It was Christmas time, December 27th, 1950. The Feast Of Saint John. General Douglas MacArthur had just landed in Korea. Nat King Cole had the number one hit song with MonaLisa. A howling snowstorm was making its way through the Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut. A Waterbury Police patrol car had just received a radio call to proceed to St. Mary's hospital a.s.a.p. The call was special to patrolman Joseph J. Shea as his wife had just given birth to their first child. Suddenly, cut off by another car in the storm, he found his patrol car barreling down a steep hill toward the raging Naugatuck River. He eventually regained control, inches from going over the guard rail and plunging into the nighttime freezing water.