Chapter Eight Fighting Words

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me”

—Children’s taunt

On Saturday afternoon, April 6th, 1940, Walter Chap- linski, twenty-six, a Jehovah’s Witness, was distributing the literature of his sect on the public sidewalks of Rochester, New Hampshire, a town of about 15,000 people. Chaplinski had come with several other Jehovah’s Witnesses from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania and re-located in Dover, New Hampshire, not far from Rochester. Chaplinski condemned all other religions as a racket.

Members of the local citizenry complained to the city marshall, James Bowering, Jr., that Chaplinski was de- nouncing all religions. Bowering told them that Chaplinski was conducting himself lawfully, and then warned Chapl...

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