The Brooklyn Heights Press celebrates its 70th anniversary this week and columnist Henrik Krogius takes the opportunity to recall some Heights history:
Brooklyn Eagle: Heights Press at 70: During the locally quiet World War II years, when gasoline rationing kept traffic down and stickball could be played on the streets, I delivered groceries for the little Roulston’s on Fulton Street. A couple of decades later, when I was working at NBC, it turned out that a Soviet spy, Col. Rudolf Abel, was transmitting intelligence from his “artist studio” above that store. NBC’s indefatigable local reporter, Gabe Pressman, came to the Heights to get reactions of people who might have known the spy, but the best he could do was get a sound bite of Roulston manager Dave Semple saying the man had always paid his bills. For some time thereafter Gabe would be kidded when some other “Col. Abel’s grocer” story didn’t pan out.
