Verdict in Obscenity case, forgery trial delayed again
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the similarities may be, so are the differences. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Frank T. Tracey was found guilty of four charges of dealing in obscene material in his Bay Street novelty shop. Tracey gave up his right to a jury trial, leaving the determination of his guilt or innocence to Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey.
Harvey announced the verdict and deferred sentence until June 21 pending disposition of a motion for a new trial. The maximum punishment the 86-year-old Tracey could receive would be eight years in prison and fines totaling $5,000.
The charges against Tracey grew out of a raid made on his shop by the sheriff’s vice squad. Deputies seized two cardboard boxes full of what Tracey himself described as “that dirty stuff.” An undercover agent purchased two obscene books from Tracey for $5 and then triggered the raid by giving a prearranged signal to deputies waiting down the street.
Tracey’s defense was based on his claim that he harbored and sold the material because he was working as an undercover agent for the FBI and wanted to set a trap for smut dealers so they could be arrested by the federal agents.
• The final legal step to sell some municipal property that was mostly underwater was taken by the Jacksonville Beach City Council. The members voted to put a parcel located on a small bay just off the Intracoastal Waterway near the McCormick Bridge on the auction block June 20.
The issue had been dragging on for several years with some Council members in favor of the sale since the land was 75 percent submerged and would be too costly to bulkhead and fill while others opposed disposition on the grounds the City might one day need the property.
Beach Marine Service, which operated an adjacent yacht basin, had a standing offer to buy the property.
The Council also approved a request from the Junior Chamber of Commerce for $500 for the Miss Duval County program July 2-3 and voted to ask the chief of police to request that boardwalk concessionaires operate their public address systems at a reasonable volume.
• The ongoing illness of Elizabeth Sams forced another indefinite delay in her Criminal Court trial on forgery charges.
Sams, 46, had been discharged as clerk of the Jax Police Credit Union and was slated for trial on one of 12 forgery charges totaling $15,950 connected with shortages in accounts. The credit union had reported shortages of $180,000.
The case was continued on the motion of defense attorney Walter G. Arnold, who presented a doctor’s affidavit saying Sams was physically unable to stand trial at the time. The medical certificate presented was signed by Dr. Edward Canipelli, who said Sams was in “practically the same condition” she was on April 13 when her trial was called off after a jury was sworn.
Arnold said Sams was receiving treatment for a stomach ailment at the University of Florida Hospital Clinic in Gainesville and that he understood she would be placed under the care of a Jacksonville psychiatrist. He also said the physicians in Gainesville suspected Sams had a “cancerous condition.”
When Arnold presented his motion to delay the trial, Harvey told County Solicitor Lacy Mahon Jr., the prosecutor: “If we forced her to trial and anything happened to her, you and I would technically be guilty of manslaughter.”
• Speaking of Arnold, the long-pending disbarment proceedings against him were transferred from St. Johns County to Duval County for action.
Fourth Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Charles Luckie confirmed the transfer of the case but said it would probably be a week or more before the case was assigned to a Duval judge for disposition.
The disbarment charges against Arnold were instituted on Dec. 6, 1956, on orders of Circuit Judge P.B. Revels of the Seventh Circuit in connection with a St. Johns County criminal case involving a couple who were charged in connection with illegal abortion.
Arnold was defense attorney and a local bondsman, John C. Womack, was representing a bonding company that was surety on the couple’s bail bond. On Nov. 30, 1956, William Judge, state attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, said Arnold and Womack offered him a $2,500 bribe in connection with the case. Womack filed a two-count criminal information against Arnold and Womack in St. Johns County the same day.
The charges had been through the courts from the Seventh Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court and back with the ultimate result that the Florida Supreme Court ruled the charges against Arnold had to be tried in Duval County, the place of his residence and principal practice.
• Speaking of Mahon, he announced criminal charges would be filed as a result of an investigation into alleged shortages in fishing license records in the county judge’s office. No details of the charges were released because the person named in the information was not in custody.
The probe began after County Court Judge McKenney Davis reported an audit of court records indicated discrepancies in inventories of $50 books of state residence fishing licenses and $31.25 books of nonresidence licenses.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the reported shortages, Davis said an employee of the office, Robert Schoenfield, had resigned as a result of an interoffice investigation of the inventory imbalance.
Davis explained that his office received about 900 books of licenses for the 1959-60 fishing season. The books were issued from his office to agents for retail sale. The audit showed that 42 books had been issued, but no record of receipt of funds for them nor records that they had been issued had been made, said Davis. He also said the books involved in the shortages represented $2,043.75.
• In the absence of the Rev. Robert Gisler, pastor of Snyder Memorial Methodist Church, the Wednesday noon service at the Downtown church was conducted by Assistant County Solicitor Hudson Oliff.
Gisler was attending the Florida Methodist Conference in Lakeland and Oliff was associate lay leader for the Jacksonville Methodist District, a Sunday school superintendent and a certified Methodist lay speaker.
The weekly service was held from 12:05-12:25 p.m.
• Gov. LeRoy Collins accepted the resignation of Duval County Peace Justice D. Harley Giddens and appointed William S. Gufford of Jacksonville Beach to take his place.
William Durden, the governor’s chief administrative aide, said Giddens was asked to resign on the basis of complaints “both in regard to his official conduct and with regard to his being intoxicated.”
• Lee Edward Driggers, 40, of Macclenny, made two errors in one day according to police.
First, officers said they found him inside the M&W Welding Works at 806 Talleyrand Ave. which officers found had been broken into. Second, they reported he resisted arrest.
Patrolmen R.R. Wollitz, J.P. Branch and R.L. Shortridge found the building open and during a search discovered Driggers hiding in an office. When they ordered him to come out with his hands up, he did, but not in the customary way. Officers said Driggers swung at them and they were forced to subdue him.
He was treated at Duval Medical Center and then booked into the City jail on charges of breaking and entering and resisting arrest.
• It was reported Etz Chaim Synagogue would conduct a summer film festival featuring a series of classical Yiddish-English films each Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in the synagogue’s youth building.
Selections included “Catskill Honeymoon,” a musical comedy; “And They Met in Galilee,” a travelogue; “The Singing Blacksmith”; “Off the Beaten Track in Israel”; and “Motel, the Operator.”
The series was open to the public and sponsored by the Etz Chaim Hebrew Men’s Club, said Rabbi Jack Goldman, congregational leader.