On October 31, 1950, the front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran an article including a startling action photograph of 65 year-old Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes.
"I just went swoooosh!" - Elizabeth Hughes
Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes, a B.M.T. subway ticket agent, "scared the daylights out of a husky six-foot-tall bandit who thrust an automatic pistol in her face and sent him packing", the Eagle reported. She re-enacted her quick response for the Eagle photographer, illustrating how she swooshed a nearby pan of water on the would-be-bandit and chased him away from her ticket booth. Elizabeth Hughes had worked for 24 years with the B.M.T., and told police that she had subdued holdup men at least three times before in the course of her career -- even though this was not the recommended hold-up response from her B.M.T. staff training.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
The picture of that mid-air
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