Out of the past: Sept. 13

1996

Police attribute at least eight burglaries in Cape Girardeau over the past four months to a man who has been targeting elderly people; in each burglary, the man has broken into homes late at night while residents were asleep and demanded money from them; the most recent first-degree burglary and robbery occurred Thursday at about 1 a.m. at the residence of an elderly brother and sister in the northeast part of town; most of the burglaries have occurred two blocks south of William Street between Ellis and Sheridan.

After two threats to sell St. Vincent's Seminary on the courthouse steps, an attorney for the Vincentian Fathers says the matter will be settled in private; the first sale was scheduled Sept. 5 and the second yesterday; instead of auctioning the property, David Roth, attorney for the Vincentians, announced the sale was discontinued; he said the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation is close to making a deal with the Vincentians.

1971

Mexican food is coming to Cape Girardeau; Richard Ferguson and Lenora Blankenship will be partners in a new restaurant, The Spanish Door, at 731 Broadway; they purchased the former Ricardo's Restaurant and are remodeling the interior of the building, leased from the Nussbaum family.

Mother Nature smiles on the 1971 SEMO District Fair, promising sunny and pleasant temperatures for opening day tomorrow; the fair will run through Sept. 19 at Arena Park; yesterday, exhibitors worked to put finishing touches to their display booths inside and outside the Arena Building.

1946

After handling its largest crowd of the week yesterday, Cape Girardeau Day, the SEMO District Fair goes into its semi-final day; with fair, though slightly cool, weather prevailing, especially at night, the week has been uninterrupted by rain; forecasts indicate the week will run through without so much as a sprinkle; on tap tonight before the grandstand is the society horse show.

Cape Girardeau Police Department's contract with the Veterans Administration for on-the-job training of GIs as police officers has been canceled, effective Sept. 15; but three former servicemen affected will be retained for full duty with the city paying their entire salaries.

1921

The body of Lt. Harry Crumb, the first Teachers College man to be killed in France in the World War, has arrived in America and will be sent to Bloomfield, Missouri, shortly; Crumb, who enlisted in the spring of 1917, was an aviation observer; he took part in many air raids; on the morning of Sept. 30, 1918, he was sent as an observer over the German lines on a reconnoitering trip; he and his pilot were attacked from above, and Crumb received his death wound.

All contracts for films featuring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, once famous movie star, have been canceled by Doyle and Strain, managers of the Park and Orpheum theaters here; no pictures will be shown featuring him while he is under the cloud of the charge of murder; Arbuckle has been accused of the murder of Virginia Rappe, an actress, during his "booze party" at the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco on Friday.

-- Sharon K. Sanders