The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part three – 1949 and 1950

Branch ‘Tiny’ Wainwright raced for most of the 1948 season with the Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA) a group run by John Gerber as he drove the black #2 Ford V-8 60 powered Kurtis-Kraft midget owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. After the racing season ended, ‘Tiny’ was implicated as a member of a 5-man criminal gang that committed nineteen robberies.   

Free on bond awaiting trial, Wainwright was without a ride for the second midget auto race of the 1949 season at the Ce-Mar Bowl in Cedar Rapids Iowa, although it was reported that he had contacted car owner Paul Van Zee and asked to drive the #63 midget. The defending MMARA series champion Danny Kladis driver of the #39 midget, was in Indianapolis in an unsuccessful attempt to qualify the ‘Speedway Cocktail Special’ for the 500-mile race, but his midget car owner Eric Lund stated that he would not put any other driver into his car in Kladis’ absence.  

The featured attraction at Ce-Mar on Sunday afternoon May 22 was the appearance of the “Marvel Man” Don Haynes who had had himself welded inside a 1949 Kaiser Deluxe 4-door sedan. Haynes from Ashland Oregon claimed that he intended to live inside the car for 14 months to win a $25,000 bet with a local farmer.  Haynes was a 39-year-old truck driver and an ex-Merchant Marine so his stunt was also known as the “Seaman of the Sealed Car.’  

Haynes was welded inside his car on February 19, 1949 with chrome bars installed over the windows along with an exercise machine, chemical toilet, folding bathtub, electric shaver, typewriter, radio and a record player. There was no need for a bed, as the Kaiser already featured a rear seat that folded down into a bed. Haynes sponsored by Richard Reinan, the owner of an Ashland lumber mill planned to visit the major cities in all 48 states with visits at Kaiser-Frazer dealerships. Haynes, stopped at Ce-Mar in support of Dan Hunter the local Kaiser-Frazer distributor while enroute to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

Haynes eventually lost his bet (which after all that time appeared to be a fabrication) when he had the car doors cut open and he exited the car after being inside thirteen months and eighteen days. Haynes had drove a reportedly 110,000 miles, but ended his ordeal because public interest in his stunt waned and no more paid appearances were booked.  Haynes and his wife tried a similar stunt in 1958 as they were welded into a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser station wagon but it met with much less success then his earlier publicity stunt.

Tiny drove the John Spach #7 at the Ce-Mar Bowl on May 22, and at Playland Park on May 24 where he finished second in the trophy dash. At Indianola Iowa on June 14 ‘Tiny’ finished seventh in the 20-lap feature, and when the MMARA series visited Davenport on Friday June 17, 1949, Wainwright did not have a ride, but he was scheduled to drive the John Spach #7 midget at Ce-Mar on Sunday June 19. That did not occur because ‘Tiny’ was arrested on Saturday in Columbia Missouri and he was transported by Missouri State Highway Patrolmen to the Cole County jail in Jefferson City Missouri.    

Joe Heninger, an older bachelor farmer who lived in rural Russellville Missouri, alleged that on the evening of Thursday June 16, Wainwright and an unknown accomplice acted as though they had experienced car trouble in front of Heninger’s farmhouse. When Heninger came to investigate, the pair drew guns on him and forced him back inside his home. The pair then used adhesive tape to bind the farmer to a chair and proceeded to ransack his home, while they repeatedly shouted, “where do you keep your money?” When the robbers found no money after several hours, they left bound and Heninger worked himself free from his bonds early Friday morning and called police.

Once ‘Tiny’ was in jail in Jefferson City, police found that he was already under indictment in Moberly Missouri for his participation in an earlier burglary with $315 taken from a food market in Columbia Missouri on March 25, 1948.  Wainwright made his first appearance before Magistrate Foster S Wheatley in Jefferson City at 3 PM on Monday June 20, 1949 and his bail was set at $10,000.  On July 6 a hearing was held in Moberly without ‘Tiny’ who was still in jail in Jefferson City, regarding the 1948 burglary and it was discovered that in addition to his $5000 bond for that case, Wainwright was also out on a $3000 bond on a charge of safe burglary in Dallas Texas.

On July 27, 1949 ‘Tiny’ was released from the Jefferson City jail on a $10,000 bond posted by two Kansas City women, Stella Parke Beatty and Glady Parke Kline. In his next court appearance before Judge Sam Blair on October 3, ‘Tiny’ entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of assault with intent to rob. Two weeks later, his accomplice, William DeWayne Brown, a parolee from Leavenworth who had served 11 years of a 25-year sentence for theft of US mail was identified, arrested and charged.

During his March 1950 assault trial, Wainwright testified that he had driven home to Kansas City from Davenport Iowa, and arrived home in the early hours of June 20, 1949. He said he slept until the afternoon, ate dinner at the Golden West Bar and Grill and then attended a Catholic church carnival until 10 PM. His local attorney, HP Lauf, called ten witnesses that supported ‘Tiny’s’ account, but on March 14, 1950 the jury returned a guilty verdict and recommended Wainwright receive a two-year prison sentence.  

Judge Sam Blair postponed sentencing to allow time for appeal and on April 12 another of ‘Tiny’s’ attorneys, Ed C Orr, requested a new trial on the basis that the entire testimony was not recorded while the trial was in progress and that the prosecution testimony was weak, ambiguous and incomplete. A month later Judge Blair held the appeal hearing and on May 17 ‘Tiny’ was granted new trial over the objections of Prosecutor James T Riley.

While out on bond and awaiting his new trial date, ‘Tiny’ raced Bruce Bromme’s Offenhauser powered ‘big car’ at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in De Moines in August 1950. ‘Tiny’ qualified 14^th fastest in a field of 27 cars with a time of 28.80 seconds.  During the “B” feature, due to rough track conditions the front suspension of the Bromme car collapsed and the car flipped end-over-end as it cartwheeled along and through the inner wooden guardrail. ‘Tiny’ reportedly was thrown free and suffered only facial cuts and bruises.      

On September 7 Wainwright drove the repaired Bromme #77 in the two-day IMCA ‘big car’ program at the half-mile track at the South Dakota State Fairgrounds in Huron, ‘Tiny’ timed in eleventh fastest in time trials with a lap of 29.20 seconds compared to Deb Snyder’s fast time of 24.85 seconds. Wainwiright finished third in his heat race and advanced to compete in the feature race where he finished eighth behind winner by Frank Luptow.

Wainwright’s second trial on the felonious assault charges against Joe Heninger was held October 4, 1950 again before Judge Blair. On October 5, after 2-1/2 hours of deliberation, the second jury found ‘Tiny’ guilty and recommended a two-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. On October 31 ‘Tiny’s’ attorney Ed Orr filed paperwork that requested a new trial, but in open court on November 6, 1950 Orr asked that Judge Blair overrule his appeal of ‘Tiny’s’ second conviction, as his client was out of money and unable to continue the legal battle.

Judge Blair immediately sentenced Wainwright to two years in prison and he was assigned prisoner number 64186 in the Missouri State Penitentiary also located in Jefferson City.  His accomplice in the Heninger assault, William DeWayne Brown, was tried in Howard County on October 26 and the jury deadlocked but in his second trial held on January 18, 1951, Brown was convicted and given a two-year prison term.  

“Tiny’s’ racing career was on hold while he was incarcerated for assault – in the next and final installment we will share the direction Wainwright’s life took after 1951. 

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part two - 1947 and 1948

At the end of our last installment of the story of Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, the rotund driver had just completed his 1946 midget auto racing season as he competed in a series of races held in Lubbock Texas during October 1946.

Little is known of the early part of ‘Tiny’s’ 1947 season, but the July 4th holiday found him entered for the races held on the 1/5-mile dirt track on the Tri-County Fairgrounds. Located in Mendota Illinois the races were sanctioned by legendary pioneer ‘big car’ racer turn promoter John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA). An advance article in the Dixon Evening Telegraph listed Wainwright at a fairly a svelte (for him) 225 pounds but stated that he was so large that he required “an oversized cockpit to house his frame.”

The race, on the 1/5-mile dirt track built in 1941, featured a field of 20 competitors.  In addition to Wainwright, “the biggest driver in the business,” the drivers included 1946 Indianapolis ‘500’ competitor Danny Kladis, ‘Red’ Hoyle from Cedar Rapids Iowa, Harry Meeks and the appearance of Les Forrer in his front wheel drive midget powered by a Wisconsin four-cylinder air-cooled engine.

MMARA president Gerber noted in an interview for a newspaper article that the Tri-County 1/5-mile track was composed of distinct two types of soil – one end, the third and four turns, was comprised of sand while the other end of the track, turns one and two, was “regular dirt” and that the differing soil types required different driving techniques

The Friday July 4 afternoon race was unusual at Tri-County, which featured track lighting and seating for 5000 fans and typically held Thursday night races during the Summer months. The afternoon 20-lap feature was won by the previously unknown racer Vic Ellis from Rochelle Illinois.

Later in the 1947 season, race car owner Ray Tomaseski from nearby LaSalle Illinois took over the promotion of open competition midget auto racing at Tri-County under the sanction of the Chicago-based “Midwest Racing Association.” Midget racing apparently did not catch on in Mendota, as in subsequent years, the small flat track hosted only occasional AMA-sanctioned motorcycle races promoted by the local Rock River Riders Motorcycle Club.

Sunday July 13, 1947 found ‘Tiny’ in action with the MMARA midgets on the ½-mile Hawkeye Downs dirt track located in Council Bluffs Iowa. Originally built in 1925 as a rodeo grounds, the facility also featured a ¼-mile dirt track.  Wainwright was scheduled to drive the ‘Cotton Fasone Special,’ a Ford V-8 powered car from Kansas City which the Cedar Rapid Gazette identified as “specially designed to carry his 250-pound racing weight.”

Wainwright’s name did not appear as one of the top finishers in the day’s races at Council Bluffs, which were dominated by Danny Kladis from Chicago. Kladis set a new track record as he sped around the half-mile track in 28.44 seconds, and then he won the trophy dash and his five-lap heat race. Kladis started from the pole position for the twelve-car 10-lap feature race and led every lap to defeat a field of mostly local cars with Dick Hobel in second place and ‘Red” Hoyle third in the feature which was completed in five minutes and two seconds.

‘Tiny’ was listed as one of the entries for the midget races on Saturday afternoon August 2, 1947 held as part of the 93^rd Coles County Fair in Charleston Illinois. Other entries for the race promoted by the Parkes Brothers on the Coles County Speedway which had opened on Sunday April 27, 1947 included Frank Burany, Myron Fohr, Ray Knepper, Ben Chesney, and Rex Easton. The promoters promised that those drivers and “Tiny’ would drive Offenhauser powered cars on the 1/5-mile dirt clay oval managed by Indianapolis’ Orville Stiff who was identified as a pre-war midget auto racer.

‘Tiny’ Wainwright made a rare “big car” racing appearance in the 1948 first annual Memorial Day races on the Iowa State Fair track in Des Moines promoted by the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine temple of Altoona Iowa. In addition to ‘Tiny,’ whose hometown was listed as St. Louis, the “definite entry” list included “Pat Patterson from Wellman in a big McDowell race car,” Pat Cunningham from St Joseph Missouri and Kirk Washburn from St Paul Minnesota, with all four drivers described in the Associated Press wire story as “well known to midwestern auto race fans.” 

‘Tiny’ was entered in the notorious “Schrader car” the Offenhauser powered car owned by Virgil Campbell, so called because it was the car in which Gus Schrader was killed in Louisiana in October 1941 . Reportedly, ‘Tiny’ was replaced as the driver by ‘Rabbit’ Musick after time trials, but the Campbell car retired during the feature race.   

In front of a crowd of 7,500 fans, Wally Stokes, an up and coming ‘big car’ driver from Cleveland, Ohio, in his Offenhauser powered #2 grabbed three victories during the five-race program – his heat race, the trophy dash and the day’s 10-lap finale on the half-mile dirt track as he beat Herschel Buchanan to the finish line by 40 yards.  Sadly, Stokes would die a little over a year later in a traffic accident in August 1949, the day following his AAA championship car debut at Springfield Illinois, when the car driven by his wife left the road and hit a tree.

Wainwright was listed as one of the members of the Tri-State Midget Auto Racing (TSMAR) traveling circuit promoted by Glen and Lloyd Bauman prior its inaugural visit to Huron South Dakota on June 4, 1948. ‘Tiny,’ who was said to weigh 300 pounds, was described as the “showman of the troupe,” as the article in the Huron Hurronite said that the other drivers claimed that “Mr. Five-by-Five carries his machine around the track instead of the usual run of these things.”  Wainwright drove a Ford V-8 powered machine, while other featured drivers - George Binnie, Jay Booth, Buddy Rackley, and Charlie Taggert, all raced in Offenhauser powered midgets.

Promoter Lloyd Bauman, a South Dakotan, explained to the Hurronite writer that the Tri-State circuit included race tracks in five cities – Huron, Riverview Park in Sioux City Iowa, Playland Park in Council Bluffs Iowa, a ½-mile track in Canby Minnesota and a ¼-mile track in Luverne Minnesota. The Tri-State racing schedule started in Riverview Park on Sunday, moved to Playland Park Tuesday night, then headed north to Luverne on Wednesday night, on to Canby for Thursday night before the racers headed west and wound up their week in Huron South Dakota. Bauman said with an estimated 20,500 fans expected to attend the races weekly, that translated to a weekly guaranteed pot of $4,250 in prize money for the racers.    

After morning rain showers, Kansas City’s George Binnie was out-qualified by Buddy Rackley from Houston Texas by .06 seconds with a best lap of 18.43 seconds on a wet track. As the track dried, Binnie rebounded to win four of the evening’s racing events. Binnie’s near clean sweep included wins in the three-lap trophy dash, his eight-lap heat race, the eight-lap handicap race and the 15-lap ‘A’ feature. “The big, good-natured” ‘Tiny’ drove the black #3 Van Winkle Ford powered midget and finished as the runner-up to Binnie in both their heat race and the ‘A’ feature. 

Even though the drivers billed it the best track on the circuit, and the one that featured the best seating, midget auto racing at Huron South Dakota was short-lived. After the third Friday night event on June 18, the promoters moved the racing program to Saturday nights. After the June 26^th race, the races scheduled for July 3^rd and 10 were cancelled due to conflicts with the other fairgrounds events.

On July 15, 1948 the Hurronite newspaper carried the news of the cancellation of further midget races “for the remainder of the season” because the promoters judged that “the 1/5-mile track was not in shape.” TSMAR events at the two tracks in Minnesota never drew decent crowds and apparently the circuit collapsed midway through the 1948 season, as for the rest of the season ‘Tiny’ raced with John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA)

Sunday afternoon July 11, 1948 Wainwright returned to the 1/5-mile clay surface at the Ce-Mar Bowl located on the grounds of the Ce-Mar Acres amusement park in Cedar Rapids Iowa for races promoted by MMARA. ‘Tiny’ who had debuted at Ce-Mar three weeks earlier was teamed with Jay Booth in a pair of potent Ford powered Kurtis-Kraft midgets owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. The pair along with the familiar names of Danny Kladis, Johnny Hobel and ‘Red’ Hoyle were joined by Cliff Nalon the brother of the famed “Duke” Nalon and newcomers Dick Ritchie and Bud Koehler who also piloted a Kurtis-Kraft midget.   

5,423 fans turned out for the races which were dominated by local Cedar Rapids drivers. ‘Red’ Hoyle won the first heat race followed by ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, with the second heat also won by a local driver Dick Hobel.   Johnny Hobel, Dick’s brother, won the 14-lap handicap race, then led the first ten laps of the feature until he spun out. Johnny’s spin handed the lead to ‘Red’ Hoyle who won over Danny Kladis as ‘Tiny’ dropped out of the race with engine trouble.

Tragedy struck the MMARA circuit on Friday night August 13^th during the third heat race on Gerber’s 3/10-mile track at the Mississippi Valley fairgrounds in Davenport Iowa.  On the third lap of the race, Glenn Cromwell of Erie Illinois in the Paul Kaminsky’s #4 midget hit a rut in the second turn and the car spun to a stop. Clyde Skinner steered his midget to the upper groove of the track but could not avoid Cromwell’s machine. The impact turned Cromwell’s car over; Glenn suffered critical head and chest injuries, and the injured driver was transported to Mercy Hospital in Davenport. 

Cromwell had survived an earlier crash in May in a different midget at the ¼-mile Jefferson Iowa track when his car rolled twice and came to rest upside down with Glenn trapped underneath.  Cromwell had escaped the May crash without serious injuries but he did not survive the August crash. Glenn passed away at 1:20 AM on Saturday morning, August 14^th as he left behind Lois his wife of just eleven months, who was at the track when the accident occurred. Wainwright’s car had again suffered engine trouble during the Davenport program, and his car was not fixed in time for him to compete in the August 15 race at the Ce-Mar Bowl.

When the MMARA midgets appeared at Ce-mar on August 22, ‘Tiny’ had a new teammate on the Van Winkle team for this race – young Clyde Skinner who had been involved in the Cromwell tragedy substituted for Jay Booth.  The MMARA teams ran a Sunday afternoon show at Davenport, then drove northwest to race at Cedar Rapids for a Sunday night race. The Ce-Mar Bowl which had seen growing crowds over the past three weeks had enlarged the parking lot and added bleachers which could accommodate up to 7,500 fans. The track had also added a new safety feature – red, green and yellow “safety lights” were installed in the corners to alert drivers of the conditions on the track.

On Thursday night August 26 the MMARA circuit appeared at the ¼-mile oval at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola Iowa.  ‘Tiny’ in the “improved” Van Winkle Ford set the quick time for the night as he ran a best lap of 17.36 seconds in time trials. Ray Hall of Kansas City won the feature followed by Dick Hobel with Paul Newkirk third and ‘Tiny’ in fourth place.

A record crowd of 5,963 fans turned out at Ce-Mar on Sunday night September 5, 1948 as ‘Tiny’ and the Van Winkle team arrived at the track late.  He posted the second fastest qualifying time, then won the 15-lap semi-main over his teammate Jay Booth, but neither driver emerged as the   finishers in the evening’s feature race.

On Wednesday night September 22, the MMARA teams visited a new venue, a 1/5-mile track at the Northwest Missouri State Fairgrounds in Bethany Missouri, but the program was plagued by three accidents. Early in the evening, an errant machine ran over MMARA pit steward Truman “Shorty” Berryhill of Cedar Rapids and injured his leg.

Later during the handicap race, George Miller of Cedar Rapids spun and his car was hit by Ray Hill, the evening’s fast qualifier in Paul Kaminsky’s #11 midget, with Hall’s car damaged badly enough that it scratched for the rest of the night. In the evening’s feature Dick Ritchie spun out and Miller’s car climbed over Ritchie’s and rolled over – George was unhurt but his car was badly damaged. ‘Tiny’ won his heat race and finished second in the feature behind Walter Raines of Alta Iowa.

Two nights later, Wainwright won the semi-main event at Davenport as Danny Kladis won the feature which was marred by a seven-car accident that eliminated five cars from the race. Two days later, the MMARA cars were back in Cedar Rapids for the first afternoon show at Ce-Mar Bowl. There was more mechanical carnage in the 20-lap main at Ce-Mar as seven cars crashed and the race had to be restarted three times on a slick slow track. ‘Tiny’ started on the pole position and led the first eight laps then yielded to Kladis as only four cars finished the feature which was witnessed by a small crowd of less than 3,000 on a cold wet and windy day.

In October 1948 Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright was identified as a member of five-man criminal gang that was responsible for a string of nineteen safe burglaries in restaurants, drugstores, and other small retail establishments during the Summer and Fall of 1948. Two members of the gang were jailed in the Boone County Missouri jail, while another, Roy Rees, was in the Bethany Missouri City Jail, with another conspirator jailed in Lexington Kentucky. ‘Tiny’ was the only gang member free at the time, and was rumored to be at the time in Los Angeles California. On November 15, 1948, ‘Tiny,’ identified as a local taxi cab driver, surrendered to police in Kansas City and was charged with participation in the March 25, 1948 safe burglary at the Columbia Fruit Company in Columbia Missouri.     

Look for our next installment which reviews 1949 and 1950 as ‘Tiny’s’ previously unknown life of crime interfered with his midget auto racing career.