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18

Over in the vicinity of Holden's Hill, lived a very fine family named Knapp. Mr. Knapp was a civil engineer. There were several children but the two who figured in my life were the two oldest, Katherine, who graduated from grammar school with me, and Phil whom I was in high school and college with and who was to come to great tragedy not only for himself but also for his whole family. Katherine was a beautiful girl and as gentle and lovely as she was beautiful. Phil seemed to be a perfectly normal boy, handsome, well brought up, but for some reason he dropped out of college and joined the navy and presumably "saw the world." After a short stretch in the navy, he got out of the service and had a rough time reorienting himself into civilian life. I don't recall that he came back to Syracuse right away but anyhow, one day along in the mid-twenties I'd judge, came the shocking news that Phil Knapp had been arrested in New York City and charged with the murder of a taxi driver, apparently while robbing him as I recall it. The details are pretty hazy to me now and some of the above may not be exactly right, but this is the essence of what happened. Phil was tried for murder, convicted and sent to Sing Sing. I'll always remember picking up a Sunday supplement years later in John La John's barber shop and suddenly seeing a familiar face booking at me from the page -- it was a jazzed up story of Phil's crime written up sensationally for the Sunday magazine section of the Erie Times. Phil was sent up for life and may still be there for all I know. I don't know how the lives of the rest of the family turned out because I lost touch after leaving Syracuse in 1924 but this must have affected all of them to some degree at least. I suppose this kind of thing goes on all the time, particularly in these days of drug abuse, but this was the only time such a tragedy came close to me. I've wondered what happened to lovely Kitty, whom I knew so well, used to dance with at parties, was very fond of.

A similar situation, although not as serious, developed in the Dennison family who lived way out in Eastwood but were of an old Syracuse family, belonged to Sedgwick Farms Club, and were well known among the crowd I traveled with as I grew up. There were two older girls I scarcely knew, but then came Lucius and Henrietta, around my age, whom I knew well. Luke got into bad company as he matured and wound up in Auburn Prison for stealing automobiles, where I unexpectedly came face to face with him in a prison workshop when I was making an inspection trip through the prison as part of a college course. It was one of the most shocking moments of my life. It seemed impossible, utterly incredible that a son of a family like the Dennisons and SOMEONE THAT I KNEW PERSONALLY could be in prison -- things like this just couldn't be true! But there it was. Luke just faded away when he saw me so there was no conversation but I never forgot it.