Robert Phillip Appelgate

Notes:

5D4C7A3G6 Robert Phillip Appelgate, b. Mar 17, 1914 in Flatbush, Kings Co., NY, d. 12 Dec 1933, in Glen Rock, N.J., after a police chase in a stolen car. He is mentioned in a birth announcement of an unnamed sibling who was born on Mar 17, 1917 in Cedar Grove, NJ. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar 18, 1917, p. 60).

APPENDIX
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec 13, 1933, p. 17

ATHLETE KILLED IN MOVE FOR HIP, POLICEMAN SAYS

Glen Rock Rock, N.J., Dec. 13 AP – The Bergen County Prosecutor’s office today opened an investigation of the death of Robert Appelgate, a 19-year-old high school athlete, who was shot and killed by a policeman after a three-mile police car chase of the coupe, an allegedly stolen car, which the youth was driving.

Patrolman Emile de Wilde of the Fair Lawn police, who fired the fatal shot, was under technical arrest in the custody of Police Chief Michael Vanore. De Wilde told his superiors he fired when the youth made a gesture to his hip pocket, as if to draw a gun.

As the inquiry opened, authorities were still unable to explain the presence of Appelgate, son of a New York newspaperman, in the car which they say had been reported stolen. The youth’s father is Joseph Appelgate of 783 S. Maple Ave.

The police search for the coupe began at 8:51 last night, when the owner of the car reported the car had been taken from in front of his house.

A half hour later Officer De Wilde and Officer John Postana sighted a machine bearing the license plates of the missing coupe. When the car did not stop at their command, they said, they gave chase.

When De Wilde heard the boy was dead he broke down and cried.

Young Appelgate was a noted athlete at Ridgewood High School.