by Laurel | March 28th, 2012
28 March 1910
Bloody Encounter on First Level Canal Bridge
There was what seemed like a free-for-all fight with knives on the first level canal bridge at Lyman Street at 11:40 Saturday night, in which John Egan and Timothy Lynch were on one side and Joseph Lewis and John and Maurice Guta figured for the other. Just what started the trouble seems to be unknown, both sides claiming that the other side was the aggressor. The brothers Guta came from Chicopee Falls, and Lewis, it is understood, arrived from Bridgeport, CT, Friday to make his home in Holyoke. They were on their way down Lyman street to the Boston and Maine station when they met Egan and Lynch. Knives were drawn after the first round of the combat, and the Polish men seemed to be more accustomed to their use than the local men, and Egan in particular was carved up in a fanciful manner. After the argument Egan was taken to the office of Dr. G. J. Hebert, who fastened him together with 18 stitches. He has a bad cut on the left wrist, which severed a vein, a cut on the forearm, a cut on the neck, another of the chest, and another on the head. Lynch got a split and four stitches were required to fasten this together. The opposition party had one or two cuts on the hands, but their wounds were superficial. The policed were notified and gathered the party in, and they will appear in court this morning.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican.
