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April 1925 dynamite blast wrecks confectionery store



The headline was big and bold in the May 8, 1925, edition of the Quincy Daily Herald. An explosion in Hannibal sent shock waves throughout the area. 


MARY LOU MONTGOMERY


On April 10, 1925, for the Easter season, James and Thomas Bachaks advertised home-made chocolate rabbits and eggs for sale at Candyland, located at 613 Broadway.


Little did the Greek store owners know that just a month later, their store would be in shambles, following two dynamite blasts in the night.


James Bachaks left the Candyland store (formerly Goodman’s)  at 10:30 p.m., on Thursday, May 7, 1925. Officer George W. Foehringer walked by the building sometime before 1:30 a.m., Friday, May 8, noticing nothing amiss in the 600 block of Broadway.


Moments later, when the officer was at Ninth and Broadway, he heard two loud blasts, which blew out all of the store’s front windows, and shattering the interior’s marble-lined walls and counters. There were two large holes blown in the floor. Glass, mirror shards, candy and the broken marble fixtures of the store were hurled through the plate glass windows into the middle of Broadway


Dr. J.H. Grimaud, whose dental office and apartment were upstairs, was badly shaken, but not seriously injured.


James Bachaks’ brother, Thomas, was visiting in Europe at the time of the explosion. James told police that he knew of no enemies who would prevail such damage to the candy and ice cream shop, which he and his brother had purchased from Charles L. Goodman two years prior.


By daylight on Friday, a crowd of people had gathered in front of the store in order to see for themselves the damage caused by the explosion.


Chief of Police Turner and Chief of Detective Arch Leonard entered the store soon after the explosion. They traced footsteps from the ventilator window at the rear of the store, to various points inside the store.


“They found that $13 had been taken from the cash register, six boxes of Chancellor cigars had been stolen and papers in James Bachaks’ desk were strewn about. A safe in the store containing several hundred dollars was not disturbed. There are no clues,” the Quincy Daily Herald reported in its May 8, 1925 edition.


James Bachaks made an early vow to repair the damage and reopen the confectionery business. Despite the fact that there was no insurance to cover the repair costs, estimated to be between $8,600 and $10,000, Candyland was able to host an informal reopening on May 23, 1925.


Confectionery block

The 600 block of Broadway had long hosted a confectionery shop.


1910: George W. Bowen sold his store, Candy Kitchen, located at 603 Broadway, to Mrs. Minnie Helwig in March 1910. A year prior, Mrs. Helwig’s husband, Edward, had died at the age of 45. Mrs. Helwig was married to Charles L. Goodman on March 28, 1910, at her home, 205 S. Ninth Street. The newlyweds went into business together.


The Goodmans sold their store at 603 Broadway to C.J. Menzel in June 1917. He converted the store to be part of his Busy Bee franchise. Menzel also had a store at 501 Broadway.


In October 1917, The Goodmans opened another confectionery store at 613 Broadway, where they manufactured ice cream and candies.


The Hannibal Courier-Post reported in its Oct. 19, 1917, edition: “The large room is finished in marble from the big fountain and Cigar and candy cases in the front section, around the four walls. Marble is used as a base for al the walls which are hand-painted and decorated above.


“The front section is given over to the fountain and candy store. The rear half is the room in which ice cream and all drinks of the soda fountain will be served; There will be tables for eighty persons.


“To the rear is the large candy making room and the basement will be used for the manufacture of ice cream. Only the most modern machinery has been installed in both of these departments.”


On Thursday evening, April 12, 1918, C.L. Goodman’s big delivery truck caught fire inside of his garage at 206 S. Ninth Street. Fire company No. 1 responded and extinguished the blaze. The Hannibal Courier-Post of April 12, 1918 reported: “The fire fighters made a good run and put out the conflagration but not until the big delivery truck … had been badly damaged by the flames. The truck was covered by  insurance with the George D. Clayton agency.”


Circa 1924: The Goodmans sold the store at 613 Broadway to the Bachaks Brothers, who renamed the store Candyland. The Goodmans moved to Kansas City.


The Kansas City Star reported in its Nov. 18, 1923 edition, that Charles L. Goodman of Hannibal purchased a stone bungalow, with eight rooms, at 6946, the Paceo, for $12,500.


The Ralls County Record, on May 24, 1927, reported that Charles Goodman was in the process of negotiating to get the store back at the time of the explosion. After the explosion, Goodman bought the store back, the newspaper reported, and the family relocated back to Hannibal.


Meanwhile, a reward had been established as an incentive to solve the mystery of who set the dynamite.


Reward offered

Two years would pass. Then, according to the Quincy Herald Whig of May 5, 1927,  Detective Arch Leonard and Sheriff Clarence L. Bender arrested three young men in Kansas City, Arthur Bedford, Jimmy Kearney and Joe Sanders, who ultimately confessed to dynamiting “Candyland.”


Their confessions implicated Charles L. Goodman, the present proprietor of the place, who was arrested on the charge and later released on a common law bond in the sum of $2,500.


All the while, Goodman maintained his innocence.  His preliminary hearing was to have been on May 11, 1927.


Instead, the Associated Press reported, Charles L. Goodman was found by the building’s janitor at the candy store on May 10, 1927,  dead, shot through the head.


The original conclusion was that Goodman took his own life, but his widow and her attorneys, Charles Rendlen and Harrison White, put on a hard-fought battle against the Aenta Insurance Company, which had denied a double indemnity payout based upon the suspicions that the death was a suicide rather than accidental.


Two five-day trials in federal court ended with hung juries, before the insurance company, Mrs. Goodman and her lawyers finally reached a settlement. Aetna agreed to pay her $12,500 and costs, of which her attorneys obtained a significant share.


While the cause of Mr. Goodman’s death remains unclear, he was never convicted of any crime.


He was buried at Riverside Cemetery.


Sheriff Bender and Officer Leonard received rewards totaling $800 for their work in apprehending the men who dynamited Candyland. Arthur Bedford, Joe Kearney and Jimmie Sanders, the men captured by the officers, pleaded guilty in June 1927, and were sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary.


Minnie Goodman (1870-1947) and her son, Earnest H. Helwig, continued to operate the confectionery store, once again known as Goodman’s, until the mid 1930s.


In 1937, the Mary Ann Sweet Shop, owned by Lester J. Bonham, was open at this location.


Note: Thanks to Sally Kintz who contributed documents that aided in the research for this story.



After repairs had been made to the Candyland store in Hannibal, the business reopened on May 23, 1925. This advertisement announced the reopening in the Friday, May 22, 1925, edition of the Hannibal Labor Press. newspapers.com




Exterior of “Candyland” early Friday morning, just a few hours after it was wrecked by a blast thought to have been planted by enemies of the proprietors. Hundreds of curious spectators thronged the street to see the devastation. Quincy Daily Herald, Saturday, May 9, 1925




This pair of advertisements is from the 1929 Hannibal City Directory. Note that Goodman’s was located at 613 Broadway. In the mid 1930s, the Mary Ann Sweet Shop would occupy the former Goodman’s building at 613 Broadway.



The Fidelity Building, owned by W.J. Roth, is pictured circa 1918. The businesses on the ground level are pictured, from left, 613, C.L. Goodman, confectionary (rear) Quality Ice Cream Co.; Drugs, 615 Broadway; A&P, 619 Broadway; and 621, White Bros. Barbers. The building was constructed circa 1913. Steve Chou collection.


Mary Lou Montgomery retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,”  and “St. Mary’s Avenue District.” Montgomery can be reached at montgomery.editor@yahoo.com . Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com

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