The Milwaukee Daily News in the early teens seemed to always have reporters that would cover the quirky cases of the Police Court. The reporters would delve into it and always come up some stories that were odd.

Friday, April 10, 1914

Mrs. Josephine Harczak is the proprietress of a boarding house on Middlemass avenue and up to Wednesday night Stanislaws Wajevic was the star boarder.

Stanislaws won the heart of Mrs. Harczak, who is a widow and a good cook, by praising her hash and her dead husband, and the fact that he sported a clean collar twice a week and paid his board bill promptly led the good housewife to believe that Stanislaws was a Russian nobleman in disguise.

Stanislaws ogled with Mrs. Harczak at the breakfast table, flirted with her at dinner, and he chucked her under the chin and winked at her after the supper dishes had been cleared away.

It was a romantic courtship and it lasted two weeks. It ended Monday night with a proposal of marriage.

“Will you be mine, fair one?” breathed Stanislaws into his landlady’s ear while they were seated on the sofa, “There is nothing on earth I wouldn’t do for you!”

“Oh, Stanny, this is so sudden! But it took you so long to say it.” she gushed coyly. “I am yours for keeps.”

They would be married in May, promised Stanislaws.

Tuesday night the man jumped up from the table while reading a newspaper and pointed out to his promised one an item which stated that a house a block away had been entered by thieves.

“This is bad,” he told the landlady. “They will come here next. I’ve got a gun and am prepared for ’em. Better let me take care of your valuables, Josie, and they’ll be safer.”

“Good idea.” agreed Mrs. Harczak. She turned over to her fiance $135 in cash and a number of rings.

At 11:30 o’clock Wednesday night there was a great commotion in the Harczak boarding house. Doors slammed, there was a sound of footsteps in the dark hallways and suddenly two revolver shots rang out and woke up the sleepers.

White-faced and apprehensive, the boarders peered out of their rooms.

Mrs. Harczak casually noticed that he bravely entered the hall.

She saw Stanislaws hopping in the hall in blue pajamas and a black rage. He was brandishing a gun and cussing.

“They got it, the villyins!” he howled. “Two sneak thieves got in my rooms and stole your money and jewelry. They skipped out. I shot one of the fellows in the ear but he dove through a window.”

Mrs. Harczak casually noticed that all of the doors and windows were fastened on the inside. It was queer, thought she, that the “burglars” could get in through the keyhole. Then a horrible suspicion dawned on her.

Under the pretense of making the beds, Mrs. Harczak entered the would-be husband’s room Thursday afternoon, instigating a search and found the money and rings reposing at the bottom of her boarder’s trunk. She had the man arrested.

In court Stanislaws asked for a continuance for a week. It was granted.

This one seems particularly appropriate today and may be something we should go back to?

March 13, 1914

Gustave Wiese, found guilty of carrying a concealed weapon on March 6, has been judged insane by Dr. A. F. Young, who was appointed to examine him. He has a mania for collecting revolvers. The man will be removed to the Milwaukee County Hospital for the Insane.