The Postcard
A 1930's view of central London on a Valentine's postcard. On the back of the card they state that the view is a real photograph.
They also give further information about the view:
'In the foreground of the picture is
the new Lambeth Bridge; beyond
are the venerable Westminster Abbey
and the imposing buildings of the
Houses of Parliament'.
The card was posted in Finsbury Park on Thursday the 23rd. August 1934 to an address in Cardiff. What the recipient read over 80 years ago was as follows:
"Dear L,
I was pleased to have both
your letters.
I have no news for a letter
this time but will write again
soon.
Mr. and Mrs. N wrote sooner
than expected - there was a
wedding and a death in their
friends' family in less than a
week.
Love to all".
Lambeth Bridge
Lambeth Bridge was opened on the 19th. July 1932 by King George V.
The five spans of Lambeth Bridge, were built from steel by Dorman Long.
The bridge is notable for the pairs of obelisks at either end - the pair at the Lambeth end are visible in the photograph.
The obelisks appear to be surmounted by stone pine cones.
However there is a popular urban legend that they are in fact pineapples, as a tribute to Lambeth resident John Tradescant the Younger, who is said to have been the first person to grow a pineapple in Great Britain.
Lambeth Bridge was declared a Grade II listed structure in 2008, providing protection to its special character from unsympathetic development. The listing includes the parapets, lamps, obelisks and the approach walls.
Homer Van Meter
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 23rd. August 1934 was not a good day for Homer Van Meter, because on that day he was shot in the street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was 28 years of age.
Homer Virgil Van Meter was born on the 3rd. December 1905 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Homer was an American criminal and bank robber who was active in the early 20th. century, most notably as a criminal associate of John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.
Homer Van Meter - The Early Years
Van Meter was born to Cary B. Van Meter (1871–1918) and Julia Miller (1872–1924). His father was an alcoholic railroad conductor. During the sixth grade, Van Meter ran away from home, eventually ending up in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a bellhop and a waiter.
Homer was arrested for the first time as a teenager, for drunk and disorderly conduct. In Aurora, Illinois, on the 23rd. June 1923, Van Meter was sentenced to 41 days in jail for larceny.
On the 11th. January 1924, he was sentenced for motor vehicle theft, and incarcerated in Southern Illinois Penitentiary. At the time of his admission, he had a tattoo reading "HOPE" on one forearm.
Van Meter was paroled in December 1924. Three months later, he teamed up with an old cellmate to rob the passengers of a train in Crown Point, Indiana. He was caught and convicted of the crime, and received a sentence of 10 to 21 years, to be served in the Indiana Reformatory.
Meeting John Dillinger
While in the Indiana Reformatory, Van Meter met John Dillinger and Harry Pierpont. Whereas Van Meter befriended Dillinger, he and Pierpont openly despised each other, largely because of Van Meter's clowning antics and demeanour.
On the 28th. July 1925, Van Meter's repeated joking and violation of the Indiana Reformatory rules earned him a transfer to the state prison at Michigan City.
Van Meter's Escape Attempts
In January 1926, Van Meter was transported to Chicago in order to testify in defence of a man wrongly suspected of being his accomplice in the train robbery in Crown Point.
He escaped from the transport at Union Station, but was quickly apprehended by his captors while begging for change on the street.
A week later, Van Meter attempted another escape, this time with cellmate Charles Stewart. After sawing through the bars of their cell, the two beat a corrections officer unconscious, but were caught before leaving the prison. As a penalty, he spent the next two months in solitary confinement, where he was severely beaten by prison guards.
Van Meter's Crime Spree
Afterwards, Van Meter affected a reformation sufficient to allow the parole board to release him on the 19th. May 1933, one week after Dillinger had made parole.
On the 18th. August 1933, Van Meter aligned himself with Baby Face Nelson and Tommy Carroll to rob a bank in Grand Haven, Michigan. They got away with $30,000.
On the 23rd. October, the trio, along with John Paul Chase and Charles "Chuck" Fisher, robbed a bank in Brainerd, Minnesota, escaping with $32,000.
When Illinois published its list of "Public Enemies" at the end of 1933, Van Meter ranked 18th.
The Second Dillinger Gang
Dillinger broke out of prison in Crown Point, Indiana, on the 3rd. March 1934. Dillinger and John "Red" Hamilton later joined the gang.
On the 6th. March, Dillinger, Nelson, Van Meter, Carroll, Eddie Green, and Hamilton robbed the Security National Bank & Trust Company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The gang escaped with $49,500 to their hideout in St. Paul, Minnesota.
One week later, on the 13th. March, the men robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, for $52,000. On the 12th. April, Dillinger and Van Meter robbed a police station in Warsaw, Indiana, stealing firearms and bulletproof vests.
Because of this level of criminal activity, Van Meter and the gang became the subject of an intense FBI manhunt. Eddie Green was ambushed and killed by the FBI on the 3rd. April.
Days earlier, Van Meter, Dillinger, and Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette had narrowly escaped from police in St. Paul after a gunfight.
Later, on the 23rd. April, while fleeing from Little Bohemia Lodge, Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton were involved in a gun battle in Hastings, Minnesota. Hamilton was mortally wounded, and died four days later at the house of Volney Davis. Dillinger, Van Meter, and members of the Barker Gang buried him in a gravel pit near Oswego, Illinois.
On the 3rd. May 1934, Van Meter, Dillinger, and Carroll robbed the First National Bank in Fostoria, Ohio, during which Van Meter shot and wounded local police chief Frank Culp.
The three spent most of May hiding in a woodland cabin near East Chicago, Indiana. On the 24th. May, while driving a red panel truck through East Chicago, Van Meter and Dillinger were stopped by police detectives Martin O'Brien and Lloyd Mulvihill. Van Meter gunned down both officers with his Tommy gun. On the 7th. June, Carroll was killed in a gunfight in Waterloo, Iowa.
A few days later, in an attempt to conceal their identities, both Dillinger and Van Meter underwent plastic surgery at the hands of Wilhelm Loeser in the apartment of Jimmy Probasco, a bar owner connected to the Chicago Outfit. Loeser operated on Van Meter on the 3rd. June. Unsatisfied with the results and with the pain of the operation, Van Meter attempted to kill Loeser on the spot.
On the 30th. June, Van Meter, Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and an unidentified fourth man robbed the Merchants National Bank in South Bend, Indiana. During the robbery, Van Meter shot and killed patrolman Howard Wagner, and was shot in the head himself and wounded. It was the last confirmed raid for all of the confirmed and suspected participants.
On the 22nd. July, FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis and Samuel P. Cowley gunned down Dillinger at the Biograph Theatre in Chicago. That night, Van Meter and his girlfriend Marie Comforti fled to St. Paul.
The Death of Homer Van Meter
On the 23rd. August 1934, at the corner of Marion Street and University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Van Meter was confronted by four police officers, including Chief Frank Cullen, Detective Tom Brown, and two other men, all heavily armed with shotguns and Thompson submachine guns.
Brown was a former police chief who had been notorious for his willingness to take bribes from criminals. Van Meter had previously helped to fund Brown's bid to become sheriff. By this time Brown had been demoted, and was under investigation for corruption and allegations that he had been an accomplice to the Barker–Karpis gang in the kidnappings of William Hamm and Edward Bremer.
The officers later claimed that Van Meter ignored their command to stop and fled into a nearby alley, where he fired twice on the officers with a .380 calibre pistol.
Chief of Police Frank Cullen, armed with a rifle, held his fire as a bystander walked into the line of fire, but the remaining officers opened fire on Van Meter, who fell dead.
Brown continued to fire at Van Meter as he lay prone; the impact of the bullets ripped off one finger and nearly severed a thumb and finger of the right hand. Homer's body was found to be armed with a .380 calibre Colt automatic pistol.
The number and severity of Van Meter's wounds were attributed to the use of the shotguns. Van Meter's family later said that their kin had been "Used for target practice".
According to Ramsey County Coroner, Homer was hit by 26 buckshot slugs and a single machine gun bullet – all entry wounds in the back.
The four officers reported $1,323 found on Van Meter, although his friends and associates claimed he was carrying at least $10,000 on that day.
A number of explanations as to who betrayed Van Meter to the police have been advanced since his death, including Baby Face Nelson, with whom he had quarrelled, St. Paul crime boss Harry Sawyer and associate Jack Peifer, and local St. Paul bank robber Tommy Gannon.
According to a 1939 FBI interview of Thomas Kirwin, a handyman who worked on Harry Sawyer's farm north of St. Paul, and who had harboured both Gannon and Van Meter there, Gannon betrayed Van Meter to the St. Paul police in collusion with Peifer and Sawyer, who split $10,000 or so in Van Meter's money with the police, while Gannon was given Van Meter's guns.
That same year, the FBI announced that it believed Sawyer had set up Van Meter to get at his money, splitting the take with the four ranking officers who did the shooting.
Van Meter was buried in Lindenwood Cemetery, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
