October 3, 1975: The Spaghetti House Siege

October 3, 1975: The "Spaghetti House Siege" ends. When I first heard about this, I thought it was a reference to a Mob hit in New York. Not even close -- indeed, it happened all the way across the Atlantic. But it does bear a resemblance to the story of the real-life Brooklyn bank robbery depicted in a film then in American theaters, Dog Day Afternoon.

The siege began on Sunday, September 28, at the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, in Central London. Franklin Davies, a Nigerian student, led 24-year-old West Indian man Wesley Dick and 22-year-old West Indian man Anthony Gordon Munroe in an attempted armed robbery of the restaurant, where managers of the chain had assembled to pay in the week's takings of approximately £13,000.

When the armed robbery did not go to plan, 9 Italian staff members were taken hostage, and moved into the basement. Another staff member escaped and raised the alarm, leading to a siege of 6 days. As with the real story of Dog Day Afternoon, it became a spectacle in the biggest city in its country. Being across the street from the French Embassy didn't help.

The robbers had been involved in black liberation organizations, and maintained consistently that they were acting for political reasons. The police did not believe them, and stated that this was a criminal act, not a political one.

At 3:40 AM on Friday, October 3, the hostages were released. The police told the robbers to come out one at a time. The first two threw their guns out and followed that instruction. As police led them away, a gunshot was heard from the room: Davies had shot himself in the stomach with a .22 rimfire revolver.

Davies was treated at a nearby hospital, and survived the shooting. He, Dick and Munroe were sentenced to 22, 18 and 17 years in prison respectively. All I can find out about them since is a reference that all 3 of them "died after being released from prison, two of them at relatively young ages."

The Spaghetti House restaurant re-opened for business a week after the siege ended. In 2015, it closed so the block could be redeveloped.

As with Dog Day Afternoon, a film was made about it. Unlike that film, the 1982 film Spaghetti House was a comedy, made in Italy, starring mostly Italian actors.

*

October 3, 1975 was a Friday. Singer India Arie was born.

Major League Baseball's Playoffs began the next day. The Boston Red Sox swept the Oakland Athletics in 3 straight, ending the 3-year reign of the A's atop the American League. In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in 3.

The NBA, ABA, NHL and WHA seasons started later that month. The NFL and the soon-to-fold World Football League were in midweek. There was 1 game played in college football: Brigham Young University beat the University of New Mexico, 16-15 at BYU's Cougar Stadium (now LaVell Edwards Stadium) in Provo, Utah.