Tuesday
March 2, 1926
New Britain herald (New Britain, Conn.) — Connecticut, New Britain
“The spy who raced the hangman (and lost) + America's last blasphemy trial”
Art Deco mural for March 2, 1926
Original newspaper scan from March 2, 1926
Original front page — New Britain herald (New Britain, Conn.) — Click to enlarge
Full-size newspaper scan
What's on the Front Page

The front page is dominated by the blasphemy trial of Anthony Bimba, a young Lithuanian editor who faced charges under an ancient Massachusetts statute. Judge C. Carroll King found Bimba guilty of sedition but not guilty of blasphemy, imposing a $100 fine. The court ruled that while Bimba's prepared speech stayed within legal bounds, he crossed the line when answering "fighting questions" from audience members who apparently wanted to provoke stronger statements. The judge noted that Bimba's personal declaration that he "did not believe in God" was permissible under freedom of speech. Elsewhere, tragedy strikes as Ignatius Lincoln, a 26-year-old artilleryman, was executed for Christmas Eve murder while his notorious spy father raced desperately from the Far East to say goodbye—arriving in France just one day too late. The paper also reports on international tensions brewing in Southern Tyrol, where Italian Fascists dismissed 40 German physicians and replaced them with 5 Fascist doctors, causing unrest among the German population in the former Austrian territory.

Why It Matters

These stories capture America in 1926 grappling with questions of free speech, religious expression, and sedition that would echo through the century. The Bimba case reflects the era's tension between traditional religious values and radical political ideas, particularly around immigrant communities challenging established authority. Meanwhile, the international coverage shows America watching European instability with growing concern—the Southern Tyrol disputes and father-son execution story hint at the political upheavals that would eventually draw America into global conflicts. This was the height of the Roaring Twenties, when traditional morality clashed with modern ideas, and when questions about what constituted "American" values were being fought in courtrooms and public squares across the nation.

Hidden Gems
  • A 15-year-old bride, Carmelina Leone Terranova, married Joseph Terranova Jr. after his mother posed as the girl's mother to get around age requirements—the girl fled an abusive father in Hartford who 'had beaten her time after time'
  • John C. Demarest, 98, and his wife Susan, 93, celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary at Spring Lake Farm, with 'Uncle John' expressing his 'one great desire is to go up in an airplane' despite living through the era of oxcarts and slaves
  • A house fire at 85 Lexington street caused $10,000 damage (about $170,000 today) when a mix-up with alarm boxes sent four fire companies to the wrong location first
  • The New Britain Herald boasted a daily circulation of 10,054 for the week ending February 27th, costing readers just three cents per copy
  • Selina Chippendale, deported from Boston for 'moral turpitude,' complained of being 'kept prisoner behind barred doors' for seven months and 'at the mercy of battalions of cockroaches by night'
Fun Facts
  • Anthony Bimba's blasphemy trial used an 'ancient Massachusetts statute'—likely dating to the 1600s Puritan era, making this one of the last such prosecutions in American history before such laws became obsolete
  • The Southern Tyrol conflict mentioned here was fallout from World War I's Treaty of Saint-Germain—this German-speaking region's forced transfer to Italy would remain a source of tension well into the modern era
  • Ignatius Trebitsch Lincoln, the executed man's father, was one of history's most colorful spies—a Hungarian Jew who became a British MP, German spy, Buddhist monk, and Chinese warlord advisor
  • The paper's 'average daily circulation' of 10,054 was substantial for New Britain, Connecticut—a city of about 60,000 people, suggesting nearly one in six residents read this paper daily
  • That $100 sedition fine imposed on Bimba? The maximum penalty was $1,000 and three years imprisonment—about $17,000 in today's money, showing the court's relative leniency despite the conviction
Contentious Roaring Twenties Crime Trial Religion Civil Rights Politics International Disaster Fire
March 1, 1926 March 3, 1926

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