PM Daily, August 11, 1941
Bandit Roy Bennett, 27, was slain by detectives when he tried to escape after attempting to hold up the New York Delicatessen, 1288 Sixth Ave. He had arrived from Texas by bus a few hours earlier, apparently planning to try his hand as a big-city desperado.
PM Photo by Weegee


Weegee Daily, August 11, 2013
WD Photo by Ceegee




Published (Weegee’s World and the Berinson book) versions of the big-city desperado…

PM Daily, August 11, 1941
The Bandit shares the page with a tank burning from highly inflammable bottled benzine; the Lindberghs at an America First rally; the widow of the scientist who discovered the ‘magic bullet’ that cures syphilis; and the actor Robert Montgomery in the Navy in London…

Unidentified Photographer, August 1941
Surrounded by salmon: the young man who was working behind the counter at the New York Deli at 12:30 A.M. when Bennett attempted his sole New York stick-up… Apparently Bennett was “spotted as suspicious” (no stop and frisk) as he arrived at a New York bus station and followed by a pair of detectives…

New York Daily News, August 11, 1941
“Bullet Ends Texan’s Crime Career in N.Y.”
“A Texas small town boy with a mail order pistol launched his New York career at 10:30 P.M. Saturday night. At 12:30 A.M. yesterday. he died with his boots on and a detective’s bullet in his heart…”

Unidentified Photographer, New York Daily News, August 11, 1941, p.16
Tragedy In New York.
“Roy Bennett lies sprawled, face down and dead, on Sixth Ave…”

Unidentified Photographers, New York Daily News, August 11, 1941, p.16
Gloomy Sunday
Four Pictures of Trouble and Tragedy On Land and on Sea

Unidentified Photographer, “Detective Examining a Body,” August 10, 1941
A pair of screen shots from a photo agency…

Weegee Daily, August 11, 2013
WD Photo by Google Street View

To be continued…

PM Daily, August 4, 1941
“Our photographer tried to buy gas last night at Brick’s Service Station, Seventh Ave. and 20th St., but it wasn’t selling any…”

Weegee Daily, August 4, 2013

PM Daily, July 30 1941
Weegee Covers: A Waterfront Shooting

Weegee Daily, July 30, 2013
Ceegee Covers… Nothing

PM Daily, July 28, 1941, p. 18
“East Side Fire: Landlord Weeps As Porter Burns to Death”
PM Photos by Weegee



Weegee Daily, July 28, 2013
East Side Tenement Still Stands
WD Photos by Ceegee


PM Daily, July 28, 1941, pp. 18-19
As previously mentioned, this is one of the greatest page spreads in the history of newspapers, if not the history of the printed word (or the not-oral history of the world)… One page (page 18) with six Weegee photos and the facing page (page 19) with five photos of real, honest-to-Greenwich Village poets, including the effervescent, if not immortal, Joe Gould…

Geller and Fuhrer had telephones:

A few of the other NYC newspapers, The New York Times and The New York Herald Tribune, didn’t cover this story at all. Perhaps the editors thought this story, and the tenement dwellers in the lower East Side, were not significant enough to be covered. (Or perhaps they were to busy covering the halva crisis in Turkey:-)

The Daily News covered the fire, with a single small uncredited photo and three paragraphs.
Here are a few of the ways the story appeared in different editions of The Daily News:


New York Daily News, July 28, 1941

A quick comparison:
PM Daily: “… the body of Negro superintendent, Joseph Devine, who suffocated in the basement.” “Shirley”
Daily News: “… Joseph Devine, colored janitor, was trapped in his bedroom and burned to death.” “Shirlee”

This story, more than most, shows the collaboration and symbiotic relationship between Weegee and PM. It was one of a many fires in 1941, and except for the death of Mr. Devine, unexceptional, but Weegee’s six photos that fill an entire page…
There was no other publication and no other photographer that could produce and document a story like this, with words and images…

Google Street View of 321 Houston St.

According to a popular (un)real estate website a three bedroom apartment (or, “full floor loft”) at 321 East Houston St. (built in 1930), rented for $4340, in June 2013…

July 27th was a busy day for Weegee, at around 5:30 AM, Weegee covered a fire on the Lower East Side, (only about 15 blocks from his home).
And 12 hours later, around 5 PM, a 36 inch water main break on 125th St. caused significant flooding, a fire, and traffic tie ups…

To be continued…