Rita Mary Hoerner
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth Date: 1 Oct 1899 - New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Christening:
Death: 13 Jul 1981 - Lexington, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
Burial: 16 Jul 1981 - Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Cause of Death:
Find A Grave ID: 89815720
Parents
Father: Edward Hoerner
Mother: Helena Sperber
Spouses and Children
1. *Peter Louis Grossimon {FGID: 89815717}
Marriage: Jun 1923 - New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Children:
1. Herbert Peter Grossimon {FGID: 167622537}
Notes
General:
Per Orleans birth index:Marriage Notes (Peter Louis Grossimon)
Rita Hoerner born 10/01/1899
Father: Edward
Mother: Lena Speber
Volume 118 Page 541
Per Story in the State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) October 9, 1929
ORLEANS BANDIT WOUNDS MAN IN DRUG STORE JOB
Brother of Proprietor in Serious Condition After Fight
COPS SPURRED BY LATEST ROBBERY
Officers Arrest Police Character for Three Toldups [that's what it says]
New Orleans, Oct 9. -- Police today took into custody in the shooting of Albert L Grossimon in one of three holdups by a lone bandit last night a well known police character. Grossimon was shot in the chest and the leg by the bandit in the raiding of the drug store of Grossimon's brother as he grappled with the invader. The wounded man was given a blood transfusion late last night and his condition today was reported slightly improved.
Meanwhile, police spurred by the latest additions to the long list of recent bandit depredations here, were combing the city for suspects. They were urged on by sharp warnings from Superintendent of Police Theodore Ray.
Late last night a lone holdup man, his face covered by a handerchief, and wearing a slough hat, entered the drug store at Lapeyrouse and North Miro streets, and commanded the eight persons therein, including a three year old child, not to move.
Peter Grossimon, proprietor of the store, dashed up a flight of rear stairs to his apartment on an upper floor, and the bandit, stepping over the proprietor's son Herbert, aged 3, who was playing on the floor, fired one shot at the fleeing man, but failed to hit him.
Albert Grossimon then grappled with the intruder, but the latter after a brief struggle, got one arm loose and fired two shots, both of which took effect, and ran out of the store, a moment later escaping in an automobile. He got no money.
In the establishment at the time were S. J. Wright, a pharmacist, Herbert Grossimon, 57, father of the brothers, Mrs. Peter Grossimon and her mother Mrs. E. Heornar.
Twenty minutes before the Grossimon attempted stick up, police later learned a man tallying with the drug store invader, leaped on the running board of a car operated by Eugene Taormina, 20, at Dumaine and Olga streets, and with a pistol forced Taormina to surrender the machine. By a license plat check, it was learned that the automobile used in the Grossimon attempted robbery was Taormina's.
And just 20 minutes after the shooting, a bandit of similar description, walked into the Childress Pharmacy on South pierce street, intimidated Harold Childress, 32, the proprietor and escaped with $39 from the cash register.
Per Story in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) October 10, 1929
HIKER IDENTIFIED IN HOLD-UP FREED ON PERFECT ALIBI
Good Samartin Who Gave Him 'Lift' Corroborates Suspect's Story
........................... [long story about Edward Krohn alabi] ....
Overlooks $15,000
Fifteen thousand dollars' worth of jewels were in the drug store of Peter Grossimon , when the bandit shot Albert Grossimon, in an apparent attempt to steal less than $75 from the store's cash register, it was learned Wednesday.
In his haste to obtain money from the register the bandit brushed quickly past Mrs. Peter Grossimon, on whose fingers were eleven diamonds, said to be worth $15,000.
Albert Grossimon and his father, Herbert Grossimon, it was learned, were paying a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Peter Grossimon to see a new ring which was given the woman by her husband less than a month ago when the bandit entered and held them up.
Peter's dash through a rear door, which started the bandit firing, it is believed, was accentuated by a desire to protect his wife's jewelry. Albert, Peter's brother, was shot in a scuffle with the intruder while Peter attempted to get his pistol.
Apparently working on the theory that the drug store bandit's objective was to rob Mrs. grossimon of her diamonds, police Wednesday night were said to be seeking a young police character suspected of participation in several jewel robberies.
Per Story in the Times-Picayune May 22, 1930 Page 1
Montgomery Identified as Bandit Who Killed Grossimon in Hold-Up
Members of Victim's Family Take Witness Stand in Attempt to Send Gangster to Gallows
Identifying Roy Montgomery, gangster, as the "weaving, wild man" killer of Albert Leo Grossimon during the attempted hold-up of the Grossimon drug store last October, members of the Grossimon family took the witness stand Wednesday in the criminal district court in an endeavor to send the alleged bandit-slayer to the gallows.
Trial of Montgomery, a convicted bandit, went into its second day Wednesday in Judge N. H. Humphrey's section of the criminal court. District Attorney Eugene Stanley is demanding the death penalty for Montgomery for the murder October 8 of Grossimon.
Offering testimony almost word for word in similarity, Peter Grossimon, brother of the dead man; Herbert Grossimon the father, Mrs. Peter Grossimon and Mrs. E. Hoerner, mother-in-law of Peter testified that Montgomery is the "one and same man" who stalked inti the drug store at Miro and Lapeyrouse streets, attempted to hold up the place, and left after firing two fatal bullets into Albert Leo Grossimon.
Each witness, present during the attempted robbery, described the bandit as "the athletic type" and said a marked feature of the masked robber was that the leg muscles "protruded".
Forced to Show Legs
District Attorney Stanley, over the strenuous objection of Defense Attorneys G. Wray Gill and Warren M. Simon, had Montgomery roll his trouser legs above his knees and parade before the jury.
Attorney Gill objected on the grounds that the bandit, in staging the robbery, had not so appeared and that the compelling of Montgomery to exhibit his extraordinary muscular development was contrary to his consitutional rights. Judge Humphrey overruled the objection.
Dr. George Roeling, coroner, took the stand as first witness and said that Grossimon's death was caused by two gunshot wounds, one in the chest that lodged in the lung, the other in the right leg. Testimony showed that the bandit shot Grossimon as he lay writhing on the floor.
Charles R. Rowden, formerly of 3129 Layperouse street, a friend of the Grossimons, told of the attempted robbery.
Hold-Up Described
The bandit, he said, walked in waving an automatic, crying "Don't move, anyone, or I'll kill you."
As Peter Grossimon ran to a rear prescription room, two shots rang out. Albert fell to the floor and the bandit followed Peter. He banged against the prescription room door. Peter meanwhile wildly grabbing for his pistol.
The bandit then retreated and escaped in a car outside. Rowden identified Montgomery as the bandit and described the marked characteristic of the "protruding" leg muscles.
Peter Grossimon testified along the same lines.
He emphatically named Montgomery as the killer of his brother.
In like fashion Mrs. Peter Grossimon testified, as did Mrs. Hoerner. Each witness, in cross-examination by Mr. Gill, was asked if the bandit wore a tie and what was the color of his shoes. None could answer the question.
Witness Volunteers
When Mrs. Grossimon took the stand, she volunteered the information before it was asked, declaring she "didn't know whether he had a tie on or what the color of his shoes were."
She denied repeatedly to Mr. Gill having talked with any of the previous witnesses and declared she hadn't discussed the murder with any of her family since October 8.
Attorney Gill offered objections on the identification of Montgomery as it occurred several weeks after the killing in the grand jury room of the courthouse. Montgomery, after surrendering himself to parish authorities, was removed from the Parish Prison by the district attorney. The move, Mr. Gill asserted, was made without a court order, and any identification made at that time, he claims, was illegal. His objections were overruled.
Positive of Identity
Mrs. Hoerner testified in no uncertain terms that Montgomery could go to his death on the gallows as far as her testimony and identification was concerned. She said she believed him to be the bandit.
The father, Herbert, was equally strong in his assertions, and said he identified Montgomery ny the leg muscles and high cheek bones. The similarity between the bandit-slayer of his son and Montgomery was "perfect."
District Attorney Stanley, sided by his assistant, Chandler C. Luzenberg, Jr,m is expected to go into the balistic testimony today, seeking to prove that the gun which ended Grossimon's life was the same automatic alleged to have been taken from Montgomery on the night of a second hold-up weeks after the Grossimon killing. Montgomery escaped police, was later brought to trial and found guilty of the second robbery.
Defense Calls for Record
Two developments of importance came in the last half-hour before adjournment. The defense obtained a subpoena duces tecum from the court to require Police Chief Reyer to produce today cards relating to the arrest of three suspects, Claude Cefalu, Wilford Welchel and Edwin Krohn, two of whom had been identified as resembling the bandit by the dying man at Charity hospital. They were to be used in an effort to impeach the identifying witnesses.
Attorney Gill drew from Mrs. Grossimon an unqualified admission thet she could not identify, in any way, the policeman to whom Wright gave the exploded shells found in the store, although his face was not obscured, as in the case of the bandit.
Two members of the jury questioned the father closely about his identification of Montgomery, especially as to the circumstances in which Montgomery's police record card was picked out by him at the hospital. The witness finally declared he was not sure whether he or some other of those who had been in the store was the first to select the card.
Witness Positive
Consulting newspaper clippings he held in his hand, Gill demanded, in references to Cefalu and Krohm:
"Don't you know that these men went to the jail on your identification?"
"It was only a partial identification," returned the witness. "I said they looked like the bandit."
Pressing the witness, a little later, the attorney asked him:
"As a witness under oath, as a citizen and a gentleman, what you are really testifying is that Roy Montgomery resembles the bandit, isn't it? You aren't saying definitely that he is the bandit."
"I say positively that he is the man."
He was unable to describe the clothing or shoes worn by the slayer and, like the other members of the family, said it was protruding cheek bones, athletically developed leg muscles and a swaying gait upon which he based his recognition.
"But you have never seen Roy Montgomery swaying back and forth with a pistol in his hand?" demanded the defense.
The witness said he had seen the defendant in the grand jury room when Montgomery was brought there considerable later. Much questioning from the defense finally developed the declaration that Montgomery had been nervous in the room and had walked about in a swaying fashion.
Various policemen from the Fifth Precinct station followed on the stand to testify about the discovery of the shells and finally of the all important bullet itself on October 8.
Per Obituary in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) 7/16/1981
GROSSIMON
Rita H. Grossimon, on Monday, July 13, 1981, at Lexington, Massachusetts, at 9 o'clock p.m., beloved wife of the late Peter L. Grossimon, mother of Herbert P. Grossimon of Lexington, Massachusetts, and Louis A. Grossimon of Metairie, Louisiana; daughter of the late Helena Sperber and Edward Hoerner; sister of the late Edward W. Hoerner, Catherine H. DeGruy, and Irma H. Preston; also survived by 6 grandchildren, age 81 years, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Relatives and friends of the family, also officers and members of the Louisiana State Pharmaceutical Association, and directors and employees of the American Hemlock Insurance Company, are invited to attend the funeral. Services from the Metairie Funeral Home of L. A. Muhleisen and Son, 2929 Metairie Road, on Thursday, July 16, 1981 at 9:45 o'clock a.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church.
Interment in Greenwood Cemetery. Friends may visit after 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Per Findagrave
Rita Mary Hoerner Grossimon
BIRTH1 Oct 1899
DEATH13 Jul 1981 (aged 81)
BURIALGreenwood Cemetery New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA
PLOT24 Jessamine Osier Mercury
MEMORIAL ID89815720
Spouse
Peter Louis Grossimon 1901\endash 1971
Children
Herbert Peter Grossimon 1927\endash 2016
Gravesite Details Age 81, Name on Plot Grossimon, Date of Burial 7/16/1981, Ref: Cemetery Records
Per Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Death Record
Name:Rita Grossimon
State of Issue:Louisiana
Date of Birth:Sunday October 01, 1899
Date of Death:July 1981
Est. Age at Death:81 years, 9 months
Last known residence:
City:New Orleans
County:Orleans
State:Louisiana
ZIP Code:70119
Latitude:29.9762
Longitude:-90.0878
Per Louisiana Marriage Index:
June 1923
Bride: HOERNER, RITA
Groom: GROSSIMON, PETER LOUIS
Orleans parish Page: 787 Volume: 48