The Way it Was

100 years ago

Acted in self defense

It developed at the examining trial of Dr. Jeff Williams, charged with killing Vaughan Moore on the night of Sept. 10, that Moore was in morbid conditions from excessive drinking and was brooding over imaginary grievance against Williams.

Williams had been warned of threats by Moore and also that Moore had armed himself with a pistol and at the time of the shooting Williams came up to Moore on the front porch of their parents home and Williams saw Moore make a move as if to draw his pistol, where upon Williams shot him.

Public opinion here is almost wholly with Williams and his bond for $1,000 was voluntarily signed by a dozen of our best citizens.

50 years ago

Young lads take off in a plane

MASTIC, N.Y. -- Two boys, aged 11 and 13, who had never stepped into a lane before, yesterday took off in an unattended monoplane, flew for an hour and landed perfectly.

"I gave it the gas and taxied up the runway and then it went in the air," calmly explained the pilot, 13-year-old Eddie Gates.

The co-pilot, Ray Brosseau, said Eddie assured him he knew how to fly. Eddie told police that was right, he learned from a book.

Eddie said when they spotted a single-engine plane on the runway they climbed in and started it.

They took off, flew at 2,000 feet over Suffolk County on the eastern end of Long Island, and swooped low over their own homes on the edge of the airport.

The boys were released in the custody of their own homes on the edge of the airport.