A former German national was in Norwalk Jail today, serving a 60-day sentence for defacing a Norwalk synagogue with swastikas after dropping his appeal to the United States Supreme Court against the sentence.
William Arnold, 24, now living in Milford, Penna., had been convicted with a friend, Harold Fahy, 24, Norwalk, of defacing Beth Israel Synagogue on February 1, 1960. They were convicted by the Bridgeport Superior Court in June 1960. They appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors and that court rejected the appeal last July. They had been free on $3, 000 bond each, pending the outcome of their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Fahy continued his appeal.
The prosecution had called them Nazi sympathizers in the trial. They had tried to shrug off the daubings as a prank. At the time of his arrest, Arnold was awaiting action on an application for American citizenship. He came to this country in 1956, having grown up in Germany during the last part of the Nazi regime and the postwar period.
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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.