Shortly after walking the beat, Benny was assigned to work as a plain clothes police officer in an unmarked car. The job of the unmarked car was to look for suspicious characters, questionable activity and to respond to crimes in progress. He was assigned to work with John Marshall and John Arnold on rotation. Trusting in your partners to cover your back is an essential part of the job.
Benny’s only quandary was dressing in plain clothes. He definitely has his quirks, one being that he liked to wear his pants a little short in case he had to run fast or jump a fence, the other being that he would only wear short white socks. He just didn’t like his feet to sweat in dark socks so he actually had a doctor’s note saying he couldn’t wear black socks which were required by the police department. He always found a way to get his way.
One night while on routine patrol they spotted a suspicious looking guy, just cops intuition. As they all exchanged looks, the guy then took off like a bat out of hell, the two sharp-eyed, fleet footed cops jumped out of the car and chased the suspect into a building, onto the roof where they where sharply aware that he fit the description a man wanted for the murder of a retired police officer. They had memorized his photo on a wanted poster in the precinct.
Retired Police Officer Arthur E. Henry was shot to death while interrupting a hold up of a clothing store on Market St. in Newark. The suspects got away with $35 from the customers in the store. A great man and hero lost his life over that.
The suspect was arrested and arraigned on murder charges.
The 2 men involved in his murder has not been caught until Benny and Arnold caught up with one guy and he then gave up his partner in crime who was then apprehended in Florida.
Now I think we all understand why he wears short pants. Hate to think he couldn’t catch the bad guy if he was tripping over his pants. 40 Years later he’s still wearing his pants too short, just in case….
aboutbenny 