Evening star., 1952-01-25
By WilIiom Hines
S,or Staff CORRESPONDENT

ELIZABETH, N. j., Jan. 20
IA deep sense of outrage pervades
this industrial city Of ll2,00o
people.
It is helpless sort Of outrage
the kind a father feels as he
Stands over the crumpled body OF
This son and watches the killer
careen down the highway in a
thigh-powered car.
Elizabeth is an old town, a
crowded town, and not. Q very
pretty town. st. Mary's parish,
which embraces a third of the
city, is neither the best nor the
worst part of Elizabeth. It is
simply the saddest. {
Where Plane Met Its Doom.
For here. in this polyglot parish
Iof factory workers, q large and
powerful airplane met Its doom
Tuesday. With the airplane and
Its complement of %, perished
!. six residents of the parish people
remembered by their neighbors as
school kids. housewives. fellow
workers.
About forty days ago. another
airplane came to earth in Eliza
beth, and 56 people died. But
that time. all the dead were or
the plane, which crashed into
the gorge of the Elizabeth River
They said at the time that only
q miracle had kept the craft from
killing scores of Elizabeth chill
Idren, who were at Christmas
party in the Elks club nearby.
This time, there was no miracle
la pile of blackened timbers. q
half a brick house and twisted
mass Of aluminium testify to that
100 Planes Pass Daily.
The times aren't normal in Eliz-
abeth. More than q hundred
planes pass over the city every
Iday-most Of them at attitudes OF
less than 1000 feet Landing OF
j taking off from Newark airport
Normally, people don't give them
ia second thought. beyond cussine
softly as the television goes hay
wire or walking across the living
room to straighten picture Jared
lout Of line by the vibrations ci
huge motors. Certainly people
lon the street ordinarily don't
bother to glance upward as the
planes pass.
! But this week, things are differ
lent. Yesterday. group Of teen
Iage girls who narrowly missed
death on Tuesday trocped off q
bus near Battin High School as
la plane came In for a landing
Almost as one. they peered sky
ward, muttered softly and went
their schoolward way.
| Billy is 8 years old. He
lgoes to st. Mary's School, cata-
Icornered across from the crash
scene. Tuesday was his fathers
lday of, and because 1t was rain
ling the father went after Billy
lin his car. Ordinarily, Billy stops
lat the corner store from about
I3:40 to $3.50 pm. to buy q coke
lor sneak look at the comic
books. That store was burned
out at 3:45.
Boy Wakes Up Screaming.
Billy's father believes he may
have saved his sons life; he gave
THANKS to God at st. Mary's
Church early Wednesday. And
what had happened wasn't. lost on
1.-THE 8-year-old boy. He was
sound asleep Tuesday night when
an airplane rocketed in for q
landing. Billy usually sleeps
Through airplane noises. But
Tuesday night ne woke up
screaming.
Billy's father is q typical Eliza
bethan. Forget about his name,
as he suggests, he's just an ordi-
mary working guy. He has lived
lin Elizabeth almost all his life,
land is paying for q small. l2-
lyear-old house under the CT Bill
lof Rights. He and hundreds like
lhim have been clamoriag for
years about the planes.
we never got to first base" " he
Isays, not even when that nom
lsked went down in the river last
month = Then perhaps UNDER
lstandably, bitterness creeps into
Ibis voice:
They'll press 1t now. ! bet. But
lit won't be on account Of us. It
win be because Of that big guy
lon the plane; you know, what's
This name2"
His name was Patterson, q
name that meant q lot In WASH
.ington and New York. but hardly