Paul Bailey was arrested midway through the first sunny weekend of the spring of 1948, which followed weeks of heavy rain. All over Lawrence County, people went fishing, played baseball or golf or just took the opportunity to sit on their porches. For his part, Paul celebrated the good weather by getting drunk enough to be charged with disorderly conduct.

Meanwhile, the town’s criminal element embarked on a minor spree, with four burglaries being reported over the weekend: thieves broke into the Giancotti service station on Croton Avenue in order to loot the cigarette machine, making off with $35 in coins and 125 packs of cigarettes; someone stole an electric iron, a radio and some food from the McCue house on West North Street; C R Allen, of West Front Street, reported that a radio, an electric razor and a cap pistol had been taken from his house; and Mrs Missey, who lived in an apartment in the Fisher block on Long Avenue, reported the theft of shirts, sheets, a dress and some towels. There appears to have been no suggestion that the crimes were connected.