The letter itself was in the same format. It was brief and to the point:
Dear Mr. Editor:
The Scorpion has struck. The bank robbers were captured. The Scorpion fights crime. Crooks and robbers are not safe from the avenging Scorpion. WARN YOUR READERS!
Sincerely yours,
THE SCORPION
The warning was duly noted, and the letter filed in the wastebasket. It didn't rate a line in the paper.
II
The bank robbery occurred in late June. Early in August, a Brooklyn man went berserk.
It happened in Canarsie, a section in southeast Brooklyn near Jamaica Bay. This particular area of Canarsie was a residential neighborhood, composed of one and two family houses. The man who went berserk was a Motor Vehicle Bureau clerk named Jerome Higgins.
Two days before, he had flunked a Civil Service examination for the third time. He reported himself sick and spent the two days at home, brooding, a bottle of blended whiskey at all times in his hand.