On March 8, 1934, in broad daylight, Mais and Legenza (Robert Mais and Walter Legenza), the ruthless heads of the “Tri-State Gang,” robbed a mail truck thought to be carrying currency from a local Federal Reserve Bank, killing the driver, at a site behind Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia). Foxo, assigned to get drawings of the crime scene, jumped into a cab. He told the driver who he was and what he was about, and asked the driver, “Are you with me?” To which the driver replied, “Yes.” Crossing over the bridge where the crime took place, and where only law enforcement personnel were allowed, Foxo jumped out of the cab and began sketching. Within moments the police came after him, and he jumped back in the cab and it sped off. Moments later the cab arrived again at the crime scene. More sketches were drawn, and that action sequence was repeated several times until Foxo had all the sketches he needed.
The event described above is taken from my 254 page book, “Whistling Down the Halls: The times and Cartoons of America’s Original Pantomime Comic Strip Artist”, available over the Internet. The event took place when Foxo Reardon (Dad) was staff cartoonist and Art Director for the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, one of the South’s leading newspapers at the time. (Mais and Legenza, incidentally were later apprehended after committing more crimes and executed in the Virginia electric chair.
On March 8, 1934, in broad daylight, Mais and Legenza (Robert Mais and Walter Legenza), the ruthless heads of the “Tri-State Gang,” robbed a mail truck thought to be carrying currency from a local Federal Reserve Bank, killing the driver, at a site behind Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia). Foxo, assigned to get drawings of the crime scene, jumped into a cab. He told the driver who he was and what he was about, and asked the driver, “Are you with me?” To which the driver replied, “Yes.” Crossing over the bridge where the crime took place, and where only law enforcement personnel were allowed, Foxo jumped out of the cab and began sketching. Within moments the police came after him, and he jumped back in the cab and it sped off. Moments later the cab arrived again at the crime scene. More sketches were drawn, and that action sequence was repeated several times until Foxo had all the sketches he needed.
The event described above is taken from my 254 page book, “Whistling Down the Halls: The times and Cartoons of America’s Original Pantomime Comic Strip Artist”, available over the Internet. The event took place when Foxo Reardon (Dad) was staff cartoonist and Art Director for the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, one of the South’s leading newspapers at the time. (Mais and Legenza, incidentally were later apprehended after committing more crimes and executed in the Virginia electric chair.