Child Beaten For Prank, Is Charge

The Border City Star, November 2, 1928

It looks like I'm not quite ready to give up on Halloween yet. After
finding a book today at the thrift store called Death Makes a Holiday: A
Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal it reinvigorated me to
forsake seances for old Samhain (pronounced sow-win).

Pranks are
more of a tradition on Halloween than is trick-or-treat. Such was the
case in 1928 when 9-year-old (according to the Freep) Tommy Evans, his
father John of the Clover Leaf Milling Co., older brother James and some friends bounded through the Palmer Park neighborhood of Detroit in search of mischief.

Tommy knocked on the wrong door at 18264 Parkland. A woman answered and
Tommy asked for some seasonal gifts. The woman told him to wait a
minute and went to find the homeowner Murray Jackman, who along with his
chauffeur, bounded around the back of the house and pounced upon the
boy. Other boys at the scene alerted James and he attempted to defend
his brother but was also beaten by the enraged men.

Jackman, and
his driver who mysteriously remained unnamed, both were charged and
released pending trial. Eventually the case was dropped by the boy's
father to avoid so-called bad publicity.

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The Nankin Township Historical Society

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