puzzle

The Benwell Hotel certainly is(was) in Newcastle.

Yes - if anybody can help with any info on this intriguing comment we'd be very grateful! We haven't been able to find a date for his death (under either name) so we can't check newspapers at the moment.

I tried all the people with distinctive names, and struck out. Very surprising not to even turn up one death notice.

You mean crime didn't just start last week?

I have found a 'possible' in The Times, one William Hall. I will provide a transcription here and apologise for the size of my comment. I write from Australia and wonder if someone more local might be able to follow up the clues in the article to see if this is 'our man'.
Transcription:
[The Times (London, England), Tuesday, Aug 30, 1932; pg. 12; Issue 46225.].

Man Killed By Fall From A Roof: Slip When Defying Police


William Hall, lately living at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was killed by a fall from the roof of a house at Newcastle early yesterday. It was stated that the police were about to arrest him and another man for alleged attempted burglary at a near-by hotel. The other man was arrested.

At Newcastle police court yesterday, JAMES BISCOFF WHITEHEAD, 28, of Back Scotswood Road, unemployed, labourer, was remanded for a week on a charge of attempting to break into Benwell Hotel in Adelaide Terrace with intent to commit a felony.

Inspector Russell said he surrounded the building with the aid of persons living near by. Hall, the dead man, who had a jemmy, knocked off a chimney stack and threw slates and masonry on to the crowd below. In attempting to knock off another chimney pot he fell into the backyard and met his death through a fractured skull. The witness added that Whitehead jumped into the back lane and was arrested.

[Many thanks to Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums for uploading these extraordinary photographs, and to the State Library of Western Australia for their research seminars and online resources].

www.legacy.com/obituaries/hartfordcourant/obituary.aspx?n...

As the obituary linked above indicates, Marjorie Leichner Rafal just died this month (October 2009). She was 93. She was a Wellesley alumna, a teacher in Hartford, a writer, a great-grandmother, and "a renowned constructor of crossword puzzles." Does anyone know where this step is (probably in the Hartford area)? Would make a good then-and-now.

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Jewish People and History - Ancient and Modern, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

It was a very long time ago & i don't remember the episodes but i did watch the tv show & enjoyed it when i was very young. i wish that these would be replayed now or even available on DVD.