Ninety days in jail was the sentence meted out here today to Charles W. LaCroix, seventy-two year old Jerseyite. He was convicted by Judge McGovern of pasting anti-Semitic posters on shop windows in this city. Appearing in the First Criminal Court here, accompanied by several of his anti-Semitic companions, LaCroix was speedily convicted on the formal charge of defacing and destroying city property.
LaCroix had been out on $5,000 bail, mysteriously put up by his friends shortly after his arrest on April 6, when he was apprehended making his rounds of Jersey City and nearby communities. In court today he pleaded guilty, because he did not want to talk about his alliances with Nazi organizations in this country. John Bishop, local leader of the Friends of New Germany, was in court at LaCroix’s side. Several other recognized Nazi leaders were present.
LaCroix denied he was a member of the Friends of New Germany. “I am a member of the Silver Shirts,” he said. “There is not enough action for me in the Friends of New Germany.”
THREATS AGAINST JEWS
After Judge McGovern delivered the verdict LaCroix was consoled by Bishop, who was heard to say: “Don’t worry. Well fix those Jews.”
Several prominent Jewish lawyers were in court to attend the proceedings. It was brought out during interrogation that the anti-Semitic stickers which LaCroix had pasted on shop windows here came originally from Germany. An envelope in which LaCroix carried the stickers bore the postmark of a German city.
LaCroix resides at 308 Shippen street, North Bergen. Slogans on the stickers which he pasted on shop windows asked Christians to patronize only Christian doctors and lawyers, to demand Christian entertainment on stage and radio, and to protest against Jewish judges.
LaCroix was listed in the now defunct Amerikas Deutsche Post of August 1 as being a special propaganda agent for the Nazi government in New Jersey.
Old and of a sour disposition, he is considered by persons with whom he has come in contact in Jersey City as a religious fanatic who has succumbed whole-heartedly to Hitler’s “Aryan” theories.
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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.
