The Big Gunfight At Patsy’s Bar

When the city opened Remsen Avenue around 1925, and lots all along the street were sold at a cheap price, among the buyers was Patsy Moodzi, who built a small house on it and opened a little gas station in front for an easy route to and from the city.

As more people came to Little Old Canarsie, and President F.D.R. had promised when elected to have the prohibition law repealed, the president, along with Congress, legalized the sale of wines, liquor and beer on or about May of 1933. It was then that Patsy decided to do away with the gas station and opened up a bar and cabaret, which was right alongside the L.I.R.R. and would not get any complaints of too much noise from the neighborhood.

After a couple of years, Patsy sold the business to one of the famous fighters from Brownsville — the late Al (Bummy) Davis — who, with his brother-in-law, had just about taken over when the place was held up by three or four gunmen.

When this happened, one of New York’s Finest, Patrolman Edwin Fritz, who was off duty, had stopped in to see his friend George Miller, the bartender. Both of them were well-known Canarsie boys.

At this time, it was kind of bad for a patrolman, even off duty, to be anywhere drinks were sold, as the Commissioner at the time had dismissed over three hundred for patronizing these places.

When these gunmen walked in, Eddie was quick enough to drop his gun among some empty cases of bottles, for if they searched everyone and found out he was a cop, they might have killed him. So while one jumped over the bar to grab the money in the till, Al Davis pleaded with the leader to take it easy as his brother-in-law had just taken over the place. He was told to shut-up and stay where he was, but he followed them out of the place and Eddie Fritz quickly grabbed his gun and went out after them.

Lots of shooting went on, and poor Al Davis fell mortally wounded and it was thought the gunmen got away. The next day, Eddie was suspended for being in the place and letting them get away. Everything looked pretty bad for Eddie and his lovely wife, Charlotte. In the excitement of his being suspended, she fell and broke her arm.

Then came some good news over the radio. It seems one of the hold-up teams had been shot by Eddie Fritz and had a friend trying to cure his bullet wound when finally he had to go to the hospital. They removed the bullet and it was found to have come from Eddie’s gun. Another one of the stickup guys had been driven out west by a pair of friends. He also had a bullet of Eddie’s in his spine and was paralyzed from it.

A detective from the 69th Precinct had to fly out west and bring him back for trial. I think the detective was from the 69th Squad. Then what a different attitude of the mayor, the late Fiorello LaGuardia, who heaped lots of praise and awarded a medal on the City Hall steps to Eddie of New York’s Finest for doing a great job.