THE BLACK MARIA.
Nobody knows how the name Black Maria came to he applied to police vans. One theory is that the vans wero so called on the rule of contrary principle, because the first one was painted white. Another story concerns itself with Maria Sal ope, who rescued her lover from the tumbril—the French equivalent, to our prison van —in which he was being conveyed to the guillotine. The most generally accepted tradition, however, is that it was so called after Maria Lee, a negress who kept a boardinghouse in Boston, TJ.S.A. She was a woman of great size and strength, and when the police there had any trouble with a refractory prisoner it was their custom to send to “Black Maria” for help.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OTMAIL19201231.2.20
Bibliographic details
Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 31 December 1920, Page 4
Word Count
125THE BLACK MARIA. Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 31 December 1920, Page 4
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