Mary Bulldog's restaurant, also the residence of Mary Lazar, was once located much closer to the former Daystrom Corp. The Lazar home was moved to its present location down the street when Daystom planned to expand their factory. Many of the workers of Daystrom would frequent here to eat their lunch.
This is now the home of one of my grandsons and his family. While remodeling the upstairs bedrooms and after the plaster was removed the wood underneath was found to be charred by a fire. The question was, 'What happened?'
Now there was a mystery in the making, so I searched my stories on fires in North Olean and came across the answer. On January 10, 1932, a Sunday evening, the home of John Lazar of 148 W. Connell Street was damaged by fire to the extent of approximately $1800. Both fire companies responded and had a difficult time reaching the flames that were spreading through the partitions of the second floor of the building. A defective chimney was the cause of the fire.
Life went on and Lazar's saloon was a popular gathering place to wet your whistle on that side of the tracks, until one day in October of 1940, a man by the name of John Martello (Martelleice) stabbed John Joy with a penknife. Now Martello had a bad habit of wielding his knife. He had done so four other reported times since 1924 even being so bold as to attack the Commissioner of Public Welfare in 1932. He had spent thirty days in Little Valley jail for injuring Mrs. Mary Metcalf in 1934. Ten years earlier he was given a suspended sentence on the condition that he stops drinking liquor after he was charged with threatening Patsy Disorbo in March of 1924.
The Olean paper related the story of the trial of Martello for the stabbing murder of Joy that took place at the Little Valley Courthouse. According to District Attorney A. Edward Kreiger in his opening statement to the jury said that the on the night of October 23, Martello struck the first blow with a beer mug, and that when Joy started for the defendant others grabbed Joy. While Joy was being held, Martello stabbed the man.
G. Sidney Shane, who was defending Martello, said the defendant acted in self-defense. It would be shown that persons were drinking at the table and that an altercation arose and the powerful Joy threw one of the men out into the street. Martello remonstrated with Joy, who then hit Martello on top of the head with a beer mug knocking him down. According to Shane when Martello arose he took out a knife and warned Joy not to come any further but Joy advanced onto the point of the knife sustaining wounds.
A lengthy trial with many witnesses, who had been present at the time of the knifing, was held. The first to take the stand was Mrs. Lazar who testified that she had known Joy for eight years, but had had never seen Martello in her restaurant.
The questioning of the witnesses that were present in the saloon that night went on as to what they saw and heard or what they didn't see or hear. Mrs. Lazar identified one of the patrons as 'Sheepcoat', who had been with Martello. She called him thus because he was wearing a sheepskin coat. When 'Sheepcoat' was later called as a witness, his gave his name as Rossario Abbatti, also called Mike Abate. Abate testified that he had gone into the restroom before the trouble started and didn't hear or seen anything.
All in all twenty-one witnesses took the stand. Some of whom were John Graham, son-in-law of Joy; John Murdzia, Henry Krakat, Chester Cygan, whose testimony almost caused a mistrial; Joseph 'Red Micek', Ludwig Piechota who said that Martello left the restaurant right after the fight; Mrs. Bernice Kuzak who ducked a flying glass; as well as Officer Bertram Shearer, Chief Jack Dempsey, Deputy Sheriff LeRoy F. Oakley, Dr. Kane and Dr. Francis P. Keefe.
The Jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged of first degree manslaughter on January 29. On February 3, 1941, Judge Black sentenced John Martello from seven to ten years in Attica State Prison.
MARY BULLDOG'S SALOON
