100 years ago
March 31, 1919
TEXARKANA -- Patrolman Chester Powell of the Arkansas side yesterday arrested and lodged in jail two gypsies, a man and a woman, on charges of robbery. It is alleged that they flim-flammed two negroes, whose "fortunes" they pretended to tell, out near the Sunny Crest farm, two miles east of the town. The amount alleged to have been taken was $7.25. The two prisoners belong to a party which arrived a couple of days ago. They say they came from Hot Springs. ... Two of the men applied to the chief of police Thursday for a fortune-teller's license, but were refused. They appear to be real Romanys.
50 years ago
March 31, 1969
NEWARK -- More than 100,000 spectators jammed the sidewalks here Sunday to watch the fourth annual Crispus Attucks Day parade. The parade is named for Crispus Attucks, who was killed when British troops fired on a patriot mob in the Boston Massacre of 1770. He is believed to have been the first Negro killed for the American Revolutionary cause. This year the parade also was dedicated to assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to Timothy Still, former president of the city's antipoverty agency who died last summer. There also was a minute of tribute to the late Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
25 years ago
March 31, 1994
• A man who asked for money Tuesday from an elderly Little Rock woman returned later in the day and robbed her at knife point. The 80-year-old woman told police she gave money to a man earlier in the day when he came to her door. She told police he returned about 8:55 p.m. asking for more money. When she refused, he pulled out a knife and they began to scuffle, she said. The man, who appeared to be about 18 years old, took some of her jewelry and fled on foot, the woman told police.
10 years ago
March 31, 2009
SPRINGDALE -- A truck driver said faulty brakes and fear contributed to 12 tons of chicken fat coating Interstate 540 and U.S. 412 on Monday, overpowering the aroma of breakfast outside Denny's restaurant. "I stood on the brakes and nothing happened," said driver Gregory Lee Williams of Paris, standing next to the 1993 Peterbilt truck that had just overturned as he tried to make a turn with no brakes. "I guess I panicked," he said. Williams' white hair was matted with blood and his ribs were bruised from the impact. He declined an ambulance ride and instead stood numbly by the truck. A commercial driver for just over a year, Williams said he took the best option he saw. He said he was nauseated, but grateful no one else was injured. "I was trying to avoid creating a greater catastrophe than I already was creating," Williams said. Springdale police ticketed Williams, accusing him of driving a truck with expired license tags and faulty brakes. Chicken fat oozed out of the ruptured tank. About half of the 48,000 pounds of chicken fat it was carrying had spilled onto the road by the time another tanker arrived to siphon it off. It took three hours to drain 5,500 gallons from the tanker, said Bub Taylor, owner of Bub's Inc.
Metro on 03/31/2019