counter - ] a b b d
through the throat with fishing
gaff.
There's no doubt that the boys
tried hard to make Pasquale talk
before they jabbed him through
the neck with that gaff," said the
police captain.
"The skins pretty well all burnt
off his feet, and they had wire
round his forehead. But he must
have passed out before he could
tell 'em what they wanted to
know"
What they wanted to know was
explained by those cigar butts the
police found under the counter
and on the floor of the shop.
1t was evident that PaSquale
had a taste for cigars at a dollar
Shot-the teeth marks on the
butts matched up with his front
filings.
And the proprietor of a pet shop
that was doing a turnover Of less
than $50 week doesn't usually
smoke cigars and leave a Pinch
stub.
Nor does he run accounts with
four different banks and pay in
around $1,000 a month regularly
.. not from the profits of side
street pet store.
It was evident that one of the
boys from the North Side gang had
dropped in on Pasquale, Smelled
one of those cigars, and the rest
Of the boys had dropped in one
night to get PaSquale to talk-to
tell 'em what sort of a racket he
was working which crossed him
$4,000 month without any rake
off to them for protection.
The police didn't find a thing
IN the shop that wasn't legitimate,
from the animals and fish down
to the lists Of regular customers
for bird seed and fish food.
Yet here was Pasquale taking in
$50 a week, and sailing away over
$4,000 a month. No wonder the
boys were sore.
HOLD MAIL
I was branch postmaster in that
section of the town. and the police
told me to hold all mail addressed
to Pasquale after the killing, so
that they could examine it.
Most OF it was advertising ma
terial from suppliers who wanted
to sell anything from performing
fleas to tame alligators.
About a week after the murder,
two parcels came in, and the DO
lice captain arrived from across
the road and opened them up on
my desk.
They were both from abroad.
One was a parcel of books from
England on dogs, and the cap
tain put those on one side to take
home and read himself, in case
he could find something in them
about his own Aberdeen terrier
that he didn't know already.
D., The other was a light card
board box from Holland, and he
threw that in my wastepaper bas-
ket with a snort of disgust. About
forty or fifty small packets, like
pay envelopes, fell out as the box
lid dropped off.
ANT eggs for goldfish" he NUT
tered. "And they have to import
'en1. I suppose the goldfish
around this town are too high:hat
to eat dried insects from Cali
fornia.
Seems if anything's worth eat
ing it's got to have a French
name, or European pedigree"
= The captain bumped into my
wife at the door as he was leaving.
She had Junior with her.
1t was the usual story. She was
going down town shopping, and
they had just the cutest two-piece
number at the department
store, and it was only seventeen
dollars, but she only had seven
with her. and we didn't have a
charge account there, and could
she?
left them in the office while
{ went into the sorting room to
change a bill, and when she left
[ had ten dollars less in my pocket