Thomas James Berstler

Many of those who served in World War II did not come home, but many did to live full lives. Some of those who came home were irreparably changed, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Some found themselves having difficulty in the transition to civilian life, lacking direction, without a rudder. One example is Thomas James Berstler, best known as Jimmy.

Before the War

He didn’t have the best childhood. His father, George, was 21 when he married Florence on March 25, 1925 in Philadelphia, but she was not quite 17 years old and pregnant. Their first son, George Jr., arrived in October of that year. It was just 18 months later that Jimmy was born.

George was a canvas cutter in a factory in 1930 but providing for his family during the Depression was difficult, and motherhood was difficult for Florence. She abandoned the family in 1933, got divorced, and remarried. George and his boys moved in with his parents, Morris and Tillie. His four younger siblings, who were in their teens and 20s were there as well.

Their home was at 2124 Frazier Street in the Kingsessing neighborhood, a few blocks east of Mount Moriah Cemetery. From the ages of 6 and 7, Jimmy and George Jr. called Tillie “Mom.” Eventually their father got a better job as a shipfitter with Sun Shipbuilding in Chester. 

During the War

With the world at war again, George Jr. joined the Navy at age 17 and spent almost three years on the USS Mobile. Jimmy decided to follow his brother, so he enlisted three days after his 17th birthday and active duty began on May 8, 1944. He had to grow up fast; ten weeks later he found himself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean aboard the destroyer USS Hickox. By September, his ship was in the Philippines protecting aircraft carriers that were launching air strikes on the islands. 

As part of Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet, Hickox was under almost constant Japanese air attack from Manilla in early November. She supported the forces taking Iwo Jima in March of 1945 and was under fierce attack at Okinawa in May. Ordered to Guam in June, Hickox returned home to San Francisco in July.

Jimmy’s rating changed to Seaman 1st Class, and he remained with the ship until December when he joined the crew of USS Pickaway, a troop transport ship. His brother was in the same Philippines Campaign and Battle of Okinawa aboard USS Mobile and was discharged in January of 1946. 

After the War

Jimmy got his release in May and the family welcomed him back. He filed a draft registration card on June 6 while he thought about what to do. That August he was arrested at 58th and Woodland, a few blocks from home, for carrying a concealed deadly weapon. A judge placed him on probation because Jimmy said he was going to rejoin the military.

That was his plan, so he enlisted in the Marines on September 20th, but was given an entry-level discharge two months later. That document said he was not physically qualified, but also said he didn’t require medical treatment or hospitalization.

Jimmy was home for the second time that year, but he was probably not in the holiday spirit. He failed boot camp. He didn’t have what it takes to be a Marine. Things didn’t work out like he thought. Now he was unsure about finding his place in the world.

He was fortunate to have family around to offer support. His grandfather, Morris Berstler, had been a bookbinder all his life so he got him a position as an apprentice bookbinder where he worked, the William Marley Company in Kensington. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. Jimmy quit the job in late April of 1947. 

Two weeks later he was the subject of this front-page headline. He was discovered Monday, May 12, on a park bench on Church Lane in Yeadon, just west of Cobbs Creek. Yeadon police officers were cruising past the bench shortly before 5 pm and noticed him sitting there. Returning there some time later, they were suspicious after seeing him in the exact same position.

They found a fully-loaded revolver in his pants pocket but no murder weapon. The initial theory was that Jimmy had been shot at close range somewhere else, then left on the bench where his body escaped notice all day.

When George Sr. was notified, he reported that Jimmy left home the previous Wednesday but didn’t know where he went. He returned briefly on Sunday with some clothes he asked Tillie to wash for him, then left. He was last seen alive that Sunday afternoon entering a West Philadelphia movie theater.

The gun in his pocket matched one of two stolen from the General Arthur MacArthur Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 58th & Woodland Ave. That’s where Jimmy had been living since that Wednesday. But the whereabouts of that second gun remained a mystery.

Seeking to answer that question led authorities to bring a woman and her soldier-husband in for questioning as part of a possible love triangle. Their names had been written on papers found in Jimmy’s pocket, but they were released without shedding any light on the slaying.

The case stayed unsolved, as reported here, five days after his death, under the assumption it was a suicide. As cruel as it sounds, it’s likely someone actually walked by, thought more of the gun than the dead body, and simply took it.

Jimmy was buried less than a mile away from that park bench on the Yeadon side of the cemetery. His brother submitted an application for Jimmy’s military gravestone, but no other family members were buried here.