Benjamin, Thomas: 1939
Thomas J. Benjamin, a 19-year-old, star athlete for Altoona Area High School, was murdered on May 27, 1939, by William G Patrick. Mr. Benjamin was shot during a street fight brought on by jealousy concerning a girl.
Thomas Benjamin was a testimony to the positive side of race relationships in the north in the days immediately prior to World War II. While blacks were still segregated in the South, Mr. Benjamin attended Altoona Area High School, where he played on the varsity football team. His picture is in the Mountain Lion yearbook with his white teammates. In the newspaper account of his murder, however, it was felt necessary to point out that he and his slayer were both “Negroes,” as where the three other CCC workers at the scene. The girl involved was noted to be “colored.”
Mr. Benjamin was born in Altoona on October 8, 1920, the son of Nathan and Elizabeth (Newman) Benjamin. The family lived at 1810 ½ Tenth Avenue. He played for Altoona for two years, at both halfback and fullback, while filling in on defense at end when necessary. He had been a star in junior high, leading Keith to their first ever victory over Roosevelt, 30-0, in 1936. He was a member of the Bell African Methodist church, and worked part-time as a waiter at the Penn-Alto Hotel. He was also in love with a girl named Pearl Ivory.
Pearl Ivory lived at 2620 Walnut Avenue, and had been Benjamin’s girlfriend. In the summer of 1938, however, she met William Patrick at Bland Park. He was playing baseball, and they began seeing each other shortly thereafter.
Patrick was a CCC worker from Fairbank, Pennsylvania, and he was staying at a camp near Philipsburg. The Civilian Conservation Corps was started
One of the efforts to combat the ravages of the Great Depression was the Civilian Conservation Corps. President Franklin Roosevelt started the program in 1933; it ran until 1942. Members of the Corps lived in camps, wore uniforms, and lived under a military-style discipline. Most members who joined the corps were poor, had little education or work experience; the African-American members lived in separate camps. William Patrick lived and worked at one of these camps, and he and several other members came to Altoona by truck on a weekly basis.
Mr. Benjamin, jealous of Patrick’s interest in Ms Ivory, warned him earlier in May not to come into Altoona. Patrick and three other CCC members, all of whom were from Philadelphia, came to Altoona by truck on Saturday morning.
Mr. Benjamin planned to go to a dance in Johnstown with a friend, Monte Patillo, of Thirteenth Avenue, who borrowed his uncle’s car for the trip. Mr. Benjamin knew that Patrick was in town, and suggested they drive by Ms Ivory’s home. On the way, they encountered Patrick and his three friends, Lacy Blackstock, John Royster, and John Payne, all natives of Philadelphia. They were about a block from the girl’s home.
Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Patillo stopped their car on 27th Street, between Maple and Oak Avenues. It was about 8:30 p.m. There, Mr. Benjamin got out of the car, and violent words were exchanged between the rivals. Mr. Patillo tried to end the argument by forcing Mr. Benjamin back into the car; he got out again and resumed the argument became physical.
Patrick produced a .22 caliber revolver and fired four shots. Two of these hit Mr. Benjamin, piercing his back and tearing through his lung and other organs. Mr. Patillo got him back into the car and rushed him to Mercy Hospital, but a phsycian pronounced him dead. After firing the shots, Patrick threw the gun down, but one of his companions picked up it before all four fled.
Meanwhile, residents near the shooting called the police; Lieutenant Haberstroh and other officers began the search for the killer. The coroner, Chester Rothrock, and the District Attorney Chester Wray were also notified. Lt. Haberstroh and Sergeant J.F. Kepner arrested Patrick at 9:45 p.m., at a parking lot at Tenth Avenue and Eighteenth Street where the CCC truck was parked. The revolver was found hidden in the truck. Officer Calvin Bell arrested the other three youths by 10:45 p.m., picking up Royster and Payne and then Blackstook. The three of them were questioned as material witnesses.
Ms Ivory was not present at the crime scene, and was unaware that the two young men had quarreled over her.
Patrick was to be tried by a jury in front of visiting judge Chester D. Fetterhoof of Huntingdon County.
William G. Patrick died in Newark, New Jersey, on July 24, 1993.
