75 Years Ago Today… “Weegee Passes Up a Movie for a Holdup Alarm… And Gets This Group Portrait of Five Prisoners”

PM, August 17, 1942, pp. 8-9

“Weegee Passes Up a Movie for a Holdup Alarm… And Gets This Group Portrait of Five Prisoners”
“by Weegee”
“I was on the way to the Fifth Ave. Playhouse to see the movie, “Sins of Bali,” strictly a cheesecake affair, when I picked up a signal on my police radio for a holdup car. I went chasing after the car instead of going to the movie…”

“…Arrest didn’t dampen the spirits of Lillian and Pauline, 16 and 18, when they posed for this picture. Their companions, left to right, are Steve Samanek, 27, Raffael Martini, 18, and Baspay Cabrera, 23. Cabrera and girls worked outside, police say.”

(One of our favorite PM spreads. PM ran the better photo…)

New York Daily News, August 17, 1942
Stickup Quintet and Burglars: “These five youngsters have admitted that they are the stickup quintet that had police on the jump for a week. They’ve confessed to 20 robberies in the last seven days, which netted $1,500 in loot. Rear: Steve Samanek, Raffael Martini, Gaspay Cabrera,” Lillian Hornyak and Pauline Hornyak.”

“Sins of Bali,” “strictly a cheesecake affair…”

North Tonawanda NY Evening News, November 1942