Between July and November, 1936, Louis Deluria broke into the Lewis confectionery, the Lief saloon, the Davis Tydol garage and the Shaffer & Snyder drug store, all on the south side, within a few blocks of his home. He stole razor blades, gum and cough drops from the confectionery; liquor, cigars and a peanut machine from the saloon; oil and a battery from the gas station; and compacts, cigarettes and candy from the drug store.

He lost a button from his overcoat when it caught on the drug store’s rear screen door. Detectives found it the next morning. They took it around clothing stores in town, asking who had bought the kind of coat it came off. Louis was arrested by sundown.

Louis’ mug shot lay on file for twenty years, until the first Monday in 1956, when it was replaced by one that was taken after he crashed his car into two parked cars on West Washington street. He was fined for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Louis moved to Florida the following year. In 1966, he joined a committee that organised a picnic for two hundred and sixty-six former New Castle families who had settled there. On the twenty-second of October, more than six hundred people turned up at East Greynolds park, outside Miami, in the hope of finding someone they knew or who might remember their families. There were games and a barbecue. The Mayor of Miami presented a proclamation. Awards were given out to the earliest settler, the newest settler, the oldest woman and the largest family (ten children). It rained for much of the day. The banners above the entrance to the park and the bumper plates on the cars read, “We’re from New Castle, PA, and Proud of it.”

Things went pretty well. A “New Castle day in Florida” picnic was held every year for the rest of the sixties.

There is no further record of Louis’ life until his death at the age of 81, in 1995.

Sources: New Castle News (July 22 1936, “South Side Store Robbed Last Night”; November 23, 1936, “Two Business Places Robbed”; November 24, 1936, “Police Arrest youth For Local Robberies”; November 25, 1936, “Deluria Enters Plea Of Guilty”; January 3, 1956, “Charge Tipsy Driving”; September 6, 1966, “Old Friends Meet On New Castle Day”).