Doug Fuhrmann
It was a Wednesday night in
March 1960, and Carl Asselta was watching television in his Vineland home
before reporting for duty on the late-night shift.
Asselta worked as a patrolman
on the city's police force. Throughout the year, the force had been breaking up
illegal activities operating from Landis Avenue businesses.
Led by Chief Carl Ford, the
police recently had halted a lottery racket operating from a store that served
as a front for gambling activities.
So it was probably with
interest that Asselta watched the black-and-white drama playing out on his
television set.
After all, that week's
presentation of "Armstrong Circle Theatre" centered on undercover
agents posing to expose a beatnik ring.
It was called, "Raid in
Beatnik Village."
With the fictional beatniks all
raided out, Asselta reported for duty at 11 p.m.
In short order, he and
Patrolmen Mickey Tirelli were dispatched to Chubby's Bun and Burger Restaurant
at 441 Landis Ave.
They had received an anonymous
call that a drinking party was going on. Finding the restaurant locked, but
hearing noise and commotion inside, they entered through a back basement door.
Asselta and Tirelli moved in
and found the only source of light came from a light bulb suspended from the
ceiling.
Huddled underneath was a group
of people amongst the Vodka bottles and paper cups strewn about the littered
floor.
Asselta may have seen more buns
than burgers at Chubby's that night as several of the participants were
partially disrobed.
The officers called for
assistance, arresting eight men and a woman on disorderly charges.
A front-page story in the next
day's Vineland Times Journal told of police raiding a "beatnik-type"
party in the restaurant's dimly lit basement.
Only this time, Asselta had
seen it all play out in living color.
