The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-03-03
Walter WincheII
On BrO0dW'0y !.
saa. Asnrs Rer,s,er.s conyrrht 1890 Daily MIsrssD

on deposit with our treasurer, Com
mander j. j. Bergen. This leaves
us only $1,000, with 8 Of the best
days to go, and the Garden box Of
flee is having unusual activity.
Credit Is due Eddie Cantor, who
sold $4,000 worth. Frank Gernon
of The Investment Bankers Di-
vision sold close to $4,000 and
Comdr, Bergen is working on all
fronts. The program report is
swell. Mrs. Vincent Astor-Minnie
to all of you who adore her tine,
tooD--and her flock of volunteers
have sold over $4,000 in advertS.
Howard Dietz, Mrs. Ambrose Cham
bers, Jessel helping wonderfully. Not
five cents has been spent on COM
missions for these ads.
THE expense of the entire affair
will not be more than ten per cent
of the gross. Garden hire, char
women, etc. I understand sew
eral. smart hotels are welcoming the
stars from the coast, rent free-all
for Navy Relief, etc. This saves us
mighty sum, of course. Bellingsley
says they all can dine there March
3, 9 and 10th ON the cuff. I SuS-
pect you fixed that. oh, yes, Sher-
man also bought big, ad, plus a
! 81 900 box Can you please also
credit the unions musicians, stage
hands, actors, etc. for working for
nothing on this affair? Other unions
such as the ILGWU, the Amalga-
mated Clothing Workers Union, the
Longshoremen, Millinery Workers
and Furriers' Union have bought
blocks of tickets that amount to
more than $4,000 Tn afraid We
have a heluva hit, mister"
Attn readers who cannot attend
the above mentioned show: If you
sent me a nickel or dime, quar-
ter or q dollar Gin care of the
Daily Mirror, New York;, will use
the money to purchase tickets for
boy in blue or khaki =. He may
be your son, brother, husband or
kinsman-or he may be from your
home town 7 will personally dis
tribute the tickets you buy.
Dear Walter" writes the re-
porter-source on the recent Sberna-
electric chair paragraphs (Which
the District Attorneys office argues
it can knock down easily. We orig
inally were told that Sberna-who
might have been innocent, but fried
in the chair, anyway-was identified
by eyewitnesSes who "only thought
they saw him at the scene" The
d. as office revealed that five eye
witnesses fingered him on the route
of flight. One being a--high- class
INSURANCE man, truck driver, and
| so on And so we corrected that
iScrepancy-and the Sberna kin
are furious with us for being fair
to both Sides. However, here is the
note from the source: II visited the
District Attorneys office as you sug-
gested and there I was confronted
with a mass of evidence purporting
| to prove that Sberna was guilty of
murder. Naturally, the evidence was
strong against him; Otherwise. OBJ
viously, he would never have been
arrested, indicted, convicted and
electrocuted.
But the original sources are
equally as positive that terrible
mistake was made, and I am not
wholly convinced that the latter are
not right. At the very moment the
Millen boys we're captured after a
gunfight in a midtown New York
flotel-a jury was out in Massachu-
sets, about to reach a first degree
verdict against two innocent men
for a killing the Millens later con-
fessed. And the most significant
angle is this. Your sec'y tells me
that priest who walked the last
mile with Sberna had made FIJI
TEEN visits To the District Attor-
ney's office to plead for Sberna.
One visit would have been almost
unprecedented.
Nov, Walter, you know that a
priest never interteres with law and
order-and this fine holy man must
have had terrific doubts of the
boys guilt or he certainly would
never have tried to speak to the d.
a. about 1t. A priests duty is only
to administer spiritual guidance
Also it is more than likely that the
priest was given more accurate info
on tire case by Sberna than all the
witnesses put together. Because,
you know, these tough italian kids
(who might be able to kill man
without a qualm) would never,
never, never lie to a priest or even
hold back anything from him. am
going to try to see Father Mccall