Henkels & McCoy Timeline: 1934

1934

The Philadelphia Electric Company and Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, unable to do all their work with their own forces and unwilling to add to them during the Depression, start Henkels & McCoy in the line construction business.
Henkels & McCoy takes First Prize at the Philadelphia Flower Show. This is the very first time Henkels & McCoy wins, in its short, eleven-year history. The prize is awarded under the category of "Outdoor Lounge or Living Room for Dining, Entertaining and Restful Recreation in Privacy." Meanwhile, the Great Depression is also a lawless era. Times are tough for everybody, and, as thousands of people lose their homes and farms to foreclosure, some bank robbers enjoy widespread, mythic popularity, especially in their native areas. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is determined to eradicate the growing list of public enemies, however, and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, sends crack teams to pursue leads and hunt down those desperados, with orders to take them, dead or alive. May 23 It's a Bad Year for Outlaws I: The bank robbing duo of Bonnie and Clyde (left) are finally caught and killed in an ambush by Texas lawmen working with local police in Louisiana. The 23-year old Bonnie Parker and 25-year old Clyde Barrow are tied to at least 13 murders, numerous kidnappings, burglaries and robberies in their native Texas and in neighboring states. June 10 Federal Communications Commission created by Congress to regulate growth of radio.	P U B L I C E N E M Y
	Excerpted from Woody Guthrie's The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd Now as through this world I ramble I've seen lots of funny men Some will rob you with a six gun And some with a fountain pen. But as through your life you travel As through your life you roam You won't never see an outlaw Drive a family from their home. © 1958 Sanga Music Inc., New York, NY
July 22 Bad Year for Outlaws II: Agents of the FBI and East Chicago, Illinois police, finally corner and kill Indiana-born bank robbing, jail breaking John Dillinger, Public Enemy Number One; shooting him dead as he leaves a movie theatre accompanied by Anna Sage, the 'lady in red.' Sage is an informer, who wore the red suit as a prearranged signal. Dillinger had undergone plastic surgery and had a different face than the one on his 'Wanted' poster. September 23 Detroit Lions defeat the New York Giants 9-0 before a record 12,000 fans at University of Detroit stadium. October 22 Bad Year for Outlaws III: Charles Arthur 'Pretty Boy' Floyd is cornered and killed in a gun battle while fleeing police and FBI, in rural East Liverpool, Ohio. The bank robber is a mixture of hoodlum and Robin Hood and is almost revered in his native Cookson Hills, Oklahoma. He is also immortalized in a song by Woody Guthrie, to be written five years later. Click here to read the full lyrics of "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd." November 27 Bad Year for Outlaws IV: Lester M. Gillis, also known as Baby Face Nelson, succumbs to wounds received from FBI agents, in Illinois. Gillis is a member of the Dillinger gang. Speaking of Gillis' viciousness, it was said that suicide was a safer option, and probably a lot less painful, than trying to arrest Baby Face Nelson. December 1 Sergei Kirov, a full member of the ruling Soviet Politburo, leader of the Leningrad party apparatus and an influential member of the ruling elite, is murdered (evidence later surfaces that NKVD Secret Police agents plan the killing under Josef Stalin’s orders). Stalin (pictured at right) will use the murder as an excuse to introduce laws against political crime and for conducting a witch-hunt for "alleged conspirators against Kirov." By 1938 millions of innocent party members and others will be purged, paving the way for the Great Terror, when millions of Soviets are imprisoned in gulags. It is estimated that Stalin murders 20 million of his own countrymen in a effort to consolidate absolute power within himself. Also in 1934: DuPont scientists create a synthetic fiber, later patented as "nylon." Englishman Percy Shaw invents "cat eyes," mirrored inserts placed into the center of roads which reflect headlamp light. Used to help navigate when driving on dark or foggy roads.

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