A Glimpse Into the Life of Joseph Piscor

Joseph Piscor of Baltimore made the paper a few times in the early 1900s for violent incidents in which he was depicted as the perpetrator and the victim.

In March 1902, the Baltimore Sun reported that Piscor’s wife, Kate, allegedly beat her husband and fractured his skull with an unknown implement. “The assault is said to have been the result of a quarrel, and it is alleged that the husband had been drinking. Mrs. Piscor denied the charge,” according to the Sun.

Joseph Piscor would not stay at the hospital and returned home. “Piscor declined to prosecute, but Justice Ross refused to dismiss the case on the account of the man’s condition,” reported the Sun. He paid $1,000 bail for his wife to be released from jail. It is unclear if Kate Piscor was found guilty of the attack. It seems as though Joseph Piscor ultimately recovered from his injuries.

Then, in July 1904, he was sentenced to serve six month in jail for hitting his 16-year-old son in the head with a hammer.

“The hammer, a large and heavy one, was shown by Mrs. Piscor,” reported the Sun. “She said that her husband, becoming angry at her yesterday morning, seized the weapon and dealt her a severe blow on the left arm. Her son interfered in his mother’s behalf, and the father turned and struck him squarely on the side of the head, felling him to the floor, cutting an ugly gash and raising a large lump on his head.”

Twelve years later, Piscor was in the paper once again. Patrolman Bates found him wandering around Fleet Street and Broadway one February evening “in an alleged drunken condition,” reported the Sun. “Piscor said he had forgotten his new address. They moved to a house on Essex street, he was quite sure of that, but the number of it — he couldn’t recall that number, no matter how hard he tried. Nor could he remember the number of the old house on Fleet Street.” The drunkenness charge was dismissed in the morning, and Piscor was free to find his new home.

Sources: The Baltimore Sun, March 13, 1902, July 15, 1904, February 8, 1916