The Key West Citizen Newspaper, November 25, 1952, Page 3

KEY WEST IS MY BEAT By SUSA’ Capt. Thomas Moore who found ; the body of Sam Long while fi ing off No-Name Key on Sund has a seafaring tradition that goes back to the days of Napoleon When I interviewed the 75 year | old Key Wester yesterday on his tragic find in shallow water, I} meant to rush right back to the | paper. Capt. Moore’s eventful his- tory held me there an hour. A reader of this column called me at 8 on Monday to tell me where to find the Captain. Though | would not let me use her | 1 wish to thank her for | leading me to the Moore family whose history covers Key West through the Civil War, through Dry Tortugas, through the Keys ferry, hurricanes, and drownings. Sam Long’s water-logged body | ¢d in Fort Taylor accepted the was the third that has been found by the sharp-eye whitehaired Key) West Captain Moore. He found his own brother-in-law’s body off White Street in the sea back in 1942. He found a man with his head cut off in the water some years ago. Capt. Moore’s father, grand- father and great-grandfather have all played a part in the sea his- tory of this continent and that of Europe. jleft Loggerhead Light, he went on |died. It was not the first death | Sombrero light like others was McAVOY when dried to swell the bristling creature into amazingly curved proportions. Scientists visiting the remote lighthouse were so impres- sed they asked him to present the stuffed porcupine to the museum. He did. Capt. Moore, himself has visited the Smithsonian and proud- ly gazed at the family heirloom ensconced in a glass case in the northwest corner of the museum. When Thomas Moore the first {a hazardous construction job at Cape San Blas in northwest Flori- da. There he caught malaria and \in the family resulting from dan- | gerous work. Capt Moore’s maternal grand- father Dexter who was imprison- job of manning Sombrero Light opposite Key Vaca after his re- lease from prison. In those days | fueled by oil, not | ter was carrying a ba: | to the light in his boat. | barrel tipped the boat, it cap- | sized and Dexter drowned. The boat was recovered, but he never was. Capt. Moore told me yesterday that he can remember his child- hood at Dry Tortugas even though tricity. Dex- of oil His father, Thomas Moore the first, was a lighthouse keeper at Tortugas Light, Loggerhead Key, 68 miles from here. His maternal grandfather was such an excellent pilot in the treacherous waters off the Keys, that the Union Army tried to press him into service as a pilot during the Civil War. This grandfather, Capt. Dexter, refused to serve the Yankees. He sided with Confederates. He was as a result imprisoned at old Fort Taylor for duration, and his wife took in sewing to support her family. Capt. Moore’s great-grandfather on his maternal side, was keeper at St. Helena while Emperor Na- poleon fretted away his last years in exile. His grandmother was dandled on the knee of the gener- al. A piece of stone from the grave of Napoleon at St. Helena was a treasured relic of the family for many years and when the Dexter family came to Key West they brought with them a stone from Napoleon’s. grave. Capt. Moore’s own father be- came nationally publicized back in the 19th century while he was lighthouse keeper in the Dry Tor- tugas. Then as now the 150-foot light jehouse was the entfance to the Gulf-of Mexico for all»shipping. | In those days Thomas Moore had to climb the 194 steps to light the | oil burning beacon. One day when he was atop the tower and sur- veying the turquoise waters around the Tortugas he noticed a ship with limp sails northwest of Log-| gerhead Key. He sent Broom, a Negro helper, over in the skiff to discover what was the situation. Broom climbed aboard the silent | ship. He found blood all over the deck, Frightened he went below There he was faced by a young ) girl guarding the captain’s cabin with a gun. Broom fled back to ‘Thomas Moore at Loggerhead, and Teported the scene. Moore took a boat over to Fort Jefferson and asked Caretaker Cole and another man to bring guns with them to the blood covered ship. The armed civilians found that the crew had mutinied jainst the captain, The young girl, the captain's daughter, was defending her father at gun point. Moore and his aides bound the mutinous crew and brought them back to Key West. Lighthouse keeper Moore is fur- ther immortalized by a porcupine now in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. Moore stuffed the dead animal | with wet beans which expanded WHERE CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTS ..,. COUNT ON US! modern methods cut printing costs Latest equipment modern printing tech niques assure you of lowest cost on any printing job Consult us for an estimate on your next No obligation! acta E stuffed | {he was only five or six at the | tiem. | “A ship came in with all men |aboard sick with yellow fever. I |can recall my father sending out | chicken soup to the men. We kept chickens at Loggerhead in those days.” Thomas Moore the first came to | Key West on a British boat, back in the 19th century. A boilermaker by trade, he decided he liked the Island City and stayed here to take out his citizenship papers. He married Key Wester Annie Dex- ter. With the sea in his blood, to- day Thomas Moore only goes out fishing on Sundays. He retired as a charter boat captain years ago, and ran his last ferry from No- Name to Matecumbe, until the -Overseas Highway made ferries obsolete back in 1939. Numbering among his former fishing guests some of the famous writers who visit the Keys, Capt. Moere has been written up in national magazine by Garret Gar- ret and others. Today he and his son and his |son’s son keep their Lands in the salt waters of the Keys by their trips to Big Pine where their fish- ing skiff provides them with end- | less “holidays of pleasure. I want to remind readers of this column, however, that six big | Prizes are offered to those of you | who call in a tip leading to a veri- | fiable SCOOP OF THE WEEK. So far only one prize has been award- ed. Here are the prizes you can win |for you and your husband, wife or {friend by calling a verifiable tip | |to me at The Citizen: A round trip plane ticket to Havana for two, courtesy Aero- | vias Q. A round trip plane ride to Dry | Tortugas in Col, Pen Edgar’s sea plane. A day on a fishing boat in the Gulf or Atlantic | A round trip plane ride up the Keys or a flying lesson. A night with dinner and break- fast at the Cast Marina. A night at The Key Wi ir with | dinner and breakfast at Raul’s | restaurant. These prizes are offered to the | winner of the SCOOP OF THE | WEEK and his or her partner. So call or write in your tip leading |to a good news story for the front page land is heavier than the gravitational force the land causes a slight f water in the oceans continents. Since iliss Parole Plea Denied By US Board WASHINGTON w#—Alger Hi: Monday was denied a parole. The U. S. Parole Board an- nounced it had turned down the application of the former State De- partment official, now serving a five-year term for perjury. Dr. George G. Killinger, board chairman who conducted a hearing on the Hiss petition at Lewisburg (Pa.) Penitentiary about 10 days ago, made this statement: “In the matter of the application of parole for Alger Hiss, the Board of Parole, after a careful consider- ation of the official record, unani- mously voted to deny the applica- tion.” The board is composed of five members. It acted on the basis of a report submitted by Killinger after his visit to Lewisburg. Hiss was convicted of perjury, lying when under oath, for denying that he ever gave secret govern- ment documents to Communist agents. He became eligible for parole last Friday. Board members disclosed last week they had received more than 50,000 letters and telegrams ex- pressing “‘pro and con” views on whether he should be paroled. A prisoner becomes eligible for parole when he has served one- third of his sentence, Hiss, now 48 has persistently de- nied that he was guilty of the crime charged to him. He contends that he eventually will be vindicated. Businessman Turned Bandit Puzzles Cops ST. LOUIS # — Police were confronted with a tough question here—what changed an apparent- ly successful businessman with a family and a spacious suburban home into a would-be holdup man? The _businessman-turned-bandit is dead—shot by an armored money truck guard whom he accosted in a daring, daylight raid on a busy St. Louis street last Friday. The slain man was 45-year-old Jacob R. Katz of suburban Uni- versity City—a regular church member, father of three children and president of the Reed Ice Cream Stores. He was cut down by guard Thomas F. Doerflinger, 24, after he had inserted the tube of a crude, homemade ammonia bomb through an opening of the truck parked before the Mound City Trust Company bank. The truck was making a regular stop and two other guards were inside the bank at the time. Friends and relatives who have been questioned by police and in- terviewed by reporters haven't helped solve the problem either. A sister, Mrs. Ethel Levenson of Omaha, Neb., said Katz had borrowed money to buy the ice cream firm and had been hard pressed to repay the loan. She said he worried about the debt. The Post-Dispatch said Katz re- cently had applied for a $3,000 loan from the bank at which the attempted holdup took place. He was turned down, the newspaper said, with one factor being that he was not a regular customer at the bank. But a close friend, Samuel Sil- verblatt, who had known Katz for seven years, told newsmen Katz was in “better financial shape than he had been in years.”’ Silverblatt suggested Katz may have suffered a “mental lapse.” The guard partially gassed by Katz is still in a critical condi- tion at a St. Louis Hospital. SLIGHTLY EXPENSIVE ST. LOUIS w — Circuit Judge | | PHONE 51 , THE ARTMAN PRESS } ACROSS FROM CiTY HALL — GREENE ST, W. C. Mayfield reported an ex- penditure of just 3 cents in filing his report of “campaign” expendi- | tures with the circuit clerk in the | recent general election. | The money, said Judge Mayfield, purchased a stamp for the letter | in which he notified the secretary | of state he wished his name on the ballot. | HEARING AIDS 2m hae pitas sete) SEE the new, expethrifty, olden color Zenith “REGENT” af eee VO-OAT WORET-SACK QUARANTEE! REVS Ur iscaL SERVICE 4233 Simonton St. p TEL. 1416 New DB. aftee Tests Planned WASHINGTON #—The military services have worked out new tests of mental ability and aptitude to give to draftees and volunteers. The Defense Department an- nounced Monday the new tests will go into use Jan. 1. A spokesman said they include more questions relating to basic mechanical ability than do the present tests. He said one aim in the new tests is to w *> it more difficult for a man to fail deliberately. There have been complaints in Congress | that too many physically fit draftees were being rejected for | failure to pass the mental test. The passing grade of 70 will re- main in effect with use of the new tests. The flight of owls is relatively noiseless owing to its soft plum- age. A ferret is an albino, domesti- cated variety or polecat. 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