Frank Placheski ²

   Another name for Frank was Frank Plait.^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

From Robert C. Westphal:

Frank Plate, Frank Plait were aka's for Frank Placheski who had an extensive criminal record as a juvenile and young adult, with charges ranging from public intoxication to burglary and child molestation. He served multiple jail terms, and was sentenced to prison in Sherburne, MN and later in Stillwater, MN. His entire life was spent in and out of reformatories, jail and prison. Winona, MN newspaper articles involving Frank's criminal activity are plentiful. The only period that his criminal activity seemed to stop was for a brief time just after his marriage to Edith Shrake, when most of his exploits only involved automobile and intoxication violations. It is difficult to imagine how Edith Shrake saw fit to marry this man, given his police record. After 1940, the couple either divorced or separated, and Edith relocated to Beloit, WI, while Frank remained largely in the Winona area.
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STORE WINDOW IS SMASHED; RIFLE IS STOLEN
Police today were seeking to trace the person or persons who last night smashed one of the front display windows at the hardware store of the R. D. Cone Co., 64 E. Second Street, and escaped with a .32 caliber used Winchester repeating rifle.

The thief apparently reached for several other guns in the window, but knocked them down in an effort to obtain a grip on them, police said. A large stone was used to break the window.

The theft occurred just two months after a similar incident, when two guns and two hunting knives were taken. Frank Plate, 18 years old, was arrested by police in connection with that theft, pleaded guilty, and is now in county jail awaiting sentence.

(Source: Winona Republican Herald, Winona, MN, 9 Nov 1923, page 1)
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YOUTH TELLS HIS STORY OF ESCAPE FROM THE POLICE
Frank Plate Goes Without Food, Nearly Freezes to Escape Arrest...
Frank Plate, 22 year old Winona youth, brought back from Milwaukee Saturday to face a charge of burglary, today asked for a preliminary hearing when he was arraigned in municipal court and is being held in the county jail in default of $2,000 bail.

Plate was released from the state reformatory on parole last October when he was serving a term of not more than five years on a charge of burglary. He also served two terms in the training school for boys at Red Wing.

The latest offense with which the youth is charged took place on Feb. 12, according to Chief of Police H. C. Riebau, when he is alleged to have robbed an apartment at 205 E. Sanborn Street in the company of Clarence Bambenek who already has been apprehended and returned to the state reformatory to serve the remainder of a term from which he also was paroled.

Plate was sought on Feb. 13 but escaped from police when he told them he was going to get his coat. He was later traced to Milwaukee where he was arrested last week in a small store operated by his sister. Deputy Sheriff August Sielaff returned him here Saturday night.

After escaping from police here, he ran out of a rear door of the Winona paper box factory where he was working. Plate said that he slept the first night in the willows along the riverbank in the east end of the city. The second night, after going without food all day, he slept behind a boat house and on the third night he stayed under a barn, he told police.

Because of the intense cold he awoke every few minutes and had to move to keep from freezing to death, he said. After spending more than a week in this fashion, Plate said that he bummed a ride on a Milwaukee train for the Wisconsin city. He said that he did not go back to his home and always hid when he saw anyone until after he left Winona.

Bambenek confessed to his part in the robbery before he was returned to St. Cloud, Chief Riebau said. At the same time, he involved Plate. The apartment was occupied by Mrs. Kathryn Sibley at the time of the robbery. Plate still has two and a half years of his previous sentences to serve but police said that the new charge will be pressed against him.

The preliminary examination was set for Tuesday, March 20, at 9 a.m.

(Source: Winona Republican Herald, Winona, MN, 12 Mar 1928, page 5)
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TREMPEALEAU
Considerable excitement was caused Wednesday when a dog owned by Frank Plait seemed to get fits and act queerly. Members of the village board ordered Marshall Dennis to shoot him for fear that he might go mad.

(Source: Winona Republican Herald, Winona, MN, 12 Jul 1935, page 12)
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MAN GETS PRISON TERM IN ASSAULT
Frank Plait, 56, 1055 E. 4th St., was taken to the state prison in Stillwater by a deputy today, according to Sheriff George Fort.

Plait was sentenced in District Court Thursday to serve up to seven years for feloniously assaulting a 7-year-old Winona girl.

Plait committed the crime June 11 and was in municipal court June 13. He asked for a preliminary hearing at that time and the hearing was set for June 20. Late he waived the hearing and was bound over to District Court. He pleaded guilty in District Court June 25.

Duane Peterson was Plait's court-appointed attorney and S. A. Sawyer represented the state.

(Source: Winona Daily News, Winona, MN, 30 Jul 1962, page 3)
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  Death Notes:

Name: Frank Plait
Given Name: Frank
Surname: Plait
Event Type: Death
Event Date: Aug 1970
Event Place: Winona, Minnesota
Event Place (Original): Winona, Minnesota
Age: 65
Birth Date: 20 Sep 1905

Citing this Record
"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JPY5-M6Y : 4 December 2020), Frank Plait, Aug 1970; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
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  Noted events in his life were:

• He appeared on the 1940 US Census in Winona, MN on 4 April 1940. ¹

1940 US Census
Sheet 61A, Roll 1969, District 85-42, Family 390
Winona, Winona County, Minnesota, United States
Last Place of Residence: Rural, Trempealeau, Wisconsin
Frank Plate..Head..34..MN..8th grade..Mixer, Foundry..earned $145 in 1939 (12 weeks of work)
(Living with wife.)
.

Frank married Edith C. Shrake, daughter of Henry William Shrake and Margaret Ann Drugan, on 31 August 1931 in Trempealeau, WI.¹ (Edith C. Shrake was born on 23 December 1909 in Trempealeau, WI,^{4 5 6 7} died on 5 June 1969 in , Winona County, MN ⁷ and was buried on 9 June 1969 in Holy Cross Cemetery, Trempealeau, WI ⁷.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1940 US Census in Winona, MN on 4 April 1940. ¹

1940 US Census
Sheet 61A, Roll 1969, District 85-42, Family 390
Winona, Winona County, Minnesota, United States
Last Place of Residence: Rural, Trempealeau, Wisconsin
Frank Plate..Head..34..MN..8th grade..Mixer, Foundry..earned $145 in 1939 (12 weeks of work)
Edith Plate..Wife..29..WI..12th grade
.

  Marriage Notes:

The coming wedding was announced for the first time last Sunday by Father McDonnell between Miss Edith Shrake, of this village, and Frank Plait of Winona. The marriage will take place Monday at 9 a.m. at St. Bartholomew Catholic church. Father McDonnell performing the wedding ceremony and saying mass.

(Source: Winona Republican Herald, Winona, MN, 27 Aug 1931, page 12)
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Mr. and Mrs. Frank Plait, who have been living in the A. A. Holmes tenant house on Main street since their marriage last summer, are moving into the Henry Shrake house on Dublin Heights.

(Source: Winona Republican Herald, Winona, MN, 19 Dec 1931, page 12)
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