Today in local history readers will find a mother’s unusual legal defense for her son, an upside-down mix-up and a foiled burglary.
100 years ago
June 4, 1924
• A mother insists her son shouldn’t be held responsible for forgery because he “has not been well” since returning from combat in France.
Thomas Allen was arrested May 31 for passing a $20 check bearing the forged signature of O.O. O’Brien, a patent lawyer in Washington, D.C. His mother, M.J. Allen, sought to clear his name through the Poplar Bluff Interstate American today, claiming Thomas was shell-shocked during his tour of duty in World War I and returned “mentally deficient.” As an example, she claimed he recently mailed O’Brien two cancelled postage stamps he mistook for money, trying pay the patent registration fee for a roller skate design.
M.J. Allen said her son “at times appears to be normal” but local physicians and friends could vouch for his condition.
75 years ago
June 4, 1949
• Local officials were swamped with frantic phone calls this morning by residents asking, “Is the county in distress?”
The confused reply was no, everything was fine. Eventually, a passerby clued courthouse staff in to the cause of the panic: their American flag was flying upside-down.
50 years ago
June 4, 1974
• The Poplar Bluff City Council approved a 10% salary increase for most city departments last night. Administrative salaries now range from $965-$1,670 per month. The fire department was granted a smaller 1-5% wage hike, but the number of hours firefighters work per week was reduced from 72 to 56 in compliance with federal regulations, with 26 hours allotted for sleeping and eating, and 30 hours for training.
• Poplar Bluff police apprehended a man for robbing Dille’s Discount Pharmacy in search of opiates.
Patrolmen responded to a burglar alarm at the pharmacy in the early morning hours and witnessed a suspect fleeing the building. He evaded capture, but officers found him half an hour later hiding in the bed of a truck at a nearby Chevrolet dealership.
The man was identified as Darrell Litchford, 36, of Louisville. He confessed to prying open the pharmacy’s rear door with a crowbar in search of drugs.
Litchford had $103 on him at the time of arrest; James Dille, the pharmacy owner, said over $100 was missing from the cash register. Investigators also discovered hundreds of dexedrin tablets stashed down the street from the scene of the crime.