Out of the past 5/13/12

25 years ago: May 13, 1987

An internal investigation is underway by the Cape Girardeau Police Department to determine how a federal prisoner being held in the city jail was able to get a hacksaw blade and a fully loaded handgun into his maximum-security cell; the man was shot once in the chest by a police officer as he attempted to escape last night.

Cape Girardeau city manager Gary A. Eide is in the running for the position of city manager for Norman, Okla.

50 years ago: May 13, 1962

Bishop H.T. Primm, the presiding prelate of the Fifth Episcopal District, is guest speaker during the morning worship hour at St. James AME Church.

Volunteer firefighters from Scott City, working through last night, were forced to watch the Nenninger Packing Co. on south U.S. 61 be destroyed by fire for lack of water and enough firefighting equipment; the brick building stood a half-mile outside the Cape Girardeau city limits, but the Cape Girardeau Fire Department was forbidden to leave the city to fight the fire.

75 years ago: May 13, 1937

Dr. Bernard W. Hays of Jackson was honored by the Missouri State Medical Association by election without opposition as president-elect, as the convention closed a three-day session Wednesday.

Eighty-seven athletes of the five State Colleges, along with 17 tennis players and 13 golfers, will compete tomorrow in the 24th annual Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association carnival at Houck Field Stadium; in a special exhibition 100-yard race, 17-year-old Margaret Miller of Malden, Mo., will be pitted against the great Helen Stephens, the Olympic champion.

100 years ago: May 13, 1912

Much work has been done to beautify Common Pleas Courthouse Park; the trees have been cared for, the ugly branches being cleared away and the trunks whitewashed; the grass has been attended to and the terraces repaired and resodded; the large fountain-statue has been newly painted; best of all, the awful jungle of filth and ugliness at the southeast corner of the park has been removed.

Centenary Methodist Church, which a year ago was in debt about $17,000, last week paid off its note held by the S.E.Mo. Trust Co.; the only debt on the building now is $5,000.

-- Sharon K. Sanders