Today's Lesson: Speak Respectfully To Your Elders (while robbing them)

February 9, 1947
Carson

Memo from Alex J. Wysocki: "if you wanna rob my liquor store, don't start by saying 'Hi, Pop'!"

That was the message learned the hard way by the young gunman who held Wysocki up at 21923 S. Main Street for $150 and two bottles of whiskey, then went in the back to rummage for more plunder. Meanwhile, Wysocki fumed. "Pop? Pop?!" When the kid emerged from the storeroom, Wysocki shot him four times with his .38. The robber ran off, his own gun clicking ineffectually.

A few hours later, a friend dropped the gut-shot 24-year-old Eugene L. Dodson at San Pedro Hospital. When Dodson refused to say how he'd been injured, Det. Lt. Thomas H. Rankin remembered a Sheriff's broadcast about the hold up and booked the injured man on suspicion of robbery. He was conveyed to the prison ward of General Hospital for surgery, which is where Wysocki ID'd him as the smartass who'd called him "Pop."