General Sessions Judge Owen W. Bohan today sentenced William Molloy, 22, to an indeterminate penitentiary sentence of up to three years for stabbing and seriously wounding Irving Berger, Brooklyn chemist, in a fight on the Times Square subway station on Feb. 22, 1939. The fight began when Molloy called Berger “You dirty Yidi.”
Judge Bohan, an Irish Catholic, in handing down the sentence after a verdict had been rendered by a jury representing a cross-section of race and religion, said to the defendant, also an Irish Catholic: “Apparently this assault arose out of your inability to suppress a false teaching of hatred toward your fellow man. In these times the air seems to be filled with matter that has no place in this country. We must set an example to others to repress such feelings as you showed.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
