You read the strangest things...

Discussion in 'The Back Room' started by JO'Co, Dec 17, 2006.

  1. JO'Co

    JO'Co Well-Known Member

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    I like to scour the newspapers for names and places that were familiar to me long ago. I have a good memory and sometimes a name or a face will ring a bell and take me back in time...

    In today's papers there's an obituary of a local lawyer named Edward Foley. His most famous case was as the defense attorney for Mrs. Miller, the good-looking Chino housewife who mudered her dentist husband and left his body burning in his Volkswagon over on Banyan Street in Ontario in 1964. This was the greatest and most infamous sex/scandal/murder in the history of this valley and everyone who was alive here at that time remembers it. Mrs. Miller was our Mata Hari, Patty Hearst and Jack the Ripper all rolled into one. She was also one of my mother's friends and her late husband (the victim) was our family dentist. After 20 years in prison she lived out her life as a desk clerk at the local DMV in Ontario, which is a special Hell all its own...

    I mention all of this, because the obit of her lawyer was more interesting to me than she was. Edward Foley was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in May of 1917. He played ice hockey for LaSalle Academy, then went on to Providence College...

    My father was also born in Providence, Rhode Island (so was I) in February of 1917 and he was the star player of LaSalle Academy's ice hockey team. Edward Foley was one of my father's old high school teammates. Amazing how quiet my dad was: about everything...

    My dad never spoke much about those days, despite being the best hockey and tennis player in the city. His high school athletic career ended one day when he was out on the golf course caddying for New England mob boss Raymond Patriarca. Somehow his forehead was crushed by a golf club in an "accident" and the men carried him home. He woke up about a year later and eventually graduated from Hope HS at the age of 20. He carried the scar until the day he died, and he tried never to speak of those days. But sometimes, when he was drinking, I would catch him drifting in thought back to his hockey days. My grandfather from Ireland told me that "Jimmy was the greatest they ever saw..."

    Rest in Peace Edward Foley. They're getting the old team back together.

    ..............JO'Co
     
  2. Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    Wow! Helluva story, Jim.
     
  3. George Krebs

    George Krebs Well-Known Member

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    Damn. If only I could write like that.... :D
     
  4. Terry O'Keefe

    Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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    Yikes!! I guess I'm lucky that I survived marriage!! :)