This photo from the Ben & Jerry historical collection reminded Marash Girl of a tale that her father often told of his childhood. He was living in Brighton, Massachusetts, living on the fourth floor of a four floor walk-up, laid up with a broken leg. (A hit and run driver left him in the street with a broken leg soon after he had arrived in the US -- was he 10 years old?) One hot summer's day, before his mother Yepros left for work at the silk mills, she gave him a nickel for an ice cream cone. (The ice cream store was down the street.) As it happened, his friend, Baby Kerrigan, was visiting and said he'd be glad to walk to the corner store to purchase the ice cream for Peter, as Peter was as yet unable to manage the 3 flights of stairs. Peter was so excited as he gave his only nickel to Baby Kerrigan and watched at the window as Baby ran to the corner store, anxiously awaiting Baby's return. And Peter watched as Baby ambled slowly down the street toward the Four Castles on Lincoln Street, licking the ice cream as it melted. When Baby finally arrived at the third floor walkup, he handed Peter the cone, but there was no ice cream left in it. "Why did you eat all the ice cream, Baby?" "Well, the ice cream was melting, and I didn't want it to go to waste," answered Baby!
This story was one of the first of many stories that Peter told to Marash Boy when Marash Boy first came courting Marash Girl. Marash Boy could not believe his ears. Was Marash Girl's family really connected to the famous murderer, last to be executed in Massachusetts in the electric chair? The possibility gave him pause. And he asked Peter, was the Baby Kerrigan of his story The Baby Kerrigan of Cop Killer fame, the last to be killed in the electric chair in Massachusetts?
Yes, Peter answered; one and the same! But his brothers and sisters were all good kids. He just got in with the wrong gang.
From the internet:
John Joseph Kerrigan had been sentenced to death September 24, 1961 for the fatal shooting of Cambridge patrolman Lawrence W. Gorman. According to testimony at trial, Kerrigan and an accomplice, Edgar Cook, were trying to break into a Kendall Square restaurant in the early morning of September 3, 1960, when Officer Gorman surprised them. As they ran from the scene, Kerrigan fired three shots, one of which struck Gorman in the back. After deliberating just eighty minutes, a jury found Kerrigan guilty of murder in the first degree. Judge Fairhurst sentenced Kerrigan to die in the electric chair, but stayed the sentence pending appeal. When the clerk asked Kerrigan if he had anything to say, he stood silent for a moment and then said, “I wasn’t on Kendall Square that day.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment