A STORM CENTER FOR BULLETS

Images NATRONA, PENNSYLVANIA, AUGUST 26, 1919 Images

Near suppertime, gunshots echoed among the small frame houses of Natrona, Pennsylvania. People ran out to see what was happening. Seven-year-old Stanley F. Rafalko was on his way to the corner store to get his father a packet of cigarettes. When he came out, he saw sheriff’s deputies beating a man with blackjacks, and shooting over the heads of a crowd of women and children.

Dozens of witnesses say a woman named Fannie Sellins herded a group of children toward safety behind the Rafalko family’s backyard gate.

“Stop, before someone gets hurt!” Fannie shouted at the deputies.

The officers turned their weapons on her.

“Stop!” she shouted again.

The local newspaper would later report she appeared to be a “storm center” for deputies’ bullets.