On Saturday I got a note from my cousin Frank asking some family history questions and also noting that he’d found some video clips online reporting the gun battle and capture of Two Gun Crowley, the two-bit gangster who’d murdered our grandfather, Nassau County police officer Fernand "Fred" Hirsch (who was 31 at the time, May 6, 1931).
I already knew the basic story but wasn’t aware of 3 on-line videos. For one of these, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5coww6f88A. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crowley An AP account of his capture is at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042243/1931-05-08/ed-1/seq-1/
Obviously, neither Frank nor I ever knew Grandpa Hirsch. Frank's mother didn't talk about him; it was a painful memory. My mother, 5 at the time, didn't have much memory of him. Nana proudly kept a replica of his badge in her wallet for the rest of her long life, another 49 years.
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