Tuesday April 16, 1907
The deaths of the two police officers George Sechler and Alfred Selleck, as well as the 19 year old boy, sent shock waves reverberating through New York City for weeks, in fact years to come. It is not an exaggeration to say that for a time nearly everyone in New York knew the story of George Sechler of Danville, his widow Laura, and their 6 week old daughter, Ruth.
The shock waves took several forms including inciting a tremendous backlash against Italian immigrants in the city. Beginning Tuesday, the New York papers were full of articles describing police efforts to stop and frisk anyone with Italian roots, and to jail anyone found concealing a weapon. Alas, there were quite a few found concealing weapons, and this went on for several weeks. There were also recriminations back and forth between Italian immigrants and Sicilian immigrants, the former group unhappy at being painted with the same broad brush as the latter. The following is from the New York Times, Tuesday April 16, 1907.
Of course, most of the details of New Yorkʼs immigration issues mattered less to the family as preparations went forward for George’s funeral, planned for Thursday in Danville.
More to come…
Bridging the Silences 