John
J.
Ferry

JOHN J. FERRY was born in New Jersey on January 24, 1909, the son of John and Mary Ferry. His father was born in Portugal, his mother was a native of Massachusetts. 

The Ferry family resided at 2026 Arlington Street at the time of the 1920 Census. When the 1930 Census was enumerated, the Ferry family lived at 1419 South 9th Street. Besides John Ferry, then 21, there were three younger children at home, James, Edwin, and Catherine. Older sister Anna had by then gone. John Ferry was then working as a laborer at one of Camden's many shipyards. 

John Ferry began working for the Camden Police Department on July 1, 1937. By 1947 he married, and with wife Matilda lived at 1030 North 31st Street in the Cramer Hill section of Camden.

John J. Ferry reached the rank of Sergeant before retiring from the force. He remained a Camden resident until his passing on December 25, 1989. His son, Charles Ferry, followed his father into the Camden Police Department, and retired as a Captain.

BOY HELD IN THEFTS REFUSES TO “SQUEAL”
Leads Sleuths to Loot Cache After Confessing Possession of Stolen Goods

 Foster G. Stickler, 16, of 825 Linden Street, arrested yesterday for allegedly robbing parked cars refused to reveal the name of a companion who aided him in the robberies, police said. .

The youth admitted another boy was with him but he refused to give his name.

"Nothing doing, I won't squawk," he told Detective Sergeant Clifford Del Rossi, Detective Donald Swissler and Patrolman John Ferry.

Patrolman Ferry took the youth into custody at Eighth and Linden streets, on a hunch, when he found a dozen automobile keys in the youth’s pockets.

Stickler was taken to police head quarters and booked "on suspicion for further investigation," where Del Rossi joined Patrolman Ferry in questioning Stickler. After about 20 minutes the youth admitted, according, to Del Rossi and Ferry, that a fountain pen in his possession was stolen.

Stickler also said he stole a woman's gold ring, a flashlight and a man's gold watch. He hid the flashlight and gave the watch to another boy to sell, police learned.

The two detectives and patrolman took the youth to his home where, according to Del Rossi, they found the flashlight.

Stickler then led the way to a lot in the rear of 813 Linden Street where he measured off two paces from a fence and then stepped off four paces in another direction, stooped and began digging in the soil with his hands.

He unearthed a man's watch valued at $60 and described by police as the one which the youth said he gave to a boy to sell. Nothing else was recovered from the "treasure hole."

Persons who have lost articles from their automobiles are requested to go to the detective bureau to see if they can identify the youth as having been around the machines.

Police said Stickler made a practice of watching parked cars.

Blaze Destroys 3 Buildings; Fireman Dies, Two Are Injured
9 Left Without Homes

By Fredrick Smigelski and Charles Q. Finley

A fast moving fire fanned by a bitterly cold wind destroyed three buildings in South Camden last night, left one fireman dead, two others injured, and nine persons homeless.

As dense smoke, chunks of flaming debris and showers of sparks spewed high into the night, the roaring blaze wrecked Walmart Tailors, Inc. at 1101 Broadway and two floors above the store used as an apartment house, the Style Nook Dress Shop at 1103 Broadway, and Jean's Hosiery Shop at 1105 Broadway.

With only seconds to spare, Police Sergeant John Ferry and Patrolman Alfred Hayes entered the 1101 building and led the occupants, many of them elderly, to safety as flames mushroomed from the basement toward the roof.

Eleven pieces of equipment were still at the scene this morning.

Captain Dies

Fire Captain Leonard Iannelli, 41, of 3055 Stevens Street and attached to Truck Company 2, collapsed at the scene. He was dead on arrival at Cooper Hospital of an apparent heart attack.

Fire District Chief Frank Deal, 39, of 412 North 37th Street, was treated at Cooper Hospital for smoke inhalation. John Yates, 63, of 2400 South 8th Street with Engine Company 2, was treated at West Jersey Hospital for smoke inhalation and a back injury.

Among those made homeless by the fire were Claude W. Darnell and Mrs. Carey Morgan, both 80; William Schaffer, 77; and Charles Hill, 67 and his wife who is 62; Mrs. Frances Matthews, 53; Helen Saltzman and James Early.

Iannelli was standing on Broadway next to Lieutenant Colonel William A. Gwynne of the Volunteers of America, a chaplain, who was serving coffee and food. District Chief Theodore Primas gave mouth to mouth resuscitation on the way to the hospital. Coroner Schaffhauser was notified. He said Iannelli died either from a heart attack or smoke inhalation. The possibility of an autopsy was being discussed this morning.

Police Aid Elderly

Iannelli's brother, Carmen, is with Engine Company 9 and was on duty on the time but not at the fire. He went to the hospital when told of the tragedy.

Ferry and Hayes were first on the scene after the alarm was sounded at 6:03 by a nearby merchant. They entered through a back door and ran upstairs to the second floor where they kicked in doors, rounded up the confused occupants and got them out safely. They then went to the third floor and found Early and Darnell.

The fore spread rapidly and soon huge balls of flame were pouring from the windows as burning frames fell to the pavement. Chairs, a shower fixture, a mirror on a wall, could be seen briefly through the windows in the mass of flame inside, then they fell into the inferno.

The roof collapsed, then sections of the third floor wall on the Chestnut Street side began falling into the fire.

Firewall Credited

Smoke filled Schrack's Paint Store at 1107 Broadway and a firewall was credited with helping to save John's Bargain Store at 1109-1111 Broadway.

Firemen carried a hose to the roof of the Camden Roofing Supply Company on Chestnut Street to the rear of the fire. At one point a half dozen streams of water were being poured into the flames as they burned furiously on one side of a small alley which separated the roofing company from the fire.

Harold Walter, owner of Walmart Tailors, Inc. was trying to get his car out of a snow bank nearby when the fire started, He gave firemen keys to open the gate he had just closed across the front of his store.

Fire Chief Edward MacDowell said the blaze had apparently started in the basement of 1101 Broadway but no cause had been determined immediately.

Fireplugs Froze

Engine Companies 8 and 1 and Truck 2 responded to the first alarm with District Chief Theodore Primas. The second alarm was sounded at 6:10, bringing Engine Companies 3 and 7, and Truck Company 1, Rescue Squad 1, District Chief Deal and Deputy Fire Chief Austin Marks.

At 8:02 Engine Company 2  was summoned and at 8:45 35 off duty firemen were called to relieve firemen exhausted by the cold. The spray from hoselines covered streets and equipment with sheets of ice.

When firemen arrived they found fireplugs frozen and had to use heaters to get the water flowing.

Police held back large crowds which gathered despite the cold and wind. The fire burned out of control for six hours and was not declared under control until midnight. The area was closed to traffic during the fire.

Traffic this morning was detoured off Broadway between Mt. Vernon Street and Kaighn Avenue.

Wind Shifted

Primas said there was a west wind when the fire broke out but that it shifted to the north, during the flames into the buildings to the south.

Iannelli is survived by his wife Olga, two sons, Leonard Jr. and Dennis, and a daughter, Mary, at home; his mother, Mrs. Rose Iannelli, of Camden; and two brothers, Carmen and Frank of Camden.

Iannelli's late father, Frank, was a firemen 21 years and died of a heart attack after fighting a fire in April of 1942.

Iannelli joined the fire department in March, 1948 and was made captain four years later. He was a veteran of World War II.

Because of the large amount of stock involved, the extent of the damages were not immediately known.