Document q32v2zRm5QgkOarE6agKkjg9K
COPIED FROM THE.AMERICAN. HERITAGECENTERUNIVERSITY- OF WYOMING. THIS MATERIAL MAY BE RESTRICTED BY UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE RESEARCHER TO OBTAIN COPYRIGHT APPROVAL PRIOR TO QUOTATION OR PUBLICATION,
LEAD INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION
420 Lexington Avenue New York 17, N. Y.
MANFRED BOWDITCH 1HCTO OP HEALTH AND 3 A PETTY
June 20, 1956
Mr. Jerome Trichter Assistant Commissioner N. Y. City Department of Health
125 Worth Street
New York 13, New York
Dear Jerry:
I suppose you saw the encr Herald Tribune*
g story in yesterday's
Though lead has one that seems to me to h; lead poisoning, for it i: our New York City cases
in the picture, it is ring the problem of childhood
g that the great majority of
tratum of our population.
How is the warnih^labelijr|/requ ired by your Department going to mean anything-^^^^ple guctr-as^fehes e, or how, for that matter, is the parental (graii6ation that wea3vocate to be put across to them?
[long-term objective should of course be to get rid of our slums, but II still think Jbpat your proposal of some years ago to hold regional meetings of the/tfity' s paint dealers and educate them to the importance ofxm^prnb^kLj would do more than any one other preventive step and should se-eerzaed out.
Sincerely yours.
Enclosure cc: Dr. Wheatley
NI3643
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1956
COPIED FROM THE AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER, UNIVERSITY OE WYOMING. THIS M A I ERIrtL' MAY BE RESTRICTED BY UNITED STATES COPVK.IGHT LAW. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE RESEARCHER TO OBTAIN COPYRIGHT APPROVAL PRIOR TO QUOTATION OR PUBLICATION.
Mother in Bellevue,
2 Babies Starve, Die
By Martin C. Berek
the mother of seven children,
A Welfare Department worker five of them in Catholic institu
cn a routine call yesterday tions.
<
found the bodies of two babies The welfare worker, Martin
who' apparently had been left Lutenberg, called at her three-
alone and starved to death after room sixth-floor rear apartment
their' mother was taken to the at 306 E. 32d St- shortly before
Bellevue Hospital psychiatric 5 pm. He said he entered--the
ward eight, days ago.
door was unlocked--when no
Police tentatively Identified one answered his knock and
the children as Josephlna Velez, found the place' piled deep in
one year and nine months, and dust and litter.
her brother, Antonio, eight Mr. Lutenberg, spotting the
months.
girl lying dead In her crib,
Chief Detectives James B. raced down the building's Iron
Leggett, who launched an im staircase and summoned police.
mediate investigation with The dead baby boy was found
Chief Inspector Thomas Neilson, later In a carriage in the same
said the mother, Mrs. Anastasia room.
Rios Martinez Velez, thirty-two; The welfare worker, who had
was. incoherent when she was been making a routine check,
picked up and neither, the police last visited the Velez family on is any laxity, we won't hide it,
nor hospital authorities knew June 1.
you can be sure of that."
that she was on relief or that she Assistant Chief Medical Ex Mrs. Velez, questioned at
had children at home.
aminer Emanuel Neuren said a Bellevue last night, said she had
Mrs. Velez, police said', was preliminary examination indi left the children in the care of cated the children died last a woman neighbor, whose name
Thursday or Friday from lack was withheld. Police said the
of food. An autopsy has been neighbor denied that and added
ordered for today.
that she had not seen Mrs.
On June 10 Mrs. Velez was Velez cr more than a month.
picked up by police of the E. Other neighbors in the dingy
22d St. Station after she had tenement described Mrs. Velez
allegedly kicked out the plate- as a short, wiry woman who
glass window of the Murray Hill kept to herself and was friend Beer Tavern at 603 E. 26th St. ly with no one In the building.
Chief Leggett said their rec Mrs. Velez, It was said, was
ords at the station house showed often heard shouting at her. two
no known address or relatives children. No one apparently
for the woman. He said police noticed her eight-day absence, were notified the next day that however.
she had given Bellevue authori A Bellevue Hospital spokes
ties an address that did not man said that Mrs. Velez, on ad
exist.
t
mission to the hospital, had said
Police of the Missing Persons nothing about having any chil
Bureau spoke to her at Bellevue dren. "She was an incoherent Hospital, but finding her Inco person and I don't assume we
herent, were not able to ascer even knew she was on relief," the
tain her real address, the chief spokesman said.
said.
She was brought to the hospi
Detectives said they learned tal for observation and normally
tonight from Welfare Depart would be kept ten to fourteen
ment records that Mrs. Velez had days, he said.
been separated last February
from her husband, Jose Velez, who is believed to be staying somewhere In New Jersey. The
couple came from Puerto Rico
eight years ago and has been on relief since August, 1953, ac
cording to the records.
Police records Indicated Mrs.
Velez had reported her husband
missing last March 26, but the
Missing Persons Bureau later
listed the case as one of aban donment.
Chief Leggett said that "when
all the facts are found. If these
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