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As we all know, in numerous communities in this country, there are what we call privileged families.

That is, families which enjoy certain immunities with respect to the law.

A member of such a family, for instance, may be stopped for speeding,

but he or she is not likely to get a ticket,

and if through some misunderstanding he or she does get a ticket, it is soon fixed.

The son of the house may get into what is usually described as a

trouble, wrecking a bar room, say, or impregnating an upstairs maid,

but those matters too are attended to.

Such a situation, needless to say, breeds contempt for law, impatience with authority as well as with advice, and a certain ruthlessness, particularly in the head of the house.

Such a man is liable to take on the characteristics of a tyrant, in his own home, as well as in the community. In any ordinary emergency, he is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who own home as well as in the community.

In any ordinary emergency, he may function smoothly and confidently,

in a major one he may lose his head.

This is the story of such a community and such a family and such a man.

The series of events began early the morning of March 1st, 1938. When a thick-set young man and a slender, attractive young woman,

weave their way arm and arm along the sidewalk of a tree-lined street in Delavan, Illinois, and turned in at the front yard of Willis Crab,

the silver-haired 46-year-old village banker. The young man was the banker's son, James W. Crabb.

The girl was his 19-year-old bride, Betty. Both were drunk.

They entered the dark and silent house. They behaved boisterously. They turned on the radio.

Precisely what developed then cannot be established as fact.

Apparently, Banker Crabbe became furious with the disgraceful behavior of the young couple.

He is supposed to have threatened to call the police, and 22-year-old Jimmy is supposed to have retorted,

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