1960 — Vincent Dicks

Shark Attack

Jersey City resident John Brodeur was visiting his fiance Jean Filoramo, a 22-year-old school teacher who worked at the Stockton Hotel for the summer. Invitations had been mailed for their September wedding.

He was about 75 yards out, bodysurfing in shallow water, when something hit his leg. He yelled to Jean. She saw him pulling against something and blood spread around the water. Brodeur was rescued by Jean and Sea Girt lifeguard Jay Voorhees. The shark had taken a chunk out of his leg, and he was bleeding heavily.

A former Marine, Norman Porter, was on the beach and came up to help. He applied a tourniquet with a belt, and Brodeur was rushed to Fitkin (Jersey Shore Hospital) in Neptune, where surgery was performed. While his life was saved, he had to have his leg amputated below the knee. The wounds and the description led researchers to suspect a 12- to 15-foot tiger shark.

This was the first documented shark attack at the Jersey Shore since the 1916 shark attacks at Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan had killed four people in 12 days.

The scare went as far as New York, and guards kept the few swimmers close to shore while they patrolled the waters. The only place where there was no fear was in Asbury Park, where local lifeguards were holding a swimming contest.

Sea Girt had a squad of 10 guards in the early 60s. Notable Sea Girters were Thomas Black IV, son of Tom Balck III, councilman and Morro Caslte lifeguard, and James Millington, son of the Police Chief.

Frank Palmieri, owner of the Stockton, quickly installed a ‘bubble fence”. Anchored offshore, the long plastic tube contained a series of holes. It generated a wall of air bubbles, which inventor Frank Apin of Orange NJ, claimed stopped sharks. They tested it in the aquarium at Asbury Park, and the shark there would not swim through the bubbles. The idea never caught on, as other experiments proved that the fence was ineffective, and by 1961, Palmeri decided he did not need the fence for the season. The basic idea was not so far-fetched, and different variations of a wall of air are still being experimented with.

Jean and John postponed their wedding while John recovered. They were married in June 1961 and were blessed with a son, Russell in 1962. John lived in Readdington but visited the shore often and swam in the ocean. He passed away in 2011.

John F. Kennedy was running for President. The Essex County Democrats hosted him at the Homestead Golf Club where Fairway Mews is today in Spring Lake Heights. Governor’s Day had long left the Sea Girt National Guard Training Center.

Kennedy greeting Peace Corp Volunteers (Library of Congress)

The state acquired the Phillips Estate south of Seaside Park and converted it to Island Beach State Park in 1953. The estate house on the grounds was reserved for the family of the Governor of New Jersey as a residence, but no governor would bring their official duties to Island Beach.

The Seaside Capital at Sea Girt, the Little White House, a scene of past Presidential rallies, sat empty and was minimally maintained by the National Guard. With some irony, much of its furniture had been moved to the Morven estate in Princeton, which the Stockton Family had donated to the state.