Frank and the Fatal Prank

In 1926, Frank Vanderhoof, age twenty, died from injuries sustained at this place of work. He was employed by the Pequanoc Soft Rubber Company in Butler, Morris County, New Jersey. (Note: Pequannock is the modern spelling of this township. Variant spellings are seen across records and centuries.) Frank died at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, Passaic County.

Death certificate of Frank Vanderhoof.
Died August 27, 1926 in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey.
Father- Walter Vanderhoof. Mother- Caroline Harris.
Buried at Mount Rest Cemetery in Butler, Morris County, New Jersey.

A note for the majority of people who cannot visit the New Jersey State Archives in person: Death certificates from 1904 through 1948 are organized alphabetically by year on microfilm. New Jersey does not publish birth, marriage, and death certificates. An index exists for some of these years. If you can visit the Archives, you can photograph every certificate for a surname of interest. The index provides a name, partial date, and location (maybe city, definitely county). You need to view the actual record of death to see the full date, place, names of parents, place of burial, and all of that other information that the family historian needs to more fully assemble the tree.

Index of death certificates New Jersey.
Available online through Ancestry
or without a paywall at The New Jersey Death Index

I snapped pictures on my phone of all the death certificates in 1926 for Vanderhoof and variant spellings. The next image after Frank's death certificate was not another death certificate, but rather an elaboration of the cause of Frank's death.

Image after Frank's death certificate.
Handwritten: "Rupture & hemorrhage
caused by applying an 80 lb
pressure air hose to rectum
(prank)"

I don't know if this additional image was Side Two of the death certificate or if it was a separate page. Sometimes this supplement follows a death certificate.

In Frank's case, this supplement clarified that the rupture and hemorrhage of his intestines was caused by a prank- applying a pressure hose to his rectum.

When a death is special or unusual, a newspaper article may have been published with additional details. This would be separate from any Notice of Death or Obituary.

Newspaper article about the death of Frank Vanderhoof
and the possible criminal action against Andrew Balla

Atlantic City is about 130 miles from Butler, but the local paper there carried the story. This is a reminder to look far and wide for newspaper reports. The article added a second person to the incident, a "practical joker" named Andrew Balla.

Andrew was arrested for manslaughter. Another article, this time in Trenton, clarified that Frank and Andrew were coworkers. They customarily used high-pressure hoses to dust off their clothes. Details were skipped, but Frank died after Andrew "turned the blower" upon him.

Another newspaper article about Frank's death
and Andrew's criminal charges

What became of the case? I did not find further articles. If Andrew spent any time in jail or prison, it was not long. Two years after Frank's death, Andrew married Phoebe Haycock in 1928. Their daughter, Helen Louise, was born the following year.

In the 1930 census, Andrew and family were living in Bloomingdale. He was still employed at the rubber plant.

Andrew died in 1993 and Phoebe in 2012.

In 1957, the rubber factory burnt down, causing economic devastation to Butler.

Picture of the burning Pequanoc Rubber Company of Butler, New Jersey

Family stories about this incident would have been handed down through the Vanderhoof family and the Balla family. The accuracy would have diminished over time as the story was retold anywhere from two to five generations. If anyone is a member of these branches and heard about this story, please comment.