3 RECKLESS AUTOISTS ARE SENT TO PRISON

The New York Times
December 23, 1922

Chauffeur Who Killed Boy Gets Two to Five Years in Sing Sing.

Three reckless automobile drivers were sent to prison yesterday.  One of them, John Badalati, 35 years old, of 345 East 121st Street, was sentenced to not less than two nor more than five years in Sing Sing on his conviction before Judge Nott in General Sessions on a manslaughter charge.  William Crockett of 145 West Forty-eight Street and Anastasios Tarzakos, 33 years old, of 331 Fifth Street, were sent to the workhouse for sixty and twenty days, respectively, on their conviction in General Sessions for knocking down pedestrians.

Badalati on Dec. 20, 1921, ran over and killed Edward Reiss, 12 years old, of 2,933 Third Avenue at Third Avenue and 118th Street.  The boy was crossing the street on roller skates, and witnesses testified that Badalati's car was going thirty-five miles an hour at the time.  Assistant District Attorney McDonald called the attention of the Court to the fact that Baladati's conviction was the third of its kind in a month.

"Where an accident occurs on a crosswalk," remarked Judge Nott, "it clearly shows the criminal carelessness of the chauffeur.  If ever there was a law that needed enforcement it is this one."

Crockett's car knocked down Samuel Stieglitz, 50 years old, of 1,475 Washington Avenue, the Bronx, on May 22 last.  When the chauffeur was convicted last week the injured man pleaded with Justices Herrman, McInerney, and Edwards not to send him to jail.  Crockett did not have his chauffeur's license with him on the day of the accident.  The Court instructed him to appear before him again on Dec. 29 to show cause why his license should not be revoked.

Tarzakos failed to report that on Oct. 14 last his car knocked down Stephen Callahan, 40 years old, of 209 East Fifty-first Street at Third Avenue and Fifty-first Street.  Callahan was in the hospital eight weeks with the injuries he sustained in the accident.