Killer Clients
June 2018
Sometimes inventors develop passionate attachments to their inventions. They believe that their inventions will change the world or bring them great wealth. When reality does not meet their expectations, disappointment sets in. Thankfully, this is where it usually ends. For some inventors, however, disappointment is accompanied by anger and resentment. In some rare instances, these negative feelings spiral out of control and result in the unthinkable. This is what occurred in New York in October of 1929. Read on to learn more; its a Patently Interesting® story!
In October 1929, Aaron L. Applebaum was 39 years old and working as a patent attorney in an office suite on Park Row in Manhattan. He shared the suite with two other attorneys, George McCauslan (who did real estate work) and Lawrence French. Although he worked in Manhattan, Aaron lived in Brooklyn with his wife and four young children.
In October 1929, Aaron L. Applebaum was 39 years old and working as a patent attorney in an office suite on Park Row in Manhattan. He shared the suite with two other attorneys, George McCauslan (who did real estate work) and Lawrence French. Although he worked in Manhattan, Aaron lived in Brooklyn with his wife and four young children.
U.S. Patent Office
Before becoming a private patent practicioner, Aaron had worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington for ten years. While there, he became familiar with the Patent Office operations and took an interest in office filing statics. It’s not surprising then that Aaron used statistics in a 1927 letter to the editor of the New York Times to defend the Patent Office against criticisms levied against it by individual inventors. These criticisms included long delays in patent examination and the belief that the Patent Office favored big business. Aaron used statistics to show that there were not enough patent examiners to do their job properly, and that this deficiency was the fault of Congress and not the Patent Office. Aaron also implicitly placed some of the blame on individual inventors themselves, for not being informed about the operations of the Patent Office and for not fully understanding the limitations of their patent rights. Ironically, the issues raised by Aaron in his 1927 letter would play a part in the fate that would befall him less than two years later.
Also living in Brooklyn in October 1929 were two immigrant brothers, Pietro and Leonardo Danna. They were cobblers from Sicily who moved to Roebling Street in Brooklyn in 1919. When the Danna brothers first moved in, their neighbors were excited to have experienced cobblers so close by. However, their excitement soon faded because of the poor service they received from the Dannas. Not that the Dannas’ work was bad, it was just that they took so long to do it. You see the Dannas were too busy doing other things to properly attend to their vocation. They were inventing! What they were inventing, the neighbors didn’t know, they just knew they were inventing.
Finally, after a long period of secrecy, the Danna brothers unveiled their new invention. They did so with great fanfare and celebration, inviting the most prominent neighbors on Roebling and adjoining streets to see their new invention, which was……a shoe finishing machine. Despite the fact that many other shoe finishing machines had already been invented, the Danna brothers were convinced their machine was revolutionary and would transform the industry. The only problem was their machine didn’t work. Try as hard as they could, the Dannas could not get their machine to work in front of the assembled on-lookers Of course, the crowd began to snicker and make wise cracks, which enraged Leonardo Danna and resulted in knives being drawn. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and violence was averted. The debacle, however, took its toll on the Danna brothers, causing them to withdraw and become even more sullen and secretive. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop them from inventing.
Nine years after the shoe finishing machine disaster, the Danna brothers had completed their next invention……a sea-going bicycle. They were so convinced this invention would make them rich, they decided to get a patent for it, and they decided that Aaron Applebaum would be the man to do it. So, the Danna brothers traveled to Manhattan and met with Aaron at his office. After Aaron agreed to try to help them get a patent for their invention, the Danna brothers left his office. They promptly returned the next day and asked if Aaron had done anything yet; the answer, of course, being “no”. The Danna brothers returned the next day and the next day after that, until Aaron was finally able to tell them that he had filed their patent application with the U.S. Patent Office. This mollified the Danna’s for a while, but it didn’t stop their daily visits. They continued to visit Aaron on a daily basis to see if he had heard anything positive about their patent application from the Patent Office. Aaron would tell them “no” and try explaining to them that delays in the Patent Office were common. His explanations, however, were of no effect. The Danna brothers continued to visit Aaron daily for months, with their visits becoming louder and more confrontational. Understandably, these daily visits began to unnerve Aaron.
Also living in Brooklyn in October 1929 were two immigrant brothers, Pietro and Leonardo Danna. They were cobblers from Sicily who moved to Roebling Street in Brooklyn in 1919. When the Danna brothers first moved in, their neighbors were excited to have experienced cobblers so close by. However, their excitement soon faded because of the poor service they received from the Dannas. Not that the Dannas’ work was bad, it was just that they took so long to do it. You see the Dannas were too busy doing other things to properly attend to their vocation. They were inventing! What they were inventing, the neighbors didn’t know, they just knew they were inventing.
Finally, after a long period of secrecy, the Danna brothers unveiled their new invention. They did so with great fanfare and celebration, inviting the most prominent neighbors on Roebling and adjoining streets to see their new invention, which was……a shoe finishing machine. Despite the fact that many other shoe finishing machines had already been invented, the Danna brothers were convinced their machine was revolutionary and would transform the industry. The only problem was their machine didn’t work. Try as hard as they could, the Dannas could not get their machine to work in front of the assembled on-lookers Of course, the crowd began to snicker and make wise cracks, which enraged Leonardo Danna and resulted in knives being drawn. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and violence was averted. The debacle, however, took its toll on the Danna brothers, causing them to withdraw and become even more sullen and secretive. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop them from inventing.
Nine years after the shoe finishing machine disaster, the Danna brothers had completed their next invention……a sea-going bicycle. They were so convinced this invention would make them rich, they decided to get a patent for it, and they decided that Aaron Applebaum would be the man to do it. So, the Danna brothers traveled to Manhattan and met with Aaron at his office. After Aaron agreed to try to help them get a patent for their invention, the Danna brothers left his office. They promptly returned the next day and asked if Aaron had done anything yet; the answer, of course, being “no”. The Danna brothers returned the next day and the next day after that, until Aaron was finally able to tell them that he had filed their patent application with the U.S. Patent Office. This mollified the Danna’s for a while, but it didn’t stop their daily visits. They continued to visit Aaron on a daily basis to see if he had heard anything positive about their patent application from the Patent Office. Aaron would tell them “no” and try explaining to them that delays in the Patent Office were common. His explanations, however, were of no effect. The Danna brothers continued to visit Aaron daily for months, with their visits becoming louder and more confrontational. Understandably, these daily visits began to unnerve Aaron.
The Danna Brothers Under Arrest
Apparently, at some point, the Patent Office issued an Office action, rejecting the Dannas’ patent application (such initial rejections being quite common both then and now). This fact, coupled with the perceived delays, convinced the Dannas that Aaron was trying to steal their invention. So one night they made a plan. The Dannas decided they would would confront Aaron and if if he again told them that their patent application was rejected, they would kill him. The next day, October 23, 1929, they put their plan into effect and went to see Aaron, who met them in a reception room of his office suite. As they had done hundreds of times before, the Dannas again asked about their patent application. According to the Dannas, an exasperated Aaron snapped back “you can’t patent that crack-brained contraption”. In response, Pietro Danna pulled out a pistol and shot Aaron twice in the head and once in the hand. Aaron crumpled to the floor, mortally wounded. Undeterred, the Dannas jumped on the dying attorney and proceeded to beat him with the butt of the pistol.
After hearing the shots from Pietro’s gun, George McCauslan rushed into the reception room, where he saw the Dannas beating Aaron, who was lying prone on the floor. George picked up a large electric fan and swung it at Pietro, knocking him over. George then picked up an arm chair and struck Leonardo with it several times before it broke apart and Leonardo escaped from the room. Rising from the floor, Pietro pointed his pistol at George, but then thought better of it and fled the room as well. Outside the suite of offices, the Danna brothers were confronted by policeman John J. Ryan, elevator operator, Joseph Stans, and office clerk, Russel C. O’Brien. Ryan ordered Pietro to drop his pistol, but instead Pietro attacked Ryan, viscously biting him with his teeth like a wild animal. Leonardo similary attacked Stans and O’Brien, who were trying to detain him. During the melee, Ryan’s gun accidentally discharged, but luckily nobody was struck by the stray bullet. Eventually, the Danna brothers were overpowered and arrested. However, the story of the Danna brothers and their inventions was not over.
After hearing the shots from Pietro’s gun, George McCauslan rushed into the reception room, where he saw the Dannas beating Aaron, who was lying prone on the floor. George picked up a large electric fan and swung it at Pietro, knocking him over. George then picked up an arm chair and struck Leonardo with it several times before it broke apart and Leonardo escaped from the room. Rising from the floor, Pietro pointed his pistol at George, but then thought better of it and fled the room as well. Outside the suite of offices, the Danna brothers were confronted by policeman John J. Ryan, elevator operator, Joseph Stans, and office clerk, Russel C. O’Brien. Ryan ordered Pietro to drop his pistol, but instead Pietro attacked Ryan, viscously biting him with his teeth like a wild animal. Leonardo similary attacked Stans and O’Brien, who were trying to detain him. During the melee, Ryan’s gun accidentally discharged, but luckily nobody was struck by the stray bullet. Eventually, the Danna brothers were overpowered and arrested. However, the story of the Danna brothers and their inventions was not over.
Several days after the capture of the Danna brothers, police detectives, Joseph Ryan and John Rose, went to the Danna house on Roebling Street, as part of their investigation of Aaron’s murder. The Danna brothers had been cooperative enough to give the detectives a key to the house, but strangely didn’t say a word when they handed them the key. When detective Rose put the key in the the lock of the front door and turned……..KABOOM!…..the door exploded in front of him. The detectives were hit with shards of wood, but luckily, neither was seriously injured. Fortunately for them, another one of the Danna brothers’ inventions had failed. This particular invention was an anti-burglar device that was designed to fire a bullet through the door at heart level when a key was turned in the lock. However, a bore in a panel of the door through which the bullet was to be fired did not extend far enough through the thickness of the panel. As a result, when detective Rose turned the key in the lock, the bullet shattered the door panel instead of traveling through the bore and striking him. This was only the first of the Danna inventions that the detectives would encounter.
Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane
After being greeted with pieces of exploding door, the detectives decided to bring in the bomb squad to help them search the Danna house. And what a house it was! It was filled with all sorts of Danna contraptions, many of which were designed to cause bodily harm to intruders. Two other doors in the house were rigged the same as the outside door, and all of the ground floor windows were wired with explosives. Tubs that had been filled with acid were hidden in the floor and tubing was arranged to squirt acid on the unwary. Fortunately, the acid in the tubs and tubing had evaporated by the time the police searched the house. Seeing these macabre devices, one member of the bomb squad commented that the devices “appeared to be the work of persons of unsound mind”. This turned out to be an accurate assessment, as the Danna brothers were later found to be insane and committed to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.