Professor Hamilton's Diary: Dec. 13, 1935

He interviews for a fellowship in Philadelphia; 'madman' kills two Columbia professors

After teaching his morning classes, Professor Hamilton drove to Philadelphia where he had an interview at the University of Pennsylvania for a fellowship. There were two other men waiting, including one he knew from Franklin and Marshall College, whose presidential inauguration he had attended the week before. He got the second slot and talked with the interviewer for about 20 minutes.

He had mixed feelings about his chances and immediately drove home in a sleet storm, arriving about 6 p.m.

It is astonishing to me that Professor Hamilton makes no mention in his diary of the murder of two professors at Columbia University and the wounding of a third by an employee who had been dismissed there. It was a leading story on the front page of the Reading Times as well as The New York Times. Paid subscribers can read on about the Russian “madman” who went on a rampage at the university’s dental college.

A reminder, readers, that only paid subscribers will learn what happened to Professor Hamilton and his family after the diary ends on Dec. 31. Give yourself an early Christmas gift and sign up today for just $5 a month or $50 a year. That way you will also be ready to enjoy the diaries of Mrs. Ross, a Washington, D.C. matron writing about the early days of World War II in 1942; Walter E. Askew, chief of police in Newnan, Ga. in 1930; and Myra Jackson, a young farm wife and mother living in Petrey, Alabama in 1932. For various reasons, the diaries are incomplete, but each provides fascinating insights into America during those turbulent years. I am very excited to share them with subscribers!

The clipping showing pictures of murderer Victor Kuossow and one of his victims was clipped from the Buffalo (N.Y.) News via newspapers.com.