At the peak of their popularity in the mid-20th century, American newspapers were packed with useful information, such as radio listings, pro wrestling results, school lunch menus — and the home addresses of crime victims. This cop short appeared inside the Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

Customer Beats
Man in Dispute
Over One Penny

A Minneapolis filling station attendant took a beating from a customer Tuesday night in a dispute over a penny.

The 27-year-old customer was jailed for questioning.

Larry L. Ludford, 19, 715 N. Upton Av., said his assailant drove into the Clark station at 301 S. Washington Av. and put $1.01 worth of gasoline into his car.

Ludford said the man offered him $1, but he demanded the penny. A passenger in the car gave it to him.

“I’ll come back and put something under your nose and take all your money,” the driver threatened.

Ludford called police and reported the incident and the car’s license number. After Ludford made his report to detectives the man returned and beat him up.

Police soon arrested the assailant, who struggled with officers.

Ludford went back to work. He was interrupted by a caller who said, “Pray.”

It’s doubtful the thug who beat up the Clark gas station attendant would have messed with Bronko Nagurski, shown here shaking hands with gubernatorial candidate Elmer L. Andersen at Nagurski’s gas station in International Falls in 1960. Check out how the pro football legend’s hand dwarfs that of the future one-term governor. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 1952
Minneapolis Morning Tribune

A woman could get a job as a “store detective” in Minneapolis in the early 1950s. But whoever filed this report for the Minneapolis Morning Tribune didn’t think much of the idea.

As Purses Go,
She Should Have
Hit Him With It

A woman detective grappled with a shoplifter Tuesday and lost partly because of a feminine trait.

Mrs. Helen Gratton, store detective for Witt’s market, 705 Hennepin avenue, spotted a man taking some cold meat and cheeses.

She grabbed her purse and followed him, running up Sixth street to First avenue N., around the corner and into a parking lot.

Mrs. Gratton tried to arrest and handcuff the man. He said unpleasant things, grabbed her throat and tore her dress.

Mrs. Gratton dropped her purse and the contents spilled out. Woman like, she stooped and scooped up the items and the purse.

When she looked up the shoplifter had fled.

Witt’s Grocery & Deli, Seventh on Hennepin, Minneapolis, in about 1945. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

The citizens of St. Paul have never been shy about confronting the City Council about threats to their quality of life. But it’s a mystery why the Minneapolis Star reporter who wrote this story didn’t ask what effect flying specks of sulphuric acid might have on human flesh.

Nylons Damaged,
St. Paul Women
Demand Action

Twenty irate office women appeared before the St. Paul city council today and demanded action.

They said their nylons have been damaged by soot in the city’s loop.

William Parranto, commissioner of public safety, explained that such soot falls from the chimney at Saint Paul hotel. The hotel, he said, burns a Wyoming oil which contains a liberal percentage of sulphur.

Smoke therefrom, he continued, contains specks of sulphuric acid, which burns holes in nylons.

Parranto said he will close the hotel heating plant in 30 days unless, in the meantime, the management installs machinery to collect the soot or otherwise corrects the condition.

The women seemed satisfied with the action.

Louis Maurer, superintendent of Mother’s Friend Laundry in St. Paul, helped load laundered silk stockings into a Salvation Army truck in 1943. Sixty-five years later, two questions: Why launder stockings and then donate them as scrap material? And since when did it take a superintendent to run a laundry? (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

STRUCK BY STREETCAR

Harold H. Rice, 45, attorney with offices at 411 Andrus building, suffered head lacerations when struck by a streetcar Thursday at Fifth and Wabasha streets, St. Paul.

Boy, 5, Saves Sister
From Drowning

PLAINVIEW, MINN. – (AP) – Parents of Robert Kruger, 5, today credited their son with saving the life of his baby sister, Sharyn, after she had fallen into a livestock watering tank on their farm Wednesday.

The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kruger, said that Sharyn, 2, was sitting on the cover of the tank when she slipped and fell in.

They said that when Robert saw her fall, he grabbed her clothes and kept her head above water until the father arrived.