Non HORN, neoree Ke 2 PLACE = ak OR COUNTY | DOE & MEANS
' Scranton, Pennsylvania BE, 5<h-1899
RACE OQCCUPATION
White
DOB GR AGE hese @
7:50 PM
CRIME DATE OTHER
Murder 8-28-1896 |
VICTIM GE RACE METHOD
Mrs, Josephine “escott 45 |tite |
ffold was the murder of
Van Horn paid the psnalty upon the sca
was committed in the cellar of the house standing at the SW
acing the former. The victim was conducting a
MOTIVE whe crime for which George Ri;
Mrs, Josephine Nescott, The murder
SyURREP of Franklin Avenue and Linden St. and f
boarding house, It was 10 mins, to 8 o'clock in the evening of Friday, 8-28-1896 that Van Horn
drew the razor across her throat, just 2 years, % months and 6 days ago. They had been firm
friends for a long time. They were lovers and he was generally very welcome around house. He
rded Wi er fOr rs white she R a rding nouse or Fr r enuee EXXALAD
7 7ea 3 4
LHXMKKAREXUA They finally became unfriendly followi
a - T, ape: ci emcee _— ‘.
2)
KKK
D SF Cort anG OUST 5 3
$15 from her bedroom,
emotion, He made bad matters wo
_ibert
On 7-28 he was arraigned before Alderman Howe,
his escape and not be detedted, Ke knew she entered cella
potatoes, The place was dark, small and damp. Outside en
westerly end. Seven steps leading down to the passageway through ce
extened about 8 feet to the right of the entrance and one standing: by
An alleyway running past the house ne
not bee seen by anyone in cellar.
a means of eSCape.s one in cellars iy sonevine curing evering-amd Targe number of THES Syren
jn form of bed indicated that when he went there he intended to wiat until morning if necessarye
} } j } 3 3 Eg Te + :
She got a pan full of potatoes and started out.
He then decided to murder, making plans to secure
r around 8 o'clock each night to get
trance on southerly side of house near”
llar wall which
it near the doorway cou
ar the entrance furnished
ttsed-a razor whi
wall near the entrances She passed him going in.
-earrying 3 ;
and drew razor across throat from right to left, He then threw away rozar, rushed yup steps
i j j it to alleyway and escaped, She dropped potatoes
_and jumped : id
and ran into yard, cluthcing her throat. From between fingers, blood spurted in a stream be=-
assed. Around the ard and into t
_spattering ever hing she he front entrance of house she vent
4ed to sepond floor where only other occupant of
screaming. Hurr house was at time and told her
stating t at he ha one lle e was 1}5 years oO and had husband Living 4 ermynNe urvive
The son was accidentally killed by electrocution
5 the next morning after re
by three children, two daughters and a son.
k on boat going to
, <9. ie
e 4
o Zrie Canal and secured wor
ne ne moe ave eq aroundcf a © n
>
then into Canada, stopping a short time at St. Thomas before going to
Then went to Ohio and
Then Wott te ee io Madena, Lowa, sbiclt was hia old hone and visdtied.OF ests most of whom knew
of crime, Most friends were reluctant to expose but finally someone did, He became suspicious
and fled into woods where he was arrested while slee ing in lumber Camp. — Scranton officials noti-
saying he had meant to
ficd of arrest on June 30, 1897, On his way back to Scranton, confessed,
draw blunt side of razor across her throat to show her how easily he could cut it but drew the
afense was insanity, they claiming he had only
that night in cabin on East Mountain, Made way ‘
oa SS, at =
other side by mistakee Tria eran =9- .
been attempting to frighten by drawing blunt side of razor across throate His mother sat by his
—i{dé Aete Ylale e
step being only three feet from door to his cell. At execution showed almost unprecedented nerves
Marched to gallows with steady and measured tread, ascending scaffold platform with not a percep=
7e¥bLe cuiver of a mscle or the pallor of dread on face. On last night had eaten a hearty supp ere
while awaiting execution had gained from 16); lbs, to 180 lbs. Had interview with reporter on
snags before and was calm, Said he was ready to go and be" ttover-witn, ould say nothing
‘ on gallows and he saw no use in prolonging at and nothing he said could do him any good. Neck
RTD RSH DY Patt>— ore 4 boupgeet off tapek. Buried in Dunmore ce :
worked on railroads. SCRANDON TIMES, Scranton, Paes Salj-1899, Photograph (Woodeut), on page 3
Deigz exceutier issued Last statementreiterating that mirder was accidental,
+
SY ter oo CAUCUS SY
+ + :
OTE CUSMeSIUVL It
EXECUTION
eh oes
[ (Home Hol
FRANK NEWTON
He Li dnasond W7J Of]
_|bullets.
Wable Guilty |
in Phantom
Murder Case
Greensburg, ° Pa., March 13
(P—A jury of'five women and
seven men convicted John Wes-.
ley Wable, 24, today of being
‘the phantom slayer of the
Pennsylvania. turnpike and
fixed punishment at death in
the electric chair. |
The : jury deliberated ‘four
guilty of shooting Harry F.
Va., last July 28 as Pitts slept
in his truck on the turnpike.
The Ohiopyle, Pa.,.man also
is accused of similarly killing
Lester B. Woodward, 39, of
Duncannon, Pa., and wounding
John K: Sheperd, 34, of West
Alexander, Pa. The shootings
occurred at three- day intervals.
The state linked them together
at the Wable trial and claimed
the same gun fired all the
Two Sisters Sob.
| Wable heard the verdict
without flinching. His parents,
Mr. and Mrs. William Wable,
stared at the jurors. They
showed no emotion. Wable’s
sisters, Ruby, 16,. and MTS.
Betty Lambi, 29, sobbed.
hours before finding Wable|
Pitts, 39, of Bowling Green,|
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LOA BLE, Ora I
Yeath Penal'y Is Demanded
n ‘Phantom’
Murder Trial
Greensburg, Pa. March 9
Speciall—John Wesley Wable,
‘4, charged with being the
yhantom killer who terrorized
he Pennsylvania turnpike last
year, went on trial here today
for the murder of one of the
phantom’s victims, Harry F.
Pitts, 39, a truck driver, of
Bowling Green, Va.
| The state opened its case
‘with a demand for the execu-
tion of the Pennsylvania
mountaineer, who, listened im-
passively to the opening state-
_|ment by John K. Best, assistant
district attorney.
Five Women on Jury
Best’s plea for the death
penalty was expected. In win-
nowing the 12 jurors and two
alternates from an original
panel of 162 veniremen and
two supplementary panels of
50 ‘and 25, the prosecution
challenged 126 persons who
indicated reluctance to exact
a life for a life. Selection of
the jury, begun Monday, was
not completed until well into
today’s session.
The jury consists of seven
men and five women. One
alternate is a man, the other a
woman. |
Altho Wable, whose home is
in Ohiopyle, Pa., ‘is charged
with two killings, he is being
tried only for the fatal shooting
of Pitts, which occurred last
July 28 near Irwin, Pa. The
other charge against him re-
lates to the killing of Lester B.
Woodward, 36, of Harrisburg,
Pa., last July 25 near Donegal,
Pa. . :
~ Slain While Asleep
Both men were shot and
robbed as they slept in their
trucks, parked on or near the
turnpike. A third victim of the
phantom was John K. Shepard,
34, of West Alexander, Pa.,
wounded and robbed in similar
fashion July 31 near Lisbon, O.,
on an approach to the turnpike.
Wable was arrested last Octo-
ber in New Mexico after a
watch he had pawned in Cleve-
land Aug. 4 proved to be one
Shepard. Police also found that
Wable had given a. German
make automatic pistol of ap-
proximately .32 caliber to a
girl friend, Miss Leora Crissey,
22, of Cleveland. Ballistic tests
showed the gun was used in all
three turnpike shootings.
Blamed Another Man —
When seized, Wable said an-
other man named Parks had
done the shooting. Police be-
lieve Parks is nonexistent.
statement made mention of the
Woodward killing and the
wounding of Shepard, Chief De-
fense Counsel A. C. Scales de-
land County Judge Edward G.
Bauer denied the motion.
merely an accomplice.
met NO
the phantom had stolen from.
When Best in his opening |
manded a mistrial. Westmore- |
Best said that Wable was}.
“equally guilty,’ whether he}:
killed Pitts himself or was}
s
PHANTOM’S GUN,
WAITRESS SAYS
3 Greensburg, Pa., March 8
[Special] — The former girl;
friend of John Wesley Wable,
25, accused phantom killer
who terrorized the Pennsylva-
nia. turnpike with. shootings
last summer, testified at his
murder trial today that she
saw him ‘in possession of the
gun the state says the slayer
used, | |
_ Miss Leora Crissey, 2a; a
chubby, attractive “waitress
from. Cleveland, 0., testifed
that Wable showed her the
weapon, a .32 caliber automatic
pistol, at a drive-in theater on
evening last summer.
| Wable .- is charged with
shooting to death two truck
drivers as they siept on. the
seats of their trucks along the
| turnpike last July 25 and 28,
jand is charged with wou
'a third truck driver. He is now |
/on trial! for the slaying of one |
of the truckers,
Saw Pistol Third Time: —
Mis. Crissey testified she
also s:'v the pistol in the glove
comp: tment of Wable’s car,
and s:- it a third time early in
Augu:s when he placed it in a
china loset in her home.
~ He: step-father and mother,
Mr. 2 d Mrs. John Jandura,
with \. om she lives, also tes-
tified \Vable put the gun in the
closet for safekeeping. Jan-
dura \iter turned it over to
police. . on
Miss Crissey said Wable was
unemployed during July and/|
was absent frequently on trips
to Philadelphia and = Union-|
|
|
town. Asked if she knew what.
nding |
he did on those trips, she re-|
plied: , pie tlivite: se aise ho til
- “He said- he was working
for a fellow in Uniontown and.
passing counterfeit money.” >,
Telis of Trading Gun |
The waitress also testified
that Wable was at her home.
early on the morning of. July:
28, the date the second trucker"
was killed... es eo tap gis
Another friend of the .de-.
fendant, James L., Burnsworth.,
of Smock, Pa., testified he for-
merly had owned the alleged'
murder gun and traded it to
Wable on July 23; the day the
first trucker was slain, Burns-,
worth said he got a .22 caliber:
pistol in return. on et se
The state thus far has_pre-
sented only about a third: of
the 70 witnesses scheduled for
the prosecution side of the
trial, which began last Monday.
DIELS OF HEART ATTACK
George Dvorak, 48, of 1618 Blue Island
av., suffered a fatai- heart attack yesterday
at Traffic Violations bureau on Navy pier,
as he arrived there to Start work. A physi-
ean proncunced him dead. He had been em-
ployed there since Feb. §. ‘ t.
IN BED AT HOME
WHEN PHANTOM
STRUCK: WABLE
Greensburg, Pa., March 10
{Special}—John Wesley Wable,
24, an admitted counterfeiter,
denied at his murder trial to-
day that he was the phantom
killer who spread terror in the
Pennsylvania turnpike area
last summer by killing two
truck drivers and wounding a
third.
Wable insisted he was home
in bed when Lester Woodward
was slain as he slept in his
truck cab July 25, and that he
was not in the vicinity of the
similar killing of Harry F. Pitts
i three nights later.. He is on
‘trial for the Pitts: killing.
' “Did you or did -you not
shoot Harry Pitts?” asked De-'
fense Atty.:A. C. ‘Scales.
’ “TI didn’t have no gun,”
Wable replied.
Claims He Didn’t Have Gun
When the attorney rephrased
‘the question, the defendant
said emphatically that he “ did
not” shoot Pitts.
Wable insisted he was not in
possession of the murder weap-
on, a .32 caliber pistol, at the
time of the shootings. The gun’
‘has been recovered and identi-
fied by a state police ballistics.
, expert as the weapon used in
‘all ‘of the shootings.
He said he gave the weapon |
to Jim Parks, for whom he
passed counterfeit money and
whom he accused of the shoot-
ings, around June 1 and didn’t
get it back until about Aug. ‘1.
Police have expressed, belief
Parks is-a mythical character,
invented by Wable: to try to
shift blame for his own crimes.
Wable admitted he appeared
on the scene of the shooting
of the only surviving victim.
of the phantom, John K. Shep-
erd, a trucker, . but’ denied
wounding him.
Denies Stealing Watch 3
He agreed with’ details: of
Sheperd’s testimony that he
was driving past the scene,
that Sheperd flagged him down
and that he sought to aid the
wounded man who, he said,
cried that he had been “shot
by the turnpike. phantom.”
‘ Wable denied he stole Shep-
erd’s watch ‘while. the trucker
was unconscious: and. insisted
he bought the watch from
Parks for $25. He admitted he
subsequently pa wne d_ the
watch, which led to’ Wable’s
arrest in New Mexico when the
pawn ticket was: found in’ his
Dossession, + :
The defendant’s father, Wil-
liam Wable, 60, a coal miner
and farmer, testified his. son
was in bed at home in Ohiopyle
thruout the night that Wood.- ||
ward was killed, but he could
not account for young Wable’s
whereabouts on the night Pitts
was slain.
i
|
|
WABLE,
white, elec,
Weg
Hunting Pennsylvania’
HEN the people of Pennsyl-
vania built a multi-million-
dollar turnpike across their
State, they called it a dream highway.
But a killer with a womanish voice
and a habit of slaying truck drivers in
their sleep turned the broad expanse of
pavement into a nightmare road. Strik-
ing like clockwork at three-day inter-
vals, he killed two drivers and left a
third for dead with a bullet in his skull.
The brutal attacks caused an uproar
of horror and indignation all along the
327-mile superhighway. Burly truck
drivers carried crowbars and baseball
bats for protection. They traveled in
‘convoys and slept only in groups at
well-lighted service stations. In their
free time, they formed posses to hunt
the Turnpike killer. bs
His reign of terror began with a
shriek of brakes and a sickening crunch
of metal on a sunny Saturday, July 25,
1953. Two trailer-trucks and four pas-
senger cars had crashed on the high-
speed expressway almost ‘three miles
west of Irwin, Pennsylvania, in West-
moreland County. Two women were
killed in the crash and several persons
were injured. A momentous traffic jam
developed as ambulances and police
hurried to the scene and passing motor-
ists stopped to help or watch.
14
Ake
Y dd ual )
Pa. (Westmoreland), 9/22/1955,,,
yey awe
i ig
Ce Be: 8 ae
Ly ne wd w+,
third driver, John Sheperd.. Note tire track in foreground above,
Three Shots Fired Along the Famed Highway, Each Three
Days Apart, Each Time a Driver Sprawled in His Truck With
A Bullet in His Head. Who? How Find This Phantom Killer?
No one paid any special attention to
a big auto-carrier truck with four new
autos in its racks’ parked about 100
yards from the wreck scene. If anyone
thought about it at all, he assumed that
“the' driver had left his cab to inspect
the trouble ahead. ;
But four hours later, after the wreck-
age had been cleared away, Jim Veitch,
who was building a house near by,
noticed that the truck was still there.
Sensing that something was wrong, he
hiked down the road to investigate,
stopping at a service station operated
by W. H. Weston to ask Weston if he
knew anything about the truck.
Weston hadn’t noticed it, but he
agreed to go along to investigate.
The two men opened the door of
A
the truck and drew back in shock.
Stretched out on the seat of the cab
was the body of the driver. From a
bullet hole in his left temple, a rivulet
of blood had puddled around his head
and dried on the seat. They didn’t need
a second look to tell that he was dead.
“Don’t touch anything,” said Veitch.
“Let’s go call police.” °
. They hurried back to Weston’s serv-
ice station and put in a call to the dis-
trict State Police office at Greensburg.
A short while later State Police Ser-
geant William Johnson and Westmore-
land County Detective Edward Gordon
arrived on the scene.
“He’s in his stocking feet with his
shoes on the floor of the cab,” Johnson
said after a fast look. “Probably he
pulled off to the side of the road to get
‘some rest and the killer shot him while
he slept.” -
A truck driver catching a nap on the
roadside is not unusual along the Turn-
pike. In fact, a truckers’ safety com-
mandment is: “If you're sleepy don’t
try to goon. A sleepy driver is a men-
ace to everyone.” : ‘
Gordon reached into the cab and
picked up an object from the floor. It
was the dead man’s wallet.
“Well,
“Empty,” the detective said.
now we know the motive.”
“Whoever did it must be a pretty
cold-blooded person,” declared John- |
son. “Truck drivers never carry much
money—maybe eighty or a hundred
dollars in case they have motor trouble.
Fa a ae a ee
lurnpike Killer |
/ By Guy Wright
.
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
tine killing a man in his sleep for stantly and estimated he had been shot
‘ at about midnight, eighteen hours be-
€ wallet, they iden- fore the crime was discovered. A toll
ticket in-the man’s pocket showed he
, 26, of Duncannon, Pennsylvania, had entered the Turnpike at the Ohio
ill community near the State capi- line at 7:32 P.m. the previous day.
‘ ‘ The Turnpike is a toll road and be-
e detectives radioed Lieutenant cause of steep grades drivers can not
le Fontaine of the Greensburg get on or off it except at
cks and asked for a finger-print Points, called interchang
’s body was taken to Fontaine telephoned the company for
Irwin for autopsy, which the. driver had worked and
vered that a bullet learned he had left from Flint, Michi-
antered at the left temple and gan, to deliver the load of cars in the
ed a downward course. ‘It was a eastern Part of Pennsylvania.
liber slug and it was found lodged. Back at the scene of th
he man’s jugular vein, finger-print te:
lore than that.
2m cards in th
the victim as Lester B. Wood-
larrisburg.
mner Joseph R.
Special Investigator for
”
.
Check said thatthe but found nothin
18 man probably had died in- Solving the crime,
The souvenir gun; the
girl who knew about it,
Leora Crissey, and. the
man who turned it over
to police, John Jandura
e shooting the
am went over the truck
g Of value toward
The road shoulder
WABLE STICKS
TO DENIALS IN
PHANTOM TRIAL
Two Witnesses Back Up
His Alibi
Greensburg, Pa., March 11
[Special}—Calm and relaxed,
John Wesley Wable, 24, today
~ concluded nine hours on the 2
witness stand at his murder
trial without wavering from
his repeated denials that he
was the phantom killer who
terrorized the Pennsylvania
turnpike area last summer.
He was followed to the stand
by two defense witnesses who
supported his alibi that he was
not on the turnpike on the
dates two truck drivers were
shot to death and-a_ third 7
wounded as they slept in their
parked trucks.
Policeman; Eugene Ockunzzi
and Eugene Weber, 17, both of}.
Solon, O., near Cleveland,
» many miles from the turnpike,
said they saw Wable in their
town the last week in July, the
period in which the shootings
occurred.
Seen on Day of Slaying
Weber, part time attendant
in a filling station, said Wable
was in the station early in the
‘ morning of July 28,-the time of
the killing of Harry Pitts, a
trucker, for whose _ slaying
Wable is now on trial. Weber
said he also saw: Wable in the
filling station the next day and
remembered it because .Wable
called his attention to a news-
paper article about “another
turnpike killing.”
During his five hours of!
. cross-examination, Wable ar-
gued and snapped back at As-
sistant District Atty. Joseph
Loughran, who made virtually
no headway in efforts to punch
holes in the defendant’s ac-
count of his activities.
Wable admitted onetime
ownership of the gun which |”
the state said without contra-
diction—was used in all of
the shootings. But he contend-
ed that at the time of the
oe RS crimes it was in the posses-
sion of Jim Parks, for whom
f K [ BON — he said he worked as a passer | 7
of counterfeit money.
@ ) \ : of dee Puts Blame on “Parks ” ,
y @ His effort to put blame for
ALC the shootings on Parks was °
met by the state with the con-
tention that Parks is a mythi- |- .
cal character invented by
4 ? Wable.- | .
/ ] Z. / GY A + But the defendant stuck to}.
his story and, when Prosecutor | 7
Loughran repeatedly pointed |, ,
out what he said were discrep- |
ancies, Wable made such re-
plies as: -
“T didn’t say that.” “That’s
not true.” “That’s not so.”
“You know my life’s history
from the day I was born, but
you know a lot of lies, too.”
‘ KILLER TO DIE—A Greens. |
burg, Pa., jury found John
Wesley - Wable, 24, guilty of
Slaying a Sleep- ~
ing truck driver
on the Pennsy]-
vania turnpike |
last summer |
and fixed pun 3
ishment as the }
electric chair.
7 oe |
Wable
yw
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4
a
sy
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tu
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ty
ie
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With John Sheperd’s: watch missing, police were sure
that his attacker and Good Samaritan were the same man
ing—not even to help a buddy whose truck has broken down.
Don’t go to sleep on the road. If you have a breakdown,
leave the truck and wait at a safe distance for a safety
patrol car.”
- Shipley, a slim, blue-eyed man, traveled the turnpike
himself. Whenever he saw a truck parked off the road,
he drove up alongside and warned the driver to keep
moving.
Driving the long hauls is, at best, a tough job. Now, with
a killer loose, the truckers grew tense. They drank more
coffee to help them keep awake. When they passed trucks
beside the road, they looked to see if the drivers were
awake. They sounded their horns as they met, shouting
words of encouragement. Whenever possible they rolled
at high speed, in convoys of half a dozen. ;
Companies ordered their men not to make unnecessary
stops, to halt only at restaurants or gasoline stations and
to use motels for sleeping. They hired 50 private cars to
patrol the pike, working with state police and the Penn-
sylvania Turnpike Commission to supervise the safety of
the truckers.
Local, state and national trucking groups offered rewards
totaling $11,000 for the apprehension of the killer or killers.
Police halted stores of cars. In one, they found a .22
caliber pistol and shells. In the automobile of a Pittsburgh
businessman they discovered a .25 caliber automatic, which
the owner said had been in the trunk since a hunting trip.
Every hitchhiker was searched and residents of towns near
the turnpike were carefully screened, but nowhere could
police turn up a likely suspect.
From Coroner Check came word that the bullet which
had killed Pitts: was also of .32 caliber. It was rushed to
Harrisburg for examination. ;
Technicians ‘determined that the tire tracks were those
of a passenger car or a light truck or station wagon. Unlike
those at the Woodward killing, they were well worn. The
footprints had been made by large shoes, run down at the
heels. Their exact size was undeterminable.
Late Tuesday night, Captain Dodson and Lieutenant
Fontaine obtained statements from two truckers, both of
whom had stopped at Milepost 97 and recalled seeing Pitts’
Ts ot
auto carrier parked there. One had arrived at 3 a.M. and
had dozed for a couple of hours. He. was directly behind
Pitts, but in the two hours there he had heard nothing.
Tie coroner’s report indicated that Pitts had been dead
before the trucker got there. The other driver said that
at 12:15 a.m. he had been slowing down near Milepost 97,
prepatory to parking, when a green sedan, possibly a 48
or ’49 Chevrolet, crossed in front of Pitts’ trailer truck to
the center strip and headed west.
The trucker had pulled over about 50 feet in front of
Pitts’ trailer. He remained there until about 2:30. He, like-
wise, had heard nothing. .
“A Chevrolet would check with the report that the tire
marks near Pitts’ truck were made by a light vehicle,”
Dodson said. “And a ’48 or ’49 model might be wearing
worn tires.”
“But the tracks at the Woodward murder were made by
new tires,” Fontaine pointed out. “Things aren’t. adding
up.”
In fact, nothing was adding up. As every lead petered
out public demands for solution of the murders became
stronger. Legislators complained about the dangers of the
highway. Trucking companies asked for greater protec-
tion and many drivers armed themselves with baseball bats,
- two-by-fours or carving knives.
Commissioner Wilhelm sympathized with the men in
their determination to defend themselves, but he could
not allow them to carry dangerous weapons. ie .
The motels were filled 24 hours a day, as were service
stations and restaurant lots. While some drivers continued
to park beside the road, there was a drastic difference—
they now took turns on sentry duty.
Inquiries came from all over the country, as suspects
with .32 caliber automatics were picked up. But it was not
_ until mid-morning Wednesday, July 29th, when a call
came from New York City police, that there appeared to
be a possibility of a break in the killings.
On that morning the body of Michael “Barney” Prender-
gast, wealthy tavern owner, was found on the steps of a
comfort station in Riverside Park. He had been shot
through the head. A .32 caliber shell casing was found
near the body.
Prendergast’s wallet was missing, but he wore a diamond.
ring. In his pockets were checks totaling $2,722 and there
was $225 in cash. Like Woodward and Pitts, Prendergast
had been slain at about midnight. But the tavern owner
had been riding in his 1953 Cadillac sedan, which was miss-
ing. Prendergast was in the habit of giving lifts to hitch-
hikers. When last seen, shortly before midnight, he was
driving home from nearby New Jersey.
Police sent the .32 caliber bullet that killed Prendergast
to Harrisburg for tests. But before it arrived, ballistics
experiments there confirmed that the two bullets in the
Woodward and Pitts killings bore the same rifling marks.
There could be no question now that the same killer had
committed both crimes.
Records of every’ mental hospital from Maine to Florida,
from Cape Cod to the Great Lakes, from the Texas Pan-
handle to the Rocky Mountains were scanned to determine
whether any dangerous patients had escaped. Twenty pa-
tients who had left their quarters in as many widely scat-
tered localities were found and returned, but they were
cleared of any connection with the turnpike crimes.
Nervous truckers saw no reason to stop the wagon train
tactics of pioneer days when the slaying of Prendergast in
New York proved to have no connection with the Pennsyl-
vania cases. The fatal bullet in the Prendergast case had
not been fired from the same gun.
In Washington, D. C., a 20-year-old boy and his 17-year-
old bride were taken into custody for some automobile
thefts and burglaries. Police found a quantity of loot and
several boxes of ammunition in their hotel room. The
youth, who’ admitted financing his four-month honeymoon
by crime, said he had driven past the scene of the Wood-
ward slaying about the time of the murder and had seen
a lurking rifleman with a revolver tucked in his belt.
SL
Washington police, although they linked the young bride-
groom to eight burglaries in the capital, established he was
drawing on a rather vivid imagination about the turnpike
murders. g :
Every lead, no matter how apparently nebulous, had
been run down, without result.
Then, early Friday morning, July 31st, violence struck
again.
At 4:30 a.M., an ambulance salesman, driving along
Lincoln Highway, U. S. 30, a mile and a half southeast of
Lisbon, Ohio, noticed a truck parked at an isolated spot
near the crest of a hill on a slight curve. The salesman
tooted his horn, lest a car approach around the truck from
the opposite direction. Drawing even with the truck, he
observed a man’s head hanging out of the cab.
The driver braked, backed slowly and played his search-
light on the man’s face. It was covered with blood. The
salesman got out and walked up to the truck. The man in
the truck was breathing. The salesman raised his head and
placed him back on the seat. He looked for a blanket to
cover him, since the man’s trousers had been removed.
Speeding to Lisbon, the salesman notified the police.
Lieutenant Umpleby, of the highway patrol, and other
officers raced to the scene. Umpleby saw. that the trucker
had been shot in the head.
The wounded driver was rushed to Salem City Hospital.
Papers in his pockets identified him as John K. Sheperd,
34, of West Alexander, Pennsylvania, a driver for the Tow-
er Linés, of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Umpleby found Sheperd’s shoes, but looked in vain for
the trousers. On the ground Umpleby discovered. an eject-
éd shell.
“Looks ‘like a .32,” he’ remarked to Patrolman John
Miller. “I don’t like this. Those two Pennsylvania drivers
were_killed_with_.32s.”
“They also were sleeping when shot through the head,”
Miller said. “We’d better get in touch with Pennsylvania.”
- Although the scene of the shooting was 100 miles from
where Pitts had been slain, it was on the approach to the
Ohio.end of the turnpike. .
Sheperd had lost a great deal of blood and was only
semi-conscious. He kept mumbling about “a yellow car.”
- eens
An emergency operation removed a bullet from his jaw,
just below the right ear. It was a .32 caliber.
Several days later, Dodson and Fontaine arrived from
Pennsylvania and talked with Sheperd at his bedside. He
spoke with difficulty. He had never seen who shot him, he
said, but some time later—he had no idea how long—he
awoke in a daze.
“A man got out of a yellow car,” Sheperd said. “He told
me he’d get an ambulance. He took off my pants to make
me comfortable. I felt cold. Another man lifted me onto
the seat.”
“You’re sure it was a different man?” Fontaine asked.
Sheperd nodded.
Dodson leaned forward, close to Sheperd. “Tell me,
John. Do you remember anything about the man in the
yellow car?” Nee
The reply came weakly. “Tall—high voice, like a
‘woman’s.”
Dodson asked, “How much money did you have?”
Sheperd spread his hands. “I don’t know.” Then he
whispered, “My watch. He took my pocket watch.” He
sank back, exhausted. ;
From Sheperd’s family in West Alexander, Pennsylvania,
officers learned that his yellow-gold watch had been re-
paired by a local jeweler a short time before. The jeweler
reported that the watch was a 15-jewel Elgin with an open
face, bearing the works number 7601 and a “scratch” num-
ber J-108081.
Commissioner Wilhelm ordered several thousand circu-
lars printed for distribution throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the bullet that had wounded Sheperd had
been rushed to Harrisburg for ballistics tests. Soon came
the result. Sheperd had been shot by the same weapon.
that killed Woodward and Pitts.
Oddly, there still were some truck’ drivers who had not
heard about the crimes. One, Charles Watts, of Lawrence-
burg, Indiana, was driving toward: Philadelphia. About
1:30 a.m. Sunday, August 2nd, several miles west of Read-
ing, he stopped for a red signal light. A yellow Chevrolet
pulled up alongside him.
Watts paid little attention to the car, at first. Twice on
the way to Philadelphia he stopped at diners for coffee.
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The Chevrolet also stopped. When Watts entered and left
the diners, the driver of the Chevrolet did also. Watts now
became suspicious and finally, after being followed for
about 17 miles further, he managed to lose the Chevrolet.
In Philadelphia, he learned of the turnpike killer. He
then reported the incident to the city. police.
He described the driver as in his late 30s, light haired,
about five feet, 10 inches tall, weighing about 185 pounds.
He wore brown trousers and a sport shirt.
Police put the description of the driver and the vehicle
on the teletype.
Three days later, a man awakened the Reverend John
Larkin at the rectory of the Church of the Visitation in
Philadelphia. Sobbing, he said he wanted to confess the
turnpike murders. “I can’t control myself,” he said. “If I’m
not arrested now, I’m liable’ to kill somebody else.”
'* The priest called the police. The man told Lieutenant
Thomas Boland that he had had some domestic trouble
caused by a truck driver and had taken out his wrath
against Woodward and Pitts and had shot Sheperd.
A checkup showed that the man had been away from his
job from July 20th to 28th, the period in which the turn-
pike murders were committed, but was back at work when
Sheperd was wounded.
“Just another crank,” police said.
In the days following, at least 50 men in a dozen states
‘“confessed” the wanton slayings. At the same time that
they were insisting they were responsible, other men were
reporting encounters with other gunmen. At least 500
men were picked up and interrogated. Most were released
after a few minutes of shrewd questioning by the police.
The one clue that meant anything—Sheperd’s pocket
watch—could not be found. Either the robber had been
careful in disposing of it, or he didn’t need the few dollars
the watch might bring. Z
Sheperd was released from the hospital. He still could
.Tecall nothing about the shooting, but his memory of the
man who took his trousers, after promising to call an am-
bulance, remained unshaken.
“A tall man, with a high-pitched voice, driving a yellow
car,” he insisted. “I can see his face. I’ll never forget it.”
Captain Dodson and the Ohio police were convinced that
the gunman and the pseudo Samaritan were one and the
same. Dodson felt that sirice Sheperd had become uncon-
scious, losing all sense of time after he was shot, he was
mistaken in believing that considerable time had elapsed
before the man who promised to get help came along.
“I’ve heard of ghouls who rob graves,” Dodson said, “but
I wouldn’t believe a man could sink so low as to rob an-
other whom he saw dying. I'll give you odds the gunman
who shot Sheperd was the one who stripped him. There
can’t be more than one of that kind.” :
But to find that man seemed beyond the power of the
hundreds of police who continued the hunt through Au-
gust and September. Though truckmen still were jittery,
the phantom of the turnpike appeared to have called a halt
to his murderous activities. But there was no telling when
he might strike again. . ;
Early in October, Captain Dodson called Commissioner
Wilhelm. “How about sending out more fiyers on that
stolen watch?” Dodson suggested. “Right now it seems
our only hope for solving this case.” '
Again, thousands of circulars were sent to police, this
time all over the United States. For days, nothing hap-
pened. Then lightning struck. On Thursday afternoon,
October 8th, Detective Carl Obert, of the pawnshop detail
in Cleveland, Ohio, dropped into Davids’ Loan Company at
15207 St. Clair Avenue. He was tired and his voice was
hoarse from asking the same questions over and over.
“Received any more pocket watches?” he asked.
He produced the flyer from Pennsylvania. “This one,
maybe? Look in your books—from about the first of Au-
gust.”
The clerk took the circular, noted the numbers, then’
thumbed through the entries. “It’ll take time,” he said.
Pi, iP
John K. Sheperd, star witness against phantom slayer
“I can wait,” Obert said. .
Suddenly the pawnbroker uttered an exclamation. He
walked swiftly to a showcase, glanced at the tags on a
- number of pocket watches, then removed a yellow-gold
Elgin. He handed it to the detective.
“That’s the. one.”
The notation in the pawnbroker’s book gave the date,
the works and “scratch” numbers of the watch, and the
name of the person who had pledged the timepiece—“John
Wapel”—with an address on the East Side. .
The clerk said he didn’t get many pocket watches these
days, so he could remember what Wapel looked like. He
described him as young, rather tall, and said he had. worn
a uniform.
“A soldier?” Obert asked.
“Oh no, not that kind of uniform. It was from one of
the local factories, I think—maybe a guard’s or a watch-
man’s.”
Obert whistled, wondering if this were a paradox—a
protector of life and property turned highwayman and
murderer! :
The pawner’s address turned out to be a rooming house
but, as Obert suspected, nobody remembered a man named
Wapel, The officer got in touch with Homicide Captain
David E. Kerr, who immediately assigned a half dozen
men to help him. Kerr then telephoned Captain Dodson
in Pennsylvania. :
It was like a shot in the arm to the harried Pennsyl-
vania police. Commissioner Wilhelm immediately ordered
a check of all Pennsylvania police records for Wapel’s
name. :
In Cleveland, a determined canvass was launched. Every
industrial firm in the city that hired guards was called.
Late that afternoon the police got a lead. A man named
John Wesley Wable had been employed as a plant guard
in the spring of 1953. He was described as tall, slender,
with brown hair and brown eyes. He talked in a high-
pitched voice. His local address was a rooming house. His
application for employment listed his home as Ohiopyle, in
Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
The name Wable sounded enough like Wapel to make the
“That’s it,” he said.
. officers confident they were on the right track. They made
more calls, turned up a job record for Wable in an East
_ Side electrical plant. Wable (Continued on page 89)
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Phantom of the
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(Continued from page 57)
had quit his job late in September. His
local address was a rooming house in. the
neighborhood.
Detectives Louis Jalovec and George
Gackowski went there. But they were too
late. John Wable had left. They learned
that he had been keeping company with
Margie Stuart, a good-looking blonde.
Margie, when located, said that Wable
had left suddenly, several days before.
She was annoyed with him because she
had no idea where he’d gone. She said
Wable had carried a pocket watch, which
he had said. belonged to a relative.
There w. “one thing about him, she
stated, of waich she did not approve. He
had carried a gun. When she had remon-
* strated with him, he told her he had found
it and didn’t know what to do with it.
“He gave it to my stepfather,” she said.
Margie’s stepfather said Wable had
turned the gun over to him for safekeep-
ing, explaining that if he turned it in to
the police they might ask too many ques-
tions, since he had had some minor brushes
with the law.
“Nothing serious,” Margie’s stepfather
added, “but Wable thought police wouldn’t
understand. “I’ll get the gun for you.”
He went to a dresser and brought out an
automatic—a 7.65 millimeter German-make
Walther, similar to an American .32 caliber
pistol. It was empty.
The officers took the gun to homicide
headquarters. Sergeant Theodore Carlson
fired several bullets from the gun and,
when Captain Dodson arrived, the pistol,
the bullets and the watch were given to
him. Dodson took statements from Margie
and her stepfather and hurried back to
Pennsylvania.
On Friday, October 9th, Lieutenant
Louis Whitecotton, Pennsylvania state bal-
listics expert, conducted a series of tests
with the German gun. Afterward he an-
nounced, “There isn’t the slightest doubt
that this is the weapon used to kill Wood-
ward and Pitts and to wound Sheperd.”
Captain Dodson issued an alarm for
Wable, sending it to every state in the
country.
A check of Pennsylvania records showed
that John Wesley Wable, 24, had spent six
weeks in the Fayette County jail in Un-
iontown for illegal conversion of a 1953
Chevrolet. He had failed to return a
rented car, but the charge was dropped
after Wable’s parents made good the $1000
- to pay the rental agency. He had been re-
leased on September 16th and was in jail
while the hunt for the turnpike killer was
in its most intensive stage.
Cleveland records had disclosed that
Wable had been picked up in that city on
August 10th, on @ warrant from Union-
town on the auto conversion charge.
In jail, Wable’s cellmate had been
Charles R. Welch, 20, serving a term for
robbery. Officers questioned him.
“Sure, I remember him,” Welch said.
“What a screwball! He asked me what
I’d say if he told me he was tk: guy who
did the turnpike jobs. I said I wouldn't
believe him and he got sore. He said,
‘Well, I did. I got two truckers in this
state and one in Ohio.’ What a screw-
ball!” is
Screwball or not, Wable was linked
with the murders-and the near killing and
a- warrant was: sworn out. In Cleveland,
officers set up an!around-the-clock watch
on the home of/Margie Stuart, believing
he might try to see his girl friend. Margie,
shocked that the man she had trusted was
suspected of murder, was given sedatives
to quiet her nerves. She sobbed hysteri-
cally, afraid for her life. Her stepfather
was guarded, lest Wable read of the gun’s
discovery and return to wreak vengeance.
Then, on Sunday night, October 11th, it
happened. A filling station in Albuquer-
que, New Mexico, was stuck up by a tall
man who talked in a high-pitched voice.
He escaped in an automobile bearing Penn-
sylvania license plates and carrying two
other men. The station attendant got part
of the registration number and sounded
an alarm.
Roadblocks were set up and dozens of
state policemen alerted. Once a Chevrolet
raced through a trap, traveling over 80
miles an hour. As police took up the chase
the fugitive picked up speed. Two patrol
cars’ speedometers registered 96 miles an
hour as they dashed through Belen, a
suburb of Albuquerque. Then, snarled in
evening movie traffic, the Chevrolet slowed
down. The police cars were right behind
it, but the officers hesitated to shoot, fear-
ing they might hit innocent pedestrians.
Radio cars broadcast the news of the chase,
and soon wie local radio station was de-
scribing.the pursuit.
A tall, slender man leaped from the
Chevrolet and vanished. Two youths in
the vehicle were captured. They identi-
fied themselves as Marvin H. Parsons, 20,
and J. D. Francis, 17. They said they had
hitched a ride with the driver of the car
in the Mojave Desert, after their own auto-
mobile broke down.
Meanwhile, Caroline Smith, a nurse, and
Midge Harmon, a railway clerk, were en-
joying a Sunday night drive. A policeman
stopped their car, as hundreds of others
were being halted in the search for the
man who had disappeared. He told them
of the hunt for the suspected robber. Miss
Smith, 23, a devotee of radio and televis-
ion detective stories, and her 20-year-old
companion were excited by the prospect
of a real cops-and-robbers chase.
Miss Smith continued her drive. As she
headed toward the Santa Fe Railroad, her
headlights picked up the silhouette of a
tall, slim man. He was trying to hitch a
ride. She increased her speed and a few
minutes later spotted State Patrolman T. J.
Chavez.
“The man you're looking for is near the
railroad tracks,” she said.
Chavez made a U-turn in his car and
sped to the point where the women had
seen the man.
Drawing his revolver, he got out of his
car and moved toward a figure trudging
along the quiet road. “Raise your hands
and stand still!” Chavez shouted. The man
obeyed.
The suspect, who identified himself as
John Wesley Wable, was calm. He made
no attempt to resist arrest.
Chavez did not know that Wable was
wanted for murder. He was looking for
a gasoline station robber. Later, when he
found a bill of sale in the car Wable had
been driving, made out to Beatrice Chesler,
of Indiantown, he telephoned Pennsylvania
police.
“That’s the turnpike killer,” he was told.
“The car was stolen a little more than a
week ago.”
A few minutes afterward, Chavez saw
the teletype alarm for Wable.
Wable denied that he had committed any
crime. But when the gas station attendant
identified him as the holdup man he said,
“You can’t hang me for that.” He insisted
he never had killed anyone. In his high-
pitched voice he emphasized that he had
not been near the Pennsylvania Turnpike
in July. He asserted that he knew noth-
ing about the shooting in Ohio...
Later, he pe
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NOPSIS
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APPEALS
LAST WORDS
EXECUTION
FRANK NEWTON OFFice suepfiv-odr»,
pr oacieae ie
.
Physicians called in his behalf gave it as
ine to dowith the death of the children.
opinion that he was not of sound mand and was suffering from dementia DraeCcOXecee
~evinning of appeals Defendant appeals from his sentence to death resulting from the
‘eo 4ing that in murders of the first dearee, he had killed two children, a brother and sister
ars old and the other 9." From appeals reporte
PLACE — a OR COUNTY DOE & MEANS
WINTER, Raymond Pae SP (Allesheney) Ee 1=9=1928
OOB OR AGE | RACE OCCUPATION RESIDENCE GEN
thite Street car conductor
OTHER
5227-1925
VICTIM crotvher and sister AGE RACE METHOD
TRO White Bludgeoning
moTive Sexual assault
SYNOPSIS
"Nefendant, a street car conductor, about 32 years of age, reported to his place of
4ARXHARA cxmloyment HAH in the early mornine of May 27, 1925, but was not assigned to
duty. He remained about the car barn until shortly before noon. “hile there ha un-
successfully solicited two older brothers of the deceased children to commit sodomy, and
shortly after proceeded by trolley car to a place about a mile distant from the car barn
in the vicinity where the deceased children lived, met them by accident, took them to a
venils store, and bournt confectionary for them. He was seen leaving the store with the
two children about noon, walking with them in the direction of the place where their
vere found, defendant testified that after watkine some—cistance abonr the-roac
Ssoadies
with him, the children turned back and retraced their steps. No one saw them returning,
Their bodies were found the next day in a creek, some little distance from the road on
ywnich the defendant says he walked with them, The appelaant tells a remarkable story as
to what happened during the afternoon, after the children had Sekt him as he claims, He
alleges that he is something of an artist, and, after their departure he walked further
out the road, sat down, looked at the scenery for some time, then left the road and
crossed a field to a creek about 100 feet therefrom and there saw the bodies of the two
children face down in the water. This could not have been more than an hour and a half
after he says they left him. He testified that he picked then up, realized that they
were ic Me an eerernes the bodies to the water in the eign in which ne found Sheth.
and gt ay The fact has that their skulie had been fractured ie some blunt instrument.
Af their hb he creek, he left the scene,—Hesaid he walked toward the—
street car tracks, then turned and retraced his steps, passing the wodies, met some chil-
dren to whom he made a remark, and soon after met a brother of the deceased bhildren to
whom he stated that he had not seen them. He then proceeded to the crew's room of the
traction company, sat around there for awhile, concluded that he would not tell anyone
about the dead children, but would 'leave it to the authorities,’ went home and took the
buttons off his bloody uniform coat and put them on another. He admitted that the coat
sleeves when it was found next day by the detectives were wet, but excused this by the
statement that the coat had accidentally dropped in the bath tub in which he took a bathe
the course of which he was i taken into custody by the abticets investigating the children! s
i en—havine been—discover-d,_The officers took him out—over— —
the road where he had walked with the children, He did not tell them of his finding their
bodies, and did not disclose this until he testified at the trial, He denied to the dee
tectives having seen the chilcren after they left him on the road, When questioned as to
the clothing which he had on at the time of his arrest, he untruthfully said it was the
same he had worn the day before when he was with the children, When confronted with the
uniform coat which he had worn and which detectives had procured at his home, had admitted
it was his and that he had worn it on the previous day, The coat was damp, bore evidence
that the sleeves had been scrubbed and a part of the lining cut out. There weere spots on
the coat which uoon chemical analysis proved to be human blood, He denied that he had (over)
Alienists for defense state of unsound mind and suffering from dementia praecoxe
APPEALS 137 ATLANTIC 261.
LAST WORDS
EXECUTION
*
oh oaencnginte Mee
7 Ss A gate oe meagre a
.
wasn't so sure. “You may be right,” he
said, “but even if they heard the shot,
they'd probably have thought it was a
backfire.” P :
A few minutes later, Musick found an
ejected pistol shell on the ground near the
right side of the victim’s truck cab. Ex-
amining it carefully, he said, “I think it
was probably fired from a foreign-made
automatic. It looks like a.32, but it doesn’t
have the caliber stamped on it like most
American-made ammo does.”
The spot where the murder had oc-
curred was within a few yards of
Milepost 67, and was known as a favorite
rest-spot for drivers. Speculation im-
mediately arose among the officers as to
whether any other truckers had been
parked nearby when. the shooting took
place. Detective Musick was inclined to
think it wouldn't have made much
difference. x;
“A trucker gets used to all kinds of
noise,” he pointed out, “and after hum-
ping along for eight or ten hours, he’s so
tired it would take a cannon to wake him
up. I think anyone could have fired a
single shot without too much risk.”
Of possible significance was the dis-
covery of tire tracks in the grass alongside
the truck, made by a car, not a truck. An
expert from the Pennsylvania State Police
crime lab would estimate later the tracks
had been made by a medium-sized
Passenger vehicle.
When the on-scene examination of the
corpse was complete, the body was
removed by ambulance to the morgue for
autopsy. The truck was taken to the coun-
ty seat at Greensburg. Traffic on the °
Tumpike-continued heavy all during that
week end, but the thousands of truckers
and motorists who passed Milepost 67
probably were unaware that the unusual
police activity at the spot was the result of
a murder.
- Sniper's bullet killed Barney Prendergast in New York City
State police kept a watchful vigil at
the interchanges and toll stations,
questioning truckers and spot-checking
the cars of any motorists who aroused
suspicion, but not much hope was held.
that these measures would be productive.
Other investigators were assigned the
task of retracing the murder victim’s
movements in the- hours preceding his
death. ‘
A relative of Lester Woodward for-
mally identified the body. He told police
that the truckman normally carried
between $60 and $80 in his wallet. He said
Woodward never wore jewelry, except
for a wrist watch and a ring. The money
was gone, but the watch and ring were
_ found on Woodwoard’s body.
For all practical purposes, in-
vestigators began their task without a‘
single clue of any substance. Although
moulages were made of the tire tracks in
the grass beside the murder truck, they
were so vague as to be almost useless for
identifcation purposes. The truck had
been dusted for fingerprints, but the only
clear ones lifted were those of the victim.
There seemed little doubt that the motive
for the murder was robbery, with the vic-
tim chosen purely by chance.
There is no tougher murder case to
‘solve than the one in which the victim is
chosen at random and the killer hits and
‘runs.
The autopsy confirmed Detective
Musick’s guess that the death slug was a
.32. Some 50 suspects were picked up and
questioned in the next couple of days, but
all were released for lack of evidence
eventually. Four .32 automatic pistols
were confiscated by police and their
owners subjected to intensive grilling, but
each was dismissed as a murder suspect
when ballistics comparison tests proved
that none of their weapons was the
murder gun. They were held on other
’
ee
. truckdrivers using the road. They stil.
Police checked Prendergast's car for link to turnpike murders.
charges and the probe proceeded. ao
Word of the Turnpike murder didnot
appreciably alter the habits of
pulled off and slept when the grind of
long hours of driving got too tough. And
on Tuesday morning, July 28, 1953, the.
worst fears of police investigating ‘the
slaying were realized... MS
The killer struck again.
At 6:15 that Tuesday morning, Hany
Franklin Pitts was found shot to death in =
the cab of his automobile transporter
parked beside the Turnpike at Milestone
97, thirty miles from the scene of the first ©
highway murder only three days earlier, i
The second killing was virtually a carbon }
copy of the first, with a signifcant excep-
tion. :
Captain Jack R. Dodson of the Pen
sylvania State Police found footprints in
the mud beside the truck, leading toaset_
of tire tracks about six feet away. Deter —
tive Musick sped to the scene of the se
cond murder, as did State Police Lieut
nant Eugene Fontaine and Corporal}
William Smith. * re
Again the corner estimated that the }
victim had died around midnight. He was J)
shot on the right side of his forehead, at #
about the hairline. “It looks like the killer 7
shot him through the open window,*#)
Captain Dodson said. a
Pitts was wearing a wrist watch, and
his pockets contained loose change anda —
wallet which held $85 in cash. The Tum
pike toll ticket on his dashboard showed
the truck had entered the Turnpike at —
Beaver Valley at 7:18 p.m. on July 27th,
er was the night before he was found
slain. :
“Woodward was robbed,” Detective
Musick pointed out. “Pitts wasn’t. Maybe
the same guy didn’t do both jobs.”
“That's possible,” Captain Dodson
said, “but it’s also possible that the same_
q
cata We
: vt ee ox es eS 2 .
| Suspect John Wable was questioned about turnpike slayings after being picked up in New Mexico following stickup
+
Driving the long truck hauls is a gruel; Police found some truckers who had
ing job even under normal circumstances,
Now, with a killer on the loose preying on
drivers, the truckmen grew tense. They
drank more and more coffee to help them
keep awake. When they passed trucks
beside the road, they slowed down and
looked to see if the drivers were awake,
guy did it and was scared off this time ~
i . before he had time to rob his victim.”
By now it was 6:35 a.m. At the direc-
bon of State Police Commissioner C.M.
» Wilhelm, every exit on the 360-mile Turn-
pike was blocked off. All available men
. Were summoned to duty, and every car
‘sing the Turnpike was searched as it left
; super highway; occupants of these
‘ars were questioned closely. Police were
‘aware that thekiller had a six-hour
jemp on them, but they were taking no
that he might still be on the Turn-
ike. As things turned out, he wasn't.
> Otherwise, the measures taken were
etty much the same as those in the
but they had noticed nothing unusual. It
was concluded that Pitts was already
dead when they arrived there. Another
driver said that he had been slowing
down near Milepost 97 about 12:15 a.m.
when he saw a green sedan—possibly a
They sounded their horns as they met, °48 or 49 Chevrolet—cross in front of
shouting words of encouragement, ~ Pitts’ trailer to the center strip and head
Whenever possible, they rolled at high ~ west.
speed in convoys of six or more trucks. But despite a sustained effort of
Their companies ordered the mennot —_ round-the-clock activity, police frankly
to make unnecessary stops, to halt onlyat_ conceded that they were making only
restaurants or gas stations, and to use. minimal progress in their investigation of
motels for sleeping. They hired 50 private — the Turnpike murders. Alarms had been
ier. murder. They were no more cars to patrol the Pennsylvania Turnpike, flashed nationwide, and a police harvest
oductive this time than they had been working with state police to protect their of .32 caliber automatics was reported F
Mores: men. Local, state and national trucking . from far and near. Test-firings were rush-
~ News of the second killing caused groups offered rewards totaling $11,000 ed to the lab at Harrisburg, but none
idespread alarm among truckers, for for the apprehension of the killer or \ could be matched to the murder slugs.
it was evident that a pattern of killers. : On July 29th, hopes soared when
s@urderous violence was in the making. Hundreds of cars were halted and »:
p Mike Shipley, safety director of the Penn- searched by police. A number of un,
i a Motor Truck Association, a licensed guns were turned up, but none
| Poup of 3,400 trucking firms operating could be identified as the murder
“aroughout the state, issued a warning: weapon. The second victim was also
+ “Stop for nothing, not even to help a killed by a..32 slug, the coroner reported,
@addy whose truck has broken down. The slug was rushed to the ballisticy
Don’t go to sleep on the road. If you have laboratory for examination and. com-
down, leave the truck and wait at parison by the lab technicians with the
Safe distance for a safety patrol car.” first murder bullet. ;
the killing of Michael “Barney”
Prendergast, a wealthy tavern owner, un-
der circumstances similar to the trucker
killings. Apparently, Prendergast had
picked up a hitchhiker late at night while
traveling in his Cadillac. His killer had
shot him with a .32 and dumped him out
in Riverside Park, near the Hudson River,
(Continued on page 68)
33
stopped behind Pitts’ rig at Milepost 97,
word came from New York City policeof = 5”
spout
at A te PRO TRE:
ors sat,
Raga cag eng
»
wns a errata Bintan
Be tcang roiiaape AO i i EI AE te elt pf eS NOTTS
x ‘
‘
Kill-Crazy Gunman: ©
On the Turnpike
(Continued from page 33)
_ leaving jewelry, cash and checks behind.
New York police sent the death bullet
to the Harrisburg lab for comparison with
the slugs which had killed the truck
drivers. It had already been determined
that both drivers were shot by the same
weapon. But the Prendergast slug, it was
found, was fired from a different gun.
That was the pattern that shaped up in
the investigation. Hot suspects were
reported at various times from
Washington, D.C.; Kansas City, Missouri;
Omaha, Nebraska; and Denver,
Colorado. Each suspect, within hours or
days, was cleared and had to be released,
or held for some other crime.
But at 4:30 on the morning of July 31st,
violence struck yet another truck driver.
On the Lincoln Highway, which is U.S.
30, a mile and a half southeast of Lisbon,
Ohio, a traveling salesman found a
wounded driver with his bloody head
hanging outside the cab of his truck. He
was Aram Makyan, 34, of West Alex-
ander, Pennsylvania, a driver for the
Tower Lines of Wheeling, West Virginia.
Makyan’s pants were missing. Arriv-
ing at the scene, Lieutenant Umpleby of
the Ohio Highway Patrol saw that the
man was still alive and had him rushed to
the Salem City Hospital. Beside the truck
the lieutenant found an ejected shell,
pe: was unmarked but looked like a
32.
Lieutenant Umpleby reported details
of the incident to~. Pennsylvania
authorities and Captain Dodson and
Lieutenant Fontaine at once drove to
Ohio. Although the scene of the Makyan
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68
shooting was 100 miles from where Pitts
had been slain, it was on the approach of
= Ohio end of the Pennsylvania Turn-
pike.
They found Makyan only semi- ~
conscious. He-was-mumbling something
about a “yellow. car,” Lieutenant
Umpleby said. An emergency operation
removed a .32 caliber bullet from his jaw
just below the right ear. It was several
days before the Pennsylvania officers
could talk to him.
“A man got out of a yellow car,”
Makyan told them. “He told me he'd get
an ambulance. He took off my pants to
make me comfortable. I felt cold.
Another man lifted me onto the seat.”
“You're sure it was another man?” the
victim was asked. :
Makyannodded affirmatively. Asked
if he could remember anything about the
man in the yellow car, he murmured
weakly, b “Tall—high voice, like a
woman's. f
In his present condition, Makyan
could not remember how much money
he had with him, but he did recall that the
man with the high voice had taken his °
pocket watch. From the wounded man’s
family, police learned that it was a 15-
jewel Elgin with an open face. A jeweler
who had repaired it recently supplied
further information, namely that its
“works number” was 7601 and its“‘scratch
number” was J- 108081.
Commissioner Wilhelm had this infor-
mation circularized throughout the coun-
try, as well as the information, obtained a
few days later, that Makyan was shot by
the same gun which had killed the two
truck drivers in Pennsylvania.
During the next two months, the in-
vestigation into the murders and
shootings on the Turnpike made little
progress. One trucker reported the driver
of a yellow-Chevrolet who had aroused
his suspicions, but he did it as an
afterthought and could not provide the .
license number of the yellow Chevy.
In Philadelphia, ahighly overwrought
man went to a clergyman and tearfully
confessed that he was the phantom killer
of the Turnpike. Careful checking prov-
ed that he could not possibly have been
the gunman in all three incidents.
The first solid break in the baffling
case came on October 8th, when Detec-
tive Carl Obert of Cleveland’s pawn shop
detail turned up the yellow gold Elgin
watch which had been stolen by the man
who shot and wounded Aram Makyan.
The man who had pawned the watch had
given the name “John Wapel,” with an ad-
dress on Cleveland's east side.
Since pocket watches have become
fairly uncommon in recent years, the
pawnbroker was able to remember the
man. He described him as young, rather
tall, and wearing a uniform.
“He was a soldier?” Detective Obert
asked.
“Oh, no, not that kind of a uniform. It
was from one of the local factories, I
. fided to the two probers that there 8 7%
ee
‘ = aes
think—maybe a guard’s of a watchman’y
* uniform.
The address given by the man whe ‘nad
pawned the watch proved to be a phony’
which surprised no one. Detective Obes #)
reported his find to Homicide Captaig
David E. Kerr, who immediately assign!
ed a squad of six detectives to
Obert, Captain Kerr also reported
development to Captain Dodson inP ; tate
? Hullistics expert, announced, “There isnt
sylvania and promised to. keep
posted on the progress of the Cleveland
probe. fi
A canvass of Cleveland industrial
firms which employed plant guards tum 7
_ ed up the name of John Wesley Wable, ©
who had been hired as a plant guard inthe
spring of that year, some three or fow
months ago. Personnel files disclosed he |
‘was tall and slender, with brown hair and
eyes. Former co-workers remembered
that he had a high-pitched voice. Hisloca
address was a rooming house, but he had
listed his home as Ohiopyle, in Fayette
County, Pennsylvania. oe
fhe similarity of the names Wable
and Wapel was what drew officers’ ater
tion to the man, and they were confident
now that they were on a red-hot lead
eer
anon over to the detectives. It was an
smatic, a 7.65 millimeter German-
Walther, very similar to an
nerican .32. At headquarters, Sergeant
adore Carlson made test-firings from
Walther and turned them over to Cap-
yin Dodson, who rushed them back to
lab at Harrisburg.
And on October 9th, Lieutenant Louis
hitecotton, the Pennsylvania - state
te slightest doubt that this is the weapon
3 to kill Woodward and Pitts, and to
wound Makyan.”
Captain Dodson at once issued a
sonwide alarm for the arrest of John
Wesley Wable for murder.
| Pennsylvania records showed that
Wable, who was 24 years old, had spent
‘& weeks in the Fayette County Jail in
Waiontown for “illegal conversion” of a
‘sented Chevrolet. The charge was finally
‘cropped when his parents made good the
$1,000 owing to the rental agency. Wable
tad been released from the jail in Union-
‘wown on the 16th of September.
Ironically, he had been in the safest
place possible while the search for the °
Turnpike killer was at its height—he was
ail.
A cellmate who had spent some time
Wable, however, could not be found; be | tere with him described Wable as a real
had quit his job in lateS eptember. Detew
tives Louis Jalovec and George
Gackowski learned also that he had mor"
ed out of his rooming house, but by dist
of persistent questioning among
tenants at the house, as well as among his
former fellow workers, they picked up
repeated reports that he had been keep
blonde “with a figure that makes Mariya
Monroe look like a boy.” After another
ing company with a stunning, ese |
wrewball. “He asked me what I'd say if
"be told me he was the guy who did the
Tumpike jobs,” the former cellmate told
detectives. “I said I wouldn't believe him,
, and he got sore. He said, “Well, I did. I got
two truckers in this state, and one in
Ohio.”
“What a screwball!”
Cleveland police staked out the home
of Wable’s girlfriend, Laura Sedare, on
the chance that he might return to see her.
couple of days of digging, the detective » They also provided a guard for the girl's
team learned that her name: was Lauta 7
Sedare. 4
With her name'in hand, they found the
blonde without much trouble. She wa @ ©
quite willing to talk to them about Wable
but she told them at the outset that he had :
left town several days earlier, and she wa ©
obviously very annoyed about it. Yes, sm ¥
said in response to questions, Wable used”
to carry a gold pocket watch; he had onet
told her it belonged to a relative. ©
Under close questioning, Laura com
one thing about John Wable which
bothered her greatly: He carried a gu®
Whenshe lectured him about it, he said he ©
had found it and didn’t know what car q
with the weapon.
“He finally gave it to my stepfathets :
_ she said.
rt
Interrogated by the detectives,
Laura’s stepfather said Wable ‘gave bist. ;
the-gun for safekeeping, explaining
he was reluctant to turn it over to polict
for fear they’d ask too. many questions
He said that Wable had confided tht
adi had a few minor brushes with thé
Ww. yee
The girl's stepfather turned
stepfather, in the event Wable attempted
vengeance on the man for having turned
the murder gun over to the police.
But Wable was a long way from
Cleveland, and his time ran out on the
aight of October llth in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, soon after a filling station
E was held up by a tall man with a high-
| pitched voice. The gunman escaped in a
| tar with Pennsylvania license plates, but
the attendant was able to jot down the
tumber, and quickly sounded the alarm.
Roadblocks were thrown up at once,
a Chevrolet sedan ran through one at
| 9 miles an hour. Two police cruisers took
after it at speeds that exceeded 100 miles
an hour, but they could not overtake the
fleeing car. Then, in Belen, a suburb of
Albuquerque, the Chevy became snarled
in traffic and the driver leaped out and
on foot.
In the meantime, a couple of nurses
out for a Sunday evening drive were
stopped at one of the roadblocks. An of-
ficer told ‘them about the hunt for the
stickup man and described the fugitive.
of the nurses, a rabid whodunit fan,
was fascinated.
"Only minutes after leaving , the
roadblock, she spotted a tall man
“Santa Fe Railroad tracks. He fit the
2°
near the
description she had just heard, and he was
- afoot, trying to hitch a ride from passing
motorists. i 5
The nurse didn’t stop, but a few
moments later she spotted State
Patrolman T.J. Chavez. Waving fran-
tically at the state policeman, she halted
her car and yelled, “The man you're look-
ing for is back near the railroad tracks!
Officer Chavez made the arrest
minutes later. He thought at the time
that he was taking in a gas station stickup
artist. It was several hours before he
learned he had collared a murderer.
Wable at first denied vehemently that
he had committed any crime, but when
the filling station attendant’ identified
“him, shrugged resignedly and sneered,
“Yon can’t hang me for that.”
He also denied, with great indigna-
tion, all complicity in the Pennsylvania
Turnpike murders or the wounding of the
trucker in Ohio. Later, he amended this
slightly by saying, “I didn’t kill anyone,
but I think I know who did. I’ve got
friends that'll get him, but I ain’t telling
you his name till I get back to Penn-
sylvania.” ?
“What about Aram Makyan’s watch?
a detective, who had been briefed in a
telephone, conversation with Captain
Dodson, asked him. : :
The question didn’t faze Wable in the’
least. “I bought it from a guy on the
street,” Wable replied glibly. “I know —
him. I’ll get him.”
A ssistant District Attorney Joseph M.
Loughran of Westmoreland County,
Detettive Musick, and Corporal Smith
came from Pennsylvania to conduct their
own interrogation of the long-sought
suspect. Wable continued to claim he was
innocent of murder, but he now said he
had owned a pistol and had loaned it to a
man named Parks, a distributor of
counterfeit money. Wable candidly said
he had pushed bogus bills for Parks.
“I can prove I was working in
Cleveland at the time of those killings,
he said. “I want to go back to Penn-
sylvania and clear my name.”
He seemed actually eager to waive ex-
tradition and he was soon returned to the
Keystone State. Once there, Wable told
yet a different story.
According to his latest version, he ad-
mitted that he had been present at the
time of the fatal shootings, but he hasten-
ed to add that it was his mysterious buddy
Parks who had pulled the trigger.
His interrogators were certain he was
lying.
Aram Makyan, the trucker who sur-
vived the highway shooting in Ohio, was
brought in for a confrontation with the
suspect. He took one look at Wable and
declared. without a second’s hesitation,
“That's the man who said he'd get help for
Youre looking
-at one of the ©
most savage ©
and perverted
men in the
historyof
yee
all mankind.
is name is Albert Fish. In 1928 he murdered
_ cannibalized 10 year old Grace Budd. He
was arrested six years later. Albert was also be-
lieved to be involved in killing at least 15 other
children. : : z
What Albert Fish did to little Grace Budd is
one of the most shocking and monstrous crimes
in’ the annals of civilized man. Weeks of ques-
tioning by detectives and psychiatrists revealed
that the Grace Budd tragedy was just the tip of
the iceberg. A prominent psychiatrist reported
that Fish’s sexual life was of “unparalleled per-
versity. . . . There was no known perversion
that he did not practice and practice frequently.
Cannibal, by Me! Heimer, is the true, docu-
mented case history of this evil little man from
his beginnings to his end.
A WARNING AND A GUARANTEE: If after receiving
this book you find it too shocking or offensive you
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me and took off my pants to make me
Lester Woodward
slept in this truck.
was blasted to death while he
by Alan Masters
Gear grinders pushing
their giant trucks
along the
Pennsylvania Turnpike
knew that danger
rode with them
Pennsylvania State Police
stopped and searched all drivers
on the Turnpike in
manhunt for double murderer.
all the way-but they
didn’t figure
on gunman’s bullets.-
while they slept
DEATH RODE |
THE HIGH ROAD
* LES WOODWARD eased his giant GMC 302 truck
to a smooth stop near Shafton Bridge, two miles west of
the Irwin Interchange on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The
piggy-back cargo of new cars he had carried westward to
an Ohio dealer had been delivered. The truck was lighter
on this return trip, but Woodward's eyes were heavy.
Dog tired and beat to the bones, the 30-year-old gear
grinder from Duncannon, Pennsylvania, had pulled off
the pike for an hour or two of much needed sleep. He
took off his shoes, rolled up his windbreaker for a pillow
and made himself as comfortable as possible. The next
moment he was asleep.
Les Woodward never woke up from that sleep. Early the
next morning, Saturday, July 25th, another driver pushing
along the turnpike in the gray dawn, saw a man’s shoeless
feet dangling out of the cab window of a trailer truck. Such
a sight is not unusual on the turnpike because it is the cus-
tom for weary drivers to pull over and park when sleep is
necessary. But there was something different about this situa-
tion. Something that made the early morning driver stop and
investigate.
One’ quick look at the shoeless trucker was enough. Blood
covered the silent man’s face and head. His eyes were open
and it was easy to see they were the eyes of a dead man.
There was a small blackened hole between the hairline and
temple where a bullet had plowed into the brain.
On the floor near the dimmer switch was a sweat-soaked
wallet which had been rifled and cast aside. There was no
money in the bill compartment.
Captain Jack Dodson of the State Police followed up the
radio call which came in from Corporal William Smith of
the Highway Patrol. The truck had not been moved from
where Les Woodward had parked it near Shafton Bridge.
Nobody had monkeyed with the auto carrier's cargo. It was
ao POLICE FILES PONICE enres \O “~ry Dm = <=54 ie
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comfortable.” Later, after hearing Wable
speak, he seemed even more certain of his
identification, saying, “I could never
- forget that face, or that voice.”
Wable was arraigned on murder
charges and Captain Dodson, in a press
conference with reporters, flatly took
care of a question several of the newsmen
had asked, regarding Wable’s claim that
the mysterious man named Parks had
done the shooting.
“There's no one else involved,” Cap-
tain Dodson stated tersely.
The trial of the man charged with the
Turnpike killings began in Westmoreland
County Court, in Greensburg, Penn-
sylvania, on March 1, 1954. Judge
Edward G. Bauer. presided over the
proceedings.
The case went to the jury almost two
weeks later, on March 13th, after Jude
Bauer had delivered a. three-and-a-half
hour charge to the jurors, carefully spell- ’
ing out for them the possible verdicts
open to them after weighing all the
evidence, they had seen presented and
the testimony they had heard. The jury
then retired to deliberate.
Three hours and 45 minutes later,
they sent word to the judge through a
bailiff that they had. reached a verdict.
Judge Bauer reconvened court as soon as
prosecutors and defense counsel could be
summoned back to the courthouse, and
the jurors were brought back to the box.
The judge asked the foreman if they
had reached a verdict. The. foreman
replied that they had. The judge in-
structed the foreman to hand the verdict
to the bailiff. He did so and the bailiff
brought it to the bench. The judge read
the slip of paper and handed it to the
court clerk, who then read the verdict
aloud:
“Guilty of murder in the first degree.”
This verdict made the death penalty-
mandatory under Pennsylvania law. :
Wable’s attorney promptly filed an
appeal from the conviction and sentence,
the first of a long series of appeals and
stays which delayed the condemned
man’s date with the executioner for more
than a year and a half. One after another,
the findings of the higher courts went
against the appellant, and a final plea for
clemency was rejected in September,
1955.
On the 26th day of that month, John
Wesley Wable went to his death in the
electric chair at Rockview Penitentiary in
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. With the news
of his execution, long-haul truckers who
regularly used the Pennsylvania Turnpike
breathed a deep sigh of relief. oo
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Laura Sedare and Aram Makyan
are not the real names of the persons so
named in the foregoing story. Fic-
titious names have been used because
there is no reason for public interest in
the identities of these persons.
7 zs
F rted seen with him were found slain
‘near luka, Mississippi. Wagner was con-
sidered the prime suspect in their deaths,
but no evidence was ever developed and
he never admitted knowing the pair.
» On April 15, 1943, lawmen acting on a
‘tip surprised Wagner near Gate City,
‘Virginia. He was armed with two pistols
and much ammunition, but when the of-
ficers got the drop on him he gave up. He
was taken back to Parchman, where he
again began playing the role of model
prisoner.
During the next few years he regained
Last of the .
Gunslingers | ~ ‘
(Continued from page 63
field hand, if you watch him.” eet
Possibly one reason for Wagner's.
becoming a “good cotton picker” was a
custom that prevailed at Parchman at thé
time. The practice has since been abolish
ed. It consisted of applying a leather strap.’
called “Black Annie” to the Trumps of
rebellious prisoners and those who work’
ed too slow. 4 trusty status. He helped chase and cap-
The penitentiary also utilized the trusty * ture escapees. He trained dogs. He
system, where older inmates are armed § became so trusted by prison officials he
and used as guards over new arrivals, One —. could get a short furlough about anytime
of these acted as Kinnie’s personal guard — he so desired. He visited relatives in
at first. And he apparently concentrated | Virginia. He even kept civilian clothing at
On gaining such trusty status later. But | the home of friends in’ nearby
before he made it, the urge’to be at large 3 Greenwood to wear when he was out on
grew strong in him. ‘ah leave. Sh
In the fall of 1927, he somehow ob }) ‘Then on March 15, 1948—a Monday
tained two pistols and used them toes § Aight—wanderlust seized him again. This
cape. Pursued by guards, he exchanged — time Wagner simply walked away carry-
gunfire with them until he received minor | ig a submachinegun and a pistol.
flesh wounds. He surrendered. His time | Because he was a trusty assigned to night
at large was so brief that the details of his guard duty, he wasn’t missed until next
escape were censored for security | moming.
reasons and he went back to cotton pick §
ing. 4
Wagner's abortive flight, however,!
: Se investigation revealed he
prompted reporters to dredge up and & went toGreenwood, told his friends there
publish some tales of his earlier exploits. be was on the trail on an escapee, and
One was to the effect that he stoleahorse §— picked up two civilian suits. He vanished
after his first jailbreak in Lucedale, kissed then while rumormongers and headline
a pretty girl from thesaddle and galloped [ ¥riters began having a field day with
out of town. Another was that when he § stories about him.
killed the Tennessee deputy, he shot acir- A Greenwood cab driver reported
cle of bullets around the lawman’sheatt.’ |. ttiving “somebody who looked like Kin-
How much truth there may have been. § ie Wagner” to Hamilton, Alabama. A
in either story is now clouded by the mis. Memphis tipster told police there he saw
of time. But they did tie in with his repute jy Wagner eating in a Bluff City cafeteria. A
tion as a horseman and a marksman, so | ‘tuck driver said a man who resembled
they were grist for the mills of story Wagner tried to hijack him on the Mis-
| Ssippi Gulf Coast. A New Orleans
tellers. ;
Back at Parchman after his futile e« § oman claimed she saw him “walking
n Canal Street” and recognized him
cape attempt, Wagner dedicated himself”
to being cooperative. Soon he was ali m news photos. There were countless
armed trusty and the prison dog trainer.’ # T reports on his whereabouts.
He taught Shepherd dogs to do tticksand. or almost eight years, anybody who
Wanted to stir up excitement in the Mid-
protect guards. He also trained)
bloodhounds to track fugitives. j th and create some news stories could
so by reporting Kinnie Wagner at
Over the years, Wagner handled
bloodhounds and carried a rifle on — “ch-and-such location, Some of these
humerous manhunts for escapees. Oc sightings may have been for real. None
casionally, he would do something spec were ever authenticated.
tacular on such prisoner chases and im : ith each such report, the tales about
spire more headlines. Mostly, however, “| Wagner would proliferate. People talked
he was a model prisoner. ‘ t his exploits as a gunslinger, a
On October 27, 1940, he accompanied an, a dog trainer, a manhunter, a
a guard on another hunt for an escapee.’ & /V€r, and as an escape artist. Some of the
He was armed but wearing prison stripes _& “oties. made him sound almost as
Once away from the prison farm, hetum’’ ® “ythical as the Easter bunny or the
ed on the guard, disarmed him and fore — ‘Vizard of Oz.
ed him to exchange clothing. ‘a 2
Then he put the guard out and dis) f* Birdsong, head of the Mississippi
appeared in the prison vehicle. For 0) § *lighway Patrol, received and verified a
months there were reports he was hiding : ‘pon Wagner's hideaway. Next morning
out in the “freedom” hills of northeat: § dawn, Birdsong led a posse to a
Mississippi and northwest Alabama. alt Mahouse near Scooba, in East Central
1941,. two Negroes who had bee? ¥ Mississippi, They surrounded the place
Then, on January 29, 1956, Colonel T. ;
“q~
fr ee ee ee es
\
feet ieee
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Pain Strikes...5
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» Arthritic Pain can
strikg the joints in
any of the indicated areas.
(see arrows on chart)
SAAN
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ee oo SEND ME ICY-HOT QUICK! re Pe
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NAME
ADDRESS
zip
© J. W. GIBSON CO., 1974
CITY STATE
1 ,
a,
ee
384 EDMONDS’S APPEAL.
a.
Opinion of the Court. [314 P
that court considered every-
Léa)
: ark ‘here
thing that had a tendency to affect market value. Th :
an imi PUY, sour
actual sales of similar proper ty, and the Si
* air »
and might have had a market value
nose differing from other uses
for a given use and purpose differing f te
ak wile :.
and purposes This follows the general rule wl
rh i ri any situations where
spect to valuation of property In many situation
value is in question. ee Jee
There was erected on the premises a building for iy
| hieh could no longer be employed in
event waste or destruction because of
the structure to fit it
In reaching this value,
were no
recognized that the |
tory purposes, W
such use. To pr
ecessary to change (ne uae
for other uses; this could be accomplished only vs at
of a Jarge sun of money and by reducing its
Such factors should enter into a
market value for assessment
and the court below considered these factors
It also considered the previous sale of this
a substantial bearing in assessment
Kaemmerling’s App., 282 Pa. 78,
but the foree of the case is partially lost when paar
the present situation, since, as stated ee oe
Nris.e, this was not a sale similar to thing in gee
ling’s Appeal. The legislature has confided te ee igh
of common pleas the duties of fact finder where & bay
an assessment for taxes. The pro
been an appeal from :
sherefr s e novo.
ceeding in this court on appeal therefrom 18 not d
‘ a 2
See Appeal of Westbury Apartments, ee: . nee
The court below having determined the fair eS “a
| all factors were considered, and there ;
iny mistaken inferences of law,
conclusion reached.
non-use, if was 2
expenditure
former usable area.
determination of its fair
purposes
as elements.
property, which has
values as illustrated by
value wherein
ing no abuse of power ori
it is our duty to affirm the
Decree affirmed at cost of appellant,
RL EIS
SE Eke BRERA cen
te
COMMONWEALTH v. WALKER, Appellant. 383
385, (1934).] Syllabus—Statement of Facts.
Commonwealth v. Walker, Appellant. ¢
Criminal law—Evidence—Murder trial—Evidence of prior mur-
ders—Admussibility to enable jury to fix penalty—Evidence of
identity of defendant.
1. On the trial of an indictment for murder, evidence to show
that defendant had been previously convicted on a bill of indict-
ment charging murder, is admissible for.the purpose of enabling
the jury to determine whether to fix life imprisonment or death
as the penalty in the event the defendant is adjudged guilty of
murder in the first degree. [887-9]
2. In such ease, testimony is admissible to identify the defend-
ant as the one named in the indictment offered in evidence. [889]
Argued January 15, 1934. Before Frazer, C. J., SImp-
SON, KePHART, SCHAFFER, MAxry, Drew and LINN, JJ.
Appeal, No. 165, Jan. T., 1934, by defendant, from
judgment and sentence (capital case) of O. & T., Phila.
Co., Jan. T., 1933, No. 187, in case of Commonwealth
v. Charles Walker. Judgment affirmed and record re-
mitted to court below for purpose of execution.
Indictment for murder. Before STERN, J.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
Verdict of guilty of murder in first degree, with pen-
alty of death, and judgment and sentence thereon. De-
fendant appealed.
Errors assigned, inter alia, were rulings on evidence,
quoting record.
Frank A. Paul, with him Thomas J. Minnick, Jr., for
appellant.
Clare Gerald Fenerty, Assistant District Attorney,
with him Charles F. Kelley, District Attorney, for ap-
pellee.
~ VoL. ccCxXIV—25
*NeéT 692 SEW
uo (*o9 eTydtepegtug) epueaTAsuueg peqnoozyoete STE SyoerTq *seTreYO SuayTW
Cet MEER IRR PO OR TR AT TER ON
spiamtietanammiahia
just a case of robbery, plain and simple . . . robbery and
murder. :
There was one clue. On the gravel shoulder, to the right
of the cab, lay a shining cylinder of brass. It was the ejected
cartridge case of a .32 caliber slug. There were scuff-marks
in the gravel where a car had pulled on—and then off—the
shoulder to the right of the truck. That meant that someone
in a car had driven off the road and stopped alongside of
the GMC long enough to shoot Woodward in the head with
a .32 caliber automatic, clean out his wallet and take off
into the eastbound lane. ; :
The news traveled fast. An eastbound platform job carried
word of what had happened to the truck stop at Mechanics-
burg. A diesel cackle-crate from Columbus brought in word
that the post mortem was finished by noon and that the .32
slug was on its way to Harrisburg for ballistics comparisons
with other bullets in the State Police crimes-of-violence file.
By night, a milk tanker on the long haul from Wisconsin
had it straight from the toll puncher at Somerset Interchange
that Les had been knocked off for a measly fifty bucks, all
the cops could figure Woodward had been carrying. |
It was a story hot enough to make a dispatcher’s blood
boil. Not that the turnpike didn’t already have the worst
reputation on the loop. It was already known as a 218-mile
strip of hell, where a man could expect anything from a
spin-out to a hijack. There were always rigs getting into jams
32
Handcuffed suspect (I.) remained stoney-faced while authorities confronted him with evidence.
Aisin
with crooks, hot rods and pileups from fog-wet brakes on
the murderous Allegheny drops. Senator Wayne Morse of
Oregon, in a congressional inquiry into the Pennsylvania
toll road’s growing reputation for accidents and murders,
called the Pike “the worst stretch of highway in the world.”
But truckers don’t shy away from an express highway on
account of its rep. The Pike is fast, and the big land freight-
ers are strictly in the market for speed. Dangerous or no,
the Pike is the quickest way from Ohio to the East; it tun-
nels through the Alleghenies over an abandoned railroad
bed with seven major bores and a maximum grade of three
per cent. Although the news of what happened to Les Wood-
ward spread from truck stop to truck stop across the coun-
try, the fact that he had been murdered while he slept at
the side of the road did nothing to cut down on the normal
truck traffic which barreled over the Pike in the next two
days.
N Monday night, July 27, another auto-carrier slammed
its two transmissions into low gear and ground up the
grade to the Beaver Valley entrance of the Pennsylvania
turnpike. According to the toll ticket, the time was 7:18 P.M.
There was lots of light and after a washboardy ride on
Route 88 through Sewickley, Hank Pitts, the driver, was
glad to feel the bolognas churning on smooth highway. ;
Hank was hauling “postholes,” which is to say his carrier
POLICE FILES
Reccaningnanleanannataiensnds seni Meta sense
was empty. He had delivered a load of Fords to Himmer
Motors in Coraopolis and was headed back to Norfolk, the
terminus of his run. The Dodge rolled fast and a cool breeze
churned through the no-draft. Hank took a box of Don't
Doze tablets out of his shirt pocket and started to Open it
with his left hand. Then he figured the hell with it. He was
tired after the long haul from the home office and a little
sack time was just what the doctor ordered. He began to
look for a good place and finally spotted a wide section of
shoulder about three miles west of Laurel Tunnel. He toed
the brake and listened to the swish of the compression in
the cylinders. The wheels turned slower and slower. Hank
eased the rig off the road, beaching it near a silver birch
thicket next to the gravel line.
It didn’t take long. Hank pulled off his shoes, stretched
out on the seat and commenced to saw wood. No one can
tell if he had sweet dreams or how long they lasted. Around
midnight, maybe a little before or a short time after, some-
body pulled up in a light, short-wheelbased car. This car
backed onto the shoulder as far as the door on the right side
of the cab. Somebody got out of that car, mounted the run-
ning board of the Dodge and fired a single bullet into the
sleeping man’s head.
You can get a million to one that what happened next
couldn't happen again in a thousand years. Hank Pitts had
a pal, a real good Joe from Hank’s home town, Bowling
POLICE FILES
Truck driver Harry Pitts was the second
victim of the Turnpike’s mad marauder.
Green, Virginia. The guy’s name was Hubert L. Parr, and
he’d known both Hank and Evelyn Pitts for a long, long
time. Not only had Parr talked Hank into becoming a truck-
er, but he actually went to bat for him with the Baker
Driveaway Company in Detroit, Michigan. Parr had been
working for the Baker outfit since January. Through his
efforts, Pitts went to work for them in March.
About 6:30 a.M. Tuesday, Parr was high-balling west up
the Pike in a Baker rig, headed for New Castle, Pennsyl-
vania. He tooled out of Laurel Tunnel and had rolled for a
couple of miles when he spotted a familiar tractor-trailer
on the other side of the road. It was a Baker Dodge with the
number 1001 decaled across the cab.
That was Hank Pitts’ rig, Parr told himself! He toed the
pedal and his air brakes coughed sharply. The carrier swayed
dangerously behind him, then followed the tractor to a stop.
“Sleeping,” Hubert Parr said to himself. “I'll hop across the
way and give him a hot foot.”
Parr trotted across the highway and came up quietly
around the right side of Hank’s rig. He stopped. He sensed
something was wrong before he touched the door. He missed
something, and realized what it was even while his hand
snaked up to get a grip on the mirror bar. There was a dis-
turbing lack of sound—no sound of snoring—not even the
sound of breathing. Parr wrenched back the handle. His
friend's face gaped open-mouthed at him from an upside
down position.
Hank Pitts was lying on his back in an attitude of sleep.
His shoeless feet were resting against the steering-wheel.
Over his right eye was a blood-encrusted bullet hole!
EWS of the second murder on the Pike spread like
crazy. The news brought with it tension, and the ten-
sion fathered tight-bellied panic. From Cleveland to Carlisle
the word was out that a nut was roaming the throughway;
that to highball a rig through the Allegheny cut was to haul
your freight through murder alley.
Even the cops were scared. State Police Commissioner
C. M. Willhelm and Major Andrew J. Hudak of the Greens-
burg District hightailed it to Laurel Tunnel to confab with
the brass who gathered at the murder site. There was plenty
of cause for alarm. In the dirt next to Harry Franklyn Pitts’
tractor cab was the brass shell of a .32 caliber slug!
The first thing the police did was to lower the boom on
every exit from the Pike. Every interchange was at once
closed to traffic moving off the highway. The lineups
stretched for miles as troppers checked every departing car
at the barricades.
The boys in grey were looking for toll tickets which bore
an earlier stamp than 6:30 P.M. They were also looking for
suspicious characters and guns.
Right off the bat they picked up a .22 caliber target pistol
and.a .25 caliber automatic. The first was in the glove com-
partment of a green Buick with Florida plates. The police
held a man at Gibsonia Barracks for questioning, but had
to return him an hour later when he cleared himself com-
pletely. The automatic was the (Continued on page 62)
33
Mec
He tore open her sweater and twisted
it back over her arms.
Tied as she was, the girl was helpless,
but she wasn’t cowed. “What are you
trying to prove?” she asked scornfully.
“I don’t know,” Huggins said. “May-
be I’m not trying to prove anything.”
He assaulted the girl and then open-
ed the car door and told her, naked
as she was, to walk home. Instead she
began screaming.
“I got mad and knocked her down,”
Huggins told the police, “and started
cutting her throat.”
The weapon he used was a steak
knife and later on Friday Sheriff's
Deputy Lloyd Oswald recovered it
from the ditch where Huggins said he
had thrown it.
After killing the girl, Huggins drag-
ged her bleeding corpse off the road
into the field, and drove the convertible
back to the theater, throwing some of
the girl’s clothing out through the win-
dow on the way.
The slayer was arraigned in City
Court and held for the grand jury.
Then he was taken to a cell in the
County Jail.
There are indications that Huggins
was contemplating a crime of violence
for some time, ever since the local
press reported the murder of a woman
in nearby Winona Lake. That crime
seemed to grip his imagination. He
went to a drug store and bought the
yellow leather laces used to bind Sally
Jo’s hands. He kept the laces on him,
apparently waiting for an occasion to
use them. About the same time, he
started keeping the steak knife in the
glove compartment of his car.
Any girl he would have come upon
could have been his victim. It happened
to be Sally Jo Wisenberg, the girl who
lived by herself, who had the bad luck.
The grand jury indicted the youth and
he went on trial in Allen Circuit court
in Fort Wayne. He was found guilty and
on Jan. 16, 1964 Judge W. O. Hughes
sentenced him to life in prison. Huggins
originally pleaded innocent by reason of
insanity, but once in court changed his
plea to guilty. *
Editor’s Note: The name Dave Den-
nery is fictitious,
DEATH RODE THE HIGH ROAD
(Continued from page 33)
property of a reputable Pittsburgh busi-
nessman who swore the gun was in the
trunk of his car since a hunting trip in
the fall of last year. He was held for
a while and then checked out to leave.
At the scene of the crime, Hubert
Parr made himself invaluable to the
questioning officers. He told them all
there was to know about Harry Pitts.
Hank was 39, a level-headed, quiet type
family man who didn’t have an enemy
in the world. The cops pressed him on
this point because of a theory which
was building up in their minds. Two
truck drivers had been knocked off
within thirty miles of each other in less
than three days. Both had stopped .32
caliber slugs’ in the head while they
slept in the cabs of their rigs. BOTH
MEN HAD BEEN HAULING AU-
TO CARRIERS ON THE FIFTH
WHEEL.
“Could it be that the killer had been
gunning for Hank and that Lester
Woodward had had the bad luck to be
mistaken for him?
In a way, it made sense. Both car-
Tiers had been headed in the same
direction. A GMC in the dark might
possibly pass for a Dodge. In the gloom
of night, Woodward and Pitts had the
same general build.
Against this theory was the fact that
Woodward had been robbed while Hank
Pitts was not. There was a roll of $89
in Harry’s wallet.
Lieutenant Eugene Fontaine wasn’t
making book on any theory at all. “It
could be a million things,” he said.
“Maybe the guy was a thief who got
scared away the second time. Maybe
he’s just a goon who had it in for truck
drivers, because he didn’t like the way
one of them looked at his girl. Maybe
he’s a crank who owns property along
the Pike and who’s sore because the
road goes through his land.”
This time, there were more clues than
before. The killer's car had backed off
the highway onto the shoulder. There
62
were tire tracks which showed that after
the shooting, the car had taken off in
a hurry, made a U-turn across the me-
dial line, then hit for the high clover
along the westbound lane. The cops
made moulage casts of the tire impres-
sions. They were fairly crisp, indicating
new tires or even a new car—a small
car, maybe a Ford or a Chevvie, judg-
ing from the depth and the width of the
treads.
One thing more: the killer had left
a print of his shoe sole on the running
board of the cab. This was photographed
for later reference. There was nothing
left to do but dust the cab for finger-
prints—and solve two murders.
HERE were enough facts on hand
to make a fair guess as to the time
of the second killing. In the cab, above
the sunshade, where Hank had stuck it,
was the toll ticket he received when he
hit the Pike at Beaver Valley. It was
clocked at 7:18 P.M. The speed limit
on the highway was seventy miles an
hour. The governor on Hank’s flywheel
kept him down to sixty, and that was
the speed which Hubert Parr claimed
Pitts usually maintained. At the outside,
Hank could not have been on the road
more than three-quarters of an hour
from the time he hit the Pike. That
would put him outside of Laurel Tun-
nel at about 8 P.M.
Working backwards when the body
was found at 6:30 A.M. rigor mortis
had not yet set in. According to the doc-
tors, rigor mortis usually takes about
six hours. This would mean that Hank
was killed somewhere around midnight.
This made sense both to Parr and the
officers. Truck jockeys take their sleep
in short stretches—rarely more than four
hours at a time. That the killer had
struck at about midnight, then, seemed
a reasonable surmise.
The fast magnification tests to which
the police subjected the two cartridge
cases at Greensburg, seemed to make it
perfectly clear that the same gun had
figured in both killings. But who was the
guy with the gun? What gripe did he
have against gear-grinders? And what,
the truckers were beginning to ask, was
\
anybody going to do about it?
A reefer truck, carrying dressed poul-
try in spray ice, showed up at the Perry
Highway interchange with a driver and
a guard armed with a_ twelve-gauge
shotgun. The cops took it away from
them and the word went out that no
armed drivers would be allowed on the
Pike. There were other regulations post-
ed, too. In Mechanicsburgh a sign went
up on the bulletin board at the truck
stop. It was in heavy black print and
it warned: “No driver shall be permit-
ted to stop at any time—anywhere—on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike except that
he pulls into any well-lighted truck stop
or Howard Johnson parking area.
This was a revolutionary announce-
ment. It broke the time-honored, un-
written rule of the road: “Stop and
Help.” The orders were that if a rig got
into trouble it was to be abandoned
where it was beached. The jockey was
to get right out of the cab and keep
walking until he met a Highway Patrol
car. And there were plenty of cruise
cars mustered for duty on the Pike. Not
only the cops were out in numbers, but
spotter cars, load checkers, liaison jeeps
and umpteen other trucking company
auxiliaries poured into the super high-
way for regular duty shifts around the
clock. The truckers were scared.
The freight still highballed over the
throughway, but the rumbling dread-
naughts gulped their gallon of oil or gas
every six or seven miles and punched
right through. Nobody slept on the
shoulder after the night of July 27. The
jockeys froze to their wheels, sweating
when their rear-views lit up, dimming
their brights for the “come ahead, pass,”
and breathing easy when the mirrors
darkened safely once again.
They couldn’t carry guns, but nobody
could take away their shillelaghs, or
their brass knucks, or their handy tire
irons. At the regular stops, the pileups
of trucks were like the rings of covered
wagons which gathered around camp-
fires in the pioneer days of the Alleg-
heny Trail. The jocks slept light and
fitful—if at all. They talked in whispers
and their faces were strained. They were
edgy men.
POLICE FILES
it ana anette,
tia £4
There was talk that a maniac was
loose on murder alley. The cops threw
more fat on the fire when they an-
nounced that they were looking for “a
Westmoreland County man, recently
released from an insane asylum, who
has disappeared with his father’s gun—
a .32 caliber pistol.”
Fury rode the Pike. Panic was there,
but wrath was greater. The gear grind-
ers wanted action and they seethed with
fuming indignation. It went right up the
line to Harry Tavis, Pittsburgh presi-
dent of AFL Teamsters Joint Council
40. He sent a telegram to Pennsylvania
Governor John S. Fine with an offer
to send 100,000 teamsters to help hunt
down the killer.
“I understand your concern,” Fine
wired back, “and~promise nothing will
be left undone to find the killers and to
guard other drivers.”
This was all well and good. The gov-
ernor was sincere. The cops did all they
could. The trucking companies threw in
a task force of their own. But the ter-
ror didn’t stop. The mad marauder of
murder alley struck again just two
nights later, on July 31!
HE patrols were out in force that
night. But they were out only on the
Pike. They made the mistake of figuring
that the killer would pay his toll to go
into his act. It was a bad mistake. While
they clocked up miles on the super
highway, a trucker by the name of John
K. Shepherd from West Alexander,
Pennsylvania, beached his rig near Lis-
bon. Lisbon was just across the State
line in Ohio, smack on the western
approaches to the Pike, on U.S. High-
way 30.
Maybe Shepherd thought he was out
of the danger zone. Maybe he crowded
his luck. All he knows is that he got
tired and that his payload began to
wobble on the turns. He was double-
clutching just a little too slow. He was
hitting the brakes just a little too hard.
He figured he could wipe out what the
jockeys call “driver depreciation” if he
hauled over on the shoulder and grabbed
himself a snooze. That’s what he did.
This is his story of what happened next.
“I heard this shot,” he said to the
cops when they questioned him later at
Salem Hospital. “It felt like I stopped
a terrific clout on the noggin. My neck
was on fire. I put my hands to it and
they came away dripping blood. I began
to get weak. Then I saw this guy.
“Mister,” I said, ‘I’m hit. I’m shot.
Help me, Mister.’
“I could just see the blurry outlines
of him. Young guy, with a white face.
When he spoke to me his voice was
high, just like a girl’s. ‘Take off your
pants,’ he says. ‘It'll help you breathe
easier.’
“It sounds crazy, I know. But I took
off my pants—and they disappeared.”
It was the mad marauder of the Pike
~—and no mistake about it. Captain Dod-
son came from Pennsylvania on the
double when it was discovered that
Shepherd had been shot with a .32 cali-
ber bullet, the jacket of which was
picked up by the ambulance interne in
POLICE FILES
the soft dirt at the side of the wounded
man’s cab!
Dodson discovered, upon talking with
the badly hurt gear grinder, that he had
not only seen the madman, but also his
car—a yellow or cream colored late
model Chevy!
As the Ohio and Pennsylvania police
combed the border counties for such an
automobile and for its womanish-voiced
demon driver, the hell strip through the
Alleghenies reflected the mounting alarm
which was begining to paralyze the
freight forwarders on both ends of the
Pike. The next day, August 1, saw no
great drop in the amount of toll road
traffic, but at night, it was different.
The trucks that went through high-
balled the strip in convoys. Gypsies and
wildcatters took in single rigs, but the
cops kept them moving between the
truck stops. Never before had truck
drivers come in for so solicitous an atti-
tude on the part of the Pike police.
Never before had the truckers them-
selves so welcomed such a display of
official attention. Every available troop-
er was mustered into service. Every
man of Troop A’s squadron 1 was put
on 24-hour duty call. The Pike became,
overnight, the safest stretch of roadway
in the United States.
The search for the killer's automobile
became intensified when it was definite-
ly established by Lieutenant Whitecot-
ton in the ballistics lab at Harrisburg
that the slug which wounded Shepherd
had been fired from the murder gun.
There was little to guide the police in
their efforts to locate the cream-colored
or yellow Chevrolet. They had only the
sketchiest of descriptions to go on. They
reasoned, of course, that the marauder
was holed up somewhere near the Ohio-
Pennsylvania line. His lair had to be
close enough to permit his maniacal
forays on the Pike and its approaches.
With droves of cops on the lookout for
him, he had to be able to duck in and
out of his hideout in a hurry. A syste-
matic shakedown of motels and cheap
rooming houses in Pittsburgh proper
and in the small towns of the border
area was at once begun.
A police guard was maintained at the
hospital where John Shepard was re-
cuperating from his nearly fatal gun-
shot wound. Shepherd had seen the
phantom and the phantom might not
like the feeling of being in jeopardy.
Even the trucker himself was in mortal
fear that his womanish-voiced assailant
might come back for a try at finishing
the bungled job.
The cops had a long session with the
gear grinder during which they talked
about the trucker’s missing trousers.
John had lost a wallet and a watch which
had been in the pants kick. The pants
were army surplus suntans like millions
of pair of others all over the country.
They'd be hard to find, even with the
laundry marks on their waistband,
which Shepherd supplied from other
clothes at home. The missing watch was
something else again.
It was an Elgin pocket watch, John
told Captain Dodson. It had a gold case
and fifteen jewels. The second hand
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64
was broken off at the tip and the un-
breakable crystal had cleavage marks
near the stem. Dodson became very
much interested in this watch. He fig-
ured that if the phantom tried to pawn
it, the watch might lead the police in a
definite direction.
The Pike continued to be a military
road which fairly bristled with vigi-
lance. The big rigs hustled through in
record time. The jockies gritted their
teeth and sweated out the run. Although
the companies rerouted when they
could, each night a quota of dread-
naughts rumbled through the cut, glad
to see the toll booth floodlights at the
end.
A dozen suspects were picked up by
the cops and then set free. The man
they wanted needed alibis for the
nights of July 23, 28 and 31. He had to
be tall and wiry. He had to speak with
a womanish voice and drive a light
colored Chevrolet. The police washed
out assorted nuts and bolts who didn’t
fit the bill.
N THE tenth of August, there was
an announcement in the papers that
the police had a man in Fayette County
Jail who might be the turnpike slayer.
They were holding one John Wesley
Wable, a 24-year-old screwball, who
had been picked up in East Cleveland
by Constable John Day and brought
to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to face
charges under a larceny warrant before
Alderman Robert F. Hopwood Jr. Wa-
ble was accused of keeping a rented
automobile without the permission of
the agency’ which owned it. The kid’s
family agreed to make restitution. While
the arrangements were under way,
Johnny was put into a cell in Fayette
jail.
Johnny talked to his cellmates in his
shrillish voice. The guys thought he was
bragging, but they weren’t sure. They
called over a trusty and told him that
Johnny claimed to be the Phantom of
the Pike.
The trusty looked John over. “The
guy’s a bug,” he said. “Next thing you
know, he'll tell you he shot President
McKinley.”
Word of the prisoner’s boast reached
the front office and the beagles took an-
other look at Johnny’s record. Minor
offenses, mostly. The guy was unstable
but that was about the worst you could
say for him. They had a little chat with
the kid and he mixed up his dates so
confusingly that his questioners decided
not to press the matter further. When
arrangements for restitution on the bor-
rowed car were completed, Johnny
Wable was escorted to the door and
asked to take the air. He took off like
a frightened pigeon.
Captain Dodson, meanwhile, was
plugging along in his all-out attempt to
get a line on trucker Shepherd’s watch.
Shepherd thought he could describe it
fully—until he tried. After fumbling for
words he sadly admitted that “one bis-
cuit is pretty much like another.” Sure.
It was a pocket watch with a gold case.
It was round—a little bigger than a sil-
ver dollar. But a lot of Elgin watches
fitted this description.
‘The trucker recalled where he had
bought the watch six years before. The
West Alexander jeweler remembered
selling Shepherd a watch—but that was
all. Although he had a list of serial
numbers on the original Elgin invoice
in his files, he had no idea which par-
ticular number matched the watch that
Shepherd had bought. Dodson came up
with an idea. He contacted the Elgin
company at its home office and ex-
plained his problem. He thought that if
the Elgin catalogues of six years back
contained photographs of the models
then in production, Shepherd might be
able to pick out the particular watch
which was his.
The Elgin company did better than
that. They forwarded not only the pic-
tures in question, but they listed on the
back of each one the progression of
serial numbers alloted to the particular
model.
It took weeks of telephone talks and
correspondence, but at last—on Satur-
day, October 3—Shepherd studied a pho-
tograph of a fifteen-jewel Elgin watch
and pronounced that it was the same as
his. The rest was duck soup. Dodson
and the jeweler studied the serial num-
" bers on the original invoice. There were
two which might pertain to Shepherd’s
watch.
That night, the jeweler went on the
radio at the local station and personally
appealed to his fellow townsmen in
West Alexander to come forward and
clear up the problem of who had bought
the second watch. Within an hour, a
farmer who lived just outside the city
limits telephoned the jeweler and read
off the case number of his Elgin pocket
watch. There was no doubt about it. It
was one of the two watches.
The process of elimination was now
complete and Captain Dodson had suc-
ceeded in obtaining the case and works
numbers of Shepherd’s missing time-
piece, as well as a facsimile photograph
of the watch itself. This information
was immediately incorporated into a cir-
cular which was forwarded to police
departments all over the country with
particular attention of pawnshop details.
A copy of this bulletin reached Cleve-
Ind, Ohio, police headquarters on Tues-
day, October 6.
The Cleveland cops, like those in
many other metropolitan cities, require
regular reports from hock shops and
other such places where money is lent
on collateral. These reports list articles
pledged, the amounts of the loans and
any distinguishing characteristics of the
pawned articles. Checking the bulletin
from Pennsylvania against these report
sheets, it was soon discovered that an
Elgin watch of fifteen jewels and bear-
ing the serial numbers of John Shep-
herd’s timepiece had been pawned on
August 4 at David's Loan Company, a
hock shop at 15207 St. Clair Avenue.”
Captain Dave Kerr, head of Cleve-
land’s Homicide Bureau, and Detective
Chief James McArthur had the watch
in their possession within the hour.
They also had the name and address of
the pledger!
g paw f#nan who had hocked the watch
‘had identified himself as J. Wable;
his address was listed as an east-side
rooming house.
A cordon of police was thrown
around the street where Wable lived.
Kerr himself led the raiders who kicked
in the door of Wable’s cellar quarters
in the rooming house. The room was’
empty—and from the looks of it, Wable
had lit out in a hurry. The drawers in
the bureau had been hastily cleared. An
old suit was hanging in the closet. On
the floor near the bed was a photo of a
pretty blonde in a Bikini bathing suit.
The blonde was quickly identified as
the daughter of a Bedford Heights tav-
ern owner. Located at her home, she
admitted being John Wesley Wable’s
girl-friend. Questioned, she confirmed
that she had seen the fifteen-jewel Elgin
in Wable’s possession on the day after
John Shepherd was shot. She pulled an-
other rabbit out of the hat when she
told the police that she knew where
Wable’s gun could be found!
The weapon, a German-made Wal-
ther .32 caliber or 7.65 mm automatic,
had been turned over to her by her
tall, skinny boy-friend. She had handed
it on to her father. The tavern owner
had turned the gun in to his friend, the
Bedford Heights Chief of Police!
Ballistics tests were immediately run
on the weapon for comparison with the
slugs which Captain Dodson was bring-
ing from Pennsylvania. When the State
Police contingent from across the bor-
der took a look at these micro-photo-
graphs they realized that the turnpike
murder gun was at last in their posses-
sion.
The blonde talked with Captain Dod-
son and his colleagues. She told them
that Wable, a native of Ohiopyle, al-
though he worked in Cleveland, had
been in the habit of making mysterious
trips to Pennsylvania in his car, a
cream-colored Chevrolet which he rent-
ed from a Uniontown agency.
This was the car, the chagrined offi-
cers realized, recovered by the Union-
town agency in the larceny proceedings
which had sent John Wable to Fayette
County jail on August 6! The law had
actually caught up with the turnpike
killer within a week of the last shooting,
only to let him slip through its fingers
two days later. What made his release
so grimly ironic was the fact that at the
time authorities had not taken seriously
Wable’s boast that he was the phantom
of the Pike! ’
The alarm went out for John Wesley
Wable. His mug shots and fingerprints
were on record. All over the country,
enforcement agencies were warned to be
on the lookout for the tall, rangy killer
who was believed to be armed and
known to be dangerous.
HE nationwide manhant came to a
sudden and dramatic close on Sun-
day, October 11. The last act was
played out in the vicinity of Albuquer-
que, New Mexico.
Late in the afternoon, a Chewvie,
white with alkali dust and bearing Penn-
sylvania tags, pulled up to the pump of
POLICE FILES
cash citi
si alee Ae cy
PCat
a gas station just south of Albuquerque.
There were three men in the car.
“Fill ’er up,” the driver demanded.
When the attendant handed back the
gas tank key, the driver grabbed him
by the wrist and produced a gun. He
relieved the attendant of $54 and head-
ed down the highway at breakneck
speed, sending up a cloud of. dust.
There’s no place to go in New Mex-
ico, if you stick to the highways. Within
minutes of the holdup, New Mexico
State Police had thrown blocks across
every road within a thirty-mile area.
The Pennsylvania Chevvie came barrel-
ing up to the first barricade at ninety
miles an hour. The troopers had just
time enough to leap out of the way be-
fore the car crashed through, splinter-
ing the wooden cross-bars with which
the road had been sealed. Careening for
a block or two, the Chewvie steadied in
its course and high-tailed on.
At the second roadblock, exactly the
same thing happened. The cops wired
on ahead and at Jarales a solid phalanx
of police cars started to move like a
massive wall north along U.S. Highway
85.
Two Albuquerque girls, a nurse, and
her friend, a railway bill clerk were out
driving that Sunday afternoon in the
girl’s car. Seeing the unusual amount of
police activity, the girls asked a State
Trooper what it was all about. He told
them that three fugitives were ‘trying to
crash out of a police trap in a Penn-
sylvania Chevrolet. The girls had an
idea. They figured that the fugitives
might make a break for it on foot and
try to reach the Santa Fe railway tracks
outside of Belen. The girls went there
to see if their hunch was correct.
The Chevvie came tearing down
Highway 85 at 96 miles an hour. Behind
them raced a fleet of patrol cars. The
wall-like phalanx was up ahead.
Below Los Lunas, the Chevrolet ran
into a snarl of movie traffic. The three
fugitives pulled up hard by the banks
of the Rio Grande. The driver jumped
out and headed west on foot. The two
passengers gave up flight as a bad job
and stayed behind. They were quickly
picked up by the pursuing officers.
Out near Belen, the two girls saw a
man standing by a side road near the
Santa Fe tracks. He was tall and rangy.
They got a good look at him, spun
their car around and went for the cops.
Within minutes, six State Police officers
took the skinny young fugitive into cus-
tody. They frisked him immediately,
taking away the gun with which he had
stuck up the service station. Then they
looked through the papers in his wallet.
Among these was a Cleveland pawn
ticket for a watch, made out in the
name of John W. Wable. The New
Mexico cops immediately realized what
they had.
It was a quick matter of routine to
check the prisoner’s prints against those
on the circular which had been for-
warded from Pennsylvania. In a couple
of hours Corporal William Smith, De-
tective Merle Musick, and Westmor-
land County Assistant District Attorney
Joseph Loughran were flying west from
POLICE FILES
Pennsylvania to pick up their man.
“What are you holding me for?”
Wable asked. in his shrill high-pitched
voice.
State Policeman Bill Lucas told him
it. was murder.
“You're kiddin’!” Wable exclaimed.
“T never killed anybody.”
So vehement was the prisoner in his
denials and so overwrought did he ap-
pear at the prospect of being turned
over to the Pennsylvania authorities that
the police kept him under heavy guard.
When Wable threatened to hang him-
self in his cell if the cops attempted to
pin the turnpike rap on him, he was
stripped nude and placed in a cell
where such a suicide attempt would be
impossible.
The other two fugitives, who had
been in Wable’s car at the time of the
holdup, were identified and told the
cops they had hitched a ride with Wable
after their own car broke down in the
Mojave desert.
Despite his protestations of innocence
—in fact, because of them—John Wable
waived extradition and agreed to return
to Westmoreland County with the Penn-
sylvania officers. “I’m just going back
to clear my name,” he said.
The Pennsy cops played it cagey. In-
stead of returning home by plane, they
decided that for psychological reasons
it would be better to make the long trip
by train. Along the route, on increasing-
ly friendly terms with the prisoner, they
figured they might be able to get him
to talk.
That is exactly what happened. Wa-
ble told a number of conflicting stories,
but he did make two vital admissions:
that he had pawned the watch and that
he had bought the murder gun a week
prior to the reign of terror on the turn-
pike. He continued to claim, however,
that he was not the actual killer.
“A guy named Parks did it,” he said.
“He’s a counterfeiter who works out of
Uniontown. That’s why I made all those
trips up to Pennsy. I was coming in to
buy up decks of his queer.”
According to his story, he regularly
met this “Parks” at the Uniontown bus
depot. Just before the murders, he said,
Parks had asked for his gun. Wable
said, “I gave him the gun and he gave
it back to me later—after the shootings.”
The watch? “The watch I bought from
a guy on the street in Cleveland,” Wa-
ble said. “I never seen him before and
I never seen him since.”
It was announced that on the night
of October 16, John Shepherd, the
wounded trucker, took a look at Wable
in a police lineup and listened to him
talk. He readily recognized the high,
shrill, womanish voice and identified
Wable as the man who had disappeared
with his pants on the night of the shoot-
ing. The police said that Wable “defi-
nitely implicated himself in every one
of the turnpike shootings.”
The police were sure the man “Parks”
was a figure of Wable’s imagination.
Charged with murder on Oct. 17th,
1953, Wable was tried for Harry Pitts’
death. He was found guilty and execut-
ed on Sept. 26th, 1955.
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ae
sek:
ont bat wa says to live ‘charles War.
zel, who ly. Yo: be. executed | ‘on. “Thursday
for ‘tie, riutder ot Mattie Bollnaky, awalts
“lis fate and: by ‘Teslgned: to ‘the end. He:
Ms bearing up. well under the awful vttaln
“under ° ‘which “he te: tadoring, ‘and unless
han unlooked ‘for: ‘collag xe: takes place, be
| will’ be dn falrly ‘ixdod's ‘ghape. to’ Et ae
end. on? Thursday: * Sheriff “Evans”
completed the arrangements: ‘for the “a
eculion and on’, account of the-deluge of
Téquests ‘for admixkion to-she hunging
ftom ‘proxective ‘Jurymen and others,
hhas decided to give out no Jpformation.
| regatding the personnel of the jury untll
Thursday when the.12 men suminoned for’
this purpase will be ‘present at the prison..
- The callows, upon . which.. ape
i
meet bis ‘end will be erected tomorrow In 4
the poutheast corner.of the ‘prison yard,
and none but those: bearing the cal
‘permits, will be. ‘allowed Iineide the doors
of the prigon on. Thursday, | All the pri-
poners will be temporarily removed to the
nerthern and western sides of thé prison
and“locked in’ med cells during - the ex-
epution. aon
Wariel “now: tecelves’ everything he
cravesin thé line of pfrovisiuns and
sleeps, ax comfortably as can be expect-
ed. He Is carefully -watched every mo-
ment of the day, and.only hie spiritual
adviser Is. alowed to visit him. He still |.
maintaing that he should not be hanged’
because'al] the evidence in his case has
not been ‘submitted, but this js merely
the whim of:a doomed man, and Js xiven
ttle credence by the: prison officials. .
' X masa’ will) Be conducted In his cell
at the prison, which will be: fitted up for
the purpose, and after the. -conclusion of
the same and ‘a: brief period for prepara-
thon and prayer, the death march will
be taken up and the execution . carried
‘out, No hitch ts bnticipated and’ every
i precaution ta ‘being made to have tne
imandate of the law carricd out without
;any mistake or mishap, y
a a en a
Isav Blt cae
CP ator ts | me
“SHle 1G O€
WO824 thd ed 9
o
4 ‘ ' :
The preparations for the exeeittion. of jit
Charles Warzel tomorrow morning at 10
Warzel has but one . more ancl on:
of
earth, as the | execution will “prog
to
all preparations for his exit from this | $b
life, «The execution: will be.attended by | ¢
comparatively few. as. the Sheriff is
determined to conduct . the. execution -as | fu
secretly as possible under ‘the law, =
The gallowa was erected dn the north. |
cast corner of the prison yard today and |\t©
Sherif Evang and his deputies who will
have charge rehearsed the gruesotne af. | th
a breakfast at 6:30 o'clock he will be
Polish church who will celebrate two M
at seven and the second at nine o'clock de
tire process of the:law will have been |.
Wartel Gets a Pitiful Letter. 7
a saloonkeeper in Shenandoah, and the| iv
letter contained a dollar bill for the] of
America and knew Popes
ss between Marie and Charles, but for 1k
he would’ not, «2.0%
aside and exclaimed, with tears fq Bras’
his eyes, “What use haye I for money. |)».
ae a now? -It’s all too late.” Warrel. exe“. Mey
o’clock have’ been finally arranged and/ plained to the warden, who was then Ae
the’ witnesses whom Warzel wanted - * Ry
testify in his behalf at his trial last |
set by the Governor, Warzel awaits’ the br yi Aare: vii hud tact eae a 5
nd and is x ‘o di d. {at the ime ;when it wou ave done -
end and is ready to die, and has mad6 © moat goo! Wiencioch, Warrel stat iG %
» knew of ;“his® sunstrokes jn: South = 2 S'2
the details of ‘the ."
be
me reason or other ul” not
me forward at the trial and endékvoy
explain matters,
In this letter, Wlencioch stated the: abs
fe]
\
9 girl was as much to blame. the
falr this afternoon, As: soon as dawn ‘tragedy ae was Warzel himself and thay . “ice
breaks tomorrow morning Warzel will|™lachief had been breeded) ie i ane o
be shaved, arid properly attired for the | ‘ouble between the pair. Warzelj ora
gruesome tragedy in which he is to- read thin, told the warden that With
play the most important’ part and after | loch and his wife had started th _Jeals
c Ousy on the part of Warzel re rdlng
; . ite | Marie and that Jf the raloonkeepdr and
turned over to the custody of his spirit. | aieyab
ual advisers, the Catholic priests of the | his wife lad not meddled in his dffalry,
arie would be alive today as hia ile
masses for the unfortunate man, one} 2% -he would not be condemned to
ath on the gallows. “Mut it is aM over
-—to these none will be admitted but the. ct I vess, and it's too late to-do ©
Prisoner and his church attendants, | | 2"ything more, Jo ge ame .
Warzel will then be., removed to a | When 1 wanted hima and now ho can’t.
cell near the prison Woor where he will | 4° any Sood. But I'm done trying now
bid @ last farewell to the attendants and and will not play the eaward When the
jury before the death march is taken|'!me comes. Warzel’ Tyee was. firm
up. This will be begun promptly at 10/874 he hooked his ‘friends straight in
o'clock and it is calculated that the on- | the eye.as he told this pitiful incident,
Tomorrow ‘ morning all the Prisoners
complied with by 10:43 o'elock. Occupying cella on the tiers facing ,the' °
il. yard will be transferred to cells. on
‘ . the opposite aide of the prison corridor,
A letter was recelyed by the doomed | xo that none may witness the hanging,
| man this morning from Josef Weincioch, | Every effort will’ be mado fo keep cur-
Us persons from gazing at the acene
/esPulSlicA
al |
feMavdlls JA
Mar,
“a!
shown the letter, that this man was one :'/
with all speed after the appotnted hour | S¢ptember; but refused to -havo-anything
bh
contents of the same throw a pitiful | from neatby housetops und walls, The. .
light upon the tragedy for which War- personnel of the jury will not be mad
rel is to pay' with hie Ilfe tomorrow, known until after the hanging and no
The sender, of the letter resides at No. | even then, if the jurors desire that their
‘43°8. West Kt, Shenandoah, and was names be withheld.) No undue publicity
an jntimate acquaintance of Warrzel at will be given, any feature /of the execu-
the time he resided in Shenandoah, The| tion and the.orders of the Sheriff and
Prison Warden Jin restricting the ads . /
condemned man, When Warzel opened | injxsiona to those Prenenting paksca will,
the letter and read that-hix friend had | without exception, be adhered to strict.
sent him this money, he bitterly tossed ly. ~ i
‘
Ne
‘
s
bay
386 COMMONWEALTH v. WALKER, Appellant.
Opinion of the Court. [814 Pa.
OPINION BY Mr. Justice MAxnry, March 19, 1934:
This is an appeal by Charles Walker, aged 29 years
at the time of the offense charged, who is under sentence
of death for murder in the first degree. He was con-
victed of the murder on December 6, 1932, of Lucille
Sharp, a 24-year-old widow, with one child. The weapon
used by defendant was a razor. A day or two before
the homicide the defendant threatened to “fix Lucille,”
and to “go downtown and borrow a gun.” On the day
of the homicide he took a razor, ascended the stairs of
the boarding house, where he and his intended victim
lived: she, in the front room on the third floor, and he,
in the front room on the second floor. Defendant in-
flicted nine wounds upon the deceased. Some of these
euts were eight to ten inches in length. Defendant's
sister-in-law, testifying for the Commonwealth, stated
that he passed her (the witness) “with a knife in his
hand,” shortly after the attack on the deceased, and that
defendant said: “I have done what I wanted to do and
I am willing to go back now and spend the balance of
my life in the penitentiary.” In the statement the de-
fendant made to the police shortly after he was arrested,
he stated that he had been friendly with Lucille Sharp,
and after a little argument had become unfriendly.
Later they became friendly again and the friendship
lasted until about a month before the homicide. He
said that on the day of the homicide he spoke to her
about using her influence with her friends to get him
a job. About 1:00 p.m. he went upstairs to ask her,
“Did she intercede about the job? Then she called me
bad names and it hurt me so at the time being and she
had no reason to do it and I lost control of myself, and
cut her.”
The defendant testified that at the fatal interview
Mrs. Sharp had objected to his attentions to one Irene
Baston, and that he said to her: “If this keeps up I will
be compelled to break our engagement. She went to the
bureau drawer and got something,” approached him and
COMMONWEALTH v. WALKER, Appellant, 387
385, (1934).] Opinion of the Court.
“flashed the razor. I slapped it out of her hand. I got
the razor and I cut her until she turned me loose.’*
He denied that he had any weapon in his hand when he
went upstairs.
The Commonwealth showed that about 1:30 p.m. on
the day of the homicide, Enoch Walker, and his wife,
Mattie Walker, the brother and sister-in-law, respec-
tively, of the defendant, and the defendant, himself, and
Lucille Sharp, the victim, and her son Edward, a child
of five years of age, were talking pleasantly together in
the kitchen of the house where they lived; that Lucille
left the group, went up to her room, and a few minutes
later the defendant went upstairs. Shortly afterwards
the persons downstairs heard a woman scream. Then
they saw defendant “coming down from her room with
a knife in his hand” and blood on his sleeve. They
found Lucille Sharp upstairs, face downward on the
floor of the bathroom, and in a dying condition, as a
result of the stab wounds inflicted upon various parts
of her body: two being in the neck, one in the abdomen,
one in the arm, and at least five in the back. In was
conceded that all these wounds were inflicted by de-
fendant. They indicated malignity of purpose and
ferocity of disposition. The large number of these fatal
wounds fully justified in themselves the inference of
the existence in the defendant’s mind of a specific intent
to kill the victim. This inference is further supported
by the defendant’s threat against the deceased and the
declaration he made immediately after the stabbing, al-
ready referred to herein.
The case was submitted to the jury under proper in-
structions, and the jury found a verdict of murder in the
first degree. This verdict was amply warranted by the
evidence.
The chief complaint of the appellant is that at the
trial of the case the Commonwealth was permitted to
show that defendant had been previously arrested, sen-
tenced, and convicted on two separate bills of indict-
i a a a roe SSS
SRS mR aes to oa
Rik cre na gaa re eB oe eo
Sin OF eT Be A
A cya carmen ms
Stet eae
388 COMMONWEALTH v. WALKER, Appellant.
Opinion of the Court. [814 Pa.
ment, charging him with murder, and corroborated such
testimony by offering in evidence the bills of indictment.
These former homicides were committed in 1920. One
was for the murder of one Samuel Laken, and the other
was for the murder of one Samuel Abram. To one of
these bills defendant pleaded guilty, and on the other he
was found guilty, and as a result of his conviction on
these two indictments, he was sentenced to a term of im-
prisonment of not less than nineteen years and six
months, nor more than twenty years in the Eastern Peni-
tentiary. At the end of ten years, i. e., in 1931, he was
paroled. The court in the charge to the jury made it
clear that the legal purpose of these indictments was not
to assist the jury in determining the guilt or innocence
of the defendant of the crime with which he was then
being tried, but for the purpose of enabling the jury
to determine whether life imprisonment or electrocution
was the appropriate penalty in the event the defendant
was adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree. The
language of the court on this phase of the case is as fol-
lows: “Members of the jury, you are not to consider
these two records in any way, shape or form in deciding
whether or not this defendant is guilty or innocent or if
guilty, of what crime; you will pay no attention to these
bills of indictment and his former record until you have
decided what, if anything, the man has done, and if you
then decide he has committed the crime of murder of the
first degree then for the first time, in considering what
the penalty shall be in that case, you have a right to con-
sider these bills of indictment as weighing on that ques-
tion, together with all the other evidence in the ease in
deciding whether you think, in the exercise of your dis-
erection, this defendant should be given life imprison-
ment or sulfer death, as the act says, in accordance with
the method provided by law.”
This court has repeatedly held that proof of former
convictions may be received in evidence for the legal pur-
poses so adequately stated by the trial judge. We re-
COMMONWEALTH ». WALKER, Appellant. 389
885, (1934).] Opinion of the Court.
cently so held in Com. vy. Harris and Sterling, 314 Pa.
81. See also Com. y. Stabinsky, 313 Pa. 231, 169 A
439; Com. vy. Kurutz, 312 Pa. 343, 168 A. 28 and Com.
v. Williams, 307 Pa. 134, 160 A. 602.
Strenuous objection was also made to the testimony of
Marry Laken, who identified the defendant ag ‘the
Charles Walker who had killed his father, Samuel Laken
in 1920. This testimony was admissible to identify the
defendant as the Charles Walker named in the indict-
ment then in evidence and it did not become inadmissible
by reason of the fact that it might tend to “prejudice and
inflame the minds of the jurors against the defendant,”
as appellant charges it did. If testimony is admissible
it cannot be excluded because of its possible prejudicial
effect psychologically.
In the record before us all of the elements of murder
of the first degree appear. The assignments of error are
overruled.
The judgment is affirmed and the record is remitted to
the court below for the purpose of execution.
Keck v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company,
Appellant, et al.
Negligence Se Evidence—Incontrovertible physical. facts—A ppli-
cability only in clear cases—Collision between trolley and automo-
bile—Derailment of trolley—Direction of automobile after accident
—Places of damage to trolley.
1. Unless the evidence in an action of trespass stands definitely
fe 2 to incontrovertible physical facts, the case must be sub-
mitted to the jury, no matter how stron ii
g the counte
mabe TAG g ervailing proof
= In an action of trespass, testimony presented on behalf of
plaintiff that the automobile in which plaintiff was riding had
niin with its front wheels just over the western rail of the south-
ound track at the intersection, in order to permit northbound
mii to pass, and that defendant’s trolley crashed into the automo-
ue just after it had swung to the right in an effort to avoid the
_
Te sa ey : ‘ : CRETE CSET R A! |
» ‘Elizabeth, white, hanged at Chester, Pennsylvania, on January 3, 1786.
"PROM THE: BELLEFONTE PATRIOT - In our last we published some particulars respecting the
death of a Mr. Wilson, who died near Harrisburg. Since that we have been furnished with
b oe small pamphlet, by a friend, containing the confession of his sister, Elizabeth Wilson,
Y
; Or: better. But here we must drop a tear}! What heart so tard as not to-melt at
}
‘an-aching heart, he has been concerned about me, kind and tendkr to mes; I hope the Lord
_ from the honorable the President and Council to delay the execution; but through unex-
- pected and unavoidable hindrances on the road, did not arrive until TWENTY-THREE minutes
from which ‘we extract the following particulars, by way of illustration to what has al-
ready been published on the subject:
"Borough of Chester, Jan. 5, 1786. On the 3rd inst. was executed here, pursuant to her
sentence, Elizabeth Wilson, charged with the murder of her twin illegitimate infants, on
the” loth. of October, 1784. As the case of this woman is of a singular nature, has en-
grogsed the public attention, and as there are various reports circulating respecting her, |
the-following narrative, drawn up at the request of a person unconnected with her, may
be acceptable at this time (Pamphlet, page 1).....1t was sometime after she was sentenced, |
before she could be prevailed upon to make a discovery of the person that committed the |
horrid murder. She was very desirous of seeing ner younger brother, When he came to |
_ visit her,” “she poposed to him the making a real discovery of the truths; he refused hearing
it until he had called seversl persons of cheracter as witnessessecseces «(Page h)- January
3rd, the morning of her execution, whe was again visited by one of the before mentioned
ministers, and other serious persons, who spent some time with her in religious exer-
cises. When informed there was no respite for her, and was desired to prepare for death, .
she received the awful summons with a considerable degree of composure; and after a short
space, said "she did not expect to live." Hearing that her brother was gone in haste to
Philadelphia, she was much moved, and said "my poor brother is gone to Philadelphia whth
will reward him for all his care."' The execution wes prolonged to give time for her
brother's return from Philadelphia. The moment before she was turned off, the sheriff
-asked her if with her dying breath the sealed the confession she had made. When she
understood who spoke to her, she moved her hand and said, "I do, for it is the truth."
And in a moment she was turned off, and quickly left the world, in exchange, we hope,
numan woel, Her brother came in all haste from Philadelphia, with a respite or letter
after the solemn scene was closed. When he ae with the respite in his hand, and saw his
sister irrecoverably gone, beheld her motionless, and sunk in death, who can paint the
mournful Scene? Let imagination, if it can} He took her body home, and some efforts
were made to restore her to life, but in vain. The day following she was decently ‘intérred
anda large number of respectable people attended her funeral. The exercise was solemn; — |
a déep concern was conscious on the face of many, if not all, that were present. Thus i
ended the life of Elizabeth Wilson, in the 27th year of her aces; innocent, we believe, |
of the crime for which she suffered." DAILY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, Washington, DC,
‘Nove 30th, 1821 (3/3.)
"Died, ‘lately, at his lonely hovel among the hills, 12 miles S. EB. from Harrisburg, Penne,
Mr »-- Wilson, who for many years endeavored to be 2 solitery recluse from the society
of men, except as far as was necessary for his support. His retirement was principally
occasioned by the melancholy manner of the death of his sister, by which his reason was
also partially affected. She had been condemned to die near Philadelphia for a crime
committed in the hope of concealing her shame from the world, and the day of execution
was appointed. In the meantime, herxbrother used his utmost means to obtain her pardon
from the governor. He had succeeded, and his horse foamed and bled as he spurred him
homeward. But an unpropitious rain had swelled the streams; he was compelled to pace the
bank with bursting brains and gaze upon the rushing waters that threatened to blast his
‘bnly hope At the earliest moment that a ford was practicable he dashed through, and
arrived at the place of execution just in time to ~ see the last struggles of his sister}
his was the fatal blow. He retired into the hills of Dauphin County ~ employed himself
in making grindstones = was very exact in his eccounts, but observed frequently to be
estranged; and one morning he was found dead by a few of the neighbors, who had left him
the. “evening previous in good health." DAILY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, Washington, De. Ce,
October By (1621 (3/3-)
eittitt
rN
ag poveriet
S
f
nd examine fla fhes, Wi
hy had been put fo ot “Cath ta
th Tete
Vad bein cut
Jofant fwis whee bodies 6 were found tinder’
obstrved his deg Strafehir
i of a child tah
murder, Which she denies,
engl jn order tit hay fr
CSU 1, LIMi
swt but a Ute tine before the bodtes were dscovired
fms yania® Mut A week rT)
to Chester Gaol an suspicions of gnarl mace
Looe peter meigclesd forte
ey
cn pis fa bhich hte a brnglt Oot |
Tee cal
Spe obioen pitar whe 4
Yi ic uaaor tas aan ah
o " @
tafe
DOE & MEANS
re tn Mek. Sted. cas ee es ae
Dunbns | 1 £-2-1925 | See
VICTIM
SYNOFSIS
Pea) Pit ha aad nha abt Ft Sy user
olga rs DS ee tenea Sh “(Mledasane
or
hreLher, pele ce paste 2 a ey i Baa
(FEA Aagiadls t
hs bar tet of dilecturg Mh. whe had ted ix Mba flios
LS Ee. bie he Bens KL. Le EL tiie hee
back bb Liban sclarnad kad botly SEF fo Ani see
babi. liken arristd, paid te adoct ditecTivg bed fan ts
Si ee Pe Mikes agtens hy Lah
: dees nies
Mbeya Puled pede. fe Mihos ¥ iec ee
‘ le,
TRIAL
APPEALS
LAST WOROS
EXECUTION
SOURCE
FRANK WEWTON OFFICE SUPPLY-DOTHAN
vents W/22S/ 920 G2 1920 (220, odirfe/ag
7]
Read It Firs? In
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
d he said,
it?”
ed dinner
open and
the house.
door.
iah!” she
an’ tired
the same
rryin’ on.
. take ’em
way from
° me now,
‘r. Green,
sllin’ you,
1eeds my
‘ust leave
ver going
amed on
ie wasn’t
with his
or to my
orning I
nents to
Daddy’s.
He’d see
*t to bed
saiah to
onight,”
‘at busi-
because
e police
given a
S usual.
he first
ig. The
killers.
s who’d
» found
rd tube
ts had
d man,
ruggist
all his
told of
ey and
needy
or his
left. I
1 any-
“They ain’t nothin’ you can do,
Isaiah,” he said. “That boy ain’t in your
hands now. All you can do now is pray.”
“I gotta see him.”
“They ain’t gonna let you see him
now. Isaiah, you got to be Strong.
alah,” he said then, “you believe, don’t
you?”
“Yes, I believe.”
“Well, then you gotta keep believin’.
That’s your only strength, Isaiah. That’s
your rock.”
I bent my head and covered my face.
For more time than I remember I stayed .
that way. Then I Straightened. I wanted
to see my youngest son now, I wanted
to be with him. He was all I had at the
moment, he was my only comfort.
Although my cousin knew of Major's
arrest, Isaiah didn’t. And I didn’t in-
tend to tell him. Maybe he wouldn’t
“Yeah,” he answered. “ been
thinkin’ about it. I ain't never been on
a farm.”
“You're gonna love it, Boy,” I man-
aged to say. I patted his shoulder. “It’s
& good life in the country.”
mig comin’ back, though, ain’t I,
“Maybe you won’t want to come back.
You get that air in them lungs, maybe
you won't like the city.”
“I’m comin’ back when Mom’s here.
I’m tellin’ you that.”
“Sure.” Then, “Boy?”
“What, Pa?”
There was thickness in my throat.
“You're gonna be—good, ain’t you?”
“T'll be good, Pa, I swear.”
“You ain’t—you ain't never gonna
give us no more trouble, are you?”
“No more.”
“Okay.” I started to back off.
“Where you goin’, Pa?”
“Just—out. I'll be back. You stay
here, I'll be back.”
OUTSIDE, I told Fred that what I
needed was spiritual help. I know a
Preacher who lives near Egg Harbor,
ew Jersey, and that was the man I
wanted to see then. Fred told me to
80, he’d stay around in case any word
Fred told me he'd called the police
but no one was permitted to see Major.
And as for Isaiah, newspapers had
been kept from him. My hope was to be
able to put him on a train the next day.
Early the following morning, how-
ever, saw me driving to Mt. Alto. My
one great fear was that Ruth would
read in the paper about Major. I didn't
naw what ro.
‘ “Ruth,” I implored, trying to hold
er.
“I’m goin’ home!” she cried. “I want
to see Major!”
“Ruth, you're just gonna kill your-
self, you're not gonna do him no good!”
“Isaiah!” She had me by the shoulders
and was shaking me. “I just-want to ask
him one thing! I want to look at him
and I want him to look at me! And I
want to say to him—I want to say to
him, ‘Major, why did you do this?’
Major,” she repeated to herself, bend-
— over and sobbing, “why did you do
is?”
Because her condition was in an
arrested state and not contagious, the
doctors let her go home with me for
awhile.
We got back early that evening.
And there we learned astounding
news.
“Isaiah,” Fred told me, “Major’s been
released. But,” he added quickly, see-
ing my face go bright, “they've arrested
Isaiah. He’s the one they really want.
And it’s in the paper he’s confessed.
Him and two other kids.”
I looked at my wife. Major or Isaiah.
What difference?
“Isaiah,” Fred said. “It’s here in the
_— er want you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. They say you knew all about
it. They say you tried to hide him.”
He showed me the paper. I wasn’t
interested in myself, I wanted to see
what they said about Isaiah. And there
was his picture with two boys I vaguely
remembered seeing around the house,
James—Smiley—Crowson and Edwin
—Heavy—Walker.
The three of them had met at Glenn
Mills. And each of them was fifteen
years old!
From the paper, the boys said they'd
found a shotgun in a vacant house and
then bought shells to “settle a misun-
derstanding with the Tenderloin Gang”
—one of the kid mobs of The Jungle.
On Thursday they decided to rob a
jewelry store but it was closed. Instead
‘they settled on the drugstore. According
to what my son is supposed to have said,
he shot Mr. Wallfield when the druggist
“reached his hand for something”.
They fled without‘a cent.
The paper said, too, that police had
come up with the three after question-
ing hundreds of boys and hearing the
nicknames “Duce”, “Smiley” and
“Heavy” over and over again. The offi-
cials keep a file of nicknames of all
known criminals, and through this they
learned the youths’ real names.
They'd made a mistake when they
picked up Major. And, I learned, Major
hadn’t mentioned Isaiah to them.
AND there also in the story was the
announcement that the police had
sent out a wanted notice for me. ,
_I surrendered to them that same eve-
ning.
For more than seven hours they ques-
tioned me.
“Look, don’t tell us you didn’t know
the kid did it. What did you send him
over to your cousin's for?”
“I told you,” I tried to explain. “It
was on account of that woman com-
plaining.”
“And on account of that, you wanted
to send him south, huh?”
“I thought it would do him good down
there.”
“It’s pretty strange you waited until
that particular night, isn’t it?”
“All I know is I’m telling you the
truth.”
“What's this about you being a cop-
hater?”
“That’s not true. I never been in
trouble with the Law in my whole life.”
On and on it went, and even later,
lying in a cell, it seemed like I could
hear their voices in my head. It was a
horrible feeling being behind bars.
There's something about it that chokes
you, makes it hard to breathe. I can see
where it can drive a man crazy. Espe-
cially when he’s told the truth and is
innocent.
In a way I can’t blame them for not
-believing my story. And in a way, too,
it’s not even important to me. Some-
~-times-E wonder what E really would have
done if Isaiah had told me about it. 3
honestly don’t know. Maybe I actually
would have hid him. Maybe I would
have turned him over.
On Tuesday, July 30, I saw my son
again.
We were handcuffed together.
This was when he and the other two
boys had a hearing in the Municipal
Court and were held without bail on a
charge of homicide. I was to have had a
hearing, too, that day, but it wasn’t
held until the next. And then I was held
in $600 bail on the charge of being an
accessory after the crime.
I said only one thing to my son that
day as we stood handcuffed together. I
said, “‘Why did you do it, Isaiah?”
He looked at me, my arm rising with
his as he scratched his jaw.
“I don’t think I really did,” he an-
swered.
I don’t know what he meant. All I
know today is that Isaiah—who with
the others was indicted on July 31—is
facing the possibility of the electric
chair, for the cries of revenge are loud
everywhere. P
The story I’ve just told is Isaiah’s,
yet in a way I imagine I've also told the
stories of Smiley and Heavy and many,
many more boys in The Jungle. I
haven’t tried, I think, really to give ex-
cuses. And I don’t believe I’ve offered
any answers—for I haven’t got any.
The only thing I’ve got are questions.
What's to be done to protect the lives
of innocent people? And what can be
done to prevent boys from turning into
killers?
Send Isaiah and Smiley and Heavy
to the electric chair?
Will that help?
Remember this first. The youths who
killed that other druggist, Lewis Viner,
were sentenced to the electric chair.
Isaiah knew that, and so did Smiley
and Heavy.
Yet it didn’t stop them.
End of a Terrible Temper (Continued from Page 6)
then drove them to the Werner home in
Brooklyn Park.
_ “We got there about nine o'clock last
night,” Mrs. Goldberg said, “and stayed
until this morning when I called to see
if it was all right to come home.”
Myra Beth, when questioned, told the
story as she knew it from her mother
and from the time she had joined them
at eight. The son’s account fitted that
of Mrs. Goldberg. Mrs. Werner agreed
that they all had reached her home at
nine and had spent the night there.
The married daughter said she had
been in her home all night while her
husband, who attends the University
of Minnesota during the day, was away
working on his night job. He got home
arama
“Just before we left home, he said he
was going to call Andy. The Chief was
the only man who could make Jerry use
common sense.”
But Chief Nelson, who by then had
joined the investigation, said Goldberg
had not telephoned him the Previous
evening. The only call he had received,
the Chief said, was from Mrs. Goldberg
about six p. m. asking whether her hus-
band had phoned him.
Goldberg, the woman said, was her
second husband, A first marriage had
ended in divorce. She had two sons by
her former husband. One son, married
and a father, lived in Minneapolis. The
other was out of the state and hadn’t
been heard from in came tima
in-law at the University of Minnesota
where the young husband had been
called from a class.
The news of Goldberg’s death seemed
to stun the son-in-law.
“Where's my wife?” he asked
ee. “How is she bearing up under
He was assured his wife was in good
hands. His mother was with her and the
other members of the family.
“You might as well know right from
the start,” the young man said, “that
my wife’s father had it in for me.”
He said Goldberg had opposed the
marriage, which had taken Place the
Previous March. The young husband
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There's absolutely no other trirce Hla
1 think I know who did. I’ve got friends
that'll get him, but I ain’t telling you his
name until I get back to Pennsylvania.”
Still later, he admitted pawning the
watch. He said, “I bought it from a guy
on the street. I know him. I'll get him.”
Assistant District Attorney Joseph M.
Loughran, of Westmoreland County, Penn-
sylvania, Detective Musick and Corporal
Smith went to Albuquerque, where they
questioned Wable. He continued to pro-
test his innocence of the murders, but he
now said he had owned a pistol and had
loaned it to a man named Parks, a distribu-
tor of counterfeit money. Wable said he
was a pusher of bogus bills for Parks. _To
do his boss a favor he had let him use his
gun, but he had no idea what Parks wanted
with it. Also, as a favor, he said, he had
pawned the watch for his employer.
“TI can prove I was working in Cleveland
at the time of those killings,” he said. “I
want to,go back to Pennsylvania to clear
my name.” Y
Wable waived extradition. On October
14th,! he started the long trip back East
with Musick and ‘Smith.
In Pennsylvania, he changed his story
again. Admitting that he was present at
the time of the fatal shootings, he insisted
that Parks had done the actual killings.
However, under Pennsylvania law, a per-
son present at the commission of a felony
is as much to blame as the actual criminal.
Authorities placed no _ credence in
Wable’s frequently changing stories. On
October 16th, he was taken to Milepost 97.
He showed where Pitts had parked his
trailer truck and indicated the driver’s
position at the time of the shooting.
Wable then was taken to Milepost 67,
where he showed the location of Wood-
ward’s truck at the time of the shooting.
Later that. day, John K. Sheperd con-
fronted Wable. Sheperd identified the
suspect as the man who talked to him near
Lisbon, Ohio.
“That's the man who said he'd get help
for me and took off my pants to make me
_comfortable,” Sheperd declared. “I could
never forget that face or that voice.”
Wable was arraigned on a charge of
murder before Greensburg, Pennsylvania,
Alderman Henry Frederickson. He was
held without bail for grand jury action.
“There’s nobody else involved,” Captain
Dodson told newspapermen.
- Back in Cleveland, Margie Stuart said,
“T never knew. He seemed like a nice
fellow.’ In Uniontown, Pennsylvania,
Wable’s mother sighed, “It's a relief to
know ‘he’s in custody and alive. Maybe
he’ll be able to prove he had nothing to do
with the turnpike killings. We have
faith.’ Welch, Wable’s former cellmate,
shrugged his shoulders. “What do you
know?” he asked. “And I:thought he was
a screwball.”
But the law had only begun its innings
against John Wesley Wable. Appearing be-
fore a Westmoreland County grand jury,
Wable was indicted separately for the
murders of Harry Pitts and Lester Wood-
ward, and for the shooting of John Shep-
erd. It was decided to try him for the
Pitts murder first.
The trial convened on March Ist, 1954,
before Judge Edward G. Bauer in West-
moreland County Court at Greensburg.
The district attorney’s office revealed its
strategy when Assistant D. A. John A. Best
ounced that he would introduce evi-
ence concerning all three shootings, al-
hough only the Pitts case was on trial.
Holds the jury, ‘These crimes are so
rwoven, it would be impossible
5 cy é “by ct ie
-immedia
ay eT
—
trucker, and her nine-year-old daughter,
Joyce, dabbed at their eyes and sobbed.
Wable’s family stood loyally at his side.
His father testified that John had been
home in bed the night that Lester Wood-
ward was murdered, and the accused told
the court he had gone to the movies the
night before, arriving home at 11:30 or 12
aM. He ate a sandwich and went to bed,
Wable testified.
He continued to’ deny shooting the three
truck drivers. He explained a statement
he had signed in jail in Albuquerque, con-
fessing he had been “in the immediate
area” at the time of the shootings, by say-
ing he had loaned the gun to Jim Parks, for
whom he had worked passing counterfeit
bills. He passed $4000 or $5000 of these
bills in the Pittsburgh area, he said. He
had let the armed Parks out of his car on
the turnpike each night of the killings, he
said, picking him up later.
This statement apparently was just what
the prosecution had been waiting for. They
immediately introduced as a rebuttal wit-
ness, John L. Kettl, a special agent in
charge of the Pittsburgh office of the
United States Secret Service. Wable had
said that the counterfeit bills had been
passed during June and July, and were in
denominations of $5, $10, $25 and $50.
: August issue of 3
: on sale at all :
° newsstands June 30th .
© cc rccccccccccccccccocceese
Kettl disproved this with figures from his
records. He told the jury that a total of
only $1626 in bogus money had come to his
attention from June Ist to November 30th,
1953. He said that all but two of the bills
were in denominations of $10 and $20.
There had been no general circulation of
$5 and $50 bills in the’ Pittsburgh district
for the past three years, Kettl had never
heard of a counterfeiter known as Jim
Parks. .
Neither, apparently, had anybody else.
Kettl was followed to the witness stand
by Pennsylvania State Police troopers,
Corporals Schnabele and Smith and Ser-
geants Luther and Chrin. Schnabele and
Luther testified that they had spent the six
days, beginning October 19th, 1953, search-
ing for the phantom Parks who, Wable
said, drove a Cadillac.
The troopers had questioned associates
in Wable’s home town, Ohiopyle, and in
bars, service stations and other places he
frequented in Uniontown and Pittsburgh,
including the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh
where Wable said he and Parks had regis-
tered in June. There was “no record of
Jim Parks. The Pennsylvania Bureau of
Motor Vehicles had no record of a Cadillac
owner by that name in 1952 or 1953.
Having disposed of the Parks myth, the
prosecution produced a series of witnesses
who located Wable on the turnpike the
nights of both murders.
The first witness was Joseph Kunkle, a
part-time toll collector at the Donegal in-
terchange. Kunkle testified that he first
1
rd murder. He said that
“wed ‘his car near the toll
AS was diting for his
ye Seaedlige ;
e night of July 26th, one night °
brother. Kunkle next saw Wable the fol-
lowing night. He said that Wable bought
him a cup of coffee and they talked for
two hours.
The following night—the night that Pitts
was murdered—Wable again came to Kun-
kle’s toll gate, the toll keeper said. He
said that h¢ did not have 15c for the toll
charge. Because Wable had bought him
coffee the night before, Kunkle said he
paid the toll charge himself. He said that
Wable had left the turnpike at 2:30 A.M.
Pitts’ death had been estimated as between
1 and 2 A.M.
This seemed to place Wable on the turn-
pike the night of the Pitts murder. A
waitress in a turnpike eating place, Mrs.
Ruth Pinkerton, now placed him there
three nights earlier—the night that Lester
Woodward was killed.
Mrs. Pinkerton said that she had served
Wable a cup of coffee between 4 and 5
a.m. on the morning of July 25th, and
that he seemed “quite nerrgpr.” “Wood-
-~ward’s death had been estinij"el as some
hours earlier.
The prosecution had now not only ex-
ploded the Jim Parks alibi, but had estab-
lished that Wable was on the turnpike the
night of both murders—and that he was
alone. i
Ballistics tests had proved that the gun
found in the home of Wable’s girl friend,
Margie Stuart, had been used in all three
shootings. Miss Stuart had testified on the
witness stand that Wable had showed the
gun to her at a drive-in theatre several
nights before the Woodward murder. This
same weapon was now identified from the
witness stand by a war veteran, who told
the court that he had brought it home from
Germany and had traded it to J ohn Wesley
Wable on June 28rd, two days before the
murder of Lester Woodward.
The next bit of damaging testimony came
from Samuel Scragg and William Cohen,
an employee and a partner in the Davids
Loan Company, a pawnshop in Cleveland.
Scraggs identified Wable as the pawner of
John Sheperd’s watch, and both men iden-
tified the pawn tickets signed with the
name “John Wapel.”
On March 13th, two weeks after the mur-
der trial began, the longest in the history
of Westmoreland County, Judge Bauer
wound it up with a three-and-one-half-
hour charge to the jury. The jury of five
women and seven men, after deliberating
three hours and 45 minutes, voted John
Wesley Wable guilty of murder in the first
degree. Their verdict made the death
penalty mandatory.
Wable blinked once. His mother and
two sisters broke into tears. His attorney,
A. C. Scales, filed an appeal on the grounds
that Judge Bauer had allowed the state to
submit evidence pertaining to the Wood-
ward and Sheperd shootings. The date of
the actual sentencing was deferred pending
the appeal. ,
In Albuquerque, two young wamen who
had played cops and robbers wondered
whether they would receive the $11,000
reward offered for the killer’s arrest. And
from Valley Forge to the Ohio line, thou-
sands of men who earn their living driving
the 'juggernauts-of the highway, breathed _
more easily. They could work again with-
out fear of the Phantom of the Turnpike.
Captain Dodson summed it up by saying:
“what did these crimes mean? A few
measly bucks at the cost of two lives, and -
another man nearly died.” oe¢
Eprror’s Note?
The name Margie Stuart, as used in
the foregoing story, is not the real name
of the person: concerned. This person
has been given-a fictitious name to pro-.
tect her identity.
AE peer Pn Sao 2
En
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ng speci-
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Irs. Esme
‘an, 36, an
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rom their
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e went to
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found him
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(R LIVE
-night res-
rrived at 4
May 2nd,
, Bradford,
found the
ig, a coffee
it the wait-
egister was
taken from
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Mrs. Brad-
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a small hole
have been
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id been kid-
»ne who had
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learned that
innyhill, 26,
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in army de-
in Ohio and
eck for-
reported
lan.
picked up in
m May 16th.
: said Tanny-
search of the
1 abirt,
On May 31st Tannyhill was discovered
to be in the state penitentiary at Lan-
sing, Ohio, under a sentence of 10 to 20
years for armed robbery in Wellington,
Kansas. The governors of Kansas and
Ohio released Tannyhill to the Fremont
sheriff and he was returned to Fremont
to stand trial for murder.
There he confessed that he had taken
the waitress with him, so that she could
not report the robbery of the restaurant.
He had intended, he said, to set her free
some distance from town, but she knew
who he was, and so he couldn’t let her
live. He struck her, he said, with the staff
section of his automobile jack.
On June 15th a grand jury indicted
Tannyhill on two counts: murder during
the course of a robbery and murder with
deliberate and premeditated intention.
He pleaded innocent because of insanity,
at his trial. But doctors who had pre-
viously examined him declared him
legally sane.
On October 12th a jury found Tanny-
hill guilty of first-degree murder. The
jury failed to recommend mercy, thus
making the death penalty mandatory.
Shirley Bradford
THE PHANTOM OF THE
TURNPIKE
(TD July, 1954)
One of the longest trials in the history
of Westmoreland County came to an end
on March 13th, 1954, when John Wesley
Wable, then 24, was found guilty of
shooting to death Harry Franklin Pitts,
39, of Bowling Green, Virginia, as he
slept in his truck near Milepost 97 on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike. The date was
July 28th, 1953.
County Judge Edward G. Bauer sen-
tenced Wable to die in the electric chair,
but a series of appeals were to prolong
his life another year and a half. Wable
was identified as the phantom killer who
had _ previously slain another trucker,
Lester B. Woodward, of Duncannon,
Pennsylvania, and wounding a_ third
trucker, who fortunately was able to de-
scribe his assailant. And pawned items
stolen from the truckers were traced to
Wable, as was the gun from which the
lethal bullets were fred,
Wable was captured after a 100-mile-
an-hour automobile chase near Albu-
querque, New Mexico, on October 12th,
1953, only a few days after detectives
had recovered from a pawnshop a watch
belonging to the injured trucker.
After losing two desperate last-min-
ute appeals to spare his life, Wable was
executed in the electric chair at Rock-
view Penitentiary, Bellefonte, Pennsyl-
vania, on September 26th, 1955.
DEATH OF THE RODEO STUNT
RIDER
(TD October, 1955)
Raymond McGowan, 42, was a rodeo
performer and proprietor of a riding
academy in Dallas, Texas. It was said
that McGowan treated horses better
than he treated women. Perhaps he un-
derstood horses. He did not understand
women.
His wife, Polly, a vivacious blonde of
19, was a trick rider, a horse trainer and
an instructor in the art of trick riding.
After six years of marriage, marred by
a series of stormy scenes, Polly told him,
“Pm not a horse that you’re breaking
and I won’t be treated like one.” Even-
tually she left McGowan and on July 6th,
1955, filed divorce papers against him.
Taking her horses with her, she set up a
school for trick riding near Waco, Texas.
On July 10th Polly drove to a motel
on Highway 6 in Waco to pick up Bobby
Royce Darby, 21, and take him to the
ranch for a riding lesson. While she
waited in the living room of the cabin
for Bobby to finish shaving in the bath-
room, she was shot to death. Bobby,
rushing to her assistance, was also slain.
Shortly after the murders Raymond
McGowan turned over a .22 caliber pis-
tol to the sheriff, On August 12th Mc-
Gowan was indicted by a McLennan
County grand jury, charged with the
two murders, Ballistics tests proved that
the bullet which took Polly McGowan’s
life came from the gun surrendered by
her husband.
On September 23rd a jury convicted
Raymond McGowan of murdering his
former wife. They set the punishment at
5 years in prison and recommended that
the sentence not be suspended.
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THE LETTERS HELD THE KEY
(TD August, 1954)
Mrs. Ruby Hustad Kauhl Berg, 36,
-an attractive brunette divorcee, was a
play-girl popular in the Chicago night
spots. But she saw the new year, 1954,
in alone in her West Side apartment,
She did not see many hours of 1954. Her
body was found three days later in her
living room, nude except for white bobby
sox. She had been slugged and shot in
the head.
Police found a pad of yellow paper
which held an imprint of a letter she
had apparently written during the early
hours of New Year’s Day. They deciph-
ered some of the words: “Sat in his car
- Tings doorbell about 2:30 ao yor
anything happens to me, you know
what to do.”
Ruby’s two former husbands were
questioned and cleared. Another sus-
pect was Curtis King, who lived in the
Same apartment house and was em-
ployed at the motor plant where Ruby
worked. Arrested and questioned at
headquarters, King made statements
that suggested he was present when
Ruby was shot, although he did not ad-
mit killing her. Later he repudiated
his statements, claiming they were forced
from him. And on May 18th, 1954, the
murder charge against Curtis King was
dropped in Criminal Court, Chicago,
The prosecution declared that there was
no solid evidence against him, except for
the unsupported statements, which he
had repudiated.
If the le held the key to the slay-
_ing-ef-Ruby Berg, no lock has been found
Which they will fit.
THE PHANTOM OF THE TURNPIKE
(TD July, 1954)
During the summer of 1953 the Penn-
sylvania Turnpike, from Valley Forge to
Ohio, was haunted by a phantom killer,
Truckers pulling to the side of the high-
way for a nap en route were shot with-
out warning as they slept. On July 25th
Lester B, Woodward of Duncannon,
Pennsylvania, was Slain in the cab of
his truck near Milepost 67, Three days
later, at Milepost 97, Harry Franklin
Pitts, 39, of Bowling Green, Virginia,
Was shot to death as he slept.in the cab
of his truck. Both truckers had been
robbed.
One trucker who survived a similar
shooting was able to describe his assail-
ant. And eventually John Wesley
Wable, 24, who had pawned a Watch
belonging to the trucker, was identified
as the phantom turnpike Slayer, A gun
belonging to Wable was identified by
ballistics tests as the Weapon used in the
slaying of Woodward and Pitts.
+Charged with the murder of Harry
Pitts, Wable went on trial in Westmore-
land County Court. It Proved to be
one of the longest trials in the history of
the county. On March 13th, 1954, two
weeks after the trial began, a jury of 5
women and 7 men found John Wesley
Wable guilty of murder in the first de-
gree. The verdict made the death sen-
tence mandatory.,
Sentence was deferred pending ap-
peals, but on December 28th, 1954, West-
moreland County J udge Edward G.,
Bauer said that Wable was not entitled
to a new trial. He sentenced him to die
in the electric chair,
Cenia Eidson bet
STRANGLED BEAUTY IN THE
PALMETTOS
(TD April, 1955)
On Wednesday, April 13th, 1955,
Walter Lee “Lucky” McDaniel, 28, was
sentenced to life imprisonment at hard
labor for second-degree murder in the
strangulation death - of Cenia Juanita
Eidson, 19, a Jacksonville, Florida,
beauty queen, = +!
Cenia, who was employed by a Jack-
sonville insurance company, did not re-
turn home at her usual time on Monday,
August 30th, 1954,» ‘She “was last seen
alive by two of her friends, riding in
rr ee ee
Report of latest legal developments
published by TD
Walter McDaniel’s car toward Old Mid-
dleburg Road. McDaniel, they said, had
offered her a lift home, as it was raining.
Her body was found on Sunday morn-
ing, September 5th, by a 12-year-old boy
who stumbled across it on his way home
from Sunday School. His grandmother
called police, who examined the decom-
posed body lying in a palmetto thicket
near the Old Middleburg Road. It was
promptly identified as that of Cenia Eid-
son. She had been strangled by her
own belt, which was knotted tightly
about her neck,
On December 10th, after hearing wit-
nesses and evidence in the case for two
days, the Duval County grand jury
handed down an indictment charging
McDaniel with first-degree murder. And
on March 4th, 1955, a 12-man jury re-
turned a verdict of guilty of second-
degree murder,
Circuit Judge Bayard B. Shields at
once imposed the maximum sentence,
denying Defense Attorney Frank T. Can-
non’s motion for a new trial.
Asked by the judge if he had any-
thing to say before being sentenced, Mc-
Daniel said, “I’m innocent. If I’m sen-
tenced, you’ll be sentencing an innocent
man.”
NEVER TRUST A STRANGER
(TD December, 1954)
Fred Gates, 31, a beer salesman, met
an affable stranger in a Chicago tavern
on the night of June 28th, 1954, and
presently decided to go night-fishing
with him. He did not suspect that he
Was going to his death.
His body was found by a motorist a
few hours later, lying against the curb
on Simmons Drive. He had been shot
in the back. Detectives sought his
companion, called “Mel,” and a
man with his leg in a cast, seen by the
mégtorist who discovered the body. They
cHecked miles of parks and. 40 hos-
als and finally identified their suspect
as Melvin Moore Brewer, 22, who had
fractured his leg Playing baseball.
Charged with the murder of Gates,
Brewer admitted, “I shot him, but it
was self-defense.” But Police Captain
Golden inquired, “How, in self-defense,
do you shoot a man in the back?”
Brewer maintained that the shooting
resulted from an argument as_ they
were en route to their fishing spot. But
it was believed that Fred Gates’ well-
filled wallet provided a motive for the
murder,
On December 10th, 1954, Melvin Moore
Brewer pleaded guilty in Chicago Crimi-
nal Court to the murder of Fred Gates.
He was sent
nois State
Branch, ne
Two detec
on the case-
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DEATI
VENT
“A
i
pl
BY
TRUCK
by JAY EDSON
Driver Harry
; > ‘ m Bridge. The
Drivers of long haul rigs on the Pennsylvania Turnpike saw at on
ead. He d
: : % the state p
didn’t dare pull over to snatch forty winks Set ce
been discal
e ° ° Lester B.
while a weird and ghostly killer was on the loose Presumabl}
break” in }
| apparently
| before fleei:
| The inve
| HE GEAR-GRINDERS gave the run the name of the Continental Divide, to reefer crews who drove refrig- the ground
| 4 Murder Alley. The truck-jocks who highballed their erated trailers filled with beef up from the slaughter- the grass n
ten-wheeled rigs between Tollgate Number One at houses in Kansas City, Missouri. lieved to h
Petersburg and Barrier 30 on the Bristol ramp carried the “A guy by the name of Woody Woodward,” she told left the vic!
warning between Ohio and the Jersey line. “If you roll by them, “used to brake his rig here every now and then. He Westmor:
night, chew No-Doze on the Pennsy Pike. Don’t park for was pushing a piggy-back car-haul, going back empty out Mary Crun
a snooze on the shoulder out near Dead Man’s Row.” of Cincinnati. When he pulled up next to Milepost 67 for a assisting pa
At Jenny’s Truckers’ Rest, off the Warrendale Inter- midnight forty, they drilled him through the head and night of Fr
change, the coffee is strong and the sandwiches are thick. jacked his roll.” the dead m
There’s a bulletin board on the wall outside the gents’ room The truckers’ argot translated into a shocking entry on to Sergeant
door. Jenny, who kept the road-news up to date, hung up a the official blotter at Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, state police
road map with a circled “X” to mark the spot. In red police headquarters. On the morning of Saturday, July 25, The bullet
grease-pencil, she printed the words: “They shot him 1953, a motorist chanced to pull up alongside of an auto- pistol roun
here.” , mobile transport truck which was parked on the shoulder To-the tr
She repeated the story to high-liners who had crossed of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a half-mile west of Shafton murder of
Yrdlir- D.caictive
Lilt / iG f )
“8
i
’
{
a
with news. Another circled “X” was marked on the map
beside the gents’ room door. A flat-bed lumber tractor roll-
ing west reported that the patrols had arrested five teen-
agers in a stolen Ford just north of Donegal. A high-line
freighter which had crossed the Cuyahoga River in the gray
of dawn reported that the cops were “looking for suspects.
on the Ohio side.”
It was true. They were looking in Ohio. They were look-
ing in Jersey. They were watching along the West Virginia
line. ‘
At Ligonier, Dr. Crumlish clamped her forceps on the
slug which had plowed through the brain of Harry Pitts.
It came out whole. She dipped it in alcohol, then weighed
it on the scale. It was 93 grains, the same as the first. A
waiting cruiser rushed it east to Harrisburg where the bal-
listics section put it under the scope. There wasn’t.a doubt
in the world. Both slugs were 7.65 German automatic
rounds. They had been fired from the same gun, impelled
by the same madman’s itchy trigger finger.
Along the Pike the rigs burned rubber as the darkness
fell. The word was out. They passed tee the diners and in
gas stops all along the road. The didsels picked it up in
Oakford and at Steelton cut. “Chew No-Doze on the
Pennsy Pike. Don’t stop to nod.”
The titans rolled. The grinders fought the miles and
sleep. The great wheels thundered through the night as
truckers pushed in convoys of three or four. They rolled,
and when they saw a trailer stalled they stopped and
passed the word. “This here is Murder Alley, jock. Don’t
stop for a forty-break here on Dead Man’s Row.”
It was morning, Wednesday, and if the Phantom drove
the Pike on Tuesday night he failed to score. The news
had reached the bases of a hundred fleets. Trucking con-
cerns who used the Pennsy Pike began to reschedule their
runs. Those who could cut it off their routes sent their rigs
across the mountains over Highways 30 and 11. Others
boxed the time-sheets so their drivers rolled by day. But
that was not the answer and such felicitous arrangements
could not last. Freight was a greedy mistress and she ruled
the run. The reefers, dripping ammonia from their frosted
vents, were pressed for time. Beef couldn’t wait. Wiscon-
sin butter couldn’t spare the time.
Some drivers carried bats and nodded light. Some carried
guns. Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Colonel Cc.
M. Wilhelm promised to step up the patrols which’ cruised
the Pike by night. Mike Shipley, safety director of the
Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association sent a warning to
Teamster locals operating within his state: “Stop for
nothing, not even to help a buddy whose truck has broken
down. Don’t go to sleep on the road. In the event of a
breakdown, leave your rig and wait a safe distance away
for the arrival of a safety patrol car.”
Harry A. Tevis, president of Joint Council 40, AFL
Teamsters, sent a telegram to Pennsylvania Governor John
S. Fine, informing him that the Union was putting 50 pri-
vate cars on the Pike to aid the official patrols.
The governor wired back: “I deplore these killings and
will insist that every possible safeguard the state can fur-
nish must be given to truck drivers and others who pull off
the Turnpike to rest, lest their continued journey endanger
the lives of others. Every possible step will be taken to ap-
prehend the person responsible for these crimes.”
The governor was mos certainly sincere, but to the gear-
grinders making the run down Murder Alley words were
only a frail and impractical bulwark against the fear which
descended with the fall of night. Words were okay, but
when the truckers balled the jack down Dead Man’s Row,
the Union bosses would be asleep in their beds and the
governor would be safe in the State House, far from the
Pennsy Pike.
At Jenny’s and along the counter at Bill’s Place just off
Exit 12, the coffee and the talk was stronger than ever. The
rigs edged off the road and pulled up in the parking
squares. The jockeys picked up (Continued on page 17)
#4
Hundreds of drivers were frisked at Turnpike interchanges
Police said John Wesley Wable was their hottest suspect
fests en his «ale
comands
Death Went
By Truck
(Continued from page 45)
news. Dr. Mary L. Willard, noted criminol-
ogist and professor of chemistry at the
University of Pennsylvania, had examined
moulage casts which had been made of the
tire treads near Milepost 97. In Dr. Wil-
lard’s opinion, the car was light in weight
and the treads matched tires which were
standard equipment on 1948 model Chev-
rolets. According to the latest broadcasts,
the police had made several arrests. None
of them stuck. A number of theories had
been advanced. The Westmoreland County
authorities believed that the murders were
the work of a degenerate, possibly one of
a gang of perverts known to frequent
truckers’ hangouts in quest of a midnight
tryst. Other officials pointed out that the
killings had taken place in the full of the
moon, and that they might well be the
work of a mentally deranged slayer acting
out of a real or fancied grudge against
some trucker.
The drivers could only shrug. The “why”
was less important than the “who.” AXkill-
er was at large. Until the law had locked
him up, the Pike was hot. The run was
Dead Man’s Row.
There is no question that the zeal of the
patrols and the convoy tactics of the truck-
ers kept the Phantom of the Pike off the
toll road Thursday night. Madman or no,
he had more sense than to fall into a trap.
But the lust that drove him would not let
him rest. He shunned the Pennsy Pike and
moved over into Ohio. Here, with his
loaded gun, unseen and unsuspected, he
waited for a victim.
At 3 a.m. Big John Sheperd,a driver for
the Tower Lines of Wheeling, West Vir-
ginia, unloaded his flat-bed Mack at Salem,
Ohio. He was hauling steel “I” beams and
sheet. It was a spring-sagging load, ‘and
Sheperd was socks-beat tired.
“You can sleep in the yard,” the loading
boss told him, when the last of the girders
was swinging on the crane.
“Nah,” said Sheperd. “I’ll hit the road. I
want to make time.”
CORPUS DELICTI
His only chance now, the man from
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, thought, was
to cut up the body and scatter the
pieces before police could come upon
it and connect him with the crime. He
did his best, but like all criminals, he
overlooked one small thing. Police
found it, and quickly traced the dis-
membered car to him.
The judge gave him ten days in jail
for leaving the scene of an accident
after a hit-and-run collision.
—Dwight Evans
He was on the Lincoln Highway, rolling
_ east to Pennsylvania in 20 minutes fiat.
His eyes, red-rimmed from lack of sleep,
- were beginning to close. He knew he’d
never make it to the Pennsy Line. “I'll
take just a nod-break,” Sheperd told him-
self. “I’ll hit the Pike at dawn.”
A mile and a half southeast of Lisbon,
Sheperd eased the empty flat-bed over on-
to the gravel shoulder. He took off his
shoes and placed them side by side next to
the gear-box. Then he put his head down
on the wheel. In a minute he was snoring.
Half a mile away, a yellow Chevvy idled
toward the Pike, cruising well to the right
of the road. A cigarette dangled from the
driver’s- mouth. His_ hands. gripped the
steering-wheel hard.
' Big John Sheperd lifted his head and
struggled to focus his eyes. Someone had
swung open the door of his cab and was
cursing in a high-pitched, womanish voice.
It was a young face with thin-slitted,
cruel-looking eyes, Sheperd balled up his
fists and started to swing.
There was a roar and a flash, then white
hot pain went stabbing through the truck-
_er’s head, Sheperd struggled to keep ‘his
dimming éyes on his assailant’s face. Be-
hind the youth, he caught a glimpse of a
yellow Chevrolet.
The world went black. As he slipped into
oblivion Sheperd felt hands patting the
pockets of his shirt. He was pushed over
on his side and consciousness seeped away
from him with the blood that leaked from
the bullet hole next to his ear.
It was Sheperd’s remarkable luck that
the slug had only grazed his temple. It
was also his good luck that the driver of a
brand-new hearse found him within min-
utes of the shooting. Half an hour after the
murder attempt, the trucker, weak and
groggy from loss of blood, was lying in the
emergency ward at Salem City Hospital.
Sheriff Howard J. Clark of Columbiana
County and Lieutenant W. B. Umpleby of
the state highway patrol looked over the
flat-bed steel truck by the light of emer-
gency flares. Clark picked up the casing
of an ejected shell. First he thought it was
a .32, then he saw the German printing
etched in the brass above the numbers
7.65. This was the trademark of the Phan-
tom of the Pennsy. Pike!
Captain. Jack Dodson and Lieutenant
Gene Fontaine flew to Salem in a Pennsyl-
vania state police plane. Sheperd was sit-
ting up in his bed when the officers were
ushered in to see him.
“Try to remember everything you can
’ about this bird,” Captain Dodson urged
_ him. “You're the only one who’s seen him.
Did you get any kind of a look at him at
all?”
The bandage taped to’ Sheperd’s head
made it difficult for him to move his jaw.
“I saw the bum,” he said. ‘“I’d know him
again.”
He was tall, the trucker said, and young.
“TI figured him for 24 or 25. He had brown
hair, thick on top, but thinning on the
hairline. He talked like a woman, screechy
and way up high. I’d-know the bum again.”
“We hear he robbed you,” Umpleby said.
“Just what did he get?”
“He copped my pants,” Big John Shep-
erd said. “I must have had maybe 40 or 50
bucks wrapped in a roll. And I had an
Elgin watch on a leather fob.”
The watch was of immediate interest to
the officials. If the Elgin could be identi-
fied, it might prove a solid lead to the
killer,
“It was just fixed by a: jeweler back in
West Alexander, Pennsylvania,” Sheperd
told them. “He might know the marks. I
can give you the fellow’s name.”
The jeweler, contacted by phone from
Salem, provided the police with an exact
description of the trucker’s':;watch. It was
a yellow-gold open face model fitted with
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SS SRS AE ar rs a
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PREC sasoaaes
Driver Harry Pitts (far I.) was slain near New Stanton. Woody Woodward (I.) got his near Arona. Big John Sheperd (r.) survived
Bridge. The motorist, glancing into the cab of the truck,
saw at once that the driver had been shot through the
head. He drove to the phone booth at Arona and notified
the state police.
County detectives, who sped to the site, identified the
dead driver from papers in a stripped wallet which had
been discarded near the front of the truck. The victim was
Lester B. Woodward, 26, of Duncannon, Pennsylvania.
Presumably, he had been slain as he slept, taking a “forty-
break” in his vehicle at the side of the road. The killer
apparently had stopped only long enough to rob his victim
before fleeing the scene.
The investigators picked up an ejected shell casing on
the ground near the truck. They also found tire marks on
the grass near the shoulder of the Pike. These were be-
lieved to have been made by the killer’s automobile as it
left the vicinity of Milepost 67.
Westmoreland County Coroner J. R. Check called in Dr.
Mary Crumlish to perform the autopsy. In the opinion of
assisting pathologists, Woodward had been dead since mid-
night of Friday, July 24th. A perfect slug, removed from
the dead man’s skull, along with the brass, was forwarded
to Sergeant Edward H. Crowthers, ballistics expert at the
state police crime laboratory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The bullet was declared to be a 7.65 millimeter automatic
pistol round of German manufacture.
To the truckers who drove the Pennsy Pike, the wanton
murder of one of their number was grim news, but they
shrugged it off. To the gear-grinders, death was a normal
hazard of the trade. It was always there. It could come with
a jackknifed load around some hairpin turn. It waited in
the dark where a blown-down tree had fallen athwart the
road. It was ice on a turn, or brakes that failed, or an
ennui that overtook a driver at the wheel.
“Tough,” they said about Woody Woodward. But, none-
theless, they drove their runs. That was their job. The na-
tion’s freight rolled steadily along the highways, funneling
toward the Pike where the road ran straight and the miles
moved fast.
Three nights later, the killer struck again.
It was six o’clock on Tuesday morning. Hubert Parr of
Balty, Virginia, was on the westbound run, bucking the
wheel of a six-place auto transport owned by the Baker
Driveaway Company of Detroit, Michigan. Parr had been
rolling all night and was due for a nod.
Over the tree-line in the western distance he could see
the smoke of Pittsburgh, where it stained the morning sky.
It was still too early for the regular commuters, and auto
traffic was still quite light. All along the road, rigs were
hauled up on the shoulder for their “forty-breaks.” Parr,
yawning in anticipation, began scouting for a spot.
Across the median line which divided the highway, three
trucks were drawn up on the straight wide strip behind
Milepost 97. One was a flat-bed. Another was a trailer van
marked “Feuhr of Colorado.” The third was a Baker auto
transport, much the same as his own.
43
- Connellsville
DS
SWAN er
Frantic phone call from Arona, Pa. (A) brought state police to body of driver Woodward. Near New Stanton (B),
Phantom slew driver Harry Pitts. Four suspects were nabbed by state cops at toll gate near Donegal, Pa. (C)
Parr toed his brakes and scanned the cab. When he saw
the copper-colored horns above the driver’s seat, he
braked down hard. That particular auto transport, leased
to the Baker Company, was owned and driven by Harry
Pitts, a friend of Parr’s since boyhood. They had grown up
together in Bowling Green, Virginia, and had gone into the
trucking business during the very same year.
Parr edged over to the shoulder and pulled up on his
hand-brake. His knee was cramped. He massaged it with
both palms before he slid from beneath the wheel. He
touched his outside right rear tire while waiting to cross
the road. The rubber was hot against the skin of his tired
fingers.
The door of Pitts’ cab was pushed wide open. A pair of
stockinged feet were thrust over the edge of the seat. Parr,
about to tug at his friend’s ankles, caught a sudden horri-
fied glimpse of Harry’ Pitts’ face.
The cheeks were laced with rivulets of viscous blood
which started from a small dark hole at the side of the
prostrate man’s forehead.
“Harry!” Parr cried hoarsely. He could feel his throat
constricting. He touched the inch of flesh which showed
above the sprawled man’s sock, then gingerly drew back
his hand. a
“Harry—” he said again, this time in an anguished whis-
per.
“I knew he was dead,” Hubert Parr a few minutes later
told State Police Captain Jack R. Dodson. “There were
these two tractor trailers parked up ahead of him, but I
didn’t go near them because I was afraid of what I’d find—
there. I ran to the road and flagged down a flatbed truck. I
said to the jock, ‘There’s a man dead over here. Get help
as fast as you can. I’ll be waiting here for the cops.’”
Private First Class Harold Moorehead of the state police
came barreling up from the New Stanton Interchange with
Trooper David A. Drenning. Captain Dodson arrived
shortly afterward with State Police Lieutenant Eugene
Fontaine and Corporal William Smith. County Detective
Merle Musick drove out from Greensburg with District
Attorney Alex Sculco and Deputy Coroner Carmen Perna.
The driver of the Feuhr freighter, roused from slumber,
provided the officials with a slender clue. “I pulled in for
a nod about four a.m.,” the Colorado high-liner said.
“Seems like I remember there was a car, or a light pick-
up truck, parked next to the Baker rig. He pulled out fast
when I edged in off the road.”
On the chance that the driver of this suspicious vehicle
might still be on the Turnpike, an alert was flashed from
Gibsonia State Police Barracks to blockade all 30 exits of
the Pennsylvania toll road.
‘Detain all drivers who surrender tickets issued earlier
than 4 a.m.,” Captain Dodson ordered. “And stop any car
that looks suspicious. We’ve got a madman driving the
Pike with a loaded gun.”
Woody Woodward had been shot and robbed. Harry
Pitts, on the other hand, was found to be carrying a wallet
which contained nearly $70. Possibly, the officers theorized,
the killer had been scared off by the Feuhr freighter before
he could empty his victim’s pockets.
Detectives, carefully searching in the vicinity of Milepost
97, looked in vain for another ejected cartridge. They found
car tracks, however. The wheels had rolled out a trail of
blood like a stream of printers’ ink. These treads were crisp
enough to cast,-and from the angle at which they cut
across the road, the officers were certain that the killer
jumped the medial strip to flee by the westbound lane.
Deputy Coroner Perna removed the trucker’s body to the
morgue at Ligonier. Again Dr. Mary Crumlish was called in
to perform the’ autopsy.
Harry Pitts’ Turnpike ticket, found under the visor of
the transport’s cab, indicated that the trucker had entered
the toll road at the Beaver Valley Interchange at 7:18 on
Monday night. His clipboard secured a receipt for four 1953
Fords which had been delivered to Himmer Motors at
Coraopolis at 6:05 a.m.
Up and down the Pike, the troopers were checking cars.
At the Perry Intersection, three men in a Florida Nash
were escorted to Gibsonia State Police Barracks when a .22
caliber pistol was found in the glove compartment of their
automobile. In the car of a Pittsburgh businessman, in-
spected at the Harmarville tollgate, troopers found a .25
caliber automatic. The driver was held for questioning by
the Allegheny County sheriff’s office.
At Jenny’s Truckers’ Rest the rigs pulled off the road
with ne
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a 15-jewel movement. The case was in-
scribed with a scratch-number, J-108081.
The works were engraved with the serial
number, 7601.
All that was needed now was that this
particular watch turn up at a pawnbrok-
er’s or some such place where the killer
might try to dispose of it. And this was a
long shot, not unlike buying a sweepstakes
ticket with the expectancy of scoring a
win.
From the ejected shell case found at the
scene of the latest shooting, and from the
bullet, pried from the floorboards of the
victim’s truck, there could be no doubt
that the Phantom of the Pike had moved
into Ohio. This news, when it reached the
truckers, served only to intensify the panic
which had been growing since the mur-
ders began. ‘ y
The Pennsylvania Motor Truck Associa-
tion set up temporary safety patrol head-
quarters at Bedford. Up and down the Pike,
hundreds of patrolling volunteers kept
the shoulders clear of trucks. At night, the
big rigs were shepherded to flare-ringed
stockades where the truckers slept under
armed and constant guard. The Union
offered the help of a hundred thousand
teamsters to ‘keep the toll roads safe. Re-
wards in excess of $11,000 were offered for
information leading to the apprehension
and conviction of the person or persons re-
sponsible for the two wanton killings and
the one near miss,
From the St. Joseph: River in Ohio to
the Hudson in New York, troopers scouted
the roads in search of the yellow Chevro-
let. Scores of such automobiles were .
stopped and searched, and still the hunt
went on. The eyes of the nation were
focused on the east-west pikes, and truck-
ers left for their routine runs like soldiers
viding forth to war.
A Lawrenceburg, Indiana, driver, Chuck
Watts, pushing an east-bound freight van,
reported that a yellow Chevrolet station
wagon had tailed him out of Reading. “He’s
been riding my tailgate all the way to
Philly,” Watts told the Montgomery Coun-
ty police. “I don’t like his looks.”
Watts, surprisingly, had heard nothing
of the Phantom of the Pike, He had been
sick for several. weeks and was back on
the job for the first time since the middle |
of July. Apprised of the, situation, the
freight driver did his best. to remember
details for the authorities.
“He was about five-ten,” he said, “with
light brown hair. He stopped twice for cof-
fee at the diners, same as me. I almost
shook him ‘back near Pottstown, but he
picked me-up again near Route 29 Inter-
section and he stuck like glue.” ‘
A search for this station wagon and its
driver was intensified in the Philadelphia
area.
Two nights went by without an incident.
Three nights, then: four. A dozen arrests
were announced by the police. The “Phan-
tom” was taken into custody in Detroit,
in Arlington, New York, in Louisville,
Kentucky. But he was always the wrong
man, and so far as the gear-grinders were
concerned the Pike was Murder Alley,
still. But they high-balled through. They
drove with reliefs and kept their engines
hot. They fought the rain-slicks ‘on the
Allegheny slopes; they fought the lights
that glared across their windshields in the
dark; they bucked the turns with heavy
loads and changed their tires under the
vigilance of highway guards when they
blew.
The Phantom made the going tough, but
a trucker’s life was seldom one of ease. It
was tough in the winter when the wheels
slipped on an icy grade. It was tough in
the twilight before the pleasure cars
switched on their dims. It was tough
through the tunnels where the change of
light blinded one’s eyes. Phantom or no,
the freighters had to roll. The diesel oil
smoked in the stacks and the noise of the
churning wheels roared like the surf of
an angry sea.
The police did their best to cope with the
beefed-up jobs of investigation and patrol.
A legion of crackpots did their best to get
into the act. On August 5th, a psycho woke
up a Philadelphia priest in the middle of
the night and dramatically “confessed” to
"| don't know when I've tasted such delicious cake!"
the crimes along the Pennsylvania Pike.
“Call the police,” the screwball told the
Reverend John L. Larkin. “If I’m not ar-
rested now, I’m liable to kill again.”
“Did you kill someone, my son?” the
priest asked.
“I killed two truckers, and I almost
killed a third,” the man replied. “I’ve had
domestic trouble and a truck driver was to
blame.”
Father Larkin pegged the man for a
goof, but he called up headquarters just
the same. Police Lieutenant Thomas Bo-
land came to the Church of the Visitation
and led the self-confessed “killer” away.
On the way to the lockup he confessed to
several other crimes, including the near-
fatal beating of a woman in Atlantic City
in June, the year before.
It was soon seen that the “killer” was
minus several marbles. The beating of the
woman had been cleared up in July, 1952.
On the nights when Lester B. Woodward
and Harry Pitts had been shot by the
Phantom of the Pike, the “confessor” had
been working at his job as a male nurse
in a Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, hospital.
August came to an end, and still the
Phantom remained at large. The hue and
cry had settled down, and was finally lost
in the roar of exhaust as the rigs began to
roll along the Pike, oblivious to the dan-
ger. Caution bowed its head to ennui. Tired
drivers cursed the Phantom into hell—and
slept by the side of the road.
The police, on the other hand, did not
relax the pace of their investigative efforts.
A suspect turned up in Detroit. Arrested
for running a red light in the auto metro-
polis, Donald Wayne, 29, seemed particu-
larly agitated when the traffic patrolman
eyed the glove compartment of his car.
Wayne, ordered out at gunpoint, was hand-
cuffed to the bumper shackle while the
officer searched the vehicle.
The reason for the young man’s agitation
was soon apparent. The glove compart-
ment yielded a fully-loaded Italian Biretta
automatic pistol, two extra Italian-make
7.65 millimeter shells, and seven empty
wallets,
Rushed to Detroit headquarters, Wayne
was closely questioned by Homicide In-
spector Edward Reilly about the Turnpike
killings. He insisted that he was at work
in a Detroit box factory on the dates con-
cerned. A review of the company’s em-
ployment records for July confirmed his
story. Although he was washed out as a
suspect in the Turnpike case, Donald
Wayne was booked on charges of carrying
a concealed weapon and was ordered de-
tained pendigg a full investigation into his
recent activiffes.
On August 23rd a Logansport, Indiana,
youth was picked up in Missouri for ques-
tioning in the near fatal shooting of a
soldier as he slept in his car near New
London, Missouri. The suspect was able to
satisfy the police that he had been no-
where near Pennsylvania on the nights
of the Turnpike slayings.
As the month of August drew to a close,
a virtual parade of crackpots still con-
tinued to plague the police. A Toronto
resident “confessed” the crimes to a bor-
der-crossing guard at Windsor. Two men
named Jones “confessed” in Terre Haute,
Indiana. In Uniontown, Pennsylvania, a
gangling youth named John Wesley Wable
Was picked up in a street brawl. He “con-
fessed” the Turnpike killings to the bull-
pen turnkey. All were drummed out of
custody by long-suffering law enforce-
ment agents who had other fish to fry.
By the end of September, the brutal
murders were forgotten by the truckers on
the Pennsy Pike. The rigs rolled as before,
balling the jack, stopping for “forty-
breaks” where they could. The killings had
become part of the lore of the open road,
The Phantom was a legend.
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But the police still looked for him. In
late September, at the insistence of Penn-
sylvania State Police Commissioner C. M.
Wilhelm, another thousand brochures de-
tailing the description of Big John Shep-
erd’s watch were disseminated through
police channels to law enforcement juris-
dictions in neighboring states. This, al-
though it was barely a consummation to be
hoped for, was the step which was to
crack the case. “ j
In Cleveland, Ohio, on October 8th, De-
tective Carl Obert of the pawnshop detail,
paid a routine visit to the officé of David’s
Loan Company on St.. Clair Avenue.
“Here’s a new one,” Detective Obert said.
“A flyer on a watch that figures in that
Turnpike case.in Pennsylvania.”
The loan clerk took the flyer and opened
up his books. “How far back should I go?”
he asked.
“Try the first of August,” Obert said.
“Check through to now.”
On the entries listed for August 4th, the
pawnbroker found a record of Big John
Sheperd’s watch. “Scratch Number 7-
108081!” he exclaimed. “We’ve got it here!”
From the pledge case, he took down the
chased gold pocket watch which the Phan-
tom of the Pike had taken from his
wounded victim’s pants. It had been of-
fered as security for a loan of $10 by one
“John Wapel,” whose driver’s license listed
an address on Cleveland’s tough East Side.
A picked squad of detectives under the
command of Homicide Captain David C.
Kerr at once swooped down on the ad-
dress. The premises turned out to be a
boarding house where the officers took
into custody a young blonde who admitted
to being John Wesley Wable’s girl friend.
The suspect himself no longer lived there,
she said. “Wapel” was obviously Wable.
Tearfully, the girl revealed that she had
broken with 24-year-old Wable who
seemed “bound to run himself into trouble
with the law.” Wable had been arrested for
defrauding a Uniontown, Pennsylvania,
auto rental agency—for failing to return a
car he had hired presumably for a day.
“And he was always toting a gun,” the
blonde revealed. “I made him give it to
my father and swear he’d never carry one
again. He wasn’t like that, before. When
he worked in the electric plant, he was
always mild as milk. He changed right
after they fired him,”
The gun was of particular interest to the
Cleveland detectives. The blonde’s father,
contacted at once, surrendered it to Ser-
geant Theodore Carlson. It had been hid-
den in a porcelain compote in the family’s
china closet.
At headquarters, the weapon was care-
fully examined. It was a fully loaded 7.65
millimeter German Walther automatic.
Sergeant Carlson test-fired the pistol into
the crime lab’s ballistics recovery barrel.
The bullet, picked out of the cotton waste
at the bottom of the container, was sent
by air, along with the gun, to the Penn-
sylvania State Police crime lab at Harris-
burg.
The announcement was made that very
night. This was the murder gun—and 24-
year-old John Wesley Wable was the
Phantom of the Pike.
Ironically, John Wesley Wable had twice
been in official custody since committing
the Turnpike murders. On both occasions,
he had boasted to his Fayette County jail-
ers that he had “killed those truckers on
the Pike.” On both occasions the Union-
town police had put him down as a nut
and set him free.
A nationwide alert went out for the
missing man. He was believed to have.
headed west. The home of his parents in
Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, was kept under
24-hour stakeout when it was determined
that friends had seen him in the Union-
town vicinity as late as October 3rd.
There was a possibility that the missing
youth had fled the area in an automobile
which had not been returned to a Union-
town used-car lot by a:man who asked to
“drive it around the block for a. demon-
stration.” The description of this car, li-
censed in the name of Marguerite Morton,
Indiantown, Pennsylvania, was put on the
national wire.
The cross-country hunt for the fugitive
came to a sudden and dramatic close on
the night of Sunday, October 11th. On that
night three men, in a car bearing Pennsyl-
vania plates, held up a filling station on
the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The attendant caught the three final dig-
its of the car tag and relayed them to Un-
dersheriff Walter Geis. Within minutes, the
New Mexico highway patrol had thrown
up roadblocks from Bernardo to Santa Fe.
The Pennsylvania.car crashed through the
barricade at Isleta, and the chase was on.
At speeds which ranged up to 96 miles
an hour,.the fugitives’ car and the police
cruisers played hare and hounds through
the side roads which skirted Los Lunas
Indian Reservation. The fleeing trio
ditched their car at Belen. One of them
fled, but police quickly ‘took into custody
the other two youths, Both young men
readily gave their names and said their
homes were in California, but. they refused
to name the towns from which they came.
They said their escaped companion, whom
they knew only as “Wes,” had picked them
up on the California side of the Mojave
Desert.
The search for “Wes” ended abruptly
when two nurses, out for an evening drive,
spotted the fugitive hiding in a drainage
ditch beside the ATS freight yard on the
Jarales side of Belen.
State Patrolman T. J. Chavez went in
after him with a blazing gun. The cower-
ing youth came out of the shadows, his
hands held up high.
Taken to Belen headquarters, the youth
identified himself as John Wesley Wable
of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. When the
registration card of the automobile he had
been driving indicated that one Marguerite
Morton of Indiantown was the actual own-
er of the vehicle, the Valencia County au-
thorities notified the Pennsylvania state
police. The response on the east end of
the wire was an excited, jubilant shout.
“You’ve got John Wesley Wable!” Cap-
‘tain Jack Dodson informed Undersherift
Geis. “He’s wanted for murder as the
Phantom of the Pennsylvania Pike!”
On Thursday, October 13, 1953, John
Wesley Wable traveling under heavy
. guard, was flown to Greensburg, Pennsyl-
vania, to face a formal charge of murder.
Wable, identiffed by trucker John Sheperd
as the man who had shot him in the head
on July 31st, was arraigned before Alder-
man H. F. Frederickson at Greensburg.
Although the high-voiced youth ‘stead-
fastly protested that he had been accom-
panied on his night-time forays by a
mysterious—and unproduceable pal—Jim
Parks, Wable alone was indicted during
the November sitting of the Westmoreland
County grand jury for both murders.
On March 5th, in Greensburg, Pennsyl-
vania, John Wesley Wable came to trial
before Judge Edward G. Bauer. In a fan-
tastic defense which alleged that at the
time of each Turnpike shooting, he had
been in Pittsburgh, passing counterfeit
money, Wable maintained to the end that
the mysterious Jim Parks, who drove a
Cadillac and was armed with the Walther
automatic, had done the actual touring of
the Pike, killing the truckers “for cigarette
money and kicks.”
A careful and thorough check in every
place where Wable had ever been revealed
no one by the name of Jim Parks. The
Pennsylvania Bureau of Motor Vehicles
had no record of a Cadillac owner by that
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name. Jim Parks was obviously a myth.
District Attorney John A. Best, in charge
of the state’s case, placed Wable on the
Turnpike through the testimony of a toll-
gate keeper and a Turnpike restaurant -
waitress. Both witnesses recalled seeing
Wable, .alone,.on the nights that Lester
Woodward and Harry Pitts were killed.
Although the defense dragged out the case
for two full weeks, the jury made short
work of its deliberations. In three hours
and 45 minutes, the foreman led the jurors
back to the box and_announced that they
had found John Wesley Wable guilty of
murder in the first degree for the Pennsy
Pike killings.
“And so say you all?” Judge Bauer de-
manded,
“So say we all,” the foreman replied.
This verdict made the death penalty
mandatory. Sentence was finally pro-
nounced after John Wesley Wable twice
appealed for more time to seek new evi-
5 Mee
dence which would indicate that not he,
but his pal, Jim Parks, had done the actual
shooting.
On Monday, September 26, 1955, John
Wesley Wable died calmly in the electric
chair at Rockview Penitentiary in Belle-
fonte, Pennsylvania. The scene of his exe-
cution was a good 75 miles from the
high-balling rigs that rolled the Pennsy
Pike, but for the Phantom of the tollroads
it was only a few short steps from Mur-
der Alley to the little green door. $@¢@
Eprror’s NOTE:
The names, Donald Wayne, Margue-
rite Morton and Jenny’s Truckers’ Rest,
as used in the foregoing story, are not
the real names of the persons and place
concerned. These have been given ficti-
tious names to protect their identities.
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Tiny, Covel a
And Lethal
(Continued from page 57)
lady! The case was starting.to read like the
nightmare of a fiction writer. Every po-
liceman on the case and all the cabbies in
Chicago soon were looking for tattoo
marks,
In the Hudson Avenue district, Police-
men Kenneth Johnson and Frank Blust
finally got a break. They were questioning
people in the vicinity of Willow and Or-:
leans, near. one of the points where Lieu-
tenant McMahon’s two concentric circles
crossed,
Nobody knew anything about any shoot-
ing, but there had been a disturbance in
the street about the time Prickett was shot.
Two 15-year-old girl delinquents had come
home at about 2:30 that morning. Their
lipstick was smeared, they were unsteady
from drinking with two boys in a parked
car, and one had a torn blouse. Their par-
ents, excited and angry after a night of
worry, met the girls on the sidewalk.
There had been screaming and wailing.
The wayward lasses had been taken home
and turned over to juvenile authorities by
their families the next. morning.
Johnson and Blust, for want of any. bet-
ter lead, took a ride to the Juvenile Deten-
tion House on the West Side. They talked
to the two 15-year-olds, frightened now
after a few hours in custody.
The. two youngsters, it developed
quickly, had ‘seen a lot. They had been
huddled together in the darkness on the
street, afraid to go into their-homes. A taxi
had pulled up and the driver alighted,
opened the back door and helped a woman
to the street.
“A man came out of the alley,” one of
the girls said. ‘‘He was a little fellow, about
the size of the woman. She had long hair.
The three of them seemed to be arguing,
but we didn’t pay much attention.
“We heard what sounded like a shot. The
woman and the man ran away. The driver
got back into the cab and drove off. We
started walking up the street and our par-
ents came out yelling for us.” The man
«seemed to be frail, the girls said, and he
walked with his head lowered until his
chin almost touched his chest.
The statements of the two girls estab-
lished the scene of the crime, a highly im-
portant legal point ‘in any murder case,
but a great many things remained to be
learned. What was the last. name of Faye,
the tattooed lady? Who was her pint-sized
escort? The tremendous efficiency and
manpower of a big city police department,
with the eager assistance of 5,000 taxi driv-
ers, began answering those questions.
Faye, a smallish girl with tattoo decora-
- tions, had been widely known around
drinking dives a couple of years earlier.
She had lived at cheap hotels and rooming
houses. She was the usual girl floater—
using such obviously phony names as
Smith, Jones and Brown. Bartenders re-
called she had spoken of being from Mis-
souri. The taxi drivers also learned Faye
had taken up with an undersized man and
had boasted that they were married. She
wasn’t seen so frequently around the night
spots after that. The man’s name was Paul.
At all of Chicago’s 42 police stations, de-
tectives pawed through old arrest slips for
some sort of clue. They established that
three cabbies had reported being robbed of
small amounts after accepting a girl of
Faye’s description as a passenger.
At the Hudson Avenue station, Detective
Rafter went to Sergeant Samuel Spinelli
with a glimmering recollection. He vaguely
recalled questioning a young, tiny woman
in a dope case about two years earlier. “I
remember her sleeve slipped back while I
was questioning her and I saw a tattoo de-
-sign on her lower arm,” the detective told
the sergeant.
Detective Rafter dug out arrest slips dat-
ing back two and a half years. There were
hundreds and hundreds of them. They cov-
ered all th® sins of man and woman—rob-
bery, burglary, shoplifting, disorderly
conduct, prostitution, murder, gambling,
vagrancy, drunkenness, dope peddling, in-
decent exposure, child abandonment, wife
beating.
The detective searched through those
records for half a day, Then he returned to
Sergeant Spinelli and placed an arrest slip
on his desk. “There it is,” he said quietly.
“We've got ’em now, I think.”
The document bore the name of Paul
Bolte, 18 years old at the time of the arrest
in October, 1953. His wife, Faye, a year
older, also had been picked up for inter-
rogation; The record showed she had ad-
mitted having been a prostitute.
“We suspected Bolte of being a marijua-
na cigarette peddler,” Rafter recalled. “Of-
ficer Banko and I grabbed him at North
Avenue and Wells Street. He had a pack-
age of marijuana weed in his car.”
Bolte had been charged with possession
of the stuff. He pleaded guilty in Cook
County Criminal Court. and named his
source of supply. As a result he was placed
on three years probation instead of being
sent to prison. There was no evidence
against Faye and she was freed.
The Boltes had been living at the time
of the 1953 a
in the
half-b:
The b
and th___ _
Descriptions
out on the }
relayed to z
the night ch
alerted.
«It was 10
13th, when <
Clark Street
Then he dr
into a drugst
pay phone. '
double—go
Clark,” he t
son Avenue
away. Tll w
she leaves.”
Detectives
at the scen:
them franti
Clark. Midw
. the glitterin
North Clark
She was tee’
brown hair
back. The ad
the curb an
“Hello, Fe
The girl a
she said. “S
cop.”” The b
told her she
“What’s ti
Rafter rey
your old tri
The tattoc
“You can’
“I'm a res}
husband is
away.”
2
GIVE-
Str
The detec
lieve her, |
Faye, you t
you're telli
soliciting c}
phantly, to
nue. There
of apple |
seemed star
his wife.
“Get you
and Faye b
to Faye, he
ise and dr«
charge now
At the de
questioned
They denie
robberies o
if he would
a glance o
What can |
But wher
the crime |:
nounced he
more quest
polygraphe:
He was }
taken to th:
that Paul h:
the test, I’)
the electric:
Once mor
driver rob
guilt. But
paper tape
was lying.
“Did you
Bete a cy
SE ee
30
“Terrifying Case of the
ill-Crazy Gunman On
A multi-state police effort was given top
priority to nab the maniac with a gun who seemed
to be more intrigued by the act of murder itself
than with any appreciable profit he might
stand to gain by his murders...
EATH is no stranger to the
police officers who patrol the
nearly 400 miles of the Penn-
sylvania Turnpike which stretches its
concrete lines across the entire breadth of
the Keystone State from the Delaware
River on the east, to the Ohio border on
the west. It is one of America’s most
heavily traveled highways and the high
speed potentials of modern cars combine
with the recklessness of erratic drivers to
make the road’s annual accidental deat
toll tragically impressive.
The police don’t like it, but they have
learned to live with it as a fact of life
-which probably will always be with
* them. There is probably not a single of-
. ficer who ever pulled the duty on the
Turnpike who has not been present
several times when one or more mangled,
lifeless victims were pulled from the
wreckage of piled-up passenger cars,
trucks, motorcycles or other vehicles
which travel the busy artery. For those
‘who serve long tours of duty there, such
deaths become almost routine.
There was nothing routine, however,
about the violent deaths of truckdrivers
who knew thatstretch of concrete like the
backs of their hands. These deaths were
ce
Pennsylvania state troopers checked all cars: and drivers ‘at nearby interchanges
following second turnpike sone: that of truck-driver Harry Franklin Pitts, 39
Po-7
4t4-
(17
not accidental. They were murde,’ }
murder by some maniac with a gun whe
seemed more fascinated with the mere
profit he might stand to gain by his
murders. That, of course, was one of the ”
elements of the case which made it sodi® ” #
ficult to solve. «
For when murders make sense (rom
an investigative standpoint), the probe>-
has something tangible to go on. a
Opportunity. A killer’s modus op
which conforms to patterns for which
there cre precedents.
But when the killer strikes wal
warning, for no apparent reasom, /
seemingly selecting his victims on ra
dom impulse, there is no place to get
toehold on the investigation, no begitr
ning and, almost surely, no predictable
end save the veteran detective's educate
guess that he will kill again, and agait.
and yet again, until he is caught.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike had bees
in operation some 15 years when, tw
within three days, an unknown assass@
| . sneaked up on truckdrivers sleeping ®
their rigs and shot them to death without
mercy, without warning. The first time be.
struck, from the evidence police foundt
the scene, was probably during the Ga
hours of the night of July 24th-25th.
The sun was just poking its nose Ove
the eastern hills on the morning of Sate |
day, the 25th, when a trucker wheeling#=
big rig out of Philadelphia, bound for
Louis, noticed the shoeless feet of a ima
sticking out the driver's window @>
another big truck parked on the hig
shoulder. It was a common enough si
fl | 7
7
my CRAIG CALDANIE
tw be sure, but for some reason he could
_ got explain later, the driver had a feeling
that something was not quite right in this
jstance. He eased his own big truck off
; oe. stopped, and walked back to in-
westiga
When he reached the parked truck, he
dembed up and peered into the cab, and
gue glance was all he needed to know that
Ns bunch had been tragically right. For
te truckman stretched out on the seat
was not sleeping. He was dead.
er, it was obvious even to an un-
tained eye that he had been murdered.
His face and head were covered with
| Mood that till slightly moist.
act of killing than with any appreciable >. ogre we
>
The truck driver who had made the
thocking discovery ran back to his rig and
awe to the nearest telephone to call the
Within 20 minutes, a dozen of-
had converged on the scene of the
Murder near the Shafton Bridge two
)tmailes west of Irwin, which is a few miles
west of McK eesport.
‘Papers in the shooting victim’s wallet
a ‘Wentified him as Lester B. Woodward, of
on, Pennsylvania. There was no
| ‘money in the billfold, and less than a
in change in his pockets. A receipt
among his papers showed that he
had delivered a load of automobiles the
before to a dealer in Ohio, more than
miles to the west,
». Joseph R. Check, Westmoreland
Qty coroner, estimated that
Fonda had been dead since around
t.
© District Attorney Alexander Sculco
his head. “At that hour there must
fairly heavy traffic,” he said.
“Aman would have to be crazy to fire a
; mm tight out' in the open, where any
of persons could have heard it.”
ty Detective Merle Musick
THE BEST OF TRUE DETECTIVE |
Ritts was ruthlessly gunned down while he
slept in his truck parked at side of road
Another Classic in TD’s Golden Anniversary Series
SA RT ee
Temomysey) euU
(pue
_*SS6T=
> es Oe Oe Hae
com RETAIL
VY ITHIN one small area of the city of Philadelphia, more
than 300 drugstore robberies have been reported during
past years. Two druggists have been killed by holdup men.
Almost without exception, the criminals in these cases have
n juveniles. Six teen-aged youths have been charged with
rder in the two slayings.
Dozens of other crimes are com-
ted daily in this neighborhood by youths.
Here is the story of one such bo
rder, told by the person who shou
iah Green, Sr.
essory because according to
via he knowingly attempted
ying. Mr. Green denies that c
This is Mr. Green’s story.
: opinion of OFFICIAL DETE
Nor is
‘se points in controversy.
yw which of the two is correct.
y, one of the six accused of
Id know it best—his father,
The father himself has been charged as an
the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
to help his son escape after the
harge.
It does not necessarily reflect
CTIVE STORIES Magazine on
it presented in any effort to
It is published instead as one
all contribution toward solution of a much larger and more
portant problem—that of determining the causes of such a
me and eliminating the conditions that bred it—The Editor.
"TL couldn't
» get out of there; | was trapped"
Isaiah Green, Sr.:
LOT of people want my son to
die. He killed that innocent old
man, they figure, so let's kill
him; maybe that’ll stop all these hold-
ups and murders Philadelphia’s been
having.
Let me say this before I go on. If my
son did what the police tell me he con-
fessed to, I can’t blame these people for
how they feel. If, back on July 25, 1957,
he shot down that poor druggist, Mr.
Jacob Wallfield, he did more than take
a human life; he committed a horrible
crime against the Lord his mother and
I have tried to teach him to believe in,
against all people and against himself.
No, I don’t blame them for hating him
and wanting him dead. And I under-
stand how they're scared. It’s become so
that no Philadelphia storekeeper is safe
in his place of business, and no person
safe on the streets.
Believe the words I'm putting down
now. This, what I’m writing, isn't only
on account of my boy. I'm not begging
for his life. I’m not saying, “He's Just a
These are scenes from Philadelphia's jungle and its outskirts, where
335,000 persons live, sometimes crowding six families into one flat
A Walk in the
By 2Sxap rt —
As Told to Seymour Shubin
child, have mercy.” In fact, if I thought
that killing him would keep other Mr.
Wallfields from dying, I think I might
turn my face away and say nothing. But
it won't do that. In fact, some kids would
look on him as kind of a hero. These are
kids who grew up with him in “The
Jungle”.
The Jungle—that’s not my name for
the neighborhood where I live and where
I’ve had to raise my family. The police
call it that, and the newspapers have
picked it up. And it’s a good name for it,
take my word.
All 1 want you people to do now is go
for a walk with me through The Jungle.
Maybe in this way you'll be able to see
your own city’s jungle, for Philadelphia's
isn’t the only one. And I want you also
to take a long, good look at my boy.
Through him you'll see thousands of
other boys, though they are called by
different names and live in different
towns
Just one long. careful look
For your own sake—not for his.
LL my younger years I lived in the
South. My Daddy still has the farm
in South Carolina where I was born and
raised. I learned early what it’s like to
get up at dawn and work until after
sunset. You look at my hands, you'll see
in the twists and knobs some of the
story of my life.
I stayed on the farm until after I was
married. When World War II broke out
I moved with my wife, Ruth, to Tampa,
Florida, where I got a job ina shipyard.
In Tampa my oldest boy, Major, was
born. Two years later, in the same city,
my wife gave birth to Isaiah, Jr.
Not only did I learn the meaning of
work early in life, I also learned how to
get along with the people of the South.
I knew when to tip my hat, just how to
smile in the right way, who to move off
the sidewalk for, where to sit in a train
or bus. I could hold my temper and
never get “uppity”
For instance. one time little Isaiah
was crying with thirst on a hot Summer
afternoon and the only working water
ungle
cooler was in the “White waiting room”
of the railroad station where we hap-
pened to be. I went over to a man wear-
ing one of those wide felt hats of the
farmer, and whose neck was red and tri-
angled with lines. I said to him, “Pardon
me, please, Sir,” and my hat was off.
He turned and his face’grew real mean
when he saw who it was.
“Please, Sir, beggin’ your pardon,” I
said, “my baby is thirsty. I wonder would
you be so good-hearted to bring me a
little cup of water from in there?”
He looked even meaner for a moment.
“The Lord’ll be good to you, Sir. It
isn’t for me, it’s for the little one.”
He brought me the water.
Or that time, after Tampa, when I
ot a job in a small town in Georgia
nd went there ahead of my family.
In this neighborhood Isaiah Green, Jr., grew up and made his friends
and formed his character, for important years without a mother's help
ean we ee en Se
Stroll Through Philadelphia's Crime
Belt With This Father.
Of the People Live and Some of Them
Die—And Some of Them Are Charged
With Murder—As His Own Child Was
See How Some
The day they were to arrive was a
day tefore I was to get paid, and I was
busted. I didn’t know anyone in town,
so I went to the jailhouse and spoke to
the sheriff.
He was, I’d been told, a “shootin’
sheriff’’—the kind that liked to pull the
trigger. Maybe you’ve seen his type in
the pictures. Big and heavy, with a
thick neck and beefy arms under his
short-sleeved shirt. And he always
wore a gun low on one hip.
Anyway, I told him my story and
asked him very politely could he tell
me where I could get about a dollar and
a half until the next day.
He looked me up and down, pushing
up his hat and scratching under it.
“Waal,” he said after a long time, “I
don’t know you at all, Mack, but—”
A!
f
y
a
{
{
b re
we a ep ae its ts
ee eS 5 < acceso oe
And he reached into his pocket and
handed me the money.
What I’m trying to say is you can
stay out of trouble all your life down
there, and people will be nice to you, but
you got to know what to do and how to
act. There’s unwritten rules you got to
follow, like not making yourself big or
smart, and always being polite. Me, if
it comes to myself, I could do that until
the day I die.
But in Georgia I started to worry
about my kids, could they live that way
when they grew up. And I began worry-
ing about myself, too, like what I would
do if I ever saw my wife and the boys
pushed around. I’d go crazy, I think.
Meantime, I was hearing all these
stories about the North. About good
money to be made. And about the kind
——
of freedom that didn’t depend on you
smile or'the tone of your voice.
Isaiah was three when we came u}
here to Philadelphia, where I had som:
people—an aunt, a cousin—living. Fo
about six months we stayed in a sma)
apartment in North Philly, then I hac
a chance to buy a house a few block:
away, on North Marvine Street. 1
managed to save some money in thi
South, and I figured I was making gooc
money as a carpenter with a construc-
tion company. The house would brin;
me in a little income, for I could ren
out the second and third floors and liv:
on the first.
The house is the same one I live i:
today. I don’t know—maybe it’s all in
my head, maybe it’s because we wer:
all happy then, but the neiphborhooc
(
seemed so nice at that time. It was an
area of row after row of neat brick
houses, each with its marble or cement
front steps. I’d heard that this whole
section used to be a real fancy one and
sometimes when I walked through I'd
picture how it used to be then—the fine
ladies with their parasols, and gentle-
men with their beautiful horses and
carriages.
UT it changed within the next two
years. Instead of two and three fam-
ilies to a house, it became five, six and
even more. No one scrubbed their front
steps any longer. Rubbish showed on
the sidewalks and streets. Where we'd
had maybe one taproom every couple
blocks, now it was one to each corner.
I’d see men and women go into a base-
ment sober and come out drunk, and
after awhile I found out a speakeasy
was down there and what they were
guzzling was something called “goat-
head”—because it went straight to your
head. We could hear shouts and curses
from the streets and see fights and stab-
ings. It was like seeing someone dying
and having to stand by helplessly.
The whole section became different,
like it had a corruption on it. Police
cars sped through the streets, the offi--
cers rushing into a house or pulling
someone off the sidewalk. You'd see
certain men around alj the time, in the
numbers racket or pushing dope. The
houses, too, fell apart. If a window
broke, instead of replacing the glass
they'd tack on cardboard. There was
10
chalk writing along the brick. Inside,
the halls and rooms were dark, paint
and wallpaper peeling off. The smell
of garbage came out to the street.
These weren't people, for the most
part, with any sense of responsibility
toward property. They would live in
one place this week, then another next.
The owners of houses were moving,
renting their places to people who didn’t
care. Prostitutes hung out everywhere,
and they solicited right out in the open
and in daylight. Kid gangs were form-
ing. They’d race along the streets on
bicycles, sirens screaming, frightening
and knocking down pedestrians. Those
who didn’t have’ bikes would walk in
shouting groups. They wore battered
felt hats, pulled down to their ears. It
was their uniform, almost.
I didn’t.know at the time what was
happening, but I do now. From the
1940’s until today, I understand, the
Negro population alone has increased
by about a half a million people in
Philadelphia. Included in this are
maybe 200,000 from the South. They
piled into The Jungle and stayed there,
kept in by prejudice or lack of money or
enough pride. Ugliness and filth spread
like germs. Many tried to pretend it
wasn’t so with whisky and dope—and
some even with crime. Around them
sprang up The Jungle.
The Jungle, police say, stretches north
from Poplar Street to Lehigh Avenue,
and west from the Delaware River to
the Schuylkill. They say that more than
335,000 people are jammed into about
%
Two clues Isaiah left behind—
pillow and gun-concealing tube
This is Isaiah, Jr., Duce as the
detectives on both sides knew him
a seven-square-mile area—whites,
Puerto Ricans and Orientals as well as
Negroes. I wouldn't know about the
figures—although I do know some rela-
tively nice sections and many, many
fine people in that territory. I'm famil-
iar only with my own section of The
Jungle, which is predominantly colored.
To find it, all you have to do is turn
east from Broad Street, about 2000
north, and you will see, just about two
blocks from Broad, the beginning of a
different world. A world where people
lean out of windows by day and night,
just to avoid the gloom of their dwell-
ings. A world of littered streets and lit-
tered lives. A world that takes up so
much of the city and yet which so many
of the people ignore.
It was a world, almost without my
knowing until it was too late, which
one day I found myself a part of with-
out any hope of getting out.
This was when I put my house up for
sale and learned that I could not sell
without taking a terrific loss. And a loss
was something I couldn’t afford, for my
wife had become ill and doctors’ bills
were running up.
Ruth and I were scared. Somehow
we'd always thought we could pull out
at any time. But there we were—stuck!
And to make it worse, Isaiah and Major,
who by then were eight and ten—were
coming in with all the bad language
of the street. So-and-so, they’d say,
had been sent to reform school, and
the way they'd talk of it, this punk kid
was a big shot to them. Even their
names had been changed out there—
Major was called “Skeeter” by the boys,
Isaiah both “Coon” and “Duce”,
thought I still can’t figure out why. Just
i:
whe? The drugstore where
the loot came to one
life and no dollars
LL oe , ie ac rp SSeS Af 2 1, Le Favela
SIO LALA) Std a 2 sted. p, eS ae:
OL Aad. tt len ae hhelolinp Gases LS APO Fe
tetlid ¢ Ythease Loot fp pecibed: Le A_tewptamitn ;
Sere Cyepeal 4 Aaatewl ©
WEBSTER, John, hanged Philadelphia, “ennsylvania, on May 2, 1752.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT RESEARCH PROJECT
P.O. Drawer 277 - 100 East Main Street
Headland, Alabama 36345
Watt Espy Phone
Research Specialist (205) 693-5225
"Philadel phia: Thursday last the notorious John Webster, who was
formerly under sentence of death at Newcastle and has since been
tried here for robbing the store of Messieurs Smith and James, was
taken up and sent to the gaol of this city on suspicion of having
committed several robberies in this and the neighborin g Provinces,"
PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 10, 1751,
"Philadelphia: Friday last the trial of John Webster came on when he
was indicted and found guilty of breaking open the dwelling house of
MRXXWXXAXAMK Mr, William Clemms of this city on the 2th of Septem-
ber 1 750 in the night and taking from thence a silver teapot and
teaspoon, upon which he received sentence of death," PENNSYLVANIA
GAZETTE, Phila., Penna., April 23, 1752,
"Philadel phia: Saturday last John Webster was executed here pursuant
to his sentence. He made no confession till he was under the gal-
lows when he owned to a gentleman there that the teapot for which he
was condemned was Mr, Clemm's and that he took it out of his house,
Being asked if he committed the robbery at MKXXBXK Mr, Saunders!
store, he replied that the same person that did the one, (meaning
Mr, Clemm's » had done the other, nd being asked if he knew any-
thing of the murder of Wilson, answered that he did not and thanked
God that he had naver shed the blood of man or woman in his life,
And as to any other crimes he had committed, he said that as no
persons could suffer by his not revealing them, it was needless to
repeat them,” PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, Phila., Penna.e, May 7, 1752.
No Rigor Mortis Visible.
When the trap wan aprung the body
mee Rseaicah five feet and slowly
"er atwut neoveal times when the full
a ef the Tope waa reached. No
the Me Chuer thin that accompanying
: breathing apasms was ho.
nd in the opinion of the doc-
ee hv were present = Warzel never
owowhal happened to him after the
mE “as pulled. During the time that
fs a tiaie of the wart .were noticeable
2 > ne Mrugyling and the entire
Rid “onal have heen over sooner than
‘ “ast Warvel had note Hapred upon
a
ne “alleld hetore the execution took
pace
tens on
"Ath mieal
liewahie 4
Lage
_ Jury Witnessed the Hanging.
aan Iran ‘mpaneiled for the purpose
pki 2 the hanging were arranged
cn the scaffold, and behind them were
eda The corner of the jail
ay "Sas fairly crowded by those who
- r euhatned briesee to the execution, and
nae the drop fell the apectators
Pt aj ha about the hanging form of the
Sart every muve made by the ex-
ip
ou
iw?
atn
His Last Statement.
When the death watch was taken up
Bheriff Evans led the way to the scaf-.
fold, and was followed by Warzel who
leaned upon the arm of Rey, \, Ziebura.
The wateniuan who haa .charge of the
prisoner followed. ‘The march was taken
up through, the prison corridor and out
the middle door. Once in the sunlight,
Warzel seemed to brighten up, but only
for a» moment, and when he beheld the
gallines in the northeast corned of the
yard and saw the fairly large erdwd who
werd fo witness his execution, he gave
way|to the emotion attending the pro-
eeedure of the law, and it was noticed
that) ha was likely to collapse before he
reached the fatal scaffold, which| loomed
dully and sombre gray ahead of him. Ilv
sinthed the ‘structure, and nded
without axsistance and the lant tites of!
the ¢hurch were Administered, before he
commenced his addreaa,
. Thiring the latter, which was delirered
in Polish, German and broken English, he
recounted the early life he had spent in
gate and Sodth America. He haid he
loved the girl madly aml that he had
killed her mie one of hia frequent {itr
of. passion, resulting from the aunstrokes
recounted In tha recital of his trial. Ho
sald: he regretted his mad act, but that
it could not be helped. and he wan ready
to yay the penalty. Ile sald he wan go-
ing ke a better, world, but not-aa a real
“|, (Contin i oa Third Page.) ;
SY : ; a" . .
ea NPT Wren nir \
WiLINIL, £rank A
nee ANCE 9 = AO ET a8
dine served @ term af Puntingéon Me £8 & ee wees
formatory ts theft. At the ton Me | ’ ; UP
hie arrest, April 13, 191), he ene 5 PPI HILS
heavily arnmwd Walter servet @ ten
at Glenn Mille, @ reform tnatttution,| tt eas
for robbery, alse =
Ne Arrecte for MeGinley Merder, IN HU TINGDON #
Altoona, Oct. 16-—-Up te noon tolgy.
the authorities have §ony trace of
the Wendt brothers. who yeaterda;
afternoon. ghot and kived Constable
7 Mctinley, ae Burglare Ransack Bedroom 2
cae a D While Occupants Sleep; _
‘'Desperadoes He Went to BURGLARS F OILED / : Steal Precious Gems :
|| Arrest Riddle Him trom /AT CLEVELAND HOTEL - |
DETECTIVES ON CASE
tee Tae
Ambush at Altoona
figees
sate An attempt waa made at 2 o'clock ae poets
WENDT | ear yeatertay morning to burglarize the/ Special to The Tribune. :
S; 2 AND 19 Cleveland Hotel at Hustand, Homerast/ Huntingdon, Oct. 14—While LL R.
-| County, Dut the pruwlers, made their Sea tad and. oat pe thy pcre :
their home at Third and Penn es
Huntingdon, burglars early this morn-
‘ing ransacked their bedroom and got.
slat an epee possi worth of diac
mo an er elry. The hote ...
proprietor and his wife did not know °—
that burgiara had been fn their bed- :
room until they awoke about 7 o’cloek
lee morning. They had not been -.
history of Altoona. The
-{pelice of Johnstown and every city
and town within a radius of a hun-
"> [@red mites are looking with greatest
vigtiance for Alfred Wendt, aged 21,! Cleveland ia a sister of Mra. John T.
.|and Walter Wendt, agedé-19. who are | Martin and Mra. George Beltz, of the
charged with the murderi. The oficer | Third Ward, this city.
[een | PATTON MAN PAINFULLY
INJURED BY DYNAMITE, Se" ssStne*rast iodine
body as it lay prostrate. first rE of the tadieg rings nana om
shots are believed to have bern Bred} Patton, Oct. 14.—Anthony Polinaki,|¢lamonds and was valued ag $300. An-
from behind a log. j ‘tan eases of No. 28 Mine, Pennayl-/other was @ Pri =
cue aiay ing = the catmi-/vania Coal & Coke Corporation, is in| $250. Mr. Lelat
mpt to the | Miners’ Hospital, Spangler. as a result:
Wendt brothers, who, although young |of havihg. hold of a stfck of dynamite
in years, are said to have | nal| when it exploded yesterday afternoon
records Ble | about 3 otlock.
Polinskfa eyes are badly injured and
“Wendt | his handg mangled. Hospital physi-
off | clans, ever, say they can save his
ago. | hands an
in
Special to The Tribune.
Portage, Oct. 14.—Mrs.
Jackson died
the morning Of drops
aged 60 years:
(ENGLISH SUPFRAGIST 10. [5% as" se
3; | ADDRESS SOMERSET CROWDS |= esas
- the
SY
|
Somermpt, Oct. 14<—Mrs. George
che Buckner, ; of Southport, England, has
slain! come to |America recently to help in| Sarah, Leo
the Penrjsyivania Suffrage campaign.
Mra. Bu is-an ordained minister
he wife of the Rev. George
{who conducted a revival at
the Somerset Christian Chureb last
endt iwinter. Mra, Buekner will hold mieet-
: ings in | the
IN RUNAWAY
aa
Te camel hr ee
ye © hy.)
eh
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CMOMORE |. 2 0p cc ccsvccvee BB
, ese a cevepeccecssss0IOS
* Ghoulder .....-2~-----16€
Sensage .1Se
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i
18
Marvin Parsons and J. D.-Francis hitched ride with sus-
pected killer, rode 900 miles before they found out.
Midge Harmon and Caroline Smith were on their way to
a movie, decided to play detective, spottéd the suspect.
Leora Crissey was suspi-
cious of roomer’s wealth.
John Kandura openad a
package, _
notified police. |
NO SLEEP ON NIGHTMARE ROAD continued
you doing?” he whispered. “What are you doing to me?”
“Five dollars,” he heard the man mutter. The man sounded
sore. He flung the wallet down. Then he reached over, to
Sheperd’s right arm, and pulled off his wristwatch.
“Mister .. .” Sheperd said. He peered hard now. The face
. it was too far away. He couldn’t see it. But closer, along-
side him, on the seat, he saw the man pick something up and
’ put it in his pocket. It was a gun.
For the first time the truck driver realized what had hap-
pened—that the man had shot him while he was asleep, that
' ‘the burning in-his throat was a bullet.
The man jumped out of the cab. Sheperd breathed hard. He
raised his arm, slowly, and clutched the truck’s steering wheel.
It hurt, it hurt bad, but he had to do it. He had to sit up.
He made it, just in time to hear the motor churning a few
yards away from the truck and to see the car start and then
slow down for an instant to let another car go by and then
start up again and, finally, disappear into the blackness ahead.
When they found. Sheperd—it was three hours later, a few
minutes after five—he was still alive. He was rushed to a doc-
tor’s office in the nearest town. The town was between the
towns of Irwin and Donegal, where the other two truck drivers
had been killed. The doctor removed the bullet from Sheperd’s
neck and then, after he’d slept a few hours, the police came in.
They asked Sheperd to tell them everything he could remem-
ber. Everything.
Sheperd tried. He told them about the man’s voice, that
funny, squeaky voice, and about the way he asked for the
money and how he took the watch and the wallet. And ‘then
he told about the man driving off. “I couldn’t see well,” Shep-
erd said, “but I think the car was yellow. I think it was a yel-
low Chevrolet convertible. I’m not sure, though. Everything
’ was hazy. I’m not sure.”
ow the long wait began, probably the longest single wait in
a case which was destined to go on for more than two
months, all through August and September and well’ into Oc-
tober. The wait lasted from the moment the doctor who’d re-
moved the bullet from Sheperd’s neck turned it over to a state
patrolman’ until later that day when a ballistics expert in a
police laboratory in Pittsburgh looked up from a series of
"charts on his desk and nodded and said to the officers standing
around him, “The slug came from the same eee gun. that
killed Pitts and Woodward.”
By the next day, Sunday, August * the Dream Highway
became unofficially Nightmare Road. Two men were dead and
one was ‘in the hospital, fighting death, and thousands of other
‘people—men, in particular, the truckmen who had to drive by
night along.the 327-mile Turnpike night in and night out, most
of them on steady runs between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh—
were scared stiff.
That afternoon, in Pittsburgh, it-was announced that there
was an $11,000 reward out for the killer—$5000 each from
two truckers’ unions and $1000 from the Continental Trans-
‘portations Lines, Inc. .
Later that afternoon. there was an emergency meeting held
in the school auditorium of -a town off the Turnpike. Nearly
1000 men, truckdrivers fror all over Pennsylvania and from
nearby state
of the Pen:
to stay live
“Stop for
a buddy wh
one. Warnir
Warning th:
and wait at
- Most of t
of the men g
all over and
way? If you
of action fr
need them—
his sentimen
“They’re
job and you
And they
cruising the
_ back again,
their drivers
ready, Icoki:
coming along
get where it
gun who mig
lenge to ever
The state
cars operate
watch over |
mishap, and
- look hitchhi}
Picious, to n
along the roa
Two salesmen, *d;
the town of Doneg
Pitt’s truck pulle:
figure, covered wi!
open door. They, s;
bi few minutes late:
j Were at the truck
g been asleep. His hi
fat one end of the
few feet, smack t!
listics test would
used to kill him «
day. The only diff
with $89, was still
And so the word
... Watch out...
DAY passed,
day and anothe
‘Then on the thir
driver named John
apply the brakes a:
aie road. Sleep, just a ]i
suicides reported. This burned car was thought to be tied intéMembered the 1m
who’d been killed, };
he said to himself «
eyes—anyway, nob
ot — AON > eet
‘mtn
The Turnpike was patroled night and day by state police, Truckers were warned not to carry guns. Drivers were friske
r
NO SLEEP ON NIGHTMARE ROAD continued ;
all-night haul. He’d started out a little after midnight and at- Woodward’s head and fired. The young man never knew whi
about three that morning he’d become groggy. It had been a _ happened. Police, the next morning, thought they knew. | -
hot, muggy day and it still was hot and misty and the mist driver had been killed and his wallet—containing $50—and hy
made his eyes smart. He pulled his truck up to the side of the wristwatch had been stolen. It was a messy business, all righ
road, a few miles outside a town called Irwin, and stretched but to: the police it was a simple business, too. ‘e
himself across the front seat for half-an-hour’s sleep. He’ A thief had murdered a truck driver to rob him. Simpl
probably been asleep for about ten minutes when a man with
basically. - :
pussy-foot tread walked up to the cab of the truck, squeezed _ Simple, that is, until three mornings later when the secon
the door open, pulled a revolver from his pocket, aimed at body was found. This time it was a man named Harry F. Pitt . Kill
, ‘ . ;
q
WABLE, John Wesley, white, elec. PA® (Westmoreland) September 22, 1955
itl ,
mains 7: Fk sissaininadiomiasamni
«1?
er Inside Information
s that:'the victims of
s actually “ask for it.’
but I don’t believe 4
ss or innocence is any
And in the majority o
he newspapers, the vic
sens who are going abou
For every moron whd
dozen sensible citizen
‘bbed through no fault
very foolish woman w
dozen respectable we
women are victimized
‘rin places where th
zht to be. In the mode
innot be shut up wit
is a matter of fact, thé
of
aution, have been vi
—_urder or both. Nurse
and others who work
Seana
No Sleep
4)
than anywhere else. It
‘1 they won’t be attacke ;
e or don’t go out withot
id dark streets and lonel i
women, who tak
led to be abroad during t
s. The streets should
hem. ‘
» tired of the excuses thi:
riminals. The ultimate
her was achieved by f
ended a well-known spoq
ted rapist, on the grout
was young and pretty ai
iances! I wonder if paren
ind popular daughters 4
Jong with that kind of re
hat psychiatry on the wh
harm than good in the fig
ention. Anything that rq
se of personal responsibil
rwrites crime and subsidij
onscience by removing
Those of us who try to
hould use ordinary comm
t ourselves. But it will bi
is all if the time comes wh
ed because the victim ¥
it showing a bankroll or-
voman—because she was
sec
+s M.S. K., Seattle, Wa
ND PRIESTS
esented reader James K
+ < in the October On The R
ject of For Love Of A
iwstpE). A Catholic priest
penitent that he or she
inisters the last rites of
Every trucker on the Turnpike
was warned: “‘He’s on the
prowl for blood. Watch out.”
by EDWARD DeBLASIO
e
a Two truck drivers had their brains blown out
within three days of each other and suddenly the
Pennsylvania Turnpike—dubbed Dream Highway
by proud Pennsylvanians and their politicians—was
fittingly relabeled Nightmare Road. The word got
around fast and tough truckmen and their wives and
their families became gripped in fear. “There’s a
maniac on the loose,” was the word. ‘“He’s on the
‘ dying or one who is in dprowl for blood. Yours! Watch out!!”
But God is our judge and
The first man to die was a young fellow named
saving. . - . Reader Kirk Walter B. Woodward. It had happened on Saturday
ed or ill-informed. I
rejudice and peace are
ney don’t mix.
1 Deitrick, Williamsport,
July 24, 1953. Woodward, 26, a trucker, was on an
continued on next page
Accused of the murders, this sus id: ‘*
cou 2 7 pect said: “I k
did it. I know his name and his address, Ill wet bisa,”
»
§ Two salesmen, driving along the Turnpike, a few miles from
the town of Donegal, 30 miles west of Irwin, had first noticed
Pitt’s truck pulled up to the side of the road. Then they saw a
figure, covered with blood, slumped inside the cab, past the
open door. They sped to police headquarters in Donegal and a
few minutes later a sheriff and two state highway patrolmen
Were at the truck, examining the body. Pitts} 49, had obviously
@ been asleep. His head still rested on a small pillow tucked deep
at one end of the seat. He had been-shot from -close range, a
few feet, smack through the center of his forehead. As a bal-
listics test would show later that day the gun that had been
used to kill him was the one that killed Woodward on Satur-
day. The only difference was the robbery angle. Pitt’s wallet,
with $89, was still in his back pocket. i
_ And so the word went out. “A maniac... Blood .’.. Yours
... Watch out... A maniac!”
A DAY passed, and a night, and nothing happened. Another
day and another night and again nothing happened.
# ‘Then on the third night—at 2 am., Saturday, July 31—a
driver named John Sheperd got tired. Sheperd, 34, started to
road. Sleep, just a little of it,.was all he could think about. He
remembered the maniac with the gun and the two drivers
who'd been killed, but he was too tired to care. And anyway,
M@he said to himself as he lay back on the seat and closed his
4 cyes—anyway, nobody’s gonna come and shoot me.
irry guns. Drivers were friskeq@
(he young man never knew wha.
norning, thought they knew.
wallet—containing $50—and
t was a messy business, all righ
~s!= business, too. i
. driver to rob him. Simplg-
nornings later when the seco
vans Gan samed Haw 1: il Trucker Harry Pitts stopped for. a nap;
Killer didn’t take wallet. This was second T
apply the brakes and pull his truck over to the side of the.
nnn sii,
Somebody came, though. And a few minutes later Sheperd’s
eyes popped open and he groaned, loud and long. There was
something on fire in his throat. He stared up at the ceiling of
_ the cab and his arm. jerked up and touched his neck and the
burning there got worse and then he brought his hand up over
_ his eyes and saw that the hand was covered with blood.
“A vein in my neck’s burst.” That was all he could think.
“Something’s burst.”
Sheperd lay there for a minute, still groaning, clutching at
_his sides, when he saw the man, there in the cab, leaning over
him. “Help me,” he said. He couldn’t stand the pain. He closed
his eyes. 4
The man spoke softly, in a high-pitched voice, like a girl’s.
“T need some money,” he said. “I got a car out here and I
ain’t got much gas and I need: some money.”
“My neck,” Sheperd said. “Something’s happened to
neck.” : ;
. “You got any money?” the man went on. “Where do you
keep your money, mister?”
Shepherd didn’t say anything. He was in tremendous pain,
and he couldn’t understand what this was all about. this talk
about money, about a car being: out of gas. His brain was
growing heavy and he couldn’t understand.
Then he felt the man put his hand in his pockets—first in
one, the empty one; then in the other, the one with the wallet.
The wallet slid out. Sheperd opened his eyes. He tried to
look at the man’s face but everything was a blur. “What are
my
continued on next page
Spice cet
never woke up.
John Sheperd successfully fought off '
urnpike murder,
death after gunman shot him in throat.
——
No Sleep on
Nightmare Road
continued from page 19
- Turnpike had listened to one tip after another,
most of them by phone, by people who said
‘they knew who the killer was, that’ they'd
seen him and his car and that they’d taken
down his license number and to hurry up and
send somebody out and get him, There had
been nearly 600 of these tips so far. All of
them had been followed up. All had turned
out to be so much hogwash and nerves:
But now one tip came into the state police
office in Norristown that sounded like it might
be the real thing. It came from Eugene As-
rael, a truck driver from Philadelphia, at 4:10
that Wednesday morning. Israel said that at
4 AM., just about midway through his run, he
noticed that a car was trailing him. The car
was a convertible, a yellow Chevrolet con-
vertible, late model. “It trailed me for about
20 miles,” he told the officers, “slowing down
when I slowed down, stepping on the gas
when I did—even flicking its lights once in a
while as if the guy behind the wheel wanted
me to stop for something.”
“You lost it?” an officer asked.
“T lost it, all right,” Israel said. He smiled _
a little. “Just outside town here. I had to
step my speed up to 70 and shoot through a
few ‘red lights, but I lost’ it.”
An alert was put out immediately for the
car, for any yellow Chevvy convertible that
was cruising, right now, anywhere in the area.
“And stop that car no matter’ who’s driving
it—Whistler’s mother or the mayor,” one of--
ficer barked into his amicrophone. “Any nec-
essary apologies will be made later.”*
This was at 4:20. Less than an hour later
a phone at Norristown headquarters rang. A
man—he sounded either groggy or drunk or.
both—=wanted to know if it was true, whether
another truck - driver had . been ‘killed near
Steubenville, over in Ohio, seven miles across
. the’ Pennsylvania border and not far from the
Turnpike.
The desk sergeant asked around the office. ‘
The few men thete shook their heads. “No,”
the sergeant said into the phone, “no, it’s not
true,” and hung up. ‘
A FEW minutes later the phone rang again.
Another’ voice asked the same question:
“What’s this about a trucker getting it over
in Steubenville? You know anything about
it?” aay.
seven that morning to. make “Sure—nearly —
three hours of combing the area, the high-
ways and the smaller roads and the dirt,
country roads. When they were finished they
teported that the rumor had been just that—
a rumor. Nobody had been killed near that
town, they said. At least, not yet...
Now if Wednesday was the day of the big
scare, Thursday certainly rated to be called
the day of the even bigger disappointment,
“the day a desperate-looking’ man approached
.4 priest and begged to be forgiven for the
et Back in the
Turnpike murders,
ew 4 oo
The place was Philadelphia, the rectory of
the Roman. Catholic Church of the Visitation,
~ It was early morning. The man, tall, scrawny,
- Wild-eyed, about 45. years old, sneaked into
the rectory’s living room through an open
window and tiptoed: around ‘the building for
a few minutes. ‘Then he-climbed to the sec-
ond floor and opened the first door he came
to. -A priest was in bed, asleep.
The man woke him up. » “Bless me, Father,
- for I have sinned,” he said. He made a sign
‘of the cross. and got down to his knees,
The priest rubbed his eyes and snapped
on a lamp. “Who are you?” he asked.
The man began to cry. “I’m a poor sin- ;
ner,” he said. “I’m a murderer,”
Then he told the Priest his story.’ He had
tried to murder four People, he said. One
was a woman. - He’d attacked-her in June of
1952, in Atlantic City, N. J. She had almost
died. :
‘ '*And the men,” he said. “You probably
read about them inthe newspapers, Father.
They’re all from _ downstate. They’re — all
truck drivers. I killed two of them, Father,
The third one didn’t die.” .
The priest, ‘stunned, started to get up from
bed. As he did the Man sprang up. He
brought’ his hands up to his head and stood .
there, trembling, for a second. Then he~
turned and ran, down the Steps, out of the
BOCLORY «ots ie Saas ss as
_The priest phoned the police. Two squad
cars pulled up a few’ minutes later. A few
minutes after that a‘ detective spotted a man-
sitting on‘-a house stoop, down the block,
- half-hidden in the shadows, still crying. Be- °
fore the detective could say anything the man
half the next, A check. with: Atlantic ‘City
Police showed that he had been picked up in °
attacker was a young fellow, a bellhop in one
of the big seaside hotels, The bellhop event- ie
ually confessed and Was sent to prison, .~.
About the Turnpike murders the man
say, “But I did them.“ I ‘swear to that. I.
. confessed to the priest, - I. swore.. I’m’ the
A’ detective who was” present during the ;
"grilling ‘said later, “The guy was obviously
a cary man: He kept’ yelling that ‘he was
the murderer, that ha hated truck drivers and
him to the. hospi-
%.
yoo
eS oper
peal
‘ . He's still there .
paratively quiet. The ribbon of tips continued
to flow into police stations and sheriffs’ offices
all along the route. The scares continued, too
—such as the morning. three truck drivers re-
Ported, within 15 minutes of one another,
that they’d been shot at by someone in a car
which sped towards them from the opposite
direction and then let the bullets fly (“A teen-
age gang, probably,” police said after investi-
gating, “out for some thrills”) ; such as the aft-
ernoon one truck driver decided to swing his
truck off the road and scare- everybody by
sprawling on his back, his eyes and his mouth
wide open, a few feet off the highway (“I
don’t know why I did it,” he said later. “
guess I was so jumpy that I wanted to give
everybody else the jumps, too”) ; and such as
the night somebody phoned headquarters at
Mt. Pleasant, Pa., and said there’d just been
a murder on the Turnpike, which there had
been, in a way—only as it turned out it
. wasn’t a-truck driver. this time, but a couple,
a man and wife who'd made a suicide pact
and who’d decided to end it all with two
bullets on the right lane of one of the most
traveled thoroughfares in the world (in the
husband’s pocket a note was found which
read; “This is a long road. We have taken
this way out.”)
STILL, things were comparatively quiet now
and after a while driving the Turnpike at
night became a little less tense and people be-
gan to say that maybe there wouldn’t be any
more shootings, that maybe the killer was
satisfied now and that maybe he’d quit and
was an extremely self-conscious young man,
_ tarely lifting his gaze from the floor—“It’s
because of his’ vaice,” some People had said
about him, “just like a little girl’s” | -
- He was sentenced on August 12 and stuck -
it out in-his cell for four days. Then on Au-
gust 17 he contacted his family in Ohiopyle,
Pa. “You can get me out of here if you
help pay the costs on that car,” he told them.
“Tt?s $1100. -You can mortgage the house,
You can do something. But you’ve gotta get
Me out of here,” ‘
Wable’s. father didn’t mortgage the house,
but he did manage to raise the money.
It was the night before Mr. Wable drove
-over to Uniontown with the money, the night
before ‘his’ ‘son’s release, that’ Wable had the
the matter, boy?” he asked.
Wable’ was trembling, Perspiring. “I gotta
-tell,”. he moaned. |
“Tell -what 2”
_ Wable said nothing,
“Tell what, boy?”
“The, murders," Wable said finally. He
took” a deep, “heavy breath. '“Those . two
. truck’ drivers, The. other one, the one that
_. lived. I did it. “I dia ice SiMe
MT did it?) Fen a
_ Half an° hour later Wable> was talking to:
]
twe Jetestiv
pol tic
voi se,
Evuy uuce
cried and «
badly. Occz
him se2nethi
got so tight
other times,
tectives had
“You'll ha
tectives. *“Mz
He hande
it, but never
just sat, prat
ly squeezing
Finally th
They’d heard
derer, they
“a screwball,
his report lat
HEY sent
didn’t slee
one of thé ce!
of the night,
on about the
ing and, slow
Then, exha
asleep.
The next «
money. A ja
minutes later
you can go n
‘It was as '
cell that he t:
fided in a fey
no longer we
Even his voic:
he said to the
have said to \
forget it. I w
heard nothing
~ ean vies
nodde gi
Aly
That was o:
half ‘later, on
in Cleveland, (
ing a letter he’
from the Penn
been sent- out
It gave the des
Police said, mig
The watch had
erd, the truck |
heck back on J
The pawnbrc
walked over t
looked through
he picked out <
’- number on the
and checked it
The watch, he s
low named Joh:
a few days afte:
The pawnbro!
An hour later
of a small, woc
skirts of wester
checked the ad
dress Wable had
he’d hocked the
steps and rang t
Leora’ Crissey,
‘swered. The det
heard of Wable.
' “Of course,”
‘room here.” +
) continued
doing to me?”
The man sounded
reached over, to
itch.
d now. The face
3ut closer, along-
omething up and
d what had hap-
was asleep, that
reathed hard. He
’s steering wheel.
d to sit up.
r churning a few
ir start and then
go by and then
blackness ahead.
iours later, a few
rushed to a doc-
was between the
two truck drivers
et from Sheperd’s
he police came in.
he could remem-
man’s voice, that
asked for the
(let. And then
t see well,” Shep-
hink it was a yel-
ough. Everything
gest single wait in
r more than two
and well’ into Oc-
» doctor who'd re-
1 it over to a state
listics expert in a
from a series of
1e officers standing
gun—the gun. that
» Dream Highway
.en were dead and
thousands of other
o had to drive by
nd night out, most
: and Pittsburgh—
ounced that there
$5000 each from
‘ontinental Trans-
zency meeting held
Turnpike. Nearly
sylvania and from
SEM Maratea
Se ee ee
nearby states, had come to hear Mike Shipley, safety director ‘
of the Pennsylvania Motor‘Tryck Association, tell them how
to stay alive. © ee
“Stop for nothing,” Shipley told the men, “not even to help.
a buddy whose truck has broken down. That’s warning number
one. Warning number two is don’t go to sleep on the road.
Warning three is, if you have a breakdown, leave the trailer
and wait at a safe distance for a safety patrol car.”
- Most of the men remained quiet as Shipley spoke, but some
of the men grew restless and one of them stood up when it was
all over and called out, ““What’s wrong with the police, any-
way? If you go. five miles over the speed limit, you get plenty
of action from them. Now, when we want them—when we
need them—where are they?” Other angry truckmen echoed
his sentiment.
“They’re there,” Shipley said. “Those men are doing their
job and you'can rest assured that they’re there.”
And they were, Pennsylvania State patrol cars, by the dozen,
cruising the Turnpike, from one end to the other and then
_ back again, a procession of as many cars as could be spared,
their drivers and. the men alongside the drivers wide-eyed,
ready, lcoking the other way only.when they saw a truck
coming along, speeding, speeding way over the limit, racing to
get where it was headed for and the hell with any’nut with a
gun who might try to stop it. The turnpike had become a chal-
lenge to every trucker. :
The state police cars were there and so were the scores of
cars operated by the trucking companies, normally used to
watch over the trucks and -their drivers in case of a traffic
mishap, and now used to ward off a killer—to slow down and
look hitchhikers over and question them if they looked sus-
picious, to make! sure that the drivers.didn’t stop anywhere.
along the road for a snooze, to make sure that the men drove
guns.
__ on, when they were tired, to the motel’ courts and diner areas
wer=that checkes irbri
vith ; ights; to make
sure, especially, that none of the men’ became so jittery that
they broke. oné of the cardinal taboos of the day—carry no
“No firearms,” an order. read. “No weapons of any kind.
There are detectives on the road, both state police and com-
pany men. They will do any shooting if any shooting is nec-
essary.” : ; -
Mest of the mén obeyed the order—although it’s safe to
guess that all of. them had a wrench handy somewhere
in the cab with them, something they could grab just, in case.
There were, however, the drivers who thumbed their noses
‘at the order. One was a trucker from New Castle, Del. He was
arrested while driving along the Turnpike just outside of Lan-
caster, Pa., on Tuesday morning, August 3. Troopers had
hailed down his truck and frisked him: They found a loaded
revolver in his left trouser pocket. “Look, buddy,” one of the
arresting officers told him, ‘I know how you guys feel, but a
law’s a law and we’ve gotta take you in.’”’ His tone was one of
conciliation.
The trucker was booked on charges of violation of the state
firearms act. Bail was set at $500. His friends were’ notified
‘and raised the money for him within an hour’and he was re-
leased,
The troopers who’d arrested him walked the man back to
his truck. Just before-he climbed. aboard they shook hands
with him, “Sorry,” they said. Then, “Good luck!” They sym-
_ pathized with him.
_ The next day, August 4, was the day of the big scare. Ever
since the second murder, desk sergeants and state police offi-
cers at headquarters up and down: the ( Continued on page 62) .
Handcuffed-to Pennsylvania officials, the sullen suspect is returned to scene of crimes after making a partial confession.
—
oO
2 SOMO 0
Seep: SRW cere an yeiteT
s continued
riffs’ offices
itinued, too
drivers re-
ie another,
ne in a car
he opposite
y (“A teen-
‘ter investi-
1 as the aft-
9 swing his
‘rybody by
{ his mouth
ighway (“I
d later. “I
ted to give
ind such as
iquarters at
d just been
1 there had
ned out it
ut a couple,
suicide pact
| with two
of the most
rid (in the
»und which
have taken
y quiet now
pike at
iple be-
be any
killer was
‘d quit and
to the sud-
dead.”
here were a
{ the police
alive.
ble, 24, was
arge of fail-
‘ntal agency.
id sad-faced,
young man,
floor—“It’s
le had said
2 and stuck
Chen on Au-
in Ohiopyle,
here if you
e told them.
the house.
‘ve gotta get
e the house,
noney.
Wable drove
ey, the night
ible had the
vo cellmates.
is bunk and
ay. ‘“What’s
ig. “TI gotta
finally. He
“Those two
one that
i. talking to
two detectives in an upstairs room of the local
minutes’: talk with the girl and her stepfather,
police station. He talked for an hour, his
voice tense, more high-pitched than’ ever.
Every once in a while he broke down and
cried and when he cried he began to shake
badly. Occasionally the detectives would ask
him something and the chords in his throat
got so tight that he couldn’t answer. Then,
other times, he talked so rapidly that the de-
tectives had:a hard time understanding.
-
The detectives stepped inside. : After a few
7
John Kandura,. they learned that Wable had
disappeared a little over a. week ago. She'd.
met him ‘in August, Leora said. He told her .
he was hew in town, that he‘was looking for’
a place to: stay. She told ‘him they had a
~ room to rent, that ‘he might like to stay with
“You'll have to relax,” said one of the de- -
tectives. “Make some’ sense.”
He handed Wable a cigaret. Wable took —
it, but never put it in his mouth. . Instead he
just sat, prattling on about the murders, slow- i
ly squeezing the life out of the butt. is
Finally the’ detectives shook their heads.
They’d heard enough. This man was no mur-
derer, they said. Just a little stir crazy— |
“a screwball,” one of them wrote officially ‘in
his report later—but no murderer.
ert sent Wable back to his cell. He
didn’t sleep well that night. Neither. did
one of thé cellmates. They sat together, most
of the night, on a’bunk, Wable talking on and ©
on about the murders, the other man listen-
ing and, slowly, coming to believe hirh.
Then, exhausted, Wable lay back and fell-
asleep. :
The next day his father came with the
money. A jailer opened the cell door a. few
minutes later and said to Wable, “Come on,
you can go now.” ~ 3
‘It was as Wable was walking out of the
cell that he turned to the cellmate he’d con-
fided in a few hours earlier. _His eyes were
no longer wet. They were dry—and hard.
Even his voice sounded hard row. “Listen,”
he said to the cellmate.* “Anything I might
have said to you last night. I want you to
forget it. I want you to make like you never
heard nothing. You understand?”
~ “AN right, boy,” the cellmate said. He
nodded and gave a weak wave of the hand.
“All right.” Lipset
half’later, on October 5, a pawnshop owner
in Cleveland, O., sat behind his counter read-
ing a letter he’d gotten that morning. It.was
from the Pennsylvania State Police. It. had
been sent- out to pawnbrokers in 12 states.
It gave the description of a watch which, the ©
police said, might have been pawned recently.
The watch had been stolen from John Shep-
erd, the truck-driver who’d been shet in the
neck back on July 31.
The pawnbroker read the letter and then
walked over to a watch display case. He
looked through it for a few minutes: Then’
he picked out a watch. He jotted down the
number on the tiny tag attached to the watch ~
and checked it against a card in his files.
The watch, he saw, had been pawned by a fel-
low named John Wesley Wable on August 4—
a few days after Sheperd was shot.
The pawnbroker phoned the police.
An hour later a squad car pulled up in front
of a small, wood-frame house near the out-
skirts of western Cleveland. Two detectives
checked the address. It was right—the ad-. ~
dress Wable had given at the pawnshop when
he’d hocked the watch. They climbed the front
steps and rang the bell:
Leora Crissey; a pretty young blonde, an-
‘swered. The detectives asked her if she ever
heard of Wable. : ‘
“Of course,” the girl said. “He used to
room here.” s
them. He said that would ‘be swell.
He was a good: fellow) the’ girl’ went onto
say, but he did. act’ a’ little ‘strange some-
times. ‘Sometimes ‘he'd go off on trips for a
couple of days, saying he: was going to ‘look
for a job in'a town close by. Then he'd
come back and say he hadn’t found the job.
“And then,” Leora said, “just when you started
‘to feel sorry for-him:he’d say, ‘But I’ve got
“some money, How about us two going out —
- had shared a cell with Wable. over in the _
.
tonight?’ ” Bee - ;
‘The detectives asked the girl and‘her step-
father if, they could see the room Wable slept
in. ;
The room’was small and’ clean—a bed, a
bureau, two ‘chairs, a puffy, old-fashioned
ottoman, a sink ‘and “a closet—empty.
Mr. Kandura pointed to the closet. ‘There ©
was a gun,” he said, “in a paper bag. I came
across it,one day when John was still with us. ”
I didn’t like having-a gun in our house and
I brought it to headquarters. John found
out about it. He didn’t get mad or anything.
He turned. white, Then, the next day, he
left.”
_ The detectives sped to a mearby police sta-
tion. The gun Mr. Kandura had turned. in
might be the one that was used in the Turn-
pike shootings. ..
Agee ay
-- was: A long, thorough check in the ballis-
tics laboratory back in Pittsburgh that
night showed that Wable’s gun—a German .
job, very. much ‘like. an. American .38—was
the one which had. been used to shoot truck «
drivers Pitts, Woodward and Sheperd.
_ At.3 am.the-following:day-the-alarm went ~
eo OU. John. Wesley. Wable_.of _Ohiopyle, Pa.,
That was on August 19. A month and a.
the alarm: stated; was: wanted ‘for miirder.
“He may be armed,” it went on'to say. “He
may be dangerous,” ; . es
At seven that morning one of the men who
Uniontown jail back in August showed up at
a state’ police station:: He’d heard the: an-.
nouncement about the gun being found over
the radio early that morning, he said. Now
he wanted to do some announcing of -his ‘own.
Wable was in his home: town a little over a
week ago, he said. “I didn’t. see him,” the
ex-con told the-police, “I wasn’t let out of
Uniontown till the next day. Only Wable
probably didn’t know this. .I’ don’t know
what he was doing looking for me unless it
was to put the squeeze on me, unless he was
afraid that I was going’'to talk.” é :
~The man talked now.” He told the police
- everything Wable had. told him that night in
the cell. Said the’ police later, “We are con-
vinced now that Wable is the murderer. He
-told our informant facts that only the actual
murderer could have known. He’s our man.”
Police throughout the state agreed. The
“screwball” who’d.confessed once already was
_ their man, all right. . Now all they had to do
“was nab him. -
This wasn’t “easy. . :
In: fact,. if it weren’t for two girls all the
way out west in ‘Albuquerque; N, M.,. the po-
"lice might still be-looking-for “him.
The girls—Caroline Smith, a nurse, and
"her friend, Midge Harmon, a billing clerk for
-the Santa-Fe Railroad—were on their way to
an early. evening show at a drive-in theater
just outside of Albuquerque on Sunday night,
October 11. They’d gone about eight: miles
when they saw the state patrolman standing
in ‘the middle of the road, flagging them to
“slow: down. .They. stopped. ‘The patrolman
-Jooked in the back seat-of the car. Then.he
smiled.’ “Nobody hiding ‘back there,” . he
said.
The girls asked him what this was all about.
There’d been a robbery at a service station
_a few miles up the road half an hour before,
the trooper. said.. Three young men—Marvin
H. Parsons, 20, J. D.: Francis, 17, both of
California, and-‘another man—had held up
the station attendant and gotten away with
$70.- “They didn’t get far, though,” he said.
. “At least, two of them-didn’t.-.We got them.
But the. third fellow, he got away.”
“Do you know what he looks like?” Miss
‘Smith asked.
_ The trooper described him. He was med-
- jum-height, he said; brown-haired, thin—
“kind of a sad-faced punk”—wearing blue |
jeans, a light blue shirt, scuffed shoes and, the
attendant had told the police, red underwear.
The girls listened to a little more and then
they’ drove on. Not to the movie, though.
They decided instead to have some fun and
‘play detective. “We've got time, Midge,”
Miss Smith said a few minutes after they’d
gotten on the move again. “And he must be
around here somewhere if he’s on foot. Let’s
look around and see if we can find him.”
They both giggled 4 litle, partly because ~
this was such a good idea, partly. because they
were. nervous about it, and then they tried
‘ to figure out where a‘thief who was trying
to get away from the police would most like-
ly head for.at a time like this. |
“The railroad tracks,” one of them said.
“That hobo jungle around there where the
tramps catch trains. Right?”
: “Right.” aes
~ And right they ‘were. They were: cruising
alongside the railroad tracks a few minutes
later when they spotted him.. He was a young
fellow, in his twenties, and he looked like
the man the trooper had described. Better
than that, he looked scared, standing there
‘on the side of the road, trying to hitch a ride,
his eyes looking down at his shoes. ;
Miss Smith, driving, applied a little pres-
sure to the brakes, .The car slowed, enough
for the girls to. see, as they passed the man,
that the portion of underwear that showed
around his neck was red.
They drove on. “Did he see us?” Miss
Smith asked. .
“J don’t think so,” Miss Harmon said. “I
was watching from the corner of my eye, but
-I don’t think he even looked up.”
he ELL,” Miss Smith said, “here goes,” and
she gave a hearty shove to the accelerator
- and drove on into the nearest town and to the
sheriff’s office there.
The two girls told the sheriff what they’d
seen and the sheriff contacted the state po-
lice. Five minutes later the thief was picked
_up. He offered no resistance. All he would.
say—and the police noticed that his voice was
unusually high-pitched—was, “All right, now
you’ve’ got me, what are you gonna do with
me?”
He was driven to Albuquerque and locked
up in a cell with his two pals, Parsons and
Francis, two young men who said that they’d
met the holdup man about a week before
while hitching a ride, that he had coaxed them
into going in on the holdup with him, that
they didn’t know anything about him, what-
kind of guy he was, what his past was like.
At ten o’clock that night police put through
a call to state police headquarters in Pennsyl-
‘vania. They were just checking, they said, on
a car involved in a holdup earlier that night.
It had Pennsylvania license. plates. They
thought it might be a stolen car.
At 10:15 they got their answer. It was a
stolen car, they were told. -
“Well,” the officer who answered. the call
said, “we’ve got a guy here, the guy who was
driving the car. Maybe he’s from Pennsyl-
vania, too. You want to check on it?”
“What’s his name?”
“Wable,” the officer said.
Wable.” i
There was a pause. The. New Mexico of-
ficer could hear the commotion at the. other
“John Wesley —
«
end of the wire, the receiver slamming down
on the desk, the talking, the receiver coming
up again and then the word, “Hold that man!
He’s wanted here, for maurdert ”
For THE next two pth Wable denied the
Turnpike murders. Sullen, his eyes down, al-
ways down, threatening more than once to kill
himself if he wasn’t let alone, he told the New
' fessed. All right, he finally said. Then he -
Mexico officers’ that someone else was the
‘ killer—not him, Sure, they might have found
the wristwatch that he’d pawned and they
“might have found the gun’ which had been
used in the shooting; but, he said, it was all
very simple to explain: “I loaned. the gun
to some guy I know,” he said. “He asked
me if he could: borrow it and I said yeah.
Then, when he returned it to me about a
week later, he gave me a wristwatch, too.
He’s the guy. who did the hia He’s the
one you want,” |
.’ “Who is he?”.. ,
Wable shook his head. “I know him,” he
said, his eyes narrowing. “I know his name
and where he lives. I’ll get him.”
“For two days this is all Wable would say.
Then, on the third day, three officers from
Pennsylvania showed up and took over the
questioning. By the time they were through
—on Thursday night, October 15—Wable con-
confessed and signed a 14-page statement im-
plicating himself in the murders. Police said
they had “little doubt” that he was the real
killer and that he worked “alone.”
‘ The officers prepared to return him -to
Pennsylvania where he was charged with first-
degree murder in the deaths of truckers Wai-
ter Woodward and Harry Pitts.
The Turnpike, meanwhile, got back to nor-
mal after more than two months of the
shakes and -last reports are that the truckers
are cruising it at normal speeds now. and _pull-
- ing over to its sides for those half-hour naps
and that the: politicians are getting ready to
start calling it Dream Highway again.
ao Feeds « on. . Moonlight io
continued from page 45
hampered by ‘a near state of. panic. Such
hysteria can break down law and order, bring .
death to innocent persons, defeat justice and
‘write a red page in the history of Dallas .. .’
Newspapers and television stations started
rewards: for the capture of Beanie Parker’s
Slayer. The reward soon reached more than
$7000. Clyde Atkerson, partner at the Beene
Shoe Store in Walnut Hills village, started a
drive for a fund to educate Mrs. Parker’s son
and care for him and her sick husband. Fruit
jars were. put out in stores and people
crammed the jars: with dollar’and ‘five dollary
bills. Soon that fund was more than $7000,
too. .
Detective Fritz was determined to get the
killer’ before he struck .again, Within two
days he arrested 150 suspects and eliminated -
40. Tips poured in. Officers’ in Sherman, °
Fort Worth and. other Texas cities arrested
. Suspects. Theré were so ‘many that Fritz.
could: only mug, fingerprint them and- check
their alibis. ;
Degenerates were emotionally Ruin by
the rape-murder,: like buzzards after “death.
Sex crimes broke out, everywhere. Women‘
lived in terror. Lila Wisdom left. her foun-
tain job at the bus depot downtown at 11:30
P.M. the night after the murder,
polka-dot shirt seized her arm. She jerked.
free and ran into the bus ‘station foe help.
They couldn’t find the man. :
Five minutes later 20-year-old Mrs. T. J.
Baisden-in another part of town looked out’
the window of a bedroom where her two-year-"
old daughter and two-month-old daughter °
She saw the stooping figure of a nude >
slept.
man, his face-pressed against the glass window.
When she. screamed,’ he ran. Just after. mid- ”
night a blond boy peeped'in Mrs. A. L, Ander-. ©
son’s window. A prowler cut. and tore open .
two screens at Mrs. Edith Baleht’s honig fore
the aged.-
On Thursday, the day. Rites Beanie’ 'S canter e
a 35-year-old housewife was washing dishes \ to
- As soon as .
she stepped: to the sidewalk a big man in‘a. ‘
‘she said.:’
opened the back’ door.
her out into the yard, knocked her down and
dragged her ‘to’ the woods. ‘He was slender,
medium-sized, sunburned, blond, wearing a
dirty T-shirt, “ducking trousers, and held a
piece of iron in“his hand. ’ ,
* “Be quiet.’ “Be quiet and pdetithing will *
_ be all right?’ he ‘said,
In’ the: woods he
threw her’ to"the’ ‘ground. | “She fought back
like a wildcat.’.’She pawed his eyes and ripped
fingernails: from’ three of her’ fingers,
when they heard ‘her’ screams ‘and” found her
bleeding and unconscious. » ae
Police. scoured: ‘the woods’ but “ound no
trace of the.man. © Neighbors’ said they'd.
‘a 1938 Ford parked nearby, A Garland Road
Rough hands yanked ~
She -
screamed and kicked and fought him off. . He.
gave up and. ‘fled. ‘Neighbors ‘came © running |
liquor dealer’said he’d sold two pints: of wine -
Wednesday. to“a man fitting the. lprediaorad
Officers failed: to ‘find’ the assailant. ‘
rae pe was an sae. camp‘ Police feared
someone. would fire and kill an innocent
glaries was only 11.. There was only one rob-
bery by assault.
Sheriff Jess Sweeten, famous ee Feet
Tall” law of nearby Henderson County, of-
fered to organize 100 East Texas’ peace of-
ficers to, help patrol Dallas and bring the
prowler to bay. On Friday the police bor-
‘rowed 40 unmarked cars from. civil defense-
Each car was °
to reinforce the night patrol.
equipped with two-way radio and carried a
radio “ham” operator and two uniformed po-
licemen. On Saturday police called in a heli-
copter with searchlights from the Bell Air-
craft plant at Hurst. ‘
Fritz ‘kept arresting and questioning sus-
‘pects, but his face got grimmer. — He lit cigars,
n _ chewed them up and spit them out, forgetting
_ to: puff them.
There was’ fear,’-but no racial conflict.
Negro baseball stars Buzz Clarkson and Wil-
‘lie Brown of the Dixie Champion Dallas
~ Eagles started a reward fund; contributing
$300 each. Eagle Owner: Dick’ Burnett added
$300, The National Association for Advance-
person before they. captured’ ‘the nude rapist. A ©
middle-aged . ‘woman. “walked. into a sporting |
goods store, asked to look at guns and sighted.
down barrels like an’ expert,” _ Men quit watch-
ing «Mickey: Mantle batéin ‘the World: Series
on TY, and looked ‘over at the woman buying
her gun, .Pregty handy with a weapon, for a
‘woman, they: thought., “I'll. take this one,” ”
of .38 cartridges togo with the weapon. *
“Oh, I don’t. want-big ones, just small ones.
¥ I ‘don't want to hurt anybody,” she said,
ar-old ‘Ford Plant
“two: aiatgin binsts at a
orch. One shot ripped:
The
in the kitchen of her home when: she heard, ther
a crunching sound in the. gravel.in her: -back —
rare She put her dish » ~towel down and
he. ‘clerk then. shoved | ‘over a. box
.-out* whimpering like a. hurt dog.
ment. of Colored People, Southwest School of
Business Administration and Council of Negro -
Organizations contributed:
“We don’t want ‘people in our race who
‘dre capable of such an outrage,” Dr. J. O.
Chisum, optometrist and Negro leader, said, .
At 4:45 a.o., Friday, two days after Beanie
-Parker died, a 23-year-old man drove two
girls’ to the dark little bridge near: the scene
“of the crime. He stopped the car and got
He ran
down the embankment to the creek bottom
\-and hurled himself to the ‘ground where
Beanie had been bludgeongd. - The girls
. gasped, ‘slammed the car door and drove to
-
‘police, : They found the man prostrate, naked,
_ sobbing over and “over, vary “Oh, the body, i
- Oh,. the body.” .
», Fritz looked up. the man’s hard Bad ques-
tioned him. “A three-time ‘mental patient, he
“had been accused . of.: ‘shooting himself and
faking a robbery. last. ‘ spring to cover up a
3s $100" theft from the filling station where he
“worked. He’d been committed to the Terrel
~ Fritz
90 days later. -
now hi i
Fritz Ww
cused> --uzin
months before,
ing a 29-year-«
arrested, qvas «
with lewd pictv
alibis and relea
On Saturday
- routine check |:
ing around*in a
ing Union Stati
“What are y
The man sh
his thinning hai
out his wallet <
‘picture of Bean
“Where were
Fritz said.
The prowler
“T’m a porter |
the hotel mana;
_ “Wednesday
ager said.
“Oh, that’s ri
to a show We
think anyone sa
“Let’s take :
said. The wal
photos. One c
front page accc
“T guess I’m
the suspect mu:
Fritz bellow
right. You act
don’t you? Th
wouldn’t it?”
The man’s fin
thick lips. “TI «
fully interested.’
Fritz jailed h
ing to do with t
here uptil ure’re
Earl ay
race fli
under a ure on
Routh. They s
him down, coll
‘The nudist was
released from ja
being held five
A neighbor \
lurking in the »
hour, but didn’t
maybe he was a
—and she wasn’
a caddy at Br
country clubs, h
to 1945 when |
sentence for bur
jailed almost \
vagrancy.,
“TWAS drini
was robbed
drinking with, (
to buy more \
off. ”
When he was
no money. Wh
was stolen Sund
“T just can’t I
“You were nz
hour. Why did
put them back
help?”
* “J. was afraic
throat. I wis ;
- with’ that knife.
ter B. Woodward, 26, of Duncan-
non, Pennsylvania. He stopped his
truck on the shoulder of the high-
way near the Irwin interchange,
y thirty miles west of Donegal, Penn-
» sylvania, after encountering a thick
_ fog. Woodward was tired from a
gneling ride to an eastern city,
where he had delivered a double-
’ decker trailer load of automobiles.
On his return trip, he probably
it was useless to battle his
| way through the fog, so he crawled
into an improvised bunk direct-
ly behind the driver's seat and
now more |
er and road
d, the killer
torists have
parking in 4
stretches of .*
ie police of-"@
o's a maniac
tim was Les- |
stretching out, went to sleep.
Out of the mist stepped a man
with a gun. Woodward apparently
slept soundly. The man with the gun
aimed at the truck driver and fired.
Woodward died instantly. The killer
quickly emptied the dead man’s
pockets of fifty dollars and dis-
appeared.
It appeared to be an ordinary
robbery-killing until two days later
when police were called to a similar
scene on the turnpike, five miles
east of Donegal. This time, too, a
truckdriver had been shot through
>
Recuperating from bullet wound in-
flicted by turnpike killer, John K.
Sheperd was one of few lucky truck-
drivers who lived to tell about it.
a
Road block on the turnpike. Pennsylvania State Troopers are shown carefully search-
ing all automobiles, shortly ater the murder ot sleeping truckdriver Harry Pitts.
31
the head as he lay asleep in the
cab of his auto-carrier trailer truck.
The victim, Harry Franklin Pitts,
39, of Bowling Green, Virginia, was
found dead by the roadside by a
friend, Leslie Parr, of Balty, Vir-
ginia. Parr was headed west on
the turnpike at 5:20 A.M., when
he spotted Pitts’ truck parked on
the opposite side of the road.
Thinking Pitts was asleep, Parr
stopped his car, then walked across
the highway to the truck. He saw
Pitts lying across the seat of the
(Continued on page 52)
"1 didn’t kill nobody,” was the as-
sertion made by John Wesley Wable,
latest suspect in the turnpike kill-
ings. He was caught in New Mexico.
aa.
WABLE, John W., white, elec. PAS (Westmoreland) September 26, 1955
In At The Finish
John Wesley Wable, the 28-year-old
Pennsylvania farmhand known as_ the
Phantom of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, has
gone to his death in the electric chair for
the murder of truckdriver Harry F. Pitts
(No Sleep on Nightmare Road, January
INSIDE, 1954). Wable was also accused of
the murder of Lester B. Woodward, 26, and
of wounding John K. Sheperd, also 26.
All three men were shot as they slept in
their truck cabs along the Pennsylvania
Turnpike in a seven-day reign of terror
in July of 1953. The motive for the killings °
was robbery, and it was the pawning of
Sheperd’s watch in a Cleveland pawnshop
that led to Wable’s arrest. A German pistol,
which police tests showed was used in all
three shootings, was found hidden in the
home of a girlfriend of Wable. The State
Supreme Court and the Governor of Penn-
sylvania rejected pleas for a stay of execu-_.
tion made a few hours before his death.
All during his arrest, and during his stay
in the death house at Bellefonte, Pa.,
Wable maintained a cold calm, and just
before he was led to the chair he told his
attorneys: “I ain’t going to die; I'll be
here a long time.”, He was pronounced dead
just seven minutes after he entered the
death chamber.
Joyce Green, pretty 21-year-old wife of,
convicted murderer Earl Green, will not
have to return to Florida to face probation
rade dh fat.
violation charges in connection with a con-
viction of being an accomplice in a super-
market holdup with her husband (J Mar-
ried Murder, December InsiDE, 1955). Los
Angeles Judge Louis Kaufman dismissed
the fugitive warrant against Mrs. Green,
after a legal aid society called her prosecu-
tion and conviction in Florida a miscarri-
age of justice. Mrs. Green, now living in
California, maintained that she had pleatled
guilty to being an accessory in a super-
market holdup on the advice of an at-
torney, but denied actual participation.
Her husband, Earl Green, was convicted
of the robbery-murder of Oliver La
Chance, and while a fugitive, forced his
wife and her child by another marriage to
accompany him. Green is now awaiting
execution in San Quentin’s death row.
James Showers, 27, the elephant trainer
who nearly stumped the experts on the
What’s My Line television - show, and
alerted television ‘viewers in Royal Oak,
Mich., who recognized him as the man
wanted for auto theft, has pleaded guilty
to charges of transporting a stolen car
across state lines (Inside Report, Novem-
ber INSIDE, 1955). Showers appeared on
the television program with the assumed
name of Jimmy Mitchell. He won $50
after panel moderator ruled the New York
studio audience gave the guessers too much
help in determining the elephant boy’s
occupation. But—thanks to the prompting
by the Michigan audience—he was brought
to trial in Brooklyn, N. Y., and sentenced:
to nine months in federal prison.
Jeanne McGowan, 19-year-old Roxbury,
Mass., girl charged with the slaying of a
Miami, Fla., tavern owner, pleaded guilty
and has been sentenced to prison for life
(The Boys Said I Was Chicken, July
" Insmpg, 1955). Jeanne, who told police
that she participated in the holdup-slaying
because she was tired of being called
“chicken,” had been scheduled to come to
trial with two other youths who were also
charged. When asked by Circuit Judge
Robert Floyd if she fully realized her
guilty plea could mean death in the elec-
tric chair, she replied that she did, and
calmly told him that she had been offered
no inducements to change her original
plea of innocent. Her attorney asked the
court for mercy, remarking that she had
come from a good family but had “fallen
under’ the influence. of bad associates.”
Hughlan Long, Assistant State Attorney,
also asked for mercy, “in the interests of
justice.” The other defendants in the case
will go on trial as scheduled.
A murder indictment against John Paul
Chase, for the murder of FBI agent Her-
man E. Hollis, 20 years ago, has been dis-
missed by Federal Judge Phillip L. Sullivan
(Slow Boat to Hell, November INSIDE,
1955). Chase, who was convicted of the
murder of FBI agent Saw Cowley and
sentenced to life in 1934—also by Judge
Sullivan—is eligible for parole if the rul-
/
ing is upheld. Both FBI agents were track-
ing down “Baby Face’ Nelson and were
killed in a gunfight. Chase and Nelson
escaped but were captured a few months
later. Judge Sullivan dismissed the case on
the grounds that Chase had waited too
long for trial. “The thought of ordering
him to trial after 20 years shocks the
imagination and the conscience,” Sullivan
said. He said the passage of 20 years
would have made most of the witnesses
“inaccessible.” “Even if two decades had
left them alive and within the jurisdiction
of this court, it is certain their memories
of those long past events are clouded... .
the stakes are too high to imply a waiver
(of Chase’s right to trial) without some
overt act on his part.”
Harold “Red” Johnson has been found
not guilty of the murder of John Smith, Jr.,
of Daisy Mountain, Tenn., one of the two
murders in which Walter Lanthrippe ad-
mitted he participated (J’ve Got To Tell
Somebody, November INswwe, 1955). Lan-
thrippe confessed to his part in the mur-
ders after nearly two years of moving
from place to place, taking temporary jobs,
because he feared he would be killed. He
told police that while he, Smith, and
Johnson were riding in his car, Johnson
told him he was going to kill Smith, and
that after accusing Smith of stealing his
‘gun, he choked him with his bare hands
until he was dead. Lanthrippe said he
helped throw Smith’s body into a lake
because he was frightened. Both Johnson
and Lanthrippe were indicted, but John-
‘son was granted a separate trial. Lanthrippe
refused to testify at Johnson’s trial until
the state promised to recommend a ver-
dict of not guilty in his own case. After
the state presented its case, which con-
sisted: almost entirely of Lanthrippe’s testi-
mony, Judge~ Raulston Schoolfield con-
curred in the defense motion that the state
(GSB
had not corro
Lanthrippe, “‘ar
directed a ver
point in the
would “probab!
out of this cc
Lanthrippe’s
would probably
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2 A RR LEE AE
Noi, YOClll We, Wh, elec, PAsP (we
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Last year cighty-three people
died in automobile accidents
along the 327 miles of the super
express highway. Now another
grim reaper—murder--has harvested
a new casualty list.
Terror has stalked the turnpike.
A maniac, with an uncontrollable
DD. IS NO STRANGER on
tmoreland), 9-26-1955
iN SR ATIC AAI FO TU me
Shrouded in mist,
the phantom killer struck 3
<then crept away
“under cover of fog!
‘on the
‘ig
urge to murder, has prowled the
road at night in search of victims.
In late July he found three parked
trailer trucks unprotected in the
darkness, their drivers asleep. He
shot each driver in the head. Two
have died; one miraculously lived.
According to police, the phantom
slayer escaped from the scenes of
the shootings in an automobile. Al-
“By HAROLD A. KLEIN
though the turnpike is now more
heavily guarded than ever and road
blocks have been erected, the killer
is still at Jarge. Mortorists have
been warned to avoid parking in
desolate, unprotected stretches of
the road. Ominously, one police of-
ficial has stated: “There's a maniac
loose on the turnpike!”
The first murder victim was Les-
ter B. Woo:
non, Penns;
truck on th:
way near
thirty miles
sylvania, aft:
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rushed to police headquarters,
There he found evidence that re-
moved his last doubt. George An-
ders, the man who had “discovered”
the body of Fowler, had been sen-
tenced to a nine-month prison term
within the past year—a_ sentence
which he had just completed a short
while ago.
Hurriedly the policeman called
the gate guard at the cotton mill.
Yes, Mrs. Anders worked at the
mill. She had a car and Fowler
had accompanied her in it once or
twice as they left the plant. The case
was stacking up.
Meanwhile Denning had hurried
to the Anders home, a cheap frame
structure on the outskirts of town.
No one was in, but the back door
was unlocked. The sheriff entered
quietly.
It took half an hour for him to
find what he wanted, but finally he
located it under the bed. It was a
.38-caliber revolver. Presently Eat-
man’s car stopped in front of the
house. Behind the wheel he found a
pretty blonde young woman with
tear-reddened’ cyes.
“She’s been scared to death,” the
officer said. “She doesn’t know that
her husband killed Fowler, but .. .
well, she’ll tell you.”
Sobbing, Mrs. Anders blurted out
the story. Her husband had come
home from prison and had heard
neighborhood gossip linking her
with Carl Fowler, Bitter arguments
had followed. The wife insisted that
she and Carl had been nothing more
than friends, but as days went by,
her husband had brooded and had
become increasingly morose and
jealous,
Then one night, the night of Feb-
ruary 9th, she was in bed when she
heard the door burst) open. Carl
Fowler walked in white-faced. Be-
him was Anders, with a pistol
pressed against Fowler's back.
“He said he was going to kill both
of us,” she said. “Finally, he quieted
down a little. Then he marched
Carl out the door and I heard the
car leaving. I read about) Carl's
death in the paper next day.”
Grimly the sheriff looked at Offi-
cer Eatman. ‘‘He’ll be home soon,”
Denning said. “We'll wait for him.”
He smiled grimly.
An hour later, Anders entered the
living room. He paled slightly at
the sight of the officers, but he man-
aged to summon a casual, friendly
grin. ° ;
“Can I do anything for you,
Sheriff?” he asked.
“If you don’t mind, you might as
well give me the rest of the story,”
Denning growled. “We've got most
of it from your wife—and we've got
this.” He exhibited the revolver.
However, the ballistics test prov-
ed his guilt conclusively. A murder
indictment was returned against
him. He went on trial in the Smith-
field courthouse on March 6th.
The trial was unexpectedly brief.
After the State had presented its
case, Anders’ attorney announced
that his client would plead guilty to
being an accessory before the fact
in first degree murder.
The court was willing to accept
the plea and promptly sentenced
George Anders to life imprisonment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To spare innocent
persons from embarrassment, the
names Pauline Ditlow and Mr. and
Mrs. Eric Langsdorf are fictitious.
THE END
TERROR ON THE TURNPIKE
continued from page 31
cab, his head hanging limply and
his shoeless feet wedged against
the steering wheel.
Police reported that robbery was
apparently not a motive in Pitts’
slaying. His wallet had not been
rifled. It contained cighty-nine
dollars. In addition, he still wore
his wristwatch. But the possibility
remained that the killer might have
been frightened away before he
had had a chance to take any valu-
ables.
The bullet which killed Pitts
entered the right side of his head
above the eye and near the hair-
line. According to police, it was
fired through an open ventilator
from the right side of the parked
truck. There were tire tracks in the
mud at the side of the road, which
indicated that the killer had sped
away in a car, crossing the center
line and traveling westerly.
It wasn't long before the killer
struck again. Several days later,
near the western terminus of the
turnpike in Ohio, John K. Shepherd,
of West Alexandria, Pennsylvania,
lay asleep in his truck near Lisbon,
Ohio, eighty miles from the scene
of the first slaying. He was awak-
ened by the sound of a car screcch-
ing to a stop by the side of his
truck. A man scrambled out, draw-
ing a gun. He shot Shepherd in the
jaw, robbed him of his wristwatch
and five dollars and stripped him
of his trousers.
Shepherd managed to get a look
at the killer’s car. He reported to
police that the car. was a “yellow
Chevvy.” At a hospital, Shepherd
underwent surgery to remove the
bullet. It was the same caliber
as those found in the bodies of the.
two slain truck drivers.
As terror spread along the turn-
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The Haunted Highway
(Continued from page 9]
following night after midnight, Glen
Hoffman of Chippews Lake, telephoned
the Ohio patrol that a car passed him
three miles east of Medina on Route 18
and someone fired a shot and missed.
In all these cases a heavy caliber gun
was believed to have been used and the
scores of police and private company de-
tectives now working on the investigation
expressed the belief that the gunman was
some crackpot who'd read of the other
shootings and because of some twist in
his mental processes decided to “get into
the limelight.”
Then, as the investigation went into its
second week, came word from New York
City that a motorist parked on the New
York side of the George Washington’
Bridge, less than five miles from the en-
trance to the Jersey Turnpike which leads
to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, had been
killed by a small-caliber bullet fired at
close range. The shot had: entered the
man’s head just behind the left ear, and
presumably came from either a .32 caliber
or 7.65 millimeter weapon.
There appeared to be little doubt that
the phantom of the Turnpike. had
switched the scene of his operations even
as the police were concentrating their
search for him along the western ap-
proaches to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Once again the gunman had fled before
robbing his victim, although the latest
casualty, wealthy tavern owner Barney
Prendergast, had carried a wallet con-
taining $225 in cash and checks amount-
ing to $2,722. A valuable three-diamond,
snake-coiled ring had not been taken from
the right hand of the New York victim,
and there was no evidence of a struggle
preceding the shooting.
Witnesses were located who remem-
bered having seen Prendergast sleeping
behind the wheel of his brand new maroon
Cadillac shortly after midnight. But when
the body was discovered it was lying
prone on a short stone stairway leading
from a parking place at Inspiration Point
overlooking the Hudson to the“highway
below.
This time the killer, or killers, had taken
the automobile in which they presumably
found their victim sleeping. Had they
headed back toward the Turnpike to carry
on thetr reign of terror, equipped now with
a high-powered car that could outdistance
anything in which their intended victims
might attempt to flee? wondered the police.
During the next week, traffic, both
passenger and truck, fell to record lows
on both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and
highways leading to it from East and
West. A hundred police in civilian clothes
patrolled the roads, and trucks were
planted along “Murder Alley” with
officers dressed as truck drivers presum-
ably asleep in the cabs. Other officers,
armed and alert for the slightest sus-
picious movement, stood on guard imme- |
diately behind the “sleeping” men.
Along the now moonless thoroughfare, |
sleep-drugged drivers drove in packs. The
word went out that even in the case of a
breakdown no driver was to remain with
his truck. He was to abandon his vehicle
and make his way into the woods where
it would be comparatively safe to find a
place of refuge.
On August 4, Eugene Israel, a Philadel-
phia trucker, reported his auto-carrier was |
trailed for several miles by a yellow and
cream convertible, running suspiciously
62 ad
\
without lights, along a feeder highway
near the eastern terminus of the Tufnpike
outside Philadelphia. After Several miles,
the driver of the car behind suddenly
flicked on his lights and signaled for the
big truck to pull over, but Israel took no.
chances and continued on, hogging the
middle of the highway to prevent the
other catching up to pass. At Norristown,
he speeded through half a dozen red lights
in an attempt to attract the attention of
police. But although this maneuver failed,
it at least enabled , law to outdistance his
pursuer.
Similar reports of trucks being trailed
came in from half a dozen poitits in Ohio
and Pennsylvania during the next twenty-
four hours. Then, late on Wednesday, Au-
gust 5, a report came to headquarters at
Harrisburg that the widespread hunt for
a maniacal killer was over. A man in Phil-
adelphia had confessed!
The Rev. John Larkin, pastor of the
Church of the Visitation in that city,
called Police Lieutenant Thomas Boland
late that day to report that he had received
a telephone call a few minutes before from
a man who told him!
“I’m the Turnpike killer; if I don’t get
Captain David Carr, homicide chief,
took over investigation jn Cleveland.
arrested now I’m liable to keep on kill-
ing.” The pastor attempted to learn the
caller’s identity and failed, but had been
able ta learn that the man was calling
from “A house down the street.”
Rushing from his rectory after calling
* the police, the reverend ran down the
.
street to find a slim, haggard man sitting
on the steps of a house half a block away.
The man, named De Marcal, admitted it
was he who made the telephone call, and
went on to explain that his marriage had
been broken up by a truck driver and he’d
decided to avenge himself by “murdering
as many of ’em as I can so maybe I’ll get
the guy who wrecked my home.”
Lieutenant Boland, himself, arrived
while the Reverend Larkin was still talk-
ing with the man. '
Hardly had word of the Philadelphia
arrest gone out before a somewhat sirmilar
report came in from Youngstown, O.,
where a 29-year-old former inmate of the
Chillicothe Veterans Hospital, one For-
rest Haynes, was picked up after talking
wildly in taverns about the recent mur-
ders. Questioned by the police, Haynes
said simply:
“T shot ’em because they deserved it.”
A check on De Marcal, the first man to
“confess,” meanwhile had revealed that
he actually had been arrested in connec-
OREO TNE
tion with a murder in Atlantic City dur-
ing June of 1952, but had later been
rises when it was proved he had been
working in-a Phoenixville, Pa., hospital
at the time of that killing. When De
Marcal was unable to tell Police Sergeant
George Sauer what kind of weapon was
used in the Turnpike killings, or describe
the circumstances of the shooting of
Sheperd, the authorities realized they
were dealing with a psychopath—but not
the criminal psychopath they sought.
Haynes, the Ohio suspect, was like-
wise cleared and classified as a crackpot.
And before the investigation was to end
there were to be half a dozen others.
On August 8, special patrolmen cruis-
ing the Turnpike found the bodies of a
man and woman, both shot through the
head, in a small coupe parked at the side
of the highway near Mt. Pleasant, at a
point almost midway between the scenes
of the first'two murders. This brought
about renewed activity on the part of the
police throughout the two.states, but it
soon became apparent that the latest
tragedy had no connection with the other
killings. Turner Ruff, 43, a Mt. Pleasant
businessman, had simply chosen that
stretch along “Murder Alley” as the
scene of his own suicide and his wife's
murder. In the car with the bodies was a
note in Ruff’s handwriting: “This is a long
road... we have taken this way out.”
The next two weeks saw a rash of
“confessions” from crackpots, publicity-
seekers, in one instance, a man who ad-
mitted later that he “confessed” because
he wanted a free ride back to Pennsyl-
vania. Among them was a man who had
been arrested in Uniontown, Pa., on a
charge of failure to return a rented auto-
mobile. This man, 25-year-old John
Wable, mentioned the recent Turnpike
slayings to cellmates and was quoted as
asking, “Now, what do you think a fellow
would get for doing a thing like that...
if he got caught?”
When the }Fayette County jailer at
Uniontown heard of the prisoner's in-
terest in the case, he brought him up for
questioning, and Wable, like half a dozen
others, was soon telling all about “how I
killed two truck drivers and tried to get -
another on the Turnpike last month.”
But like the others, Wable was either
unable or unwilling to relate specific
details of the crimes and was soon put
down as just another -nut.
Meanwhile, three young New York
City thugs who had murdered Barney
Prendergast, the wealthy tavern owner,
‘had been picked up by detectives after a
newspaper photographer spotted the slain
man’s stolen maroon Cadillac convertible
on an uptown street. The police re-
covered the .32 caliber pistol used in that
killing and ballistics tests proved that it
was not the same weapon that fired
bullets into the heads of the three truck
drivers.
The days went by and police across the
nation were warned to remain on the alert
for any person found in possession of a
small-caliber foreign-made pistol. From
time to time came reports of other phony
confessions, and during the last week in
August another motorist, 53-year-old
Joseph W. Harding, an assistant director
of Ohio’s Department of Industrial Re-
lations, was shot to death on Route 40 on
the eastern outskirts of Zanesville.
Again a small-caliber pistol had been
used and the victim died almost instantly
from a bullet through the back of the
head. Less than sixteen hours after this
shooting, on the morning of August 26,
the police captured Harold St. John, a
25-year-old Dorchester, Mass., hitchhiker
i
pl seals et
who admitted having tr:
bus via the Pennsylvania
in the month.
St. John, an AWOL 5
tucky, admitted having
by Harding east of ¢
tempting to rob the o!
headed on eastward tow
two hours later. Arrivir
tion and motel near Elle
drew a gun and dem:
wallet. A tussle follow:
John received a bullet
right leg. Harding leap:
wheel, ran into the f
shouted: “Call the cop
got a gun!”
A moment later, tw«
out and Harding fell dea
At dawn, St. John was «
way patrolmen as he «
hind some bushes abou
of the spot where the m
A check of the man
the time of the Turnpik:
ever, revealed that alth«
been in the region, he w:
The gun used to shoot |}
was an American-made
So again the 200-odd |
working on the Turnpi!
at a standstill. But this
slacking of vigilance o:
men who nightly drov:
stretches of the haunted
southern Pennsylvania.
roamed the roadway,
tinued to travel in co:
Back in Harrishurc
Wilhelm was continuin;
of the reports coming
parts of the state and cc
helm was alsoagoing ha
amount of other data alr:
this time he was firm!
the murderer was a crim
probably a schizophrer
cidal maniac with a split
enabled him at times to :
normal and rational
killer would choose his +
murder without warnin:
portunity offered.
But such a killer, onc:
a state of temporary s
fully capable of acting i:
culated manner to eva
Such aman, should he fin
in danger of exposure, wo:
of uttering a complete!)
that he would know co:
implicate him.
So during the last
Commissioner Wilhelm
over all the “ confession
made by suspects durin
This detailed review of
by the suspects brought
teresting factors. Some |
cause of an obvious de:
names in print and on
were outright mental ca-
At least one man, Jc
talked in order to divert
attentions from criminal!
way associated with m:
revealed when a furth:
man who had “confesse
town jailhouse, brought
Wable was under susp:
of being involved in a cx
‘that operated between
Cleveland.
Conferring with police
Wilhelm learned that \\
periodically at the Pa
Company there, had left
after returning from t!
jail.
“We haven’t actually ;
lantic City dur-
vad later been
ed he had been
Pa., hospital
ng. When De
Police Sergeant
yf weapon was
ngs, or describe
e shooting of
realized they
1opath—but not
hey sought.
spect, was like-
| as a crackpot.
tion was to end
zen others.
itrolmen cruis-
the bodies of a
vot through the
irked at the side
Pleasant, ata
veen the scenes
This brought
the part of the
) states, but it
that the latest
1 with the other
a Mt. Pleasant
chosen that
\lley” as the
and his wife's
ie bodies was a
“This 1s a long
this way out.”
s saw a rash of
<pots, publicity-
2 man who ad-
ifessed” because
ack to Pennsyl-
a man who had
town, Pa., on a
na rented auto-
year-old John
cent Tyrnpike
| was quoted as
u think a fellow
ng like that...
sunty jailer aft
prisoner's in-
ught him up for
like half a dozen
il] about “how I
ind tried to get -
» last month.”
Vable was either
relate specific
{ was soon put
ung New York
urdered Barney
tavern owner,
letectives after a
spotted the slain
lillac convertible
The police re-
stol used in that
s proved that it
spon that fired
' the three truck
police across the
main on the alert
| possession of a
ide pistol. From
ts of other phony
the last week in
rist, 53-year-old
issistant director
{ Industrial Re-
1 on Route 40 on
Zanesville.
pistol had been
almost instantly
the back of the
. hours after this
ng of August 26,
rrold St. John, a
Mass., hitchhiker
‘
who admitted having traveled to Colum-
bus via the Pennsylvania Turnpike earlier
in the month.
St. John, an AWOL soldier from Ken-
tucky, admitted having been picked up
by Harding east of Columbus, and at-
tempting to rob the older man as they
headed on eastward toward the Turnpike
two hours later. Arriving at a filling sta-
tion and motel near Ellendale, the soldier
drew a gun and demanded Harding's
wallet. A tussle followed and young St.
John received a bullet in the calf of his
right leg. Harding leaped from behind the
wheel, ran into the filling station and
shouted: “Call the cops... this guy’s
got a gun!”
A moment later, two more shots rang
out and Harding fell dead at the roadside.
At dawn, St. John was captured by high-
way patrolmen as he crawled from be-
hind some bushes about two miles east
of the spot where the murder took place.
A check of the man’s movements at
the time of the Turnpike shootings, how-
ever, revealed that although he may have
been in the region, he was not implicated.
The gun used to shoot Harding to death
was an American-made .32 caliber pistol.
So again the 200-odd peace officers still
working on the Turnpike murders were
at a standstill. But this did not mean any
slacking of vigilance on the part of the
men who nightly drove the long lonely
stretches of the haunted highway through
southern Pennsylvania. Patrol cars still
roamed the roadway, and trucks con-
tinued to travel in convoys.
Back in Harrisburg, Commissioner
Wilhelm was continuing his daily study
of the reports coming in from various
parts of the state and country. But Wil-
helm was also going back over the vast
amount of other data already at hand. By
this time he was firmly convinced that
the murderer was a criminal psychopath,
probably a schizophrenic—some homi-
cidal maniac with a split personality that
enabled him at times to act in a perfectly
normal and rational manner. Such a
killer would choose his victims at random,
murder without warning and as the op-
portunity offered.
But such a killer, once having regained
a state of temporary sanity, would be
fully capable of acting in a cold andécal-
culated manner to evade apprehension.
Such a man, should he find himself suddenly
in danger of exposure, would be fully capable
of uttering a completely phony confession
that he would know could never actually
implicate him, 5
So during the last week in August,
Commissioner Wilhelm went care ully
over all the “ confessions” that had béen
made by suspects during recent weeks.
This detailed review of the stories told
by the suspects brought out several in-
teresting factors. Some had “talked” be-
cause of an obvious desire to get their
names in print and on the air. Others
were outright mental cases.
At least one man, John Wable, had
talked in order to divert the authorities’
attentions from criminal activities in no
way associated with murder. This was
revealed when a further check on the
man who had “confessed” in the Union-
town jailhouse, brought out ‘the fact that
Wable was under suspicion at the time
of being involved in a counterfeiting ring
‘that operated between Pittsburgh and
Cleveland.
Conferring with police in the latter city,
Wilhelm learned that Wable, employed
periodically at the Parker Appliance
Company there, had left the city shortly
pei returning from the Pennsylvania
jail.
“We haven’t actually got anything on
this guy,” Detective Chief James Mc-
Arthur: informed Wilhelm, “but there
have been underworld reports that he was
supposed to have recently left for the
West Coast with a quantity of counter-
feit bank notes.
“Got anything, at all that we could
bring him back on if he’s located?”
“Well, he is known to have been in pos-
session of a’ firearm, without a police
permit, several weeks before he left
town,” McArthur answered. “But that’s
hardly enough on which to extradite a
man from another state. Especially as we
didn’t actually find the gun in his pos-
session.” :
McArthur explained that a week be-
fore, Chief of Police Dominic Meuti of
Bedford Heights, a Cleveland suburb,
‘had reported being given a small-caliber
revolver by the owner of a local tavern
who in turn had said the gun was turned
over to him by his step-daughter.
_ The step-daughter, 22-year-old, blonde
Leora Grissy, had told her stepfather,
John Kandura, that the gun was given
her by John Wesley Wable, a young man
she had met recently and with whom she
had had several dates. He lived in a room-
ing house near East 129th Street and
Euclid Avenue on Cleveland’s East Side.
Later, detectives had been dispatched to
Wable’s home, where they learned that
he had been fired from his job and left.
the city. :
It was the first time that the chief of
the Pennsylvania State Police heard that
the man questioned weeks earlier in the.
Uniontown jail had ever possessed a
weapon of any kind. Wilhelm finished
speaking with McArthur and then put
through a call to Detective Musick in
Westmoreland County.
“Better run over to Uniontown and
check again on Wable’s story,” Wilhelm
advised. “Find out just what kind of
weapon he claimed to have used when he
told the jailer there he’d murdered two
truck drivers and shot another.”
The next day Musick learned that in
his “confession” Wable had at first been
“unable to remember” what kind of gun
he’d used.-Later he said he thought it was
an old Army .45 caliber automatic.
Meantime, Captain David C. Kerr,
Chief of the Cleveland Homicide Bureau,
took over the investigation at that end
and recovered the small, German-made
Walther automatic which had‘ been
turned over to the Bedford Heights police
by the tavern owner. This was being
forwarded to Harrisburg for ballistics
tests.
Two days later, on the morning of
October 6, Sergeant Theodore Carlson
and Detective Larry Doran were ques-
tioning pretty Leora Grissy at her home
on Haldane Road. They learned from the
girl that at about the time Wable turned
over the little German automatic to her—
“for safe keeping till I get back”—he had
also shown her a fifteen-jewel Elgin
wrist-watch that he said he’d been given
by a pal after getting out of the Union-
town jail.
The description of the watch fitted that of
the wristwatch stolen from trucker John
Sheperd. t ‘
Once more the Cleveland police re-
turned to the East Side room formerly
occupied by Wable. But a _ thorough
search of the place failed to turn up any-
thing. An immediate search of pawnshops
and secondhand dealers was launched by
Detective Carl Obert of the pawn shop
detail and within forty-eight hours, the
watch itself was turned’ up in David’s
Loan Company at 15207 St. Clair Avenue.
It bore the same serial number as that of
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em I? saat
the watch stolen from Sheperd and the
police realized that they were definitely
on the trail of the mad Turnpike killer.
On the theory that the suspect must
have left the state, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation was called into the
search two days later and alerts went out
to police departments throughout the
entire country. That same day, Com-
missioner Wilhelm revealed that the 7.65
millimeter automatic pistol turned over
to him by the Cleveland Homicide
Bureau chief was the same gun that had
fired the bullets that ended the lives of
Woodward and Pitts and very nearly
killed Sheperd.
Meanwhile, the gun had been traced
back to a small sporting goods and
second hand store on the outskirts of
Harrisburg. There, state police learned
a man answering Wable’s description had
purchased it only a short time before the
outbreak of murder and violence on the
Turnpike.
District Attorney L.’ Alexander Sculo
of Westmoreland County, that same day
issued a warrant charging John Wesley
Wable with the murder of the first two
truck drivers. ;
On the theory that the slayer was
probably traveling alone, and more than
likely in an automobile stolen sometime
after he’d left Cleveland, the local au-
thorities asked that police and highway
patrolmen between that city and the West
Coast check all suspicious-appearing
automobiles bearing Ohio or Pennsyl-
vania licenses.
It was known that the suspect, a native
of Ohiopyle, a small town in eastern
Pennsylvania, not far from the Turnpike,
had frequently returned there for visits
during recent years, and it was suspected
he may have picked up a car somewhere
between Ohiopyle and Cleveland after
quitting the latter city.
Exactly twenty-four hours after the
latest alarms for the missing man were
broadcast over police radio and teletype
across the nation, a 13-year-old boy, An-
drew Guitierrez, was alone in the Al-
buquerque, N. M. service station managed
by his father, Higinio, when a dark green
Chevrolet sedan bearing Pennsylvania
license plates pulled up.
That was at 5:30 o’clock on the Sunday
evening of October 11, 1953. In the front
seat, a youth slumped in apparent sleep
beside the driver. Another youth, also
asleep, lay inert across the back seat. The
driver, a slight, dark-haired, hollow-
cheeked man dressed in brown trousers,
blue shirt and worn brown shoes, stepped
out of the car and asked the boy to check
his oil.
Andrew raised the hood of the out-of-
state car, then hearing the door to the
office of the service station slam behind
him, turned quickly. He’ saw the hollow-
cheeked man at the cash register.
As young Guitierrez started toward the
man, the latter rushed out past him, his
hand still clutching the greenbacks he’d
taken from the cash register. “
“Keep quiet, if you know what’s good
for you” he said to the boy. Then he
leaped into the éar and started off with a
roar of the motor. He made off with
between $70 and $80 in cash stolen from
the till.
The boy ran to a telephone and called
his father. City police were alerted within
minutes afterward and an alarm was sent
out to the State Highway Patrol to be on
the lookout for the Chevrolet with the
Pennsylvania:plates. Roadblocks went up
to the east and-south of the city.
At one of the blocks, on State Road 45
‘ south of Albuquerque, a 1953 Chevrolet
whizged on through as Patrolman Ray
\
Freeman and Andy Arganas fired vainly
in its wake. The car was going at terrific
speed. Arganas radioed ahead to Belen
and State Patrolman T. J. Chavez set up
another road block near the Los Lunas
intersection.
With two police cars now hot in pur-
suit, the driver and his companions
slowed down near the Belen Drive-in
Theater, about a mile north of the village.
They had run into heavy traffic entering
the drive-in theater. It was now dusk and
the Chevrolet pulled into a tourist camp
further on. There all three left the car
and started off on foot.
The three highway patrolmén were
soon at the spot where the car was
abandoned. Nearby, they found the two
youths who had been sleeping during the
gas station robbery, 17-year-old J. D.
Francis and 20-year-old Marvin Parson,
both of Antioch, Calif.
The pair denied any implication in the
robbefy and told officers the elder man
had picked them up while they were
hitchhiking across the Mojave Desert in
California the day before. F
Three hours later, Patrolman Arganas
and his partner, Bill Lucas, were still
cruising the region when Carolyn Smith,
a pretty Belen Hospital nurse, stopped
their radio car to report having seen a
hitchhiker “who looks like the robber
described in radio reports of the gasoline
station holdup.”
The girl and a companion, Midge
Harmon, had been riding near Belen on
the Jarales Road when they spotted a
slim, dark-complexioned man in brown
trousers and blue shirt walking at the side
of the road. He had ducxed into a clump
of bushes at the side of the road as they
approached.
Rushing to the spot, the two patrolmen
captured the suspect as he emerged from
foliage beside the road and thrust out an
extended thumb, the established signal
of a hitchhiker, before realizing that the
car approaching through the darkness
was a police cruiser. Within the hour he
was returned to Albuquerque, where
John Wesley Wable admitted his identity
and told Undersheriff Walter Geis that
he had been driving a car, stolen two
weeks before from Indiantown, Pa.
Later, Wable also admitted being the
owner of the weapon turned over to the
Bedford Heights chief of police by the
step-father of Leorna Grissy. He ad-
mitted having pawned the watch which
had been taken from the bullet-riddled
body of the third man to be attacked while
sleeping in his truck at the side of the
road,
But Wable stoutly denied any guilt in
connection with either of the two murders
in which that weapon had been used, or
wit: the shooting of the owner of the
pawned wristwatch. He made no attempt
to explain his earlier “false confession,”
other than to hint that at the time he
knew he was being investigated in con-
nection with the passing of counterfeit
money and was anxious to “divert the
cops’ "attention to other matters.”
“The watch was given me by the same
who handed me $400 in bogus dough
faleire I came West a couple weeks ago
to dispose of it,” Wable is quoted as
having admitted. “Before that, I loaned
him the gun I bought in Harrisburg. He
may be the murderer you’re looking for.
He had it at the time of the killings.”
Wable could identify his mysterious
companion only as ‘a guy called Tom,”
and the police were quick to discredit his
story.
Two days after his arrest, he waived
extradition and was returned ‘to West-
7
SL eae RI en
moreland County
face charges of n
and Pitts, the two
the three-month r¢
haunted highway.
whom he’d given a
ing the filling sta
were released the
onerated of any bla:
the crime.
When returned
Greensburg, the
offered to make a st
it was put in w
Captain Dodson an
could offer no mot:
convinced them t}
caused the two
fatality.
Scheduled to he
Paths of
[Continued
up Smiddy was a ¢
old by the name «
was driving an alm:
Kentucky plates. H
tell his youthful c
recently stolen the
also didn’t explain
parole from an Oh
having served a:
murder charge.
Instead, he said !
gambler, showed t)
paper money, and }h
Within rftinutes he
Smiddy’s own backs
“Kid stuff,” he sai
tioned the stolen t:
he had broken int<
heavy automatic pis
need to make mone
injecting a shell int
That night at an
sonville, Fla., Moor
he meant. He held
prietor and relieved
Smiddy was not «
the haul and menti
pair headed south ¢t
then that Moore st
of eight stolen rev
.22 derringer to a1
matic; his knives
blackjack. He also
done time for rob!
Ohio reformatory
a fellow convict. H
and had left the jur
They arrived in
day, Thursday, Sep
ing the town for
finally found a lon:
skirts. Smiddy lat
Thompson of Le
entered the house
door and held up a
whipping him, took
tained sreut sevent
That night they
Trail and arrived in
afternoon, after sle
in their parked car
noon and Moore w:
so he drove over t
of several miles. N
suits, they drove a
beach to a deserted
There was only o
luxurious beach co
James Galloway. It
an ironic fate was t
vho kept in the
isappear, unseen
death of young
| tragedy which
e..,. no sane
untable for that
t hours after the
pley, safety di-
@ssociation, a
with vehicles
t near the Done-
ced of passing
n advance. He
vutfit at a curve
ise drivers were
irriving at the
rier pulled over
locked the spot
t, Shipley made
‘ond murder of
in, shot through
small-calibered
| Smith of the
vate the murder
hooting had oc-
miles from the
Woodward had
vious Saturday
cilling the slayer
.ccomplished his
ing $85 m cash,
s 14-carat gold
ties could learn
leath of sHarry
r from Bowling
And, as in the
leath had come
it a distance of
side of the head.
ince,” said De-
reland County
minate the pos-
s victims. So I
er. Traffic along
truck elsewhere.
—EE
Mab 2. a) ee ae
Marvin Parson, left, and J. D. Francis were unaware of the identity
or the crimes of the-man who had given them a lift in California.
think we can forget about hitchhikers and start looking for
someone who'll probably be much more difficult to run to
earth,”
“Yeah,” agreed Corporal Smith, “the guy could have
driven up alongside both eg: trucks, slowed almost to a
stop and let his victims have it without even leaving his
own car,”
From that point on it seemed to be generally agreed that
the same. phantom killer was responsible for both crimes,
although theft had played some part in the first, but none in
the second.
Captain Jack R. Dodson of the State Highway Patrol
agreed with that, but pointed out that there was really
nothing to indicate the slayer had a car. There is plenty
of cover in the wild and mountainous country through
which the Turnpike runs before dropping down into Pitts-
burgh, and some homicidal maniac, with a hatred for truck
drivers, might well hide out there for days without much
risk of capture’ :
Immediately following the second murder, the trucker’s
association posted bulletins along the Turnpike warning
drivers not to stop in any unlighted, unpopulated area at
night. If there wasn’t room at one of the filling stations or
restaurant parking lots where they could get some sleep and
rest, they were to drive on even at the risk of safety for
themselves and their cargoes. H
Then a report came from the eastern end of the high-
way that a truck driver had been fired upon from a sheltered
spot along the roadside. Drivers throughout the area, now
genuinely jittery, took to traveling in convoys and it was
necessary for company officials to issue stern warnings
against stopping along the way. i
A hundred additional patrol cars were brought in to aid
the State Highway Patrol in guarding the road. Then, just
three days after the second myrder, came word that a third
truck driver had been shot and critically wounded on a
feeder route leading to the Turnpike from Ohio,
Again the trucker was asleep in the cab of his tractor-
trailer, when a sudden shocking impact felled him across
the seat, But this time the shot was not instantly fatal, and
the victim, John K. Sheperd, 34, of West Alexandria, Pa.,
regained consciousness in time to spot a fleeing automobile.
A 7.65 millimeter bullet had entered Sheperd’s head just
behind the left ear as he sat in his truck parked along the
shoulder of U. S. Route 30 near Lisbon, O., just eighteen
miles from the western entrance to the Turnpike. Lieu-
tenant W. B. Umpleby of the Ohio Highway Patrol arrived
at the scene after a passing motorist, John Miller, had been
flagged down by the wounded man. He arrived to find
Sheperd semiconscious, and muttering something about a
flashy yellow sports car.
The third shooting took place between 3 and 3:30 a.m.
a a ys aN i
A friend gave Leora Crissey a foreign-
made automatic to hold for “safe-keeping.”
John Kandura, Leora’s step-father, gave
the weapon to suburban Cleveland police.
‘
,
on the morning of July 31, within an hour after the sleepy
truck driver pulled to the side of the road to catch a catnap
before the long haul over “Murder Alley.” When Sheperd
had regained consciousness he found that his trousers had
been removed, along with his wallet containing about $20
and a gold wristwatch,
That same day, Commissioner C. M. Wilhelm, in charge
of the Pennsylvania State Police at Harrisburg, announced
that ballistics tests were to be made to determine whether
the bullets that killed the other two truck drivers had been
fired from the same weapon, a foreign-made gun.
Two days later, with the.latest victim miraculously re-
covering in a hospital at Salem, O., the ballistics experts in
Pennsylvania proved that the bullet taken from Sheperd’s
head had come from the same weapon.
In the meantime, reports had come in from three different
truck drivers who said they'd been shot at by passing mo-
torists, although none was hit. Harry Wild of Ravenna.
told Ohio patrolmen an oncoming motorist fired on him
and hit his windshield at 11 :30 on Route 14, north of Twins-
burg. Delvert S. Harris,of New Cumberland, W. Va., re-
ported his windshield was struck by a bullet from an on-
coming car at 11:15 p.m. on the same road, between Twins-
burg and Streetsboro,
Both these shootings took place during a period when the
full moon was at its brightest. The [Continued on page 62]
about every tough had a nickname. It
went with the uniform of the felt hats.
Terrible things were happening all
around us.
I can’t even recall them all.
A man down the street, for instance,
slashed his wife with a switchblade
knife after a drunken argument. About
a block away, another time, a youngster
was arrested for criminally assaulting a
married woman. And then—oh, so
many things are coming back to me—
there was the husband and wife who
were hauled away early one morning for
selling heroin from their home, the
same house where they'd been trying to
rear six children.
ON’T misunderstand me, though.
Not all the people were bad. Most
of them, in fact, were like us, people
caught in The Jungle for reasons they
couldn’t control.
Like the woman I’ll call Mrs. Tabor.
I'll never forget that night when the
whole neighborhood woke to her
screaming.
Piling outside, we saw about three
red squad cars at Mrs. Tabor’s curb,
floodlights shining on her house. And
on the second floor, her head out the
window, Mrs. Tabor was screaming with
all her strength and heart.
Figures appeared from the front door.
About four patrolmen and in the
iddle, struggling and kicking, was
rs. Tabor’s sixteen-year-old son.
When Mrs, Tabor saw him, she
tiled with two fists shaking toward the
sky, “‘“My baby! My Johnny! They're
taking my Johnny!”
“Mama, I didn’t mean it!” Johnny
shouted. “Help me, I didn’t mean it!”
His cries grew muffled as he was
shoved into a squad car and the door
closed on him. All the cars pulled away.
Mrs. Tabor, meanwhile, had gone faint
upstairs; she was bent over, with her
head down. Several women rushed up-
stairs to her.
I held my wife by the waist, tight,
looking up at that window from which
you could still hear moans.
“They say he pulled a string of hold-
ups,”’ somebody said behind us.
Ruth and I walked toward our house.
We stopped at the steps and gazed back.
6, .
= ee i ere aera Kp eton Tike?
Both of us were thinking just about the
same thing—how fine a woman Mrs.
Tabor was, and how she didn’t deserve
this. A widow, Mrs. Tabor had been a
practical nurse until she’d broken her
hip a few years before. She could hardly
walk any more, let alone work, and lived
off public assistance. Johnny was her
only child. The boy’s whole young life,
it seemed, had been leading up to this
night—for he’d been arrested three
times before on very minor offenses,
though he’d always been let go with
either warnings or probation. He would
be sent away this time, however.
“It’s too late now, isn’t it?” Ruth said
to me, distantly.
I nodded for I knew what she meant.
Over and over Mrs. Tabor used to tell
us, “If only I could get him out of this
neighborhood! If only I could afford to
move!”
But she couldn't, like we couldn't.
That night, in bed, Ruth said to me,
“Isaiah, our boys are good boys, aren’t
they?”
“They're good boys, Ruth,” I said.
“But it’s so easy to turn bad here,”
she said. Then, sitting up as though
she'd just had a vision of something
horrible, “We've got to help them,
Isaiah! We've got to help keep them
good!”
Ruth, though, she seemed to be get-
ting thinner every day, and by this
time she had a bad cough. She did
everything but open up her veins for
those boys. She bought them the best
clothes we could afford, she'd spend
hours cooking their favorite dishes. She
tried to give them the love of the Bible,
and every night she’d read the Scrip-
tures to them. Sundays the four of us
would go to church.
She refused to doctor for her cough.
Looking back, I think I know why—she
was afraid of what she had in her,
afraid it would separate her from the
boys who needed her so badly. But one
day, when Isaiah was ten, she lifted her
mouth from the handkerchief she'd
Jacob Wallfield lived for a time
with the shotgun pellets in him
tienen
been coughing in and both of us saw the
blood.
X-rays and a doctor’s examination
the next morning told us what we al-
ready knew. She had tuberculosis.
“Doctor, I can’t go away,” she said.
“I've got two little children.”
“I wish you didn’t have to, Mrs.
Green. But you wouldn’t be a good
mother to them at all if you stayed.”
‘“‘How long do I have to be gone?”
“I can’t say.”
“A year?”
The doctor looked down at his hands.
“It’s very possible.”
With a shudder that convulsed her,
Ruth threw herself into my arms. For
a while she couldn’t do anything but
cry. Then, “Watch them, Isaiah. Look
over them.”
“I will, Darling, don’t you worry.”
“Be with them as much as you can.
Promise me that, Isaiah.”
“I'll be with them every minute I
can.”
“They're good boys, Isaiah, but they
need us. They need both of us.”
“Everything’s going to be all right.”
I tried to comfort her. “They're going
to be fine, you’re going to be fine. You'll
see.”
Ruth was taken that same day to the
Municipal Hospital here in Philadel-
phia. The boys cried something awful.
Both of them in many ways were
‘“‘Mama’s boys”. She’d always been afte:
them, she’d always been with them. Ii
had always been “here, eat this” or “let
me sew that”. But all this was gon
now, and somehow no matter what |
did I couldn’t make it up to them.
Because of my job, I have to leave
the house at 6:30 in the morning, and ]
don't get home until close to five. Be-
fore I left each morning, I made break-
fast so that all they had to do was warm
it up. And when I-got home, I fixed
dinner. Two days a week I had a woman
come in. She cost me seven dollars a
day plus carfare, and it wasn’t until
much later that neighbors told me she
hardly did a thing.
Although Major never gave me
trouble, Isaiah was different. He barely
spent any time at all in the house, and
when he did, he wouldn’t hardly talk to
anybody.
One night, I'll never forget. I woke
to his moaning and ran into his room
“Mama!” he was saying. “Mama!
Mama!”
I shook him awake and for an instant
he thought I was his mother and he let
me hold him close. But then he pulled
away and flung himself onto the pillow
and bit it hard. He wouldn’t look at
me.
And soon after this, a few month:
before he was eleven, he was arrested!
He was picked up with two other littl:
All who knew Mrs. Jacob Wallfield and her husband regarded them
as friends—but to others they were only targets for a robbery
another place waiting for him, a house
away from The Jungle!
But I was wrong. It was too late.
Pal now I couldn’t sell the house at
all!
No one would buy a home in The
Jungle!
Although I couldn't afford it, I bought
an automobile in order to be able to
visit Isaiah and Ruth frequently. Every
week—and even oftener, when I could
—I drove with Major to both places.
Somehow I had to keep my little family
together.
Ruth was a lot thinner. Her face, her
body, seemed barely held together by
her skin. She cried almost constantly.
She felt so helpless, so far away. Oh, if
only they would let her visit Isaiah, if
only she could see him and talk to him!
I tried to tell her he was doing fine,
he looked good, the authorities said he
was well behaved. And as for the insti-
on, I said, it didn't look like a prison,
fas really pleasant in appearance
the boys actually had so much
dom.
While this didn’t help her feelings
much, it was true what I said. Isaiah,
I'd been told, was being very coopera-
tive, he listened, he gave no trouble. In
fact, if he continued like that, he would
be out in a few months.
But then, one afternoon, Isaiah was
caught leaving the grounds.
He'd wanted to see his mother.
It was eighteen months before Isaiah
came home. He returned a different
person. He was hard now. I saw it in
how he talked, even in how he looked.
His language was full of the slang of
criminals and he had a manner of grin-
ning I didn’t like. Before, when he got
in trouble, I always saw him as a little
boy who—well, who somehow just got
into mischief. But, though he was only
fourteen, he had the ways of a man.
I saw it for the first time when I got
home from work one day and found at
least 20 boys in the house. I looked
around. Many of them were fellows
Isaiah had never been friendly with. be-
fore—kids who, I knew from the neigh-
borhood, had been in trouble many
times with the police. Most were older
than Isaiah.
Duce's pals, "Heavy" Walker and Beige a Crowson, like him
only fifteen, reform-school graduates, c
The rooms were full of cigaret smoke
and, though they’d been buzzing with
talk when I walked in, now they were
still. I was being eyed coldly. My gaze
swept over the faces, seeking out
Isaiah’s. Almost every boy wore one
of those hats. In my nervousness I
didn’t spot Isaiah right away. When I
did, the first thing I noticed was that
he was smoking. This was something
I'd never seen him do before. And then
I saw that, he, too, had on a hat!
The boys were drifting away. It was
as though I’d broken up a conference.
“See you, Duce.”
“Take it easy.”
“Dig you tomorrow, Man.”
arged with murder
They walked out, each one, with a
slow shuffle and a sort of rolling to their
shoulders. Outside, all at once, came a
burst of laughter.
They seemed to be mocking me.
I looked at my son.
He pulled in on his cigaret, then
stared at me with a kind of grin that
was frightening. It was defiant, as if
he expected me to say something about
the cigaret or the hat.
“How are you, Boy?” I asked gently.
“Okay.”’ He had the cigaret between
his fingertips.
I went into the kitchen to wash the
few dishes in the sink.
(Continued on Page 52)
13
A Walk in the Jungle
“How was school?” I called.
“I wouldn’t know.”
I frowned. The temptation was to go
out to him, but I felt that was what
he wanted. ,The school he’d recently
started was a different one from the
school he’d gone to before Glenn Mills.
This one was out of the neighborhood,
and for problem boys.
“Didn’t you feel well today?”
“Never felt better.”
“Why didn’t you go to school?”
“Aah, that school’s for the birds. Any-
way, the gang there beats up all the new
kids. They’ve pushed me around twice
already.”
“Why don’t you tell the principal?”
“Yeah.” He laughed bitterly. “That
would go over real big with them guys.
A teacher and a ‘screw’—’” a prison
guard, I learned later—‘is the same
thing. And they both add up to ‘cop’.”
“That ain’t no way to talk, Boy.”
“Can it, Pop, you don’t know what
you're sayin’.” Then, “Pop, I want to
quit.”
“Now, you can’t do that, Boy. The
Law says you gotta go till you’re six-
en.”
“Well, I don’t want to go. I don’t like
tg
“But you got to. They'll put you away
again if you don’t.”
He looked at me, then down.
“Promise me, Boy?”
Hesitantly, “Okay.”
Bur that promise lasted only about
three days. In the next five months I
think I paid four fines for truancy.
Other than this, he didn't get into any
trouble I know of, except once he was
picked up on suspicion of breaking open
a parking meter, but they let him go.
The.thing that was really worrying me,
however, were all those boys who almost
always were at the house when I came
home. They did more than worry me.
They scared me sick.
About then I started thinking mighty
serious about sending him to his Grand-
daddy’s.
The police say Isaiah was in an organ-
ized kid gang. I wouldn’t know about
that. I do know that The Jungle is
divided into many gangs, each one hav-
ing a certain territory they rule over,
and each one with their chiefs and gen-
erals and officers and men. A week
hardly goes by when there isn’t a fight
between gangs, and some of these fights
have led to killings.
But organized gang or not, I knew
these boys hanging out in the house
weren't good for Isaiah. “I guess each
parent, no matter how bad his child is,
sees something real fine in his that they
don’t see in others. And I was holding
onto the hope that the Isaiah of my
heart would straighten himself out. I
didn’t want to send him away. I didn’t
how I could tell his mother.
The Jungle, meanwhile, was getting
wilder, It seemed each day you picked
up a paper, you'd find something bad
to read about. Beatings, shootings, rob-
beries, stabbings. Once two of. these kid
gangs got in a fight and a man was
caught in between them and he was shot
to death. Drugstores in particular the
kids were robbing.
I remember one night I was driving
home in March and the street was
strangely quiet. The people were stand-
ing in little groups*on the corners or
the doorsteps talking, or maybe peering
out of their windows. Grown people, not
the kids. You couldn’t see a kid any-
where.
I found out why when I got home.
Some kids had gone into a drugstore
and robbed it and shot and killed the
druggist, a man named Louis Viner.
While he was dying and his wife was
holding his head on her lap, the kids
went through his pockets for money.
The police were out looking for those
kids. That was why the neighborhood
was so quiet. The cops were dragging
in all the kids they knew of who looked
52
like the killers. They found them too,
three of them, and all three are goin
to the electric chair.
That scared me good. Three kids, not
much older than Major or Isaiah. And
maybe if Isaiah had been a little bigger
than he was the cops would have picked
him up that night. .
I sat down and wrote to my Daddy in
South Carolina and asked him could I
send my Isaiah down there and he
wrote back and said sure. But before he
did write back I decided to try just one
more thing. I’d buy the boys a car.
Maybe that way they would keep out of
trouble.
It was old and beat up, but I figured
it was worth the $400 it cost me.
Since Major was the only one old
enough to get a license, he would be
doing the driving. At least that’s what
they promised me. But whichever of
them did, right away I found that I'd
bought myself a headache. Every few
days they'd get another traffic ticket—
for parking next to a fireplug, for going
through a red light. I swear in two
months they must have had 40 of them.
And that wasn’t bad enough; they had
an accident that cost me $136.
And that’s when I had it. I drove the
thing to the first used-car lot I could
find.
“How much you want to give me for
this thing?”
The salesman looked it over, pulling
at his chin. He took out two bills, then
—two fives. I took them.
But still I didn’t send Isaiah away.
Because Ruth was improving. She
would be home in a few months, I was
told. Somehow I just had to hold on.
wrt I’m going to say now didn’t
seem particularly important to me
when it happened. But oh, how impor-
tant it turned out to be.
It took place, I believe—yes, on the
morning of Tuesday, July 23, 1957.
As I was leaving the house to go to
work, one of the women who lives next
door hailed me.
“Mr. Green, I don’t want to cause
you no trouble, but that Isaiah o’ yours,
he’s gotta stop.”
“Stop what?” ‘4
“Makin’ all that noise at night. Why,
he an’ his friends, they sit out there on
them steps half the night, yellin’ an’
shoutin’. Why, a body can’t get no sleep
at all. It’s been goin’ on an’ on, an’ I
want it to stop, hear?”
I promised her that it would. The
truth of the matter is, I didn’t hear a
thing because I always go to bed early
and I’m a heavy sleeper.
That night I spoke to Isaiah about it
and he said it wouldn’t happen again.
I didn’t think of it after that.
A couple days later, on the Thursday
morning of July 25, a druggist, 75-
year-old Jacob Wallfield, was shot to
death in his store on the corner of Ger-
mantown Avenue and Huntingdon
Street.
I heard about it late that afternoon
on my car radio, as I was driving home
from work.
Mr. Wallfield, the news reports said,
had been mortally wounded by three
teen-agers armed with a shotgun they
hid in a pink pillow. They tried to
stick him up in his store at a quarter
of nine. From what the announcer said,
Mr. Wallfield had died later, on the
operating table, after first telling the
police that he’d been shot after yelling,
“Get out!” at the boys. More than 200
officers were looking for the killers.
Three kids. I was scared again. Three
kids from The Jungle—maybe kids
Major and Isaiah knew. The boys were
home when I got there. Neither of them
looked upset or anything like that. I
had no reason to suspect that anything
was wrong, and Isaiah even set the
plates for the chicken wings I was fry-
ing. And later, during dinner, when
there was more news on the radio about
the killing, Isaiah looked at me while
(Continued from Page 13)
I shook my head sadly, and he said,
“That's really a shame, ain’t it?”
We were just about finished dinner
when the front door flew open and
there were footsteps through the house.
It was the woman from next door.
“Now you lissen to me, Isaiah!” she
shouted at my son. “I’m sick an’ tired
o’ tellin’ you! Last night was the same
—all that shoutin’, all that carryin’ on.
You an’ your bum friends, you take ‘em
somewhere else, you just stay away from
my house, you hear? You hear me now,
Boy?” She whirled on me. “Mr. Green,
I’m sorry to do this, but I’m tellin’ you,
I’m callin’ the po-lice! I needs my
sleep!”
I stood up from the table. Just leave
it to me, I told her, she was never going
to be bothered again.
When the woman left, I turned on
Isaiah. Tonight, I told him, he wasn’t
going to have a chance to be with his
friends. I was taking him over to my
cousin’s, and the following morning I
was going to make arrangements to
send him down South, to my Daddy’s.
It was the farm for the boy. He’d see
what it was like to work, to get to bed
early and get up early!
That evening I drove with Isaiah to
my cousin’s, Iole Green.
“I want this boy to stay here tonight,”
I told her. ‘He's in trouble.”
The “trouble” I meant was that busi-
ness about the noise and how, because
of his record, I didn’t want the police
called in on him.
But those words were to be given a
different meaning later.
The next day I went to work as usual.
There, during lunch, I read the first
newspaper stories of the killing. The
police were still hunting for the killers.
They had an unidentified witness who’d
seen the crime, and they’d also found
the pillow and a hollow cardboard tube
which they thought the killers had
used to conceal their weapons.
There was a lot about the dead man,
too. Mr. Wallfield had been a druggist
for 48 years. He’d worked hard all his
life, and friends and neighbors told of
all the good deeds he’d done, money and
drugs he gave without charge to needy
people. I felt terribly sorry for his
widow and for the children he left. I
remember thinking—why should any-
thing like that have happened?
The newspaper also carried a story
about druggists in general. Everyone
who had a store in The Jungle, it said,
was terrified. Many of them had had.
their places up for sale for months but
there were no buyers. They were stuck
there, like so many of us were. A meet-
ing, the story went on, was to be held
of all druggists, which high police offi-
cials would attend and where plans of
protection would be discussed.
B heeded day I drove home at my usual
hour. The street was quiet, just like
it had been the night the other drug-
gist was killed. Heads peered out of
windows and there were small groups of
people on front steps, but everything
was still. And no kids. A friend of mine
was waiting outside my door. I’ll call
him Fred.
He came over to the car and got in.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Now, just you take it easy,” he said.
His tone scared me. “Tell me!”
wee it’s—Major. They've arrested
m.”
“Arrested Major? What for?”
“For killing that druggist.”
It was like someone hit me with two
fists on the temples. For a moment I
could barely see or hear. All I knew was
that it couldn't be, that it wasn’t true.
Major was a good boy, I’d never had a
day’s trouble with him. He couldn’t have
killed that man, he just couldn’t have!
I wanted to grab Fred by the throat
and shake him and yell, “Liar!” at him.
But it was true!
I could see it now. :
“What'll I do?” I couldn’t even think.
&
Read It First In
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
“They ain’t nothin’ you can do,
Isaiah,” he said. ‘That boy ain’t in your
hands now. All you can do now is pray.”
“I gotta see him.”
“They ain’t gonna let you see him
now. Isaiah, you got to be strong.
Isaiah,” he said then, “you believe, don’t
you?”
“Yes, I believe.”
“Well, then you gotta keep believin’.
That’s your only strength, Isaiah. That's
your rock.”
I bent my head and covered my face.
For more time than I remember I stayed
that way. Then I straightened. I wanted
to see my youngest son now, I wanted
to be with him. He was all I had at the
moment, he was my only comfort.
Although my cousin knew of Major’s
arrest, Isaiah didn’t. And I didn’t in-
tend to tell him. Maybe he wouldn't
want to go to my father’s then, and I
wanted him there—for different reasons
than I'd had before. This time I wanted
to spare him everything those of us here
would have to go through—newspaper
stories, unfriendly eyes, hatred, shame.
“You looking forward to going to your
Grampop’s?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I been
thinkin’ about it. I ain’t never been on
a farm.”
“You're gonna love it, Bay,” I man-
aged to say. I patted his shoulder. “It's
a@ good life in the country.”
“I'm comin’ back, though, ain't I,
Pa?”
“Maybe you won't want to come back.
You get that air in them lungs, maybe
you won't like the city.”
“I’m comin’ back when Mom's here.
I’m tellin’ you that.”
“Sure.” Then, “Boy?”
“What, Pa?”
There was thickness in my throat.
“You're gonna be—good, ain’t you?”
“I'll be good, Pa, I swear.”
“You ain’t—you ain’t never gonna
give us no more trouble, are you?”
“No more.”
“Okay.” I started to back off.
“Where you goin’, Pa?”
“Just—out. I'll be back. You stay
here, I'll be back.”
UTSIDE, I told Fred that what I
needed was spiritual help. I know a
preacher who lives near Egg Harbor,
New Jersey, and that was the man I
wanted to see then. Fred told me to
go, he’d stay around in case any word
came from the police. So I drove to
Egg Harbor, about 40 miles away.
The preacher, however, wasn’t home
and I drove back.
Fred told me he’d called. the police
but no one was permitted to see Major.
And as for Isaiah, newspapers had
been kept from him. My hope was to be
able to put him on a train the next day.
Early the following morning, how-
ever, saw me driving to Mt. Alto. My
one great fear was that Ruth would
read in the paper about Major. I didn’t
know what I was going to say, but I
wanted to break the news first. As I
drove, I thought of Major. In a way,
worried all along about Isaiah, I'd
ignored Major a little. Yet Major, too,
was part of The Jungle—one of those
without a trade, who worked at what-
ever odd, manual jobs they could get.
Ruth was surprised to see me, and
happy.
And I had to stand there, keeping my
face rigid, while she spoke gaily about
_ Boing home.
But she sensed something wrong.
“Isaiah, you’re keeping something
from me. Are you sick? Are the boys
sick?”
“No, it’s—”
She swung herself off the bed. She
clenched her fists by her sides. “You
don’t have to be afraid for me, Isaiah.
I’m strong.”
“It’s—” I lowered my head. “It’s
Major. They say he killed a man.”
She gasped. She looked around
wildly. “‘Where’s my clothes?”
boys for trying to snatch a woman’s
handbag on the street!
“Why,” I asked him desperately in
front of the Juvenile authorities, “did
you do it?” :
He was ashamed to look at me. He
cried a little.
“Why, Isaiah? Tell me. Don’t I give
you enough money?”
He nodded. He rubbed at his eyes
with a small wrist.
“Then what is it?"
“The kids said I was ‘chicken’ if I
didn’t.”
I kneeled next to him and took him
gently by the shoulders. “Isaiah, didn’t
you think of your mother? Didn’t you
think what this would do to her?”
His lips trembled and tears formed
again.
“Don’t you want to make her proud,
Boy? Don't you?”
Suddenly his arms were around me.
For the first time in so long he let me
hold him.
“Don’t tell Mama,” he was saying.
And, “Don’t let them send me away!
Please don’t let them send me to
prison!”
They didn’t. At his trial in Juvenile
Court, he was placed on probation.
month later he was in trouble once
more, this time for stealing some darts
from a store. And again the Court was
lenient and he was kept on probation.
His probation officer told me why.
The courts weren't anxious to scar a
boy permanently with a reform-school
record. Unless they were forced to, they
didn't want to put a child of Isaiah’s age
in with criminally hardened youths.
And Isaiah, the officer said to me, had
the potential to be a decent, law-abid-
ing citizen. His intelligence was a “dull
normal,” but surely if he could get inter-
ested in a trade or something like that,
he would find his way.
I spoke to Isaiah about it—for I was
afraid that he might be following the’
footsteps of Johnny down the street,
who'd been taken away with his mother
screaming from the window. Perhaps
12
Heroes to The Jungle, killers to police were these three
charged with the first slaying, Cater, Williams and Rivers
it was not too late to save him from
that. And to save Ruth and me, too,
from the horror of having to stand by
one night while officers carried him off.
Boy, I said to him, tell me what you'd
like to be some day. What would you
like to do?
“You mean,” he said, “if I had my
wish?”
“Yes, if you had your wish.”
Slowly he made two fists and held
them up. “Man, I’d like to be me an-
other ‘Sugar Ray’.”
HERE was a kind of sadness inside
me. I'd heard this sort of talk before
from the boys who came to the house.
This one wanted to be a Joe Louis, that
one a Jackie Robinson, someone else
maybe a Sammy Davis, Jr. It was never
anything like—well, like being a lawyer,
for instance, or a salesman or an ac-
countant. Maybe they instinctively
knew these fields weren’t too open for
them, or maybe these were just never
part of their backgrounds But almost
without exception they picked sports or
the stage. Something—you know—
where their names could be in the
Papers.
“So you want to be a prize fighter?”
I said.
“Yeah.” He grinned. “And I'd like to
own me a big car some day and drive
you and Mom around here and just toot
the horn. Sugar Ray’s got him a pink
Caddy, you know.”
Well, I thought, if he wants to be a
fighter, let’s start him on the road.
There was a boys’ club not too far from
our neighborhood and I took him there
the next day. Isaiah's eyes grew big
when he saw the gymnasium with its
punching bags and small ring where two
little fellows in trunks and boxing gloves
were sparring with each other.
I never saw such a change like came
over Isaiah after he joined that club.
Every day after school he was at the
gym, and nights before he went to bed
he’d shadow box in front of his mirror.
He got to talk a lot more, too. He kept
building himself bigger dreams. What
he was going to do first, he said, was
fight amateur. He was going to get a lot
of those fights under his belt. Then
some big-shot manager from New York
would hear of him, and some day, you
wait and see, some day he was going to
be on television, fighting out of Madi-
son Square Garden. Once, when I
passed his room I saw him, in his old,
faded robe, holding his hands above his
head like he’d just won the champion-
ship.
It wasn’t only me who saw the change,
it was his probation officer. That man
was as happy as if Isaiah was his own
son. And it even went so far as school,
too. Isaiah had never particularly liked
going. But he didn’t seem to mind any
more.
It didn’t last, however. Maybe two
months. Maybe three. I don’t exactly
remember.
One day, home from work, I found
him in the house. This wasn’t like the
new Isaiah. The new Isaiah was usually
at the gym until six or even after.
“What's the matter, Boy? You don’t
feel well?”
He shrugged. “Feel okay.”
“How did it go at the gym?”
“Okay. Look.” He started for the door.
“I’m not hungry, I’m goin’ out.”
“Something wrong?”
He stopped, with the door open. He
seemed to want to tell me, but couldn't.
“What is it, Son?”
He looked at his palms. “I just quit
the club, that’s all.”
“What did you want to do that for?”
&
He still couldn’t meet my eyes. “I
ain’t no fighter.”
“Now, what kind of talk is that?
You're a good fighter.” y
He glared at me, like why was it I
couldn't understand? “I got beat. I got
beat bad.”
“So you got beat, so what? Ain’t
Sugar Ray ever got beat?”
“But this kid—” He didn’t seem to
want to say it. Then it burst out. “He
was littler’n me! This kid was littler’n
me!” And with that he walked out,
slamming the door.
All I could do was stand there.
I was scared, but I didn’t know why.
I turned slowly and went to the
kitchen and reached for the frying pan.
Then I let my arm drop. There was
no one to make eats for. Major was out.
Isaiah was out. And I wasn’t hungry.
I went into the living room and
slumped onto the sofa.
Everything had gone wrong all at
once.
OU see, there was something I'd
found out a couple days before
which I hadn’t told Major and Isaiah
yet. Their mother hadn't been improv-
ing in the city. They were taking her
upstate, to a sanitarium at Mt. Alto.
About a month and a half after this,
I knew why I'd been scared when Isaiah
had walked out that door, banging it
behind him. That was the day when I
got off the trolley from work and saw
Major standing there, waiting for me.
Isaiah had been arrested again. For
breaking into a hardware store with
three other boys.
And this time there was no leniency.
He was given an indefinite term at
Glenn Mills, an institution for delin-
quent boys.
Why hadn't I sold the house? Why
hadn't I taken the loss, even if it had
meant being in debt the rest of my life?
Why hadn't I sent him down to my
Daddy's farm in South Carolina?
Maybe it wasn't too late. Isaiah would
be released one day and I’d have
; ‘Mary ‘Blinak:
a
girl, of Shenaafival,
jeulous lover ¢ is”
fore fioun and died
16. year ‘old. “Polish
shot by a
‘morning shortly, be!
"WAS
this afternoon at
; her to marry him-at once.
2:30 o'clock fYom the effects of the in-
jury. The young girl came to this coun-
try a few weeks ago.and went tu Shen-
andoah where skid mado ‘her home with
relatives on West-Line St. In a fow
| days ahe became acquainted with Charles
Wawsen, wlio became madly infatuated
with her, The little girl encouraged his
Intentions until xhe learned that, he’
Wished to marry her, and then avoided
him. ‘This morning Wawsen called at
‘her home and told’ her that’ he wanted
- The girl re-
fused, whereupon he threatened ‘to com.’
pel her to consent, She turned to leave
him and he tried to. grasp her, She
screamed and ran out ‘West St. with
Wawsen in pursuit. When she reached
the saloon of Charles Labis at 234. Weat
St, she rushed throngh the door, . but her
ee
pater - followed’ ae betaine: ate’
thé’ bar room in a:) fiiuting.. condisfon,
Dr. John Stein Was, sumnjoned: ahd’ he
hastily: probed - for, the, bullets, . locating
one, but. sfatling. to find the. others. She
remained Aunconscions, sinking. rapidly
until death ensued, l
Her assailant did not make an effort to
escape and when Conatable James Muan-
ley, who wna‘in the neighborhood,’ pare
him under arrest, he submitted: mt
Squire - Romanot committed him — te
prison without bails The victim's par
enta reside in Poland and she ‘his beer.
working aa a domestic in Shonandoah, :
Considerable — fecling ‘is expressed in
Shenandoah over the; murder, The traf. |
fie of disposing little: foreign girls ta!
their countrymen for|a fnoney conridesa- |
tion, lins been #0 openly carried oy in!
that town ‘thi the public. are up in!
arms and threaten to wreak dire pune |
ishinent on the persons participating i
it if not, stopped. |,
could clode' the door, he drew a revolver.
and: fived threa. shots, Two: struck, Ker
in the head gn’ bie. fell to the: Nluor of.
i m1 DROP
V.
\ | ; ae
Charles Warzel was hanged today at 10:41 o'clock, 7
Ile was pronounced dead of strangulation sas min-
utes after the drop fell.
=)
| i,
His crime was the murder of Marie Bolinsky, at Shen- |. /
andoah, May ~ 1907.
The end Was most grucsome as after making 4 long !
farewell speech he collapsed and fell to the floor of the
scaffold just as the black cap was about, to be placed over
liis face. tle was lifted to his fect and again collapsed.
It was necessary te suspend him with ropes attached
te his waist to keep hinj on his fect prior to the relcasing
of the drop, y
o“His last words were: “Me no commit murder for
money. Me love girl. [Me ready.to dic.”
Was a native of ‘Alistria, and was nearly 34 years of
° !
age. Ile shot and killéd Marie Bolinsky at, Shenandoah
because she would not|marry him, He feigned insanity,
cand thereby delayed hig trial three months, but was con-
victed in September ldst, and sentenced ‘to death two
. :
weeks later.
|
He claimed that hid insanity was/due to sun stroke in
Sopth Ameriea, but) was frightened into a confession of
/. . . % - . .
sahits by dightningg which struck near Its cell while in
pricon last June. Ele twice tried suigide.
t.
J
amining phesicians was carefully watch.
we _[ed. Crowds of people lind gatheral eur |
in the yur of the Schuylkill County nide the prison doors, but were attains Py
, f 7 ws
\ wrning i sence of a| mitted. and the roofs of the building
2 a ue 4 J " n. ounding the prison: xx well ate
rry of 12 men and ‘several hundres . caunding hilla, were dotted with those |
op! i . id curiaxity . bad = prompted !
inectatora, for’ the dratal eecald vf e | rag ageoriar e “of the hanging it!
4
\ — <a
Chailes Warzel was “pally executed
wae dace dy due to suffocation.
Warzel spent his last night in prayer
and apparently bore up under tle, doom
wveh geershadowed him. until (hp hour
of the execution approached this} morn-
Ing, when he became Very nervo}is and
thowed apparent signs of collapad, . The
death march fram his celk took place at
its weleekK and from the time \Varzel
hw hie last place of confinement, he was
in a eeini-eonacions condition, Jie wan
here to the scaffold upon the arin of
Father Ziebura, the faithful priest who
bu leven attending him for the paat six
‘months and appeared ta haye his full
: ue ef conpostire until his lege were
ind teen the seatfold,
Warrel Collapsed Upon Scaffold. ,
As sown oa. the Sheriff, deputies art
@her attenlanta had ascended the scaf-
fell owith Warzel, and the preliminary
© Tenonteg hac! been completed, Warz l
Made a tumbling addreas for fully ta
Perutes on which he recounted the entirl
frme tor which he was about to pay the
aes atl repented the wae, le wail
"ows prepared to go to'a better world,
eva ned qinet finished his address we
they Manse came, He fell limp npon the
watch. aud Was revived partially altet
Wing given a drink of water.| Wheit
eouseranenes« returned the noose ' was
- fastened under the left ear by Sheriff
Frans under the direction of Dr, Guldin,
ord preparations were made to apring
the tiep when he fainted again, Ropes
wete witached to the belt which bound
“ine te bis sile and the drep was
frais pulled! at 10:4] o'clock, |
oan ergs the interval during -wnich he
“ae merngisusnended for the final spring.
ing oe trap, he called loudly for
add “ts ‘vether, and had apparently
ete mie a third uneonsciousness
wren the tian was pulled. His face was
abe he othe black cap which had
rake heen slipped over hia head be-
ans _ cecil collapse came, and it was
~ Ueto was. ae the mental torture
he man would have been horrible (o
S'tewplate. during the hyaterieal out:
eo made during his Inst few ino-
ret
’ . a Pa ‘ Z ‘
eae theart Marie Italinak y, at Shenan | peranitile,
dash on May 2ath lant. Warzel waa le |
ta the agallaws at Vera afelock and the Drop fell 10:40:29% 4. mM. Pulse eh
érop fell at 10:41, After hanging for tered: 10:43, at beala per minute; 1O:tk
o}.) minuten he van pronounced ded by 72° beatae; tort, Tz beatae, Wiis ;
prieem physician Dr, B.C, Guldin, after
thiol he waa ent down and his reinaiis
roseved ta the death house of the heart Deri he enunted, Death due to|
‘preon tor examination, ia npek was ntransuld tion, | cunuten
pertinlly lercken br the fall, tut death | eit down, Wits. Matxed, 22 minutes,
‘in preparation for the end, Key. Ziebura
Official Record. -
10:46, C& beats; 10:1, w hentia, sts, 110 ‘
heatn; 10:49, KEK bente, Las MW beats, 19:9%, -
heart beenme ro week woe thready that.
Spent Last Night in Preparation.
Warzel's last night on carth was spent
waited upon him carly in the evening and
remained with him until 10 o'clock Jast
night spending the entire! evening in
prayer and preparation for the end, At
that hour he was left alone in his cell
and soon fell asleep.: He arose at four:
o'clock this morning’ and after prayer, !
was given a bith by the prison altend-:
ants and dressed in a new black suit.
Sacrament was . administered and eon-;:
fession held in cell’ No. 11, which was
fitted up as a snortuary chapel and the
religiaua part pl the exercises. were ¢on-
eluded at ning o'clock. During the next
hour, the Jaat Ihe spent on earth, he was;
visited by the|newapa per representatives, |
to whom he tald the story of his life and j
the crime in detail, which is given below.
Tho last ‘few minutes preparatory to the
death march were spent solely in the]
company of the priest who attended him.
During the past few duys Warzel has
been shown every consideration by Warr:
den Mulholland and in hia talk to the
newapaper men he had nothing but the
kindest regard for thoee in whore care
he had been -placed. A curious coinci-
dence, ia that Mra. Mulholland was con-’
tantly with chim quring tace und BY
i a?
until the death marc took place and hye :.
mother Mra, MeMenamin, of Shenandoan Pt
waa present at the death of hia victim
after the shooting, and the Bolinaky girl
breathed her last in the arms of the!
mother of the matron, Mrs. Mulholland.
When the breakfast/hour arrived this #
morning, Warzel ate sparingly of toast!
and steak, and drank a cup .of atrong
coffec. He partook of portiona of wine
and amoked an occasional cigarette dur-
ing the morning hours,
f—
KILLED BECAUSE _
OF REECTED SUT
Charles Wawsen, who shot and killed
Mary, Blinsky, the 16 year vld girl, on.
wi | Saturday marning because she refused
to marry Lim, was given a hearing be-
fore Squire Romonot, on Saturday eve-
ning, and pleaded guilty to the’ crime. ,
. He made a atatement “atthe hearing,
that he. was enguged tO the girl, and
had spent about, $800 in paying her way
here from the:old cbuntry and buying
her ‘clothing for the weduing, and she
refused to marry him after she arrived
here and becainé acquainted with a
younger brother of his, He claimed that
“he was making preparations to leave
town. , ‘
Both Wawsen and the girl have Wut
recently. came to thix country from Aus!
tria, Poland, - where they ' were ac:
quainted.
The prisoner was ‘committed to the].
lockup without bail, and Constable
James Manley brought him to Pottaville
yesterday morning, where he was. com:
mitted to jail. . :
Dr, John R. Stein held an autopey
this! morning on the victim and Deputy
Coroner Lee will hold the inquest :to-
morrow evening. |
The funeral of the, unfortunate vies
tim will take place tomorrow morning
at nine. o'clock, with high masse at Rt.
Casimer’a Polish church, on North lar-
din St. and Interment in the Parish
cemetery. me tee 4
2POBL ic4anrl
"Fle a,
I= 27-1907 0)
ign. Mr.
Los angeles.
four-door se-
nse.
the car isn’t
tel manager:
1er than the
u think this
ing for?”
ged. “Noth- -
n. But when
get a feeling
en a young
ras man and
thev’ré lying.
y.
these people
returned to
ip the license .
icle registra-
| the motel
a 1950 Ford
Oakland.
1 the motel
1 1950 Ford
Oakland.
1 car,” Ton-
ugh a long
to request
mobile and
-pr “ule _
ni wn
re At
wv ~~. £n,
atro.utl at
artin Rubin
aining con-
or Anthony
ce called in
| Letin.
‘ong license
1. “We ran
He drove his
parking lot.
> took it out
uldn’t have
field.”
>?” Milligan
know these
they’d have
d, has’ four
per. It must
he numbers
/ way.”
» the tele-
‘If this fel- .
mber at the
e up with
year and
lave picked |
t just hap-
y Ford.” .
notel man-
k up some-
le
a
eT
giste: :
‘I guess I
e thex take
heet. But
ll us about
1 you find
ou cleaned
——— Aenea
the drive-in just two blocks down and
on the left-hand side. They must have
gone there because I heard a car pull
out as I was going to bed.”
__ “So they got a hamburger,” Milligan
declared.
“But that’s not the point,” the motel
manager said excitedly. “At the drive-
in I asked one of the girls once how they
could keep track of which car orders
what. She said they write the license
numbers on the slips. Maybe one of the
waitresses will remember them -and
she’d have the license number—the
right one.”
“You may have something,” Tongate
replied. “We'll see.”
Four “car hops” were on duty at the
drive-in. Milligan and Tongate ques-
DE 7 EcT) VE
Dodge, Walls and Towle had been
_ working through the night, too. In the
town of Tulare a man who was picked
up for speeding answered the descrip-
tion of Rubin’s killer. The three officers
drove the 60 miles to Tulare and ques-
tioned him. He had been able to estab-
lish an alibi for the time of the killing.
Tongate called the Los Angeles
Homicide Squad under the direction of
‘Captain Robert Lohrman and asked
him to look into James Peru’s back-
ground.
Eight o’clock in the morning had
come before the detectives completed
their. written reports.
At ten o’clock a Los Angeles Homi-
cide officer called in a report to Chief
Grayson.
Up to the Minute
TENNESSEE moonshiner who had served a prison sentence
for killing a man is back in the same prison today for the
murder of that man’s sister. The moonshiner, Edward Roddy, has
been sentenced to twel ears for the second-degree murder of
Mrs. Katherine Byrd, niNpusekeeper” in 1950 Roddy was sen-
tenced to five years and sa@“ved only two for killing Mrs. Byrd’s
, brother, Ed Ferguson. Roddy had been known as a bootlegger for
years and his three-day trial for killing Mrs. Byrd was characterized
by the prosecutor as “a reunion of bootleggers”’.
The story of the search for the Slayer after Mrs. Byrd’s body
was found hanging in a tr bil. (0) e Killin” Agi
Me’”, i ebruary, 1955, issue of OFFICIAL DETEC-
IES Magazine. .
High in the Pennsylvania mountains, two killers went to their
deaths within three minutes when John Wesley Wable, the “Phan-
ne . the Turnpike”, and George Capps were executed the same
night.
Wable had killed two truckers and wounded another along the
state’s Turnpike; the story of the search for him and his eventual
arrest was entitled, “Hunting Pennsylvania’s Turnpike Killer” and
published in the December, 1953, OFFICIAL.
-The capture of Capps, wh ed a fifteen-year-
old higt= en helped Levittown neighbors hunt for
her, was in the April, 1954, issue of OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STO-
RIES Magazine, entitled, “‘She’ll Be All Right—We’ll Find Her’”’.
Fast-moving, ingenious detective work brought about the
arrest of four men who raided a bank in Victor, Montana, this past
Summer. All four men now have been convicted of the crime. Three _
of them, James Crippen, Richard Stevens and William Staggs, were
given five-year sentences; the fourth, Norman Jones, a juvenile,
was sent to a correctional institution to be held until he reaches the
age of 21. “ ‘Find a Wreck for Nine Grand’ ”, the story of this detec-
tive work, appeared in the October, 1955, OFFICIAL.
Another juvenile, George Teen, sixteen, who pleaded guilty to
participation in the gigantic hoax SOS that alerted the entire East
Coast and cost the Federal government thousands of dollars, has
been put on probation. His companion in the hoax, Thomas Mal]-
dona, was sent to a correctional institution for a term with a maxi-
mum imprisonment of six years. The September OFFICIAL
DETECTIVE STORIES Magazine published this story under the
title, “SOS—For the Heck of It”.
In each of these cases and in many others, the detective work
was completed and the story published in OFFICIAL DETECTIVE
STORIES Magazine before final legal steps were taken. To keep
you fully informed of these final steps, this department, “Up to
the Minute”, appears regularly on these pages.—The Editor.
tioned them. At their urging, one of the
girls vaguely recalled waiting on a man
and a woman who had come in just be-
fore closing time, ‘two o’clock in the
morning. ‘
“I remember the girl wanted her
hamburger without any relish or cat-
sup. ivst miuctard an it” 8} os UG
“Here’s what we’ve got on James
- Peru,” the Los Angeles man said. “He’s
married but no children. He and his
wife live in an apartment house on Ala-
meda Avenue near Huntington Park.
They’ve been gone for two weeks but
their rent is paid in advance. Peru
DIMRLES, LEC,/ISS; F: #5
“Woman?” Dodge asked.
“Yeah. They’re being dropped by a
young woman. Five feet seven, dark
hair, dark eyes, wearing: a skirt and
sweater.”
“T’ll send one of my men down right
away,” Dodge said. ‘Maybe he can help
with the investigation and keep‘us in
touch.” -
“Glad to have him,” Didion replied.
“I’m hoping we can grab the woman
who’s dropping the stuff.”
Dodge assigned Tongate to the job.
He left immediately for Los Angeles
with Jim Barbour, investigator for the
district attorney’s office.
A little over two hours later, the offi-
cers had made the 100-mile drive from
Bakersfield to Los Angeles
“They must have hit all the places
within an hour,” Didion informed the
Bakersfield men. “We put out a tele-
phone warning as soon as we discovered
the first one but it was too late. They’d
hit about ten pawnshops and dropped
ten of the watches.” :
“They?” Tongate asked. °
“Yeah. A man took one side of the
street and the girl took the other.”
Didion spread a number of pawnshop
- tickets on his desk. “He used the names
of Bill Williams and Bill Rose. The girl
used the names of Esther Smith and
Ellen Brown—she wasn’t as original as
he was. They both gave the same ad-
dress, but it’s a phony.”
Along the edges of ‘the pawn tickets
S a code by which the pawnbroker
gave description of the person put-
ting the i i
erally, the
and woman
James Peru. /
‘i Didion id: “Captain Lohrman is
a
artment. If they show up there, he’ll
nab them for sure.” “
“T’d like to talk to the pawnshop op-
erators who took in the watches,” Ton-
gate said. “The girl or the man may
have dropped something in a conversa-
tion that would give us a lead.”
“Sure,” Didion replied. “They’re all
on East Fifth Street. I’ll have one of
our men take you down. there right
away.”
THE police car with Tongate and
Barbour just had pulled up in front
of the M and M Loan Company when
the radio announcer blared out a re-
quest for Tongate to telephone Captain
Didion.
“I' think we may have a pretty good
lead,”’ Didion told him when he called.
“Another one of those pawned watches
just showed yup.-It was dropped by the
girl at the American Loan Company.
Only this time it has a different ad-
dress on it. Maybe she slipped up and
gave her right address on this one, since
it doesn’t ‘match with the other
phonies.”’
The address was for a hotel on Spring
Street. Tongate and Barbour went to
the hotel. They gave the clerk the de-
scriptions of the man and woman they
sought and the names of Williams,
Rose, Smith, Brown and Peru.
The clerk shook his head at the
names. “But it sounds like Mr. and
Mrs. Ross,” he said. “They been here
for about two weeks.”
“Are they in now?”
the angle of watching the Peru‘
' a maze of tire tracks as a result of
traffic jam at the accident earlier
he day.
Maybe the killer’s car made a set
hese tracks and maybe it didn’t,”
taine said. “Maybe he didn’t have
r; he could have been a hitch-hiker.
all we know he could be on the West
st by now.”
was a Clueless crime, without wit-
‘or motive. Canvasses did not help.
se involved in the smash-up did not
ember the truck; other motorists
: long gone, unable to trace.
REE days later, police got positive
‘roof the killer was not on the West
st. While they were reviewing their
ser clues, they received a phone
announcing a carbon copy of the
- 1e.
‘ain the victim was the driver of
uto carrier, and again he had been
as he slept in his cab on the side
le Turnpike.
mtaine, Johnson and Corporal Wil-
J. Smith went to the scene of the
id slaying, near the Donegal inter-
change of the Turnpike, about 30 miles
from the spot where the first driver
was slain and also in Westmoreland
County.
They were met by Herbert L. Parr, a
truck driver from Balty, Virginia.
“I found him just a few minutes ago,”
Parr said. “TI still can’t believe it. He's
a good friend of mine. His name is
Harry F. Pitts and he lived in Bowling
Green, Virginia.”
Parr declared that he had been driv-
ing along the Turnpike shortly after six
a.m. when he had recognized his friend's
truck on the side of the road. Thinking
Pitts had overslept, he stopped and
went over to awaken him. When he
opened the cab door he saw the driver
lying with his head on a blood-soaked
Pillow. ‘
“I ran back to my truck and drove to
the nearest service station to call you
fellows,” Parr told the officers.
Undoubtedly, the 39-year-old driver
had been shot in his Sleep, too. His
head lay on the white Pillow, now
soaked with blood from a single wound
over his right eye. He also was in stock-
Right through three road blocks the fu itive crashed, untouched—
until he was spotted by these nurses, Midge Harmon, Caroline Smith
ink feet, his shoes placed neatly side
by side on the floor of the cab.
Fontaine put in a call over his mo-
bile radio for a finger-print man anda
police photographer and Captain Jack
R. Dodson, who assumed command of
the investigations that followed, came
with them,
“It looks like the same killer at work
again.” Fontaine told his superior, “The
only major difference in the details of
the two cases is that Pitts wasn’t
robbed. We found his wallet in his
pocket with eighty-five dollars in it;
and nothing seems to be missing from
the truck. The killer probably was
scared away by a passing car before he
had time to search the body.”
After the police photographer had fin-
ished his grisly work, the body was
taken to Ligonier, Pennsylvania, for
autopsy.
“Poor devil,” said Parr as he watched
his friend's still form being placed in
an ambulance. “He has a wife and a
kid and things were looking up for
them. He just bought that rig about
four months ago.”
THE bullet that killed Pitts was re-
covered, and though it had been
smashed almost out of shape from
striking a bone, Captain Dodson was
fairly sure that it, too, was from a .32-
caliber automatic.
The slug was sent to the State Police
ballistics laboratory at Harrisburg,
where tests subsequently showed that it
came from the same gun used to kill
Woodward.
The finger-print man also found a
suspiciously placed set of prints in the
truck but after blowing them up ina
four-foot picture, they proved to be the
driver’s own.
From attendants at the Donegal toll
gate, within sight of the death scene,
Dodson learned that several other
sleepy drivers had pulled up near Pitts’
truck some time after four a.m. Since
they hadn't reported hearing a shot
and had not investigated, the officer
concluded that Pitts already had been
slain when they arrived. This meant
the shooting must have occurred earlier
than four.
Meanwhile, Smith and Johnson had
found a clue at the scene of the slaying.
They discovered tire-tracks which
showed that a passenger auto had
backed into a space between the Parked
truck and a woods which ran along the
roadside. Later, the tracks indicated,
the car had pulled out, crossed the
This young man was willing fo talk about “borrowing” a cat, poh c
say, and about counterfeiting—but not about the Turnpike killings
medial strip of the Turnpike and headed
west toward Pittsburgh and the Ohio
border. An alert was sent to toll sta-
tions to the west inquiring about suspi-
cious actions of motorists.
From the Allegheny interchange, an
attendant phoned to report that « green
Nash had sped past the exit lane Jead-
ing to the toll gates, heading east, then
stopped with a squeal of brakes, swung
across the medial strip and zoomed west
again on an apparently spur-of-the-
moment decision.
Immediately a broadcast was put out
for the car. Within a few hours Pitts-
burgh police stopped it. After careful
questioning, the occupants satisfied
officers that they were a vacationing
family. unfamiliar with the Turnpike,
and had overshot their exit.
Dodson, meanwhile, had plaster casts
made of the mysterious tire-tracks,
“We don’t know,” he said, “that the
tracks were made by the killer's. car,
But it’s reasonable to assume he has
some kind of transportation.”
The Captain's statement brought to
the surface a question that was in the
mind of everyone who used the high-
way: If this phantom had killed twice,
wouldn't he strike again?
That question was being asked in
trucking-company offices, at drivers’
coffee stops along the road and on the
floor of the State Legislature in Har-
risburg.
At the capital, a state senator called
for more police for the Turnpike. He
pointed out that only 87 officers were
assigned to the 327-mile stretch of
heavily traveled road, and most of their
time was devoted to traffic problems,
Trucking concerns urged their driv-
ers to make rest stops only at service
stations where they could park in
sroups. The drivers armed themselves
with crowbars, baseball bats, lengths of
pipe and even guns.
B ECAUSE both slain men were drivers
of auto carriers, Fontaine investi-
gated the possibility that union strife or
a competitive struggle was behind the
killings. He reported back to Dodson
that he could find no evidence to sup-
port such a theory.
Indeed, the companies and drivers’
unions were up in arms about the slay-
ings. The Pennsylvania Motor Truck
Association offered a $5,000 reward for
information leading to the killer. The
AFL Teamsters’ Union matched the
sum. Milton F. Harris, president of
(Continued on Page 49)
~ Ti
ontinental Transportation Lines, In-
yrporated, added another $1,000,
ringing the total reward to $11,000.
The National Auto Transporters’ As-
ciation assigned its inspection autos
) patrol the Turnpike. The safety pa-
‘ol of the Motor Carriers’ Association
yined them, putting more than 50 cars
n the Turnpike. Truck drivers also
yrmed posses to roam the expressway
n their days off.
“A maniac is running loose on the
‘urnpike,” said R. F. Dowling, vice-
resident of the firm for which Pitts
rove. “I don’t see any other explana-
ion, since Pitts wasn’t robbed.” °
Captain Dodson believed that the
iller had intended to rob both victims,
ut he knew he might be hunting a
raniac.
“Look into every report that comes
n,” he told his men, “no matter how
antastic it seems. We're dealing with
fantastic criminal.”
Mental institutions were canvassed
ry telephone to see if any patients had
scaped.
“SP ETECTIVES thought they had a
lead when they learned that a youth
iad been missing for five days from his
ather’s farm not far from the death
ttretch of the Turnpike. With him
vhen he left he had taken his father’s
32-caliber pistol.
But he was located in Columbus,
Yhio, and cleared of any connection
vith the case.
The color of the auto carriers pre-
ented another possible theory to tease
wlice. Woodward had been driving an
yrange truck; Pitts’ truck was yellow.
“Maybe somebody had a_ grudge
igainst Pitts and went gunning for
iim,” said Corporal Smith. “‘Maybe he
jidn’t know what Pitts looked like but
lid know he drove a yellow auto car-
rier. Yellow and orange look about the
same after dark. He could have killed
the wrong man the first time, discov-
red this when he read about it in the
papers and returned to get the right
one.”
But the simplest explanation, and the
one on which police based their inves-
tigation, was that they were after a
killer so callous that he would take a
man’s life for a few dollars.
The day after the second Turnpike
slaying the body of Barney Prender-
gast, a New York tavern operator, was
found on a roadside in the Hudson
River district. He had been shot with
a .32-caliber gun. Stool-pigeons in the
big city whispered about the Turnpike
case and Lieutenant Fontaine was ad-
vised. At his request, New York author-
ities sent the slug that had killed the
tavern operator to Harrisburg for com-
parison with the Turnpike bullets.
UT a microscope smashed Fontaine’s
hopes. The bullet from New York
didn’t match.
He didn’t have time to brood about
the disappointment. Just three days
after killing Pitts, the slayer struck
again.
Captain Dodson received the news of
the latest shooting in a telephone call
from Sheriff Howard J. Clark of Co-
lumbiana County, Ohio.
“T thought you'd like to know about
it, Captain,” Clark said. “It looks like
the work of the man you're hunting. A
trucker was shot in the head while he
was sleeping in his cab on the side of
the road.”
“Do you know who he is?” Dodson
asked.
“Yes,” Clark replied. “He told us his
name is John Sheperd, and he’s from
West Alexander, Pennsylvania.”
“He told you?”
“The bullet didn’t kill him,” Clark
explained. “Doctors here at the hos-
pital think he will pull through.”
“T'll send a couple of men there to
work with you right away,’’ Dodson
said.
“Tll be glad to have them,” said
Clark.
This man, Sheperd, had been shot
on a heavily traveled spur of Route No.
30-45 near Lisbon, Ohio. The road is
a feeder for the Ohio terminus of the
Turnpike, thirteen miles away.
Charles Burgess, an ambulance sales-
man from Loudenville, Ohio, was pass-
ing at 3:30 a. m. when he saw the
driver’s limp form hanging out the door
of the truck and heard him moaning
for help.
Burgess stopped to investigate. The
injured man had slipped into uncon-
sciousness and his face was matted
with blood. Like the two earlier vic-
tims of the Turnpike slayer, Sheperd
. . . d It First |
Turnpike Killer (Continued from Page 16) OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
was in stocking feet. But he also was
minus his trousers.
The ambulance salesman flagged
down the first motorist to pass, Ford
Keck returning to his néar-by home
from a fishing trip with his wife and
son. While Burgess stayed at the scene
to give the trucker first aid, the Kecks
drove to Lisbon and notified Policeman
John Holshue, who went to the spot
with an ambulance.
As attendants placed Sheperd on a
stretcher, the officer asked, ““Where are
his trousers?”
“I don't know,” Burgess said. “They
aren’t in the cab.”
“Well, we can look for them later,”
Holshue said. “Right now we've got
to get him to a hospital. He's been se-
verely beaten.”
Because Sheperd's face was so
smeared with blood, the bullet hole
wasn’t visible. Not until doctors took
X-Rays did they discover that the 34-
year-old driver had been shot. A slug
had struck him in the right side of the
head and lodged in his jaw.
At Salem City Hospital, the driver
recovered consciousness sufficiently to
tell Sheriff Clark his name and that
he had seen a light-colored Chevrolet
parked beside his truck after he was
shot. Then he was wheeled into the
operating-room to have the bullet re-
moved.
“There's nothing else I can do here,”
Clark told Dodson over the phone. “I’ve
sent out an alarm for cars of that de-
scription and now I'm going out to have
a look at that truck.”
HIS time, Clark discovered, the gun-
man had not chosen an auto-carrier
driver for his victim. Sheperd was em-
ployed by Tower Lines, Incorporated, a
Wheeling, West Virginia, steel-hauling
firm. He had delivered a load of steel to
a Salem firm the night before, and his
flat-bed tractor-trailer was empty
when he pulled off the Turnpike sub-
sidiary route to catch some shut-eye.
In the cab of the truck, Sheriff Clark
found a spent .32-caliber -cartridge
shell. But nowhere could he find the
wounded man’s trousers. °
When Smith and Johnson arrived
from Greensburg, Clark gave them the
cartridge shell and the slug which had
been removed from Sheperd’s jaw.
The Greenlease blood money,
with St. Louis police recording its
serial numbers. Story on Pg. 8
They were sent to Harrisburg by plane
for comparison with the slugs recov-
ered in the two killings.
As soon as these tests were completed,
the crime laboratory flashed the word
to Captain Dodson: “All three bullets
were fired from the same gun.”
At the hospital in Salem, Ohio, mean-
while, Corporal Smith waited to talk to
Sheperd. The Corporal wanted to ques-
tion him as soon as possible, but he
didn’t want to endanger the condition
of his star witness.
When the doctors decided that the
trucker was able to be questioned, he
astonished Smith with what he said.
“This may sound screwy, but I think
I talked with the gunman after he shot
me,” Sheperd declared.
“You did! What makes you think
so?” Smith asked.
“Well, I must have fallen asleep,” the
driver said. ‘Then later—I don’t know
now long it was—something burst in
my head. I thought it was a blood ves-
sel or something like that.
“I thought I was at home and I was
calling my mother. Then I got out of
the cab and walked around in front of
the truck, holding my head, and I can
remember the blood running down my
fingers.
“Then I saw this man standing there.
I hadn't. seen him before and I didn't
know where he came from. I asked him
to get some help because I had this pain
in my head, and all the blood.
“But he didn’t. He told me he was
low on gas and didn't have any money.
His voice was high, like a woman’s.
“He asked me if I could give him five
dollars and he said he'd get some gas
and send an ambulance. Then he told
me to take off my pants so I could
breathe easier. It sounds crazy, but
that’s what I did. I remember taking
off my pants and putting them over the
steering-wheel. I was back in the cab
then. That’s about all I remember.”
“Do you remember when the man
left?”’ Smith asked.
“No. I saw a light-colored Chevrolet
parked by the truck, but I must have
lost consciousness before it left,” Shep-
erd said.
Gute realized that the driver had
been dazed and wounded when he
had had this odd encounter with the
stranger. The fact that Sheperd had
thought he was at home made it pos-
sible that other parts of his story might
be hallucination, too.
But this story, puzzling though it was,
offered the best lead turned up so far
in the investigation.
“Of course, we can’t say definitely
that the person who talked to you is the
one who shot you,” Smith declared. “He
may have been somebody who came
along later and decided he had found a
soft set-up for burglary. That’s a long-
shot, but we can't rule it out.”
“Do you figure the fellow who shot
me is the same one who killed those
other two drivers on the Turnpike?”
asked Sheperd.
“It looks that way.”
“If he sneaked up and killed those
men in their sleep, I wonder why he
didn't finish me off.”
“He may have been afraid to risk the
noise of a second shot,” Smith sug-
gested. “Besides, when you got back in
the cab and lost consciousness, he
probably thought you would be dead in
a couple of minutes, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Sheperd said. “I guess he
wasn't doing me any favor. I'll never
forget that voice. Like a woman's, it
was.” The driver paused for a moment,
then said: “I wonder why he took my
trousers. They were just work pants.”
“What was in them?”
“My wallet. All I had in it was five
bucks.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. My watch. A fifteen-jewel
Elgin.”
Smith leaned forward in his chair.
“Tell me all you can about that watch.
49
lla de lls . , | :
Where you bought it and when and the Stations around the country, but not ther automatic, the equivalent of a .32- Half an hour later, Nurse Caroline
make. A complete description,” right away,” Dodson said, “They get caliber gun. Smith and a companion, Midge Har-
Sheperd was puzzled, but he told ihe hundreds of fliers like this every week, They notified Captain Dodson and he mon, saw a thin, sallow-faced Stranger
officer everything he could. and after a few days ours will be buried sent two men from Greensburg to walking along a Side road. Miss Smith,
on the bottom of the pile. I'm counting assist with the investigation. The who had heard about the chase, noti-
HE third day after the shooting on the killer to Pawn the watch. But I automatic was rushed to Harrisburg to Ned police,
dawned, and Police were on edge. want to give him plenty of time to do be test-fired in the ballistics laboratory. They converged on the spot and
Had the killer, following his Pattern of it before we send out our fliers. That's Two days later State Police Commis- Captured this one, too, without a
violence every three days, left another the important thing, timing.” sioner Ceci) M. Wilhelm telephoned Struggle. He told the Officers that he
trucker on the roadside with another August and September Passed with- Major Andrew Hudock, commander of had Picked up his two companions
bullet in his head? out further activity on the Part of the the Greensburg barracks, with g00d_ while they were hitch-hiking across
‘I don’t think So,” said Captain gunman. With the advent of October, news. The tests, he said, proved con- the Mojave Desert.
Dodson. “He knows he muffed this last Dodson decided the time was ripe to clusively that all three bullets were To Sheriff Harold Hubbe
ll, they were
one, and he’s Probably scared. I think release the leaflets, fired from the German gun, just three Petty holdup men—until
he will lie low for awhile.” “Well, that does it,” Hudock said. State Trooper T. J. Chavez found an
The prediction Proved right. Days THE day after one arrived at Police “We've 80t to find Wable.” auto registration card in the glove com-
Passed without further sign of the Headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, But capturing him was another partment of the car. It was made out
killer. Detective Car] Obert of the pawn matter. A nationwide flier was sent out in the name of Beatrice Chesler, wife
Meanwhile, police were working on division sat down and compared it with listing him as “highly dangerous”. of the restaurant operator in Union-
the routine but essential chores of the his records. In almost every state, Meanwhile, Pennsylvania and Ohio town.
investigation: Armed with a list of over Pawnbrokers are required by law. to police tried to pick up his trail. They The third man captured said that he
500 light-colored Chevrolets registered supply police with a Periodic list of the learned, with some embarrassment, that had borrowed the ca - Chavez didn’t
in western Pennsylvania and eastern items left with them as Security for Wable had been arrested by Cleveland believe him. He put ina long-distance
Ohio, they canvassed to see if they loans. When the article has an iden- Police and FBT agents just seven days call to Mrs. Chesler.
could find one which had been near the tifying mark, such as a serial number, after the last trucker was shot. He had “No, I didn’t lend him my car,” she
sites of the three shootings. that also is listed, Spent the next month in a Pennsylvania Said. “It was Stolen. And the Police
From the trucking companies and This was just a long-shot, Obert jail. here are hunting that fellow for ques-
oll-gate records, they obtained the knew. But that was his job—to look for At the time, however, he was not a_ tioning about some Killings.”
‘ames of more than 450 drivers who such long-shots. Suspect in the Turnpike slaying. An New Mexico authorities immediately
‘ad traveled the death stretch of the After more than an hour of fruitless auto-rental agency in Uniontown, notified Pennsylvania State Police,
‘urnpike on the nights the first two searching, he found what he was look- Pennsylvania, had obtained & larceny And the third man admitted that he
rivers were shot. Questionnaires were ing for—a listing of a fifteen-jewe] warrant from Alderman Robert F. was John Wable.
ned to refresh their memories about matched those on the flier, ing Wable with failing to return a Westmoreland County Detective Merl
wthing unusual they might have The record showed that it had been rented car. The FBI had entered the D, Musick and Assistant District At-
en. Pawned at David's Loan Company, on case when he was charged with fleeing torney Joseph M. Loughran flew to
After the questionnaires were re- St. Clair Avenue, August 4, four days to Ohio to avoid Prosecution. At FBI Albuquerque.
med, officers Personally interviewed after Sheperd was shot. request, he'd been picked up by Cleve- With them they took warrants
re than a third of the drivers, going Obert rushed out. The pawn shop _ land police and returned to Uniontown charging Wable with two counts of
far as Connecticut and Georgia to books revealed that this watch had by Constable John Day, murder. Westmoreland District Attor-
'k to some of them. been pawned by a “J, Waple”, who He was kept in jail there until ney Alexander Sculco announced that
All the while, rumors raced up and Save an address on Haldane Street, September 16, when his family agreed he would seek indictments at the next
wn the Turnpike without let-up. East Cleveland. to make restitution and the charges meeting of the grand jury. Wable
e killer, now referred to in the news- Obert told Homicide Captain James were dropped. agreed to waive extradition for his re-
pers as the “Turnpike Phantom”, Kerr of his find and together they went turn to Pennsylvania.
» reported in half a dozen places at to the address on Haldane Street. AFTER Wable was named as a sus- At first he denied any knowledge of
e “Probably the name and address are pect in the Turnpike case, his for. the Turnpike slayings,
some of the tales were purely fancy. both Phony,” Obert. said as he rang mer cellmate came to Fayette County Later, Sheriff Hubbell said, he ad-
tS resulted from odd coincidence the bell. “But at least we can try.” District Attorney Fred ‘L. Brothers mitted owning the German gun and
Pa Finn a trucker from Wash nd plump, blond young woman opened with the story that Wable had confided Sabie. oe watch, but he still denied
, CKe: ash- the door. i e shootings.
‘on, D. C., told police that a hooded Bronte that he oo pike slayer,
“Does Mister Waple live here?” Kerr Brothers said, “TI loaned the gun to another guy and
er had followed him for miles in a asked. According to the District Attorney, I bought the watch from him,” Wable
bearing New York license Plates “You mean. John—John Wable, the the man said that Wable had opened was Quoted as saying.
1 written down the license number name is,” the woman replied. “He the conversation by speculating on At first he refused to name the “other
it led to a New York college lived here till couple of months ago. “what a Say Would get for that”. The guy” but later he gave the name as
ent who was on his school's foot- 1 don’t know where he is now.” cellmate had asked why he was so “Parks”, detectives said.
team, : The. officers introduced themselves interested, “He was a counterfeiter, and I used
’s, he had driven on the Turnpike ang learned that the girl was Leora “Because I'm the one they’re looking to go to Pittsburgh to pick uP money
night in question, he said. The air Crissey, 22, who lived there with her for,” Wable was quoted as saying, “t from him,” they quoted Wable. “On one
been cool so he'd put on his foot- mother and stepfather. She said Wable, shot those two truck drivers on’ the trip he asked me to leave my gun,
25, had roomed at their house for Turnpike ang another one in Ohio.” Later he gave it back to me. What he
lead. But on the nights of the several months while he worked in an Jail Warden Jack Cochran disclosed did with it I don't know.”
‘ngs, he proved he was in his electrical appliance plant in Cleveland. that Wable also had given his cellmate
itory, burning the midnight oil. “I went out with him several times,” a pair of trousers which fit the descrip- Back in Pennsylvania, Captain Dod-
2ungstown, Ohio, a former mental she said. “He always seemed like a tion of those stolen from Sheperd. Son put no credence in the story of
at was questioned after boasting nice Suy. He was crazy about my little After Wable was released, the warden another man named Parks. He in-
tavern that he was the phantom. daughter, Pamela. Always buying gifts said, he had made two trips to the jail structed Smith to keep working for a
olice soon learned that he had for her. He was almost like one of
trying to arrange for his former cell- confession.
n.no auto and only a hazy knowl- the family.” mate’s freedom. The last trip was the The detectives had intended to take
of the case. She told the detectives that Wable’s day before the Cleveland discoveries Wable back to his home state by air.
Philadelphia, a distraught hos- Parents lived in Ohiopyle, a sma}l town turned him into a suspect. But at the last minute they chose the
orderly got a priest out of bed jin Western Pennsylvania.
Police soon learned that Wable longer route by train.
: daylight by pounding on the He had driven q light-colored Chey- allegedly made another stop that day. It paid off. During the day-and-a-
y door. “Please have me arrested rolet for awhile, she added, and made When Theodore Chesler, a Uniontown half journey, Wable wrote out in long-
I kill another one,” he begged. frequent trips to Visit his family, restaurant operator, saw Wable’s pic- hand a 1 =page' “confession”, they
te Turnpike killer.”’ When Police = “Then in August he quit his job and ture in a newspaper, he telephoned _ said, in which he still placed the blame
vt believe his confession, ‘he left. I don’t know what became of police and excitedly ‘told them that for the actual shooting on “Parks” but
| another just as likely: “I’ve got him,” she said.
r S ike! Wable had stolen his car, they an. implicated himself in the three crimes.
or you,” he said. “I killed the How does he talk?” Kerr asked. nounced. When they ‘arrived: at State Police
teh baby. . “What do you mean?” “I practically helped him steal it,” District Headquarters in Greensburg,
“ S he have a deep voice?” Chesler said, Police claimed. “He came Wable was questioned again. The third
NWHILE, Captain Dodson was “No,” the girl Said. “His voice is in the restaurant about midnight and shooting victim, Sheperd, confronted
rking on the mystery with one rather high. Almost like a woman's borrowed a Screw-driver because he Wable at the questioning session. After
east glamourous but most effec- voice.” wanted to fix his car. A little while Scrutinizing him and listening to him
‘thods in the Policeman's hand- While they were talking, her step- later I looked out and my own car, my talk, he named the soprano-voiced
Ye shared Corporal Smith’s en- father, John Jandura, came into the Screw-driver and this fellow were ail Suspect as the stranger who talked to
m for Sheperd’s missing watch room. missing.” him after he was shot, Captain Dodson
‘omising clue. “These men are detectives,” the girl Police issued a notice for the auto, said.
‘e are three things a man will do said. “They're looking for Johnny.” but for three days no trace of it or Wable went with a Police guard to
ood watch,” Dodson Said. “He'll “I knew that boy was in trouble,” Wable was found. the scenes of the two killings and dis-
sell it or pawn it. But he won’t Jandura declared. © “y knew it when At dusk on the third day, three young cussed details of the crimes on the spot
t away. Sooner or later that I found that Package.” bandits robbed a service station on with detectives. But he insisted that
5 going to turn up. When it “Package?” Obert asked. Highway No. 66 On the ‘outskirts of the trigger man was his acquaintance,
> hands will point Straight to “Yes. Early in August he put a Albuquerque, New Mexico. The attend- Parks.
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Package in that closet over there. He ant telephoned a Speedy alarm, and At a hearing before Squire Henry
a jewelry store in Wheeling. didn’t Say anything about it, and he’d State Police threw up road blocks along Frederickson at Greensburg, he Pleaded
irginia, where Sheperd had been acting Strange, so I opened it. I the highway and adjoining side roads. innocent to two charges of murder. As
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he watch, Dodson learned its found a gun and a holster inside.” The fugitives’ car slithered past two this is written, John Wesley Wable is
nd case numbers. He also “What did you do with them?” of these road blocks and outran a patrol in the Westmoreland County Jail at
a photograph of an identical “I didn’t want ® gun around, so I car which took up the chase, Greensburg awaiting action of the
de then had leaflets printed gave it to Dominic Meurti,” Jandura But when they came to a road block grand jury.
Picture, the tell-tale numbers Said. “He's the Police chief of Bedford at the town of Belen, about 30 miles On October 21, an official of one of
‘ccount of the crimes. Across Heights and a friend of mine.” from Albuquerque, they skidded to & the firms offering the reward said that
of the leaflets, in large type, The detectives went to Bedford stop and jumped out. Two teen-agers it would go to the Persons designated
ye-stopping message: “$11,000 Heights, a Cleveland suburb, and were captured at the spot. But the by proper authorities and speculation
obtained the pistol from Chief Meurti. third man in the car escaped across q indicated that these would be from
send these out to police It was @ .765 millimeter German Wal- field. New Mexico.
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80 Pa. 147 ATLANTIC REPORTER
struction that, in case of doubt as to defend-
ant’s intent to kill when first stroke was de-
livered, jury could find that intent may have
been formed before the subsequent blows were
delivered, was not erroneous, even if first blow
alone caused death,
7. Criminal law ©2369(1)—Proof of independ-
ent crimes is admissible only if it tends to es-
tablish defendant’s guilt of offense charged.
Ordinarily proof of independent crimes, hay-
ing no connection with the one on trial, cannot
be received, unless it tends to establish guilt of
defendant of particular offense under considera-
tion by jury; but, if such relation is shown,
proof is admissible,
8. Criminal law ©=517(2)—Admission of- de-
fendant’s statement, introductory to voluntary
confession, that “he had done the same thing
in another town,” held not error in murder
prosecution, as showing independent offense.
In prosecution for murder, admission of
voluntary confession of defendant, containing
introductory declaration of defendant that he
was remorseful, and that “he had done the same
thing in another town,” held not error, within
rule prohibiting admission of evidence of inde-
pendent crimes, since entire narration of de-
fendant bearing on crime with which he was
charged was admissible,
9. Criminal law C=91{—Trial court has discre-
tion to refuse new trial.
Trial court’s refusal to grant new trial is a
matter resting within its discretion.
Appeal from Court of Oyer and Terminer,
Philadelphia County; Harry S. McDevitt,
President Judge.
William Weston, Jr., was convicted of first
degree murder, and he appeals. Aflirmed,
and record remitted, with directions.
Argued before MOSCHZISKER, C. J., and
FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEP-
HART, SADLER, and SCHAIFER, JJ.
Michael Saxe and Otto Kraus, Jr., both of
Philadelphia, for appellant.
Charles C. Gordon, Asst. Dist. Atty., and’
John Monaghan, Dist. Atty., both of Philadel-
phia, for the Commonwealth.
SADLER, J. The defendant, William Wes-
ton, found guilty of murder of the first de-
gree, with punishment fixed at death, com-
plains that error was committed in his trial,
and asks that the judgment entered be re-
versed. The assignments of error relate prin-
cipally to statements made by the trial judge
in his charge to the jury, and the failure to
answer certain points presented,
The facts surrounding the homicide are
practically undisputed, and nearly all are to
be found in three separate confessions, ad-
mittedly made by defendant, and his own tes-
timony when called as a witness on his own
behalf, It appeared that he became acquaint-
ed with one Helen Coles in 1919, due to as-
sociation with her husband.” At that time
both parties resided in New London, Conn.,
and a meretricious relationship between Wes-
ton and decedent began, which continued un-
til the time of the murder. In 1928 he came
to Philadelphia, where the woman then lived.
Upon request, he loaned her the sum of $22,
which, according to his statement, was to be
returned before Christmas. On the morning
of December 20th he called at her house, and
remained there for an hour or two before the
assault took place which resulted in her
death. In this interval, a female neighbor
called, but observed no quarreling between
the parties. After she had left, an alterca-
tion arose because of a telephone conversa-
tion had by decedent, evidently with another
man, which angered defendant. She also re-
fused, upon demand, to return the money
Weston had advanced, stating that it had
been expended to purchase an overcoat for
her husband. Defendant then, according to
his statement, hit her lightly on the face,
whereupon the woman struck him with a
laundry iron above the eye, partly blinding
him, and causing his face to swell, as he said,
though the presence of any physical marks
indicating this was contradicted by the of-
ficers who subsequently arrested him.
When hit, he was scated on a chair by a
table, and immediately reached his hand be-
neath the latter, searching for some article
with which to protect himself. He picked up
an ax, though stating he did not know it
was such, and struck Mrs. Coles repeatedly
over the head, causing three fractures of the
skull, and three other serious bruises, though
one or more of the latter may have resulted
from her fall. According to the coroner, who
subsequently investigated, there were six sep-
arate wounds, of which two at least indicated
that the sharp edge of the Instrument had
been employed. Mrs. Coles was removed to
the hospital and remained unconscious until
December 19th, when she died,
After the blows had been inflicted, the de-
fendant took the ax to the cellar of the
house, and either threw or hid it behind a
woodpile, sutliciently concealed as not to be
observed by the ollicers, who made a cursory
examination when called to the house. It
was discovered later, admitted by defendant
to be the weapon used, and introduced in
evidence at the trial. After disposing of it,
Weston went to the second floor, opened the
closets and bureau drawers, and took there-
from clothing and jewelry within reach. He
then started to leave by the front door, carry-
ing the articles, which had been appropriated,
as he said, in payment of the money owed
him, but, observing some one on the outside,
altered his course, returned through the
house, and left through an alleyway in the
rear. Ile pawned a part of the goods stolen,
and subsequently gave away the remainder.
Later he was arrested, and made three con-
€—For other cases sce same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
COMMONWEALTH y. WESTON Pa. 81
147 A,
fessions, detailing the events practically as
above set forth. He claimed that the blows
inflicted were not intended to kill, desiring
merely to protect himself, using for this pur-
pose, in the admitted assault, the first weapon
that came within his reach. It was not ar-
sued that the attack was excusable, as made
in self-defense, and such position could not
have been successfully sustained under the
evidence. It was contended, however, that
his anger was so aroused by the conduct of
the decedent that the assault, resulting in
death, was not in legal acceptation more than
manslaughter.
[1,2] The court, in its charge to the jury,
narrated fully the facts disclosed, both on
behalf of the commonwealth and defendant,
and plainly charged the jury as to its duties.
It defined correctly what constituted murder
of the first and second degree, as well as man-
slaughter, and told the triers that they might
convict of any one of the offenses designated,
or acquit. Several points were presented by
the defendant, suggesting that the cireum-
stances proven did not warrant a conviction
of other than the lesser crime defined, and
these requests for instructions may, for pres-
ent purposes, be considered as accurate state-
ments of the law. They were not answered
by the trial judge in the form presented, but
the principles enunciated therein were fully
and concisely declared in the charge itself.
Although points which state correctly ab-
stract propositions of law, where the jury
might find there was some evidence to make
them applicable, should ordinarily be affirmed
without qualification, yet, where the same
proposition has been fully explained in the
charge itself, a repetition becomes unneces-
sary. Com. v. James, 294 Pa. 156, 143 A. 910.
When the testimony shows the offense to be
murder, if any crime has been committed, and
the proven facts do not warrant a reduction of
the crime from murder to manslaughter, the
court is not bound to charge upon the latter
question. Com. v. Spardute, 278 Pa. 87, 122
A. 161; Com. v. Mellor, 294 Pa. 339, 144 A.
534. In the instant case, it was claimed
there was evidence of a killing, the result of
passion oF sudden frenzy, and the court
charged amply on the subject, and submitted
to the jury the question as to whether or not
the proof negatived the presence of legal mal-
ice, ns well as an intention to kill,
[3] Complaint is made that the court, in in-
structing on this subject, expressed the be-
lief that the facts proven were not sufficient
ta reduce the offense to manslaughter, if the
guilt of defendant of assault was established,
but it expressly stated that such declaration
was not controlling, in these words: “I say
to you, frankly, that in my opinion the facts
in this case—and you are not bound by my
opinion, for you have a perfect right, regard-
less of what the eourt or anybody else thinks,
to do as you please—do not constitute man-
slaughter.” And again, at the close of the
TAPIA re
charge, when complaint was made of the re-
fusal to answer the points concerning man-
Slaughter, on the ground that the trial judge
had expressed his personal view, the court
Said: “I repeat that you are not bound by
my opinion. You have a perfect right to do
anything you please.” That this was not er-
ror, So long as the power of the jury to pass
upon the facts was not withdrawn, cannot
be the subject of question under our decisions.
Com. vy. McGowan, 189 Pa. 641, 42 A. 365, 69.
Am, St. Rep. 836. Com. y. Cunningham, 232
Pa. 609, 81 A. 711; Com. y, Lessner, 274 Pa.
108, 118 A. 24.
[4-6] It is further urged that the evidence
did not justify a finding of premeditation,
permitting the jury to find a verdict of mur-
der of the first degree. This contention can-
not be sustained under the evidence submit-
ted. The killing was caused by the assault
with a deadly weapon, producing three frac-
tures of the skull and other serious bruises,
though some injury may have resulted from
the fall of the deceased to the floor. From its
use, the jury was justified in finding an in-
tent to kill. Com. v. Drum, 58 Pa. 9; Com.
v. Green, 204 Pa. 573, 144 A. 743. Even if
the first blow alone caused the death, the
jury would have the right to consider those
subsequently struck as indicating defendant’s
intent. Com. v. Cavalier, 284 Pa. 311, 131 A.
229; Com. v. Millien, 291 Pa. 291, 189 A. 851,
It was not error for the court to say that the
infliction of wounds with a deadly weapon,
directed at a vital part of the body, as here,
was evidence indicating a purpose to effect
the natural result, the death of the one as-
saulted; nor was it wrong in declaring that,
even if there was doubt as to the presence of
such intent when the first stroke was deliy-
ered, the jury was warranted in finding that
it may have been formed before the subse-
quent blows were delivered. Com. vy. Millien,
supra. In view of the admitted assault with
the ax upon the decedent, directed to her
head, the hiding of the weapon in the eceHar
after the perpetration of the decd, followed
by the theft of the goods, and the attempt
of the defendant to conceal his presence by
flecing from the rear of the house, when he
feund that observation in the front was pos-
sible (Com. v. Luccitti, 295 Pa. 190, 145 A.
85), the jury was fully justified in reaching
the verdict rendered.
[7,8] One other assignment, not stressed
on oral argument, is based on the alleged
improper admission of a statement of Weston,
indicating that he had committed another
offense in New London, from which city he
came. Ordinarily, proof of independent
crimes, having no connection with the one on
trial, cannot be received, unless it tends to
establish the guilt of the defendant of the
particular offense under consideration by the
jury, though, if such relation {s shown, the
proof is admissible. Com. y, Mellor, supra;
Com. y, Luccitti, supra; Com. vy. Quaranta,
en 4
I
FEL ROLLED se ON OES Ny, lene Beem, >.
78 Pa,
474; Gimbel vy. AStna Life Ins. Co., 95 Pa.
Super. Ct. 1. The burden of proving the fal-
sity of the answer, and that it was deliberate-
ly given, is on the defendant, who asserts it.
Livingood v. New York Life Ins. Co., supra;
Jackson vy. State Mutual Benefit Ass'n, 95 Pa.
Super. Ct. 56. Unless this situation is made
apparent by undisputed proof, documentary
or oral, the question is one for the jury, and
is not to be declared as a matter of law by
the court. 3
{4] The first material inaccuracy here as-
serted rests on the negative answer to the
question, “IIave you been under observation
or treatment in any hospital, asylum or sani-
turium?” To establish the falsity of the re-
ply given, the custodian of the records of the
University Hospital, who did not personally
know decedent, was called upon to produce
a card, showing the admission of Kuhns to
the student ward on October 380, 1923, and his
discharge therefrom four days later. This
writing indicated a Dr. Wilson was his phy-
sician, but he was not called to show that
Kuhns was then under observation or treat-
ment. Though the nurse, as a witness, stat-
ed that patients might be there for this pur-
pose, the force of her testimony is destroyed
when she declared that sometimes students
were there admitted “simply to rest up, with-
out medical attention or anything of that
kind.” The burden was on defendant to show
the answer of Kuhns was false, and this evi-
dence would not justify the court in declar-
ing, as a matter of law, that it was untrue.
McBride v. Sun Life Ins. Co., 90 Pa. Super.
Ct. 85. <A satisfactory explanation of the
occurrence was elicited by defendant itself
from the brother of deceased, who stated that,
at the suggestion of a fellow student, he had
sent the insured to the student’s ward witlf
the idea that he should be looked over by Dr.
Wilson, but it did not affirmatively appear
that he was ever examined. The facts pre-
sented were proper for submission to the jury,
and this was done in a charge not open to
complaint.
[5] It is further urged that there was an
intentional misstatement when the applicant
answered, “None,” when asked, “What phy-
sician or physicians, if any, not named above,
have you consulted or been examined or
treated by within the past five years?” To
show this reply to be untrue, and that it must
have been known to be so by the insured, the
proofs of loss were offered. These were, how-
ever, only prima facie evidence of the mat-
ters therein set forth, and subject to explana-
tion and contradiction. Monaghan v, Pru-
dential Ins. Co., 90 Pa. Super. Ct. 392. An
affidavit of Dr. Wilson appeared therein show-
ing treatment from April to June of 192t
for headeache, dizziness, or nervousness,
though the presence of any disease was de-
elared to be uncertain; of Dr. Krepps, show-
ing his treatment did not begin until Janu-
ary, 1925, though, on oral examination, he
147 ATLANTIC REPORTER
fixed August 20, 1924, making it necessary
for the jury to determine whether the true
date was the one written, which postdated
the application, or the earlier one which ante-
dated it. Further witnesses testified to phys-
ical symptoms observed on two occasions in
the summer of 1923, which, though contra-
dicted, might indicate the presence of epilep-
sy. Dr. Swigart, medical examiner of defend-
ant, was called as the family physician at
both times, and diagnosed the attacks as
merely acute indigestion.
Standing alone, the evidence referred to
would strongly indicate that the applicant
had been treated by doctors before the appli-
cation was made, though he answered inthe
negative. The weight of this testimony, as
indicating that a knowingly false statement
was made, loses its foree, however, when con-
sidered with the other facts adduced. Dr.
Swigart was the agent of the company. He
had personally known of the physical condi--
tion of Kuhns, and attended and treated him
in 1923 for indigestion, which was a tempo-
rary ailment. In a previous application for
insurance to the same company, on file at its
office, attention had been called to this mat-
ter. The brother of the insured was pres-
ent when the examination, now in question,
was made. He testified that the answer giv-
en to the question in dispute was, ‘Nothing
except that you know of doctor,” and Swigart,
instead of using these words, wrote, “None.”
This was not denied by the doctor, who could
not recollect what occurred at the time.
[6-9] It was for the jury, therefore, to say
whether the insured had intentionally made
a false statement as to his former treatment.
The accuracy and good faith of the agent, in
writing down the applicant’s answer, was a
matter for inquiry ‘by the jury in determin-
ing whether the answer had been made in
good faith. Suravitz v. Prudential Ins. Co.,
supra; Hoffman v. Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 274
Pa. 292, 117 A. 917. Swigart, agent for the
company, had full knowledge of the previous
history of the patient, and presumably of any
medical attention received. At any rate, the
jury could so find, and the company cannot
now complain if he failed to give in full the
information possessed. Evans v. Metropoli-
tan Life Ins. Co., supra; Hoffman v. Mutual
Fire Ins. Co., supra; McGuire v. Home Ins.
Co., ——- Pa. Super. Ct. —. Appellant insists
this narration of what actually occurred
when the answer was given was inadmissi-
ble because not specifically referred to in
the pleadings, which made no mention of
the mistake in the written answer. It is now
too late to complain on this ground, since the
record shows the objection was not inter-
posed when the testimony was offered, nor at
any time during the trial, and was first raised
on argument after verdict rendered.
{10] The third intentional misstatement re-
lied on in defense is the negative answer to
the inquiry as to whether the applicant had
COMMONWEALTH v. WESTON Pa. 79
147 A.
any other ailment or disease of a serious char-
acter than those specifically mentioned in the
sentences preceding. It would appear from
the offer made that the reply to the examiner,
“Nothing except that you know of,” referred
also to this question, but the testimony which
follows apparently limits this qualification to
the query as to other physicians already re-
ferred to. It will be remembered that there
» was on file with the company another ap-
plication showing that Kuhns did have acute
indigestion in 1923, which had been treated by
Dr. Swigart and reported cured. The only
intimation of another ailment is found in
the annotation on the proof of loss executed
by Dr. Wilson, who was himself in doubt as
to the presence of any disease, as shown by
the words, “Diagnosis uncertain (Headache,
dizziness, nervousness),” and did not declare
any particular physical defect to be existent.
Dr. Krepps did not describe a specific com-
plaint, but said the trouble was Kubns had
eaten too much, and he had advised him to
take care of his diet. As stated by the court
below, in view of the preceding inquiries, as
to specific affections of various named parts of
the body, the final question doubtless referred
to some defined disease, other than those
mentioned, and Kuhns was therefore justified
in making the answer as written. Under
the facts disclosed, the meaning of the ques-
tion, and the truthfulness of the answer, or
the presence of an intention to mislead and
deceive by the reply, was for the jury. Baer
v. State Life Insurance Co., 256 Pa. 177, 100
A, 745.
{11, 12] What has been said justifies the re-
fusal of the court to enter a judgment for
the defendant n. 0: v. Though the evidence
might have warranted a finding for the de-
fendant, yet the court could not properly
have so directed as a matter of law. A new
trial also was asked because of the refusal
to admit proof of a declaration made by
Kuhns, after the rights of the beneficiaries
had vested, to the effect that he had suffered
fainting spells at intervals since 1922. ‘‘No
matter what the law may be in other juris-
dictions, it is established with us that the
declarations of an insured, made after the
policy has gone into force, cannot be received
in evidence to affect the rights of the desig-
nated beneficiary, in a suit by the latter to
enforce the contract of insurance.” Oplinger
v. New York Life Ins. Co., 253 Pa. 328, 98 A.
568; Wermany v. Fidelity Mut. Life Ass’n,
151 Va. 17, 24 A. 1064; Livingood v. New
York Life Ins. Co., supra. Appellant contends
the rule stated does not apply here, since the
eontract provided certain benefits for the in-
sured if illness followed the issuance of the
policy, and therefore such a declaration was
admissible as a self-harming statement. This
overlooks the fact that the present suit was
not an action to secure rights granted by the
contract’to the insured, but one to recover the
sum agreed to be paid to beneficiaries on his
death, and whose rights had become fixed and
determined when the policy was issued. The
evidence proposed was properly rejected.
The judgment is affirmed,
(297 Pa. 382)
COMMONWEALTH v. WESTON.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. July 1, 1929.
{. Criminal law €=829(1)—Court need not give
requested instructions, where propositions
covered, though correctly stated, are fully ex-
plained in charge.
It is not necessary for trial court to com-
ply with defendant’s requests for instructions,
where instructions requested merely constitute
repetition of propositions fully explained in
reap charge, though requests correctly state
aw.
2. Homicide €=309(3)—Court Is not bound to
charge on manslaughter, if proved facts do nut
warrant reduction of crime from murder.
If, in murder prosecution, testimony shows
that the offense is murder, if any crime has been
committed, and proved facts do not warrant
reduction of crime from murder to manslaugh-
ter, court is not bound to charge on manslaugh-
ter.
3. Criminal law ©€=762(3)—Court’s statement
that in his opinion facts proved did not con-
stitute manslaughter held not error in murder
prosecution, where court expressly stated
that jury were not bound by his: opinion.
In murder prosecution, in which court gave
instructions relative to reduction of crime to
manslaughter under defense that killing was re-
sult of passion, statement of trial court that in
his opinion the facts did not constitute man-
slaughter held not error, where court expressly
stated that jury were not bound by his opinion.
4. Homicide =253(1)—Evidence held sufficient
to sustain conviction for first degree murder.
Conviction for first degree murder, held sup-
ported under evidence of killing of deceased with
ax, producing skull fractures and other serious
bruises, and of defendant’s subsequent conceal-
ment of weapon, followed by theft of goods and
flight from rear of house, since premeditation
was sufficiently shown.
5. Homicide G=286(1)—Instruction that de-
fendant’s infliction of wounds with deadly
weapon directed at vital part of body was evi-
dence of intent to kill held not error.
Instruction in murder prosecution that de-
fendant’s infliction of wounds with deadly weap-
on directed to vital part of body of deceased
was evidence of defendant's intent to kill person
assaulted held not error.
6. Homicide ©>286(1)—In prosecution for mur-
der committed with ax, instruction that de-
fendant’s intent to kill might be found from
subsequent blows held not erroneous, though
first blow alone may have caused death.
In prosecution for murder committed by in-
flicting blows on deceased's skull with ax, in-
For other cases sce same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
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82 Pa.
295 Pa. 264, 145 A. 89. It will be noted, how-
ever, that the statement complained of in the
present case was a part of the voluntary con-
fession to the police officer (Com. v. James,
supra; see, also, Com. v. Parker, 294 Pa.
14-4, 143 A. 904), and was merely an introduc-
tory declaration of a fact made by the defend-
ant, preceding his description of what had
occurred at the time of the killing of Mrs.
Coles. The conversation as a whole with In-
spector Connelly was admissible. It began
With these sentences: “I warned him that
anything he might say would be used as evi-
dence against him at the time of his trial in
court. He was remorseful, and said he was
sorry for anything that he had done. It was
not the first time he had done a thing of this
kind. He had done the same thing in another
town.” The entire narration of defendant,
bearing upon the crime with which he was
charged, was admissible, and the repetition
of all that he said in reference thereto can-
not be considered as an attempt on the part
of the commonwealth to prove an independ-
ent and distinct offense, to his prejudice,
which has met with condemnation in some
of our cases.
{9} The court below refused to grant a
new trial, which was a matter within its dis-
erection (Com. v. Nelson, 294 Pa. 544, 144 A.
542), and its conclusion was plainly justified
by the evidence. A careful reading of the en-
tire record, and of the charge, satisfies ug
that the case was fairly presented, and that
the criticism that it magnified the side of
the prosecution and thinimized that of the de-
fendant is unwarranted. There was no error
which justifies a reversal, and the assign-
ments of error are all overruled.
The judgment is aflirmed, and the record
remitted to the court below, with directions
that the sentence imposed be carried out.
(297 Pa. 390)
ZIMMERMAN v. PENNSYLVANIA R. CO.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, July 1, 1929.
Damages ©131(2)—$20,000 to 21 year old
truck driver sustaining compound fractures of
both legs held excessive, where no permanent
disability resulted and there will be complete
recovery.
Award of $20,000 for compound fractures
of both legs and lacerations about face of 21
year old truck driver, requiring stay in hospital
of about 160 days, held so excessive as to re-
quire reversal, in view of uncontradicted evi-
dence that no permanent disability has resulted
from injuries and-that there will be a complete
recovery within a short time with restoration of
former earning power,
Appeal from Court of Common [leas,
Northumberland County; Albert Lloyd,
Judge.
147 ATLANTIC REPORTER
Action by Howard Zimmerman against the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Judgment
for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Re-
versed, and venire facias de novo awarded.
See, also, 293 Pa. 264, 142 A. 220.
Argued before MOSCHZISKER, C. J., and
FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEP-
HART, SADLER, and SCHAFFER, JJ.
J. Simpson Kline and C. M. Clement, both
of Sunbury, for appellant.
I’. B. Moser, of Shamokin, for appellee.
FRAZER, J. This appeal is from the re-
fusal of the court below to grant a new trial
or enter judgment n. o. v., and from the en-
try of judgment upon the verdict. The action
was instituted by plaintiff to recover damages
for personal injuries he alleges were sus-
tained through the negligence of defendant
company. The jury returned a verdict in fa-
vor of plaintiff and awarded damages in the
sum of $20,000.
We have given particular attention to the
record of the case, and as a result of that
study have reached the conclusion that the
verdict is excessive and not justified by the
weight of the evidence relating to the nature
and extent of the injuries sustained by plain-
tiff and to the question of the permanency of
his incapacity to earn a livelihood in the fu-
ture at his usual occupation or other prof-
itable line of labor.
As we will direct a retrial of the case, we
necd give attention in detail only to the as-
sigument of error against the judgment en-
tered on the verdict, under which we may
consider the matter of the excessiveness of
the award, presented by defendant in its
statement of questions involved. The inter-
ference in awards by juries is always un-
dertaken by appellate courts with strict and
serious regard for the ancient rule that jus-
tice is due alike to plaintiff and defendant;
and, as was said by the present Chief Justice
in Goldman vy. Mitchell-Fleteher Co., 285 Pa.
116, 119, 181 A. 665, 666: “While this court
has always been disinclined to interfere with
awards of juries sustained by the trial tri-
bunal, yet where the facts demonstfate a ver-
dict to be so plainly excessive in any part as
to indicate that the jury has abused its pow-
ers, and that abuse is not remedied by the .
court below, it becomes our duty to act.”
This situation in our opinion exists in the
pase before us.
Plaintiff, aged 21 years at the time of the
accident, drove, about midday, September 7,
1926, a motortruck in which he was the sole
occupant, along a public highway in an open
part of the country, descended a hill, and
reached defendant's railway over which the
public road passed at grade. At this point the
roadbed held two tracks, one-used as a sid-
ing and the other as the main track. VPlain-
tiff testified he stopped his truck 18 or 2
G@=For other cases sce same topic and KEY-NUMBER In all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
ZIMMERMAN v. PENNSYLVANIA R. CO. Pa. 88
147 A.
feet from the outer rail of the siding, which
was the first track in front of him, neither
saw nor heard an approaching train, then
drove upon and over the two rails of the
siding, reached and entered on the main
track, and was almost instantly struck by
the engine of defendant’s on-coming passen-
ger train. The truck was demolished and
plaintiff seriously injured. De was cared for
by the trainmen and immediately removed to
a hospital, where he remained under treat-
ment for 160 days.
The alleged negligence of defendant, as
claimed by plaintiff, consisted in the excessive
speed of defendant’s train, the lack of warn-
ing by whistle or bell from the engine, and
the presence of two large freight cars on the
siding at the west edge of the highway or
crossing, the direction from which the train
came; plaintiff claiming that, while these
two cars did not obstruct his view of the
track for several hundred feet toward tke
west before he drove upon the siding, they
did obstruct his view when behind them and
driving over the crossing.
As testified at the trial by the attending
physician, plaintiff suffered a compound,
crushed, and complicated fracture of the tibia
of the left leg, a compound simple fracture
of the right leg, and lacerations about the
face. Operations were performed, and the
legs ineased in plates to unite the broken
bones, at the proper time these were removed,
and treatment continued; plaintiff's stay at
the hospital covering, as above stated, a pe-
riod of 160 days. Unquestionably the in-
juries were of a character requiring prolong-
ed attention at the hospital, the pain acute,
and the progress of healing slow. At the
time of the trial plaintiff walked with the
aid of a crutch.
In summing up its reason for rejecting the
motions for a new trial or for judgment n. o.
v., the learned court below said: “We do not
think that the verdict when viewed in the
light of the above damages is ‘so glaringly
excessive’ as to justify our interference.” We
are wholly unable to agree with that con-
clusion. It is not warranted or sustained by
the facts as we find them in the record.
Plaintiff was 21 years of age at the date of
the accident, and a strong, healthy, vigorous
youth. He was first employed, when aged
about 14 years, in a silk mill for 5 years;
later worked in an automobile factory for 7
months, receiving $35 a week. He then drove
a hospital ambulance for a year and a half,
recoiving for such service from $70 to $80 a
month, with room and board; then for 2
months drove a commercial motortruck, re-
ceciving for his services $30 a week; then for
a time was employed by a baking company
which paid him $50 a week, and, at the time
the aceident occurred, was employed by an-
other firm as a truck driver, his wages being
825 a week. It will be noted that this young
man was not habituated to steady jobs, nor
careful in securing work successively more
profitable in wages, since, when injured, he
was earning wages less in amount than he
received at preceding employments. Asked
at the trial what was the condition of his
health at the period of the accident, he re-
sponded: “My health was always good.” It
was doubtless to the above-recited facts that
the trial judge meant to direct attention of
the jury when he said in his charge: “In
estimating damages under this item you have
to regard his age, his probable length of life,
his habits, his regularity of working and the
period or time that such incapacity may con-
tinue.” An instruction so clear as here given
by the court should naturally arouse in the
mind of a juror of even the most ordinary
mentality, when trying to reach a conclusion
as to the permanency or inpermanency of dis-
ability in a case like the present, the neces-
sity of giving proper attention to the evi-
dence of both sides bearing upon these points.
But, having carefully examined the convinc-
ing testimony relative to plaintiff's physical
condition at the time of the trial, to the heal-
ing of his injuries, and to the prospects of
regaining within a short period his former
earning power and the resumption of his us-
ual labor, we are constrained to conclude that
defendant’s side of the case, on these phases,
was not sufficiently considered by the jury.
We must consequently give attention here to
that evidence. Naturally plaintiff suffered
considerable pain before and particularly
during the surgical operations. The broken
bones must necessarily be joined together,
small pieces of bone removed, the legs put in
plates, and for many days the patient was un-
able to walk. Upto the time of the trial, June
7, 1927, he had performed no labor, and, when
asked on the witness stand if he could drive
a truck, replied, ‘Not at present”; and the
only apprehension he himself seems to have
entertained as to the permanency of the re-
sults of the injuries was his claim that, due
to the accident, one of his legs had become
shorter than the other. His weight, as he tes-
tified, was 156 pounds before the accident,
which was reduced considerably during his
stay at the hospital, but at the time of the
trial was 143 pounds.
It is clear that in this case it is the uncon-
tradicted testimony of the attending physi-
cian, Dr. Reese, called by plaintiff, upon
which we must rely as to the actual physical
condition of plaintiff following the operations
and after his discharge from the hospital;
the doctor was superintendent of that insti-
tution and had treated plaintiff every day
during his entire stay at the hospital. In re-
ply to plaintiff’s claim that at times since the
accident his heart “kind of fluttered,” the
doctor testified that, except during the op-
erations, the action of plaintiffs heart was
normal and remained so, as established by
examinations of that organ made practically
daily. His appetite was always good, At the
oe ais
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TRIAL
APPEALS
LAST WORDS
EXECUTION
SOURCE
FRANK NEWTON OFFICE, SUPPLY—DOTHAN
eS
der, below,
.e evidence
. when he
H chief of
‘astle, Pa.
»w Castle case.
iplaint agains*
is, ‘Someone
iving with two
Way.”
d that for the
a quiet under-
ermine, if pos-
ibouts, the cir-
dence on Coch-
hat might shed
st known auto
vith him about
on of Decem-
en her since,”
ase. “Evidently
ie new car. He
‘he asylum says
report’to Chief
th twowomen.”
man for that.”
ung,
tat
“We'll have to get something besides suspicion,” Elder
agreed.
Elder’s detectives quietly checked up on the occupants
of the Cochran Way house and reported back that there
was a rumor that White had been married in Pittsburgh
on December 22.
As soon as Chief Elder advised me of the development
we hurried to the public library and checked the files of
the Pittsburgh papers which published vital statistics.
There we found that A. T. White and Jean Waldorn
had obtained a marriage license on December 22.
With this confirmation and the possibility that White
was a bigamist, Elder, Young and I met with District
Attorney George Muse. It was agreed that Chief
Elder should go to Pittsburgh and check the marriage
license, discover who performed the marriage and if
possible identify the principals definitely. I was to go
to the Cochran Way fern and levy on the team of valu-
able blacks, while Young continued his efforts to locate
_ the missing Sadie White.
Once more I found the giant White in the barn groom-
ing the horses. It was evident that he was proud of
them.
“Best team in Lawrence County,” he boasted.
“Glad to hear that because I’m levying on them to
satisfy that judgment.”
White exploded in a fit of wild temper. He raged,
threatened and cursed. I let him wear himself out while
he a that he had a buyer for the team at a neat
proht. :
“You'll spoil the deal,” he howled, I merely told him
to tell the buyer to come to Squire Green’s office on the
following day and buy the team from me, T had no in-
tention of allowing the slippery debtor to play another
trick on me. :
“See you there at noon,” I told him.
Back at the jail office I came in to find my son, Deputy
Merle Boyd, talking over the phone to Elder in Pitts-
burgh. When he finished he pushed his pad over to me.
“Albert Torrence White, 32, New Castle; Jean Wal-
dorn, 33, New Castle,” I read, “License to marry granted
Dec, 22.”
“Look at the age he gave,” Iexclaimed. ‘“White’s at _
least 55 years old.” Rea
Detective Young came in a few moments later with
the information that Jean .Waldorn had a 17-year-old
daughter of the same name.
“Apparently the mother is the one that became the
second Mrs, White in Pittsburgh,” he declared. “So
far as I can find, both mother and daughter are beyond
reproach and if she married White she probably had no
knowledge that he was a married man.
“We've got enough on White now to make a bigamy
charge or at least compel him to explain the whereabouts
of his first wife.”
I told the detective of the appointment the following
morning at the Squire’s office and the precautions that
had been taken to prevent a slip this time.
“Ee doesn’t have the slightest idea in the world that
there’s anything in the wind other than the attach-
ment,” I told Young. =.
The following morning Chief Elder dispelled any
doubts as to the identity of the groom, A. T. White.
“White’s huge hands impressed the minister more
than anything else,” Elder told us. “He mentioned .
them first when I questioned him.”
The officers conferred -with District Attorney Muse
and Alderman O. H.-P. Green prepared a warrant
charging Torrence White with bigamy and adultery.
“These old boys will get young ideas,” Green com-
mented as he delivered the warrant a few minutes before
Torrence White, right, was the man whose
wife became the central figure in an amaz-
ing tragedy. A giant. he was known among
his neighbors as kindly and law-abiding.
noon, “He should be here any minsite now.” I had two mefi, Con-
stable Sharp Leslie and Police Lieutenant Pete Hillers, standing by
ready for any emergency. There was a possibility that our meeting”
might be violent and I had no desire to endanger the lives of any of our
men by inadequate precautions, % ; : MAE
White nodded all around as he entered the office with his purchaser,
Carl Barry. I wasted no time closing the sale, paid the judgment and
gave the balance to White. He took the money witha sneer.
“That was a lousy trick,” he snarled, “but I’ll make you remember
it before I get through.” A nasty light burned in his eyes. Lieutenant
Hillers moved over in front of the door and Leslie joined him. White
turned his huge frame toward the door, The officers were as pigmies
in comparison, Sh Page
[Continued on page 64] oe NARS
by |
FORMER SHERIFF JOSEPH BOYD, leit I not
his posses:
of Lawrence county, Pa., ; Six wei
. and again
as told to bell and a
: apartment
PAUL YK KIFER } stick of ft
3 “Double |
S I LEFT my office on that bitter December y o try to |
A morning I realized that I was confronted by ‘ Pails |
an unpleasant task. Sometimes it is easier to ; - “debtor anc
face the fire of a desperate criminal than it is to t eo outsic
| handle the routine work of the sheriff’s office. My : ra snag
| \ job this morning was one which I was anxious to , thought
| finish quickly. I was armed not with a gun but with fi prise in at
a legal papers and my duty involved attaching a man’s k Why, '
| possessions. No sheriff likes that part of his work i the day be
Hl and as sheriff of Lawrence county, Pa., I. was no . from wort
i exception. «Where
H For many years ‘I had known the man against eter
Joseph Boyd, below, former sheriff of Lawrence county, whom the claim had been filed. To all appearances = “Where
Torrence White had lived an honest life and I felt '
Pa., is co-cuthor of this absorbing story in which he de- ‘ : : : trayed my
genuinely sorry for him. But since I had no choice my
describes how two dogs helped solve one of the most in the matter, I hurried to his home on Neshannock mean trict
amazing cases in Pennsylvania’s crime history. avenue in New Castle. ; I belie
White himself answered the door and as usual: his ; Cochran \
tremendous size almost startled me. His shoulders & I thank«
pressed against the door jambs and his huge arms ‘ the icy Pe
hung heavily at his sides. Despite the impression H White an:
he gave of limitless strength, White was known as E had made
a kindly man. My ang
“Come in, sheriff.” He led me into the living is was natur:
room and indicated a chair with a hand that could i for 35 yea
have throttled a gorilla. : had alway
Seated by the window was the giant’s wife, Mrs. of dressin
Sadie White. As I greeted her, I was conscious of had been
the strange contrast between the two. While White seen her s
seemed to fill the room, his wife was a tiny creature, White :
pale, wrinkled and timid. The passing years had Way plac:
not been as kind to her as they had to her husband. “was a fin
Her face'was marked with the lines of illness and terested it
| suffering and although she was no older than her silence wi
husband she gave the impression of advanced age. see a new
“And how are you, Mrs. White?” I asked, trying Nice t
\ to delay the unpleasant duty that had brought me to termined '
their home. through t
“Fairly well, considerin’,” she teplied. “What can except to
\ we do for you, sheriff?” Once n
It was obvious from her appearance that she care of e\
had guessed the reason for my call. As gently as had natur:
possible I told the couple that I had come to levy on eee
their furniture. When I handed White the papers
from the Lawrence county Common Pleas Court he
examined them carefully. I could hear Mrs. White’s
heavy breathing and knew that she was fighting to:
control her grief.
“Hold it up a while, sheriff,” White asked at
last. “I'll take care of it.”
ee ee
.
G
itter December
s confronted by
es it is easier to
al than it is to
the
L told him he’d have six weeks to meet the obligation. As I
left I noted that I had given him until January, 1921, to save
his possessions.
Six weeks later I discovered that no payment had been made
and again I called at the White home. No one answered the
bell and a brief investigation revealed that their second floor
apartment was vacant. The Whites had moved and taken every
stick of furniture with them.
“Double-crossed,” I muttered. “That’s what happens when
you try to help people.” ‘
I canvassed the neighbors to pick up the trail of the skipping
debtor and learned that he had moved to the farm of a relative
just outside of New Castle. There was nothing for me to do
but run out to seize the attached furniture and tell White what
i oo My I thought of him. But when I reached the place, I found a sur-
1a gun but with prise in store for me.
taching a man’s
art of his work
. Pa, I was no
1e man against
all appearances
t life and I felt
I had no choice
on Neshannock
and as usual his
His shoulders
| his huge arms
the impression
2 was know! as
into the living
hand that could
ant’s wife, Mrs.
vas conscious of
» While White
>a tiny creature,
ssing years had
White asked at
“Why, they aren’t here,” I was told. “Mr. White came out
the day before Christmas and said that his wife had gone insane
from worry. He had put her in a hospital.”
“Where’s the furniture ?” I asked.
“Oh, White sold it all except that old dresser over there. That
belonged to his grandmother.”
“Where is he now?” I demanded. My face must have be-
trayed my feelings, for I realized that the giant had played a
mean trick on me.
“T believe he’s still in New Castle. I think he’s living on
Cochran Way at ‘a boarding house.”
I thanked my informer and skidded back to New Castle over
the icy Pennsylvania hills. I was determined to find Torrence
White and make him pay dearly for selling the furniture. I
had made the levy and I was responsible,
My anger was mingled with sympathy for Mrs. White. I
was naturally shocked to hear that the gentle old lady I’d known
for 35 years had lost her mind. Now that I thought of it, she
had always had some peculiarities. Oddest of all was her habit
of dressing in black. At my last visit to the White home, she
had been extremely nervous and excitable. Evidently I had
seen her shortly before she had been taken to the asylum.
White was in the combination barn-garage at the Cochran
Way place when I arrived. The first thing that caught my eye
longer seen about her home. But an amazing
mystery was found behind her disappearance.
to her husband. was a fine team of matched blacks. I have always been in- iy Ps Fe aw ieee
as of illness and terested in good horses and for several minutes I watched in PERS by oy bb
) older than her silence while White worked over them. Behind them I could pips ke wit
advanced age. see a new Buick car standing in the garage section. ole & ROEM Baek a
"T asked, trying “Nice team,” I commented when White saw me. I was de- j
\d brought me to termined to attach the silky blacks but I knew I’d have to go
through the legal routine. For the time being I said nothing Red eee %
olied. “What can except to tell White that his obligation was long overdue. oe Fis
: Once more he was full of promises. He would have taken tie. fi
srance ttt aie care of everything except for his wife’s sudden attack. That 3 ' 4
1 As gently as had naturally upset him and altered his plans. But he’d pay up. oe Te inf
i come to levy ial “Where's Sadie?” I asked. : bie OF 0
Vhite the papers “Warren State Hospital,” he replied. Pe: ae
n Pleas Court he ‘se ; . iv "
ear Mrs, White’s i (tt e ‘7
2 was fighting to: Neighbors believed that Mrs. Sadie White, right. fe a
had been sent to a hospital when she was no ‘hg!
.
It seemed strange that I had missed the
notice of commitment. Usually they came
to the sheriff’s office in every case. But
when I mentioned the fact, White had a
simple explanation for it.
“T brought her to a specialist in Pitts-
burgh on the 23rd and he. took her out
from there,” he told me.
I gave him ten days to pay up the judg-
ment and hurried back. to the county jail.
A check on the records disclosed no com-
mitment notice. On impulse, I called the
. asylum and found that no one by the name
of White had been admitted from New
Castle.
If only for my personal ‘satisfaction, I
felt it necessary to make some investiga-
tion. Back to Neshannock avenue I went
to get the details of the Whites’ sudden
departure. a
A neighbor living underneath the
White suite said she’d last seen Mrs.
White a few minutes after 4 on the
afternoon of Dec. 23. °
“Her husband came home about 3:45,”,
she told me, “and half an hour later they -
- came down, She told me they were going
for a ride.”
“Notice anything wrong. with her at
the ae ?” IT asked. “Did she appear to
be ill.’
“No, but I haven’t seen her since. He
came back two days after Christmas and
took the furniture away. He said they
prady going out to live in Shenango town-
ship.”
I jotted down the description of Mrs.
YS)
SEINE yy: ae
ORE, pes
White’s clothing. She
had been wearing a black
cloak, new black dress,
black gloves, shoes and
handbag.
“She was wearing her
black dress with the net
sleeves,” the neighbor
said. “But what’s the
matter? Has anything
happened to her ?”
From other neighbors
came the information
that White had been -
away from home considerably and fre-
quently returned home in the early morn- .
ing hours. He had recently purchased
the Buick over the objections ot his wife
ni wanted to use the money on their
ills. ;
“And he never took her out in it,” I was
told by a woman, “but he took other
women out.” Then I recalled seeing him
at the fair the preceding Fall with a
woman ‘who wasn’t Mrs. White. But
White was in his fifties and his playing
days were certainly over.:
Undetcover Probe Launched
NAY NEXT move was to call in County
Detective M. J. Young and apprise
him of the strange set of circumstances
which had bobbed up in rapid succession
following the December levy on the fur-
niture.
We called in Police Chief Ed Elder
Mrs. White was last seen alive
when she left the house pictured
at left. The White apartment
was upstairs. Ed Elder, below,
uncovered much of the evidence
in the baffling case when he
was serving as chief of
police in New Castle, Pa.
because it was strictly a New Castle case.
“Yeah, I just had a complaint agains*
him,” Elder informed us. ‘Someone
called in and said he was living with two
other women on Cochran Way.”
It was definitely decided that for the
time being we’d conduct a quiet under-
cover investigation to determine, if pos-
sible, Mrs. White’s whereabouts, the cir-
cumstances of White’s residence on Coch-
ran Way and any details that might shed
light on Sadie White’s last known auto
ride.
“She went out riding with him about
4 o’clock in the afternoon of Decem-
ber 23 and no one has seen her since,”
I said in summing up the case. “Evidently
that was her first ride in the new car. He
says she’s in the asylum. The asylum says
no. And according to the report to Chief
Elder he turns up living with two women.”
“But you can’t arrest a man for that.”
commented Detective Young.
SR IS ETM mags
“We'llh
agreed.
Elder’s «
of the Coc]
was a rum
on Decemt
As soon
we hurried
the Pittsbu
There we
had obtain
With thi
was a bigz
Attorney
Elder shot
license, di
possible id
to the Coc!
able blacks
the missin;
Once mc
ing the hc
them.
“Best te
“Glad t
satisfy tha
White e
threatened
_ che insisted
profit.
“You'll
to tell the
following «
tention of
trick on m
“See yor
Back at
Merle Boy
burgh. W
“Albert
dorn, 33, N
Dec. 22.”
“Look a:
least 55 ye
Detectiv
the inform
daughter o
““Appare
second Mr
far as I ca:
reproach a:
knowledge
“We've
charge or a
of his first
I told th
morning at
had been ta
“He doe:
there’s an
ment,” I tc
The foll
doubts as t
“White's
than anyth
them first v
The offic
and Alder:
charging T
“These ¢
mented as |
Torr:
wife
ing t
his ;
in Pitts, as it was
varked on highway.
yf 228 miles of super-highway that runs under moun-
tains, over bridges and through great cuts to form a four-
to-eight lane span of solid concrete stretching across south-
ern Reansyiveria, has long been considered the greatest
road engineering and building achievement of modern
times.
To the millions of motorists and truck drivers who an-
nually drive over the Pennsylvania Turnpike at legal speeds
up to seventy aniles an hour, that long stretch of unbroken
highway has meant a saving in not only time and money,
but of life itself. For the Turnpike Authority has always
stressed safety above smooth and fast driving,
But to the drivers of the gigantic trailer trucks that
nightly roar along the interstate thoroughfare there was a
three-month period during the latter part of 1953 when the ©
famous pike meant anything but safety. To these men and
to the country at large, the 220 million dollar throughway
became known as ‘Murder Alley,” a haunted highway upon
which a man was constantly in duhees of sudden and violent
death,
\
To the tough truckers who travel it, danger has long been
commonplace—the danger of getting smacked by some hot
rod, of a blowout while racing down a mountain grade, of a
gasoline truck exploding. But with the first full moon in
July of 1953 there came an added danger—the danger of
death at the hands of a maniacal killer who struck suddenly
and senselessly. At large was a cold-blooded slayer who
always managed to vanish without leaving a clue to his
presence other than the bullet-riddled body of his latest
victim,
The first of the murders came to light early on the fog-
shrouded Sunday morning of July 26, 1953 shortly after
two passenger cars piled up on a slippery stretch miles
west of the Irwin turnoff, some twenty miles from the Pitts-
burgh interchange.
Because of the accident, 100 cars and trucks were stopped,
bumper to bumper behind the wreckage as towcars and
ambulances arrived to clear the roadway and care for the
injured.
The occupants of these stalled cars wandered aimlessly
His confession, one of many made by
crackpots, was at first discounted.
BY WALTER LOWRY
Pee Ay
red the
v man-
riendly
ith.
y brief.
its
‘ed
_ to
he fact
accept
itenced
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pike, trucking companies issued
orders to their drivers to stop for
rests only at designated places or
restaurant parking areas. Fearful
that some of the drivers might take
the law into their own hands and
carry weapons for protection, the
companies threatened to fire any
man caught with a gun,
The thousands of truck drivers
who used the turnpike each. day
wondered what to do if they were
forced to stop to change a flat tire
or tighten a loose distributor wire.
Some drivers arranged timetables
so that they traveled the turnpike
by daylight. Others traveled in con-
voys of three and four, seeking
collective protection. °
The turnpike killer was not heard
from again until mid-August. Two
Missouri truckmen, John E. Blum
and Charles D. McGee of Kansas
City, reported they were shot at
by a motorist traveling in the op-
posite direction near the scenes of
the killings.
“At night, I guess out of habit, a
driver always surveys e road,”
McGee said later, “{ was on the
outer lane when I noticed a car
heading cast at about the same
speed. I was looking right at the
car when I saw the flash of a gun
on the driver’s side. Then I heard
a shot. He fired only once and the
bullet apparently went between the
cab and the trailer.”
McGee _ was lucky. Two more
turnpike killings have occurred since
he reported this incident to the
Highway Patrol.
In the three-year span of killings,
truckmen have become increasingly
vigilant, The turnpike is constantly
patrolled both by police and truck-
ing companies, ever on the alert
for the elusive killer.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As we go to press,
another in a long line of suspects
has just been apprehended.
John Wesley Wable, 24, an ex-
convict, was nabbed in New Mexico,
after holding up an Albuquerque
service station. Wable became the
object of a nationwide hunt when
a gun he gave to a friend proved to
be the murder weapon used to kill
truckdrivers Harry F. Pitts and
Lester B. Woodward. It has also
been established that this gun was
used in the near-fatal shooting of
a third truckdriver, John K. Shep-
herd.
At the time of Wable’s capture,
he admitted ownership of the mur-
der gun but claimed to know noth-
ing about the killings. Later, how-
ever, after he had been transported
from New Mexico to Greensburg,
Pennsylvania, Wable signed a 14-
page statement which, according to
State Police Captain Jackson Dod-
son, implicates the ex-convict in
the slaying of the two-truck drivers.
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4353-FC- LOVERS LANE, DALLAS 5, TEXAS
53
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The body of driver Harry Franklin Pitts, as it was
b hat found in the trailer-truck he had parked on highway.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike became
known as Murder Alley because of
the sudden and violent deaths
perpetrated by an unseen criminal.
Who, the state officers wondered,
would be the next to meet the
Nurse attends John K. Shepard in Salem, O., hospital.
He was third trucker to be shot while sleeping, but
survived. At right, suspect captured in New Mexico
is returned nang estmoreland ounty Detective Merle
Musick, in hat, and State Police Cpl. William Smith.
up and down the tree-lined side of the road, impatiently
waiting the signal to drive through. Thus it was that the
highway police, gathered at the accident, were right at the
scene when the first cry of “Murder!” arose.
An unidentified motorist had strolled some 200 yards
along the highway and casually glanced inside the cab of
a long automobile-carrier that was pulled over on a gravel
siding, presumably to allow the driver to catch some sleep,
There must have been something about the awkward posi-
tion of the recumbent body inside the big cab to have caused
the motorist to take a second look. It was then he saw the
rivulet of blood that ran from a small black hole just be-
hind the trucker’s left ear. The motorist uttered a cry of
alarm and within moments half a dozen other strolling’
motorists were gathered at the spot.
Soon the alarm reached the ears of State Police Corporal
William Smith of the nearby Greensburg Barracks, and the
officer came running. It was quickly established that. the
dead man was Lester B. Woodward, a 26-year-old Dun-
cannon, Pa., truck driver. The toll gate ticket found on the
blood-smeared seat beside the body indicated he had passed
through the Harrisburg gates late Friday afternoon, some
forty hours before.
It must have been-well past sundown when Wood-
ward reached the point at which his body was to be dis-
covered, That would mean he'd have been driving for at
least five hours—the carrier had left Philadelphia shortly
after noon on Friday—and following his employer’s recom-
mendations would have pulled to the side of the road for a
refreshing sleep before continuing on his long journey west-
ward.
In the pocket of Woodward’s leather windbreaker they
found his wallet. It no longer contained the fifty-odd dollars
he was known to have with him when he left his home in the
little town of Duncannon near Harrisburg two days before.
That, to the authorities, spelled murder for robbery, An
immediate alert went out to pick up and question all hitch-
hikers, though the officers knew of the rule, long established
by haulage companies, that did not permit their drivers to
pick up a passenger. Many did, though, for during the long,
lonely ride over the monotonous high-speed throughway
the temptation for company—company of any kind—was
often irresistible,
All hitchhikers on the turnpike, whether headed east or
west, were brought in by the highway police for question-
ing. But the police were soon to realize they were not look-
ing for a criminal passing through the state, but for 'a more
sinister and desperate character; a cold-blooded, perhaps
maniacal, killer with a plan; a phantom who kept in the
shadows, to pounce and murder, and then disappear, unseen
and unheard. For, just three days after the death of young
Lester Woodward, there occurred a second tragedy which
set the police to theorizing that no motive . . . no sane
motive, at any rate .. . could be held accountable for that
first murder.
On Tuesday morning, July 28, forty-eight hours after the
discovery of Woodward’s body, Mike Shipley, safety di-
rector of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck @ssociation, a
group of more than 3,000 trucking firms with vehicles
operating on the Turnpike, arrived at a spot near the Done-
gal interchange to start checking the speed of passing
trucks.
Shipley had had the spot picked well in advance. He
planned to set up his radar speed-checking outfit at a curve
so as to make reports to the companies whose drivers were
exceeding their safety limits. But upon arriving at the
selected spot he disgovered a long auto-carrier pulled over
on the shoulder of’ the roadway. Since it blocked the spot
where he intended to set up his equipment, Shipley made
his way to the truck. And thus was the second murder of
the haunted highway discovered.
Inside the cab of the carrier lay a dead man, shot through
the head just behind the left ear with a small-calibered
weapon !
For the second time in two days, Corporal Smith of the
Greensburg Barracks was called to investigate the murder
of a sleeping truck driver. This time the shooting had oc-
curred fifty miles east of Pittsburgh, thirty miles from the
Westmoreland County interchange where Woodward had
died suddenly sometime early on the previous Saturday
morning.
If robbery was the motive in this second killing the slayer
must have been frightened away before he accomplished his
purpose. For the slain man’s wallet, containing $85 im cash,
was in his jacket pocket. Neither had his 14-carat gold
wristwatch been taken.
As in the case of Woodward, the authorities could learn
of no “personal motive” for. the sudden death of Harry
Franklyn Pitts, the 39-year-old truck driver from Bowling
Green, Va., who was the second man to die. And, as in the
earlier slaying, they were quick to note that death had come
almost instantaneously from a bullet fired at a distance of
from four to ten feet and entering the left side of the head.
“That the shot was fired from that distance,” said De-
tective Merl D. Musick of the Westmoreland County
Sheriff's office, “certainly would seem to eliminate the pos-
sibility that the killer was riding beside his victims. So |
Both pictures above show police searching cars and eg drivers in effort to locate the phantom slayer. Traffic along
ba
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TRIAL
APPEA
LAST WORDS
EXECUTION
SOURCE
FRANK NEWTON OFFICE SUPPLY-OOTHAN
CO/Y/30 31/6 [F0; uel 1 0of$/30; Pio: gy, 1 Of 20
dian government offers $2,000 reward
for their apprehension.
At Blissfield, Michigan, a boy train-
robber holds up the express messenger
“ of the New York Central and escapes
with $50,000 cash.
PENOLOGY: Charles—Limpy—
Cleaver, indicted as leader of the gang
that staged the $133,000 Evergreen
Park mail robbery, escapes with four
other desperadoes from the county
jail at Wheaton, Illinois. The fugitives
knock a deputy unconscious, take his
keys and Se a machinegun in the
Warden’s office as they make getaway.
The Month 25 Years Ago:
June, 1913
HEADLINES: Jury at Calgary, Al- .
berta, settles a unique legal question
in connection with death of Luther
McCarty, prizefighter who succumbed
to blow in ring. Arthur Pelkey, Mc-
Carty’s opponent, is held not guilty of
manslaughter “because the blow he
struck was not intended to have fatal ;
results.”
SLAYINGS: George E. Schall, for-
mer Army sergeant, is arrested at
Portland, Oregon, charged with the
murder of his wife and three children
in San Francisco last April. The re-
mains of the victims were found in the
ruins of Schall’s home, which had been
burned to the ground. Police found
that Schall recently had taken out
$100 insurance policies for his wife
and each of the children.
Although previously acquitted of the
crime, Lee Cage, an iron-worker, ad-
mits to police at Columbus, Ohio, that
he killed Detective John Reardon dur-
ing labor troubles . . . A bomb sent
through the mails kills Mrs. Theodore
Bilodeau, wife of a contractor, and her
sister-in-law, Mary Bilodeau, at Sher-
brooke, Quebec. The house is wrecked
and the bodies blown to bits.
One Laugh Ahead
up here, though. Every one of them
might be full of bodies.”
Early next morning Sheriff McGrath
let us in on his latest scheme. He
planned to grill Selz again. If that
failed he held a card up his sleeve.
There was a silly grin on the young
prisoner’s face as he was brought be-
fore us.
“I’m giving you one more chance to
tell us what’s become of Mrs. Rice,”
the Sheriff began.
“How do I know?” Selz retorted,
shrugging his shoulders. “Funny the
way you keep asking me that.” And he
broke out into a laugh.
Again he went into a long explana-
tion of his business with her, how he
had traded his mine for her Woodside
home. In fact, he said he had deeds to
two other properties she had included
in the trade.
“Sure you didn’t kill her?” McGrath
pressed.
“Why should I do that?” the other
countered.
It was the Sheriff’s cue to play his
trump card. With a sly glance at me,
he rose from his chair and stepped
quickly to Selz’ side.
“I’ve got a proposition to make to
you,” he said slowly. “If you’re so sure,
Selz, that you didn’t kill her, how about
proving it. You’ve heard of the lie de-
tector, haven’t you? How about taking
the test to prove you're telling the
truth?”
$= grabbed the Sheriff by the arm
and chuckled. ‘
“That'll be just ducky,” he ex-
claimed. “Let’s go.”
Arrangements already had been
made by telephone with police experts
across the bay in Berkeley. Everything
was ready, only waiting on our pris-
oner.
Britt and Maloney bundled Selz into
a car and started on their way. The
rest of us were busy on a new clew in
another end of the County.
In a quiet laboratory at Berkeley -
Headquarters, Inspector Ralph Pidgeon
and Anthony Bledsoe quickly took
42
For the second time, Harold F, Hen-
wood is convicted in Denver of the
murder of George E. Copeland and
sentenced to die. He shot Copeland
while trying to recover some letters
sent to him by a prominent society
woman . .. Doctor Guy Brinkley is
shot to death in his office at Savannah,
Georgia, by Kate Kittles, a patient,
who then commits suicide and falls
across his body . . . Florence Wain-
wright is found dead in a_ business
office at Salisbury, Maryland, the vic-
tim of a crude illegal operation, and
police start investigation threatening
to involve prominent citizens.
| IDNAPING: At Salem, Illinois, a
jury convicts Frank Sullens and
Ernest Harrison of the kidnaping of
pretty Dorothy Holt. Each is sentenced
to 25 years in prison. Harrison paid
Sullens five dollars to abduct the girl
and take her to an abandoned mine-
shaft, where she was found. National
guardsmen had to be called out to
prevent the lynching of the pair.
PENOLOGY: Pending an investiga-
tion of his administration, Warden
John S. Kennedy of Sing Sing turns
control of the prison over to Principal
Keeper James Connaughton . . . After
serving twelve years in Ohio State
Penitentiary for the murder of Wil-
liam Johnson, the “celery king” of
Wyandotte County, Convict George
Urey is liberated by the parole board
which announces he had been “rail-
roaded” to satisfy public opinion.
The Month 50 Years Ago:
June, 1888
HEADLINES: Government agents
get first “break” in fight to smash huge
dope-smuggling ring which has head-
quarters in San Francisco and British
Columbia. At Detroit they arrest two
members of the mob and confiscate
of the Cops, Until —
command. Selz stripped off his coat
and shirt.
They seated him beside the compli-
cated mechanism of the lie detector.
Around his chest went straps to record
his breathing. His right arm was tight-
ly bound to measure his blood pressure
and his heartbeats.
On the table stood a chart like a
weather map, upon which a quivering
needle was waiting to record Selz’
heart and lung: reactions under ques-
tioning. .
Science stood ready now to tear the
mask off his face, to peer into the
depths of his soul, to reveal on paper
his innermost emotions.
To the questions, he might appear
outwardly calm. He might feign com-
posure and indifference, but quick-
ened heartbeats — faster breathing —
the surge of blood through his body—
these he could not control. The ma-
chine would divulge the secrets of his
mind.
They began with a few casual que-
ries—matters unrelated to the case.
“Do you smoke?”
“Yes,” Selz replied, and the writing-
needle moved in a straight line over
the chart.
“Do you like to dance?”
“Are you interested in aviation?”
“Do you believe in telling the truth?”
Unrelated questions, all of them—
and no deviations on the recording
chart.
For ten minutes they covered trivi-
alities. This would give Selz a chance
to quiet his nerves. It would record
normal functioning of heart and lungs.
Then, suddenly, Pidgeon asked a
“dynamite question.”
“Did—you—kill—Mrs.—Rice?”
The needle, like magic, jumped its
mark — scratched upward on the
paper—and kept moving, as Selz met
the question with an emphatic “No.”
‘ The machine was recording his first
lie!
“Did you bury her body in acid?”
“Of course not,” he responded. Again
the recording needle leaped off its
steady line.
CE
1,000 pounds of opium valued at $20,-
000 that had been transported across
the Canadian boundary.
SLAYINGS: After a manhunt last-
ing nineteen months, Detective Mich-
ael Mclllhaney of Cleveland arrests
Mike Heatle, 22, at Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, charging him with a
killing committed in the Ohio city’s
Hungarian colony .. . At Middletown,
New York, Abel Allen, a vagrant En-
glish sailor, is sentenced to hang for
the robbery-murder of Ursula Ulrich
. . . Characterized by the jury as the
“meanest man,” Philip Stein gets life
imprisonment for the murder of Wil-
liam Jones, hotel proprietor at Erie,
Pennsylvania, Jones had given Stein
food and lodging, had been slain in
return.
Philadelphia detectives obtain con-
fession from Mrs. Sarah J. Whiteling,
40, that she poisoned her husband,
John, and their two children, Bertha,
nine, and William, two, for insurance
totaling $400. Death of the victims at
regular monthly intervals aroused the
suspicions of an alert coroner, even
though there was nothing in the death
certificates to hint at murder. .
Henry Myers, accused with two con-
federates of the murder of John Low-
ell, wealthy rancher of Sacramento,
California, makes complete confession.
He says their motive was to obtain
possession of Lowell’s property.
ROBBERIES: Seven masked bandits
stage daring robbery of southbound
Texas express of Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Railroad near Muskogee, Indian
Territory. Boarding the train at a
way-station, they compel the engineer
to stop it in the center of a bridge,
then go through the cars robbing pas-
sengers and opening safe in express
coach. One passenger is killed and
two trainmen wounded. The gang es-
capes with big loot, fleeing on horse-
back toward the Arkansas River. A
£ - fy 7QR¢
6/25/XBBX 1889
government marshal leads a posse in
pursuit, but they are unable to find
the bandits in the rough country .. .
Captain Linden of the Pinkerton
Agency arrests Agent Huber at Sun-
bury, Pennsylvania, charging him with
stealing $30,000 from the Adams Ex-
press Company. The cash was shipped
to Sunbury from Philadelphia to meet
a mine payroll. Part of the loot is
found in Huber’s home.
COUNTERFEITING: Pete McCart-
ney, America’s most notorious coun-
terfeiter, and a specialist at raising
one-dollar bills to tens, and tens to
fifties, is convicted at New Orleans and
sentenced to ten years in prison.
SLEUTHING NOTE: To catch horse-
thieves who have recently made dar-
ing raids, farmers of eastern New York
and western Connecticut organize the
Union Anti-Thief League.
The Month 100 Years Ago:
June, 1838
HEADLINES: A British ship is
burned and numerous raids are made
on villages and farms by pirates op-
erating in the Thousand Islands terri-
tory of the St. Lawrence River. Ca-
nadian authorities seek Bill Johnson,
cutthroat leader of the brigands. Arms
and ammunition seized in robberies in
the United States are smuggled north
for the use of the pirates.
SLAYINGS: New York is stirred by
the death of Louisa M. Miller, beau-
tiful young actress, under suspicious
circumstances . . . Benjamin Stewart
is victim in Baltimore’s “worst” mur-
der. His body is found with the face
slashed to ribbons, the top of the head
almost cut off by the blow of an axe.
Police hold his son William and an
unnamed woman, claiming they did
the crime in hopes of getting Stew-
art’s wealth.
?
Read It First in
(Continued from Page 23) ogeicia DETECTIVE STORIES
There were more questions—and the
same results. Science had told the law
what it wished to know. They showed
Selz the chart and explained its mean-
ing.
. “These jumps in the line prove you
were lying,” Britt exclaimed.
“Ha, ha, that’s a good one,” Selz
laughed at them. “So you don’t think
I’m wise. You ask me those questions
and you press a button to make the
needle jump. Then you tell me I’m a
liar, huh?”
Britt was on his feet in an instant.
“Cut out the fooling, Selz,” he said
sternly, and his fist came down hard
on the desk. “You know you're caught.
Might as well come clean right now.”
For an hour Britt and Maloney kept
pounding away, tossing off the young
man’s wisecracks, demanding the
truth.
“Oh, I might decide to tell you some-
thing—some time or other,” he finally
remarked. “But this isn’t the time.”
“Come on now,” Britt insisted. “If
you won’t come through for us—why.
don’t you come clean with the Sheriff?
Give Jim McGrath a break. He’s been
decent with you, and...”
“That’s a go,’ Selz almost shouted.
“Tl tell him something tonight—but
first take me home. I want a shave
and I need some clean clothes. And on
the way you might introduce me to a
good juicy beefsteak. How about it?”
' They started away in a hurry but
not until McGrath had been reached
by telephone and asked to be at the
Woodside house.
Selz greeted the Sheriff and the rest
of us affably as he was led into the liv-
ing-room.
“How y’been, Sheriff?” he
slapping him on the back.
For a few minutes they talked to-
gether about trivial things. It might
have been a meeting between old
friends.
Suddenly Sheriff McGrath inter-
rupted. “Come on now, Jerry,” he said
in a somber tone. “Let’s get down to
cases. If you’re going to tell the truth,
asked,
come on—tell it.”
“All right, I will,” Selz snapped.
For a few moments he stood tight-
lipped. Tensely, we looked on-—-anxious,
waiting for him to speak.
It was a dramatic scene.
temples throbbing.
Then quickly he stepped to the cen-
ter of the room. With his heel he
“marked” a cross on the hardwood
floor.
“That’s the spot, Sheriff,” he blurted.
“Right there her head struck the floor
—yes, I killed her—but it was an acci-
dent.”
Selz had broken at last.
“And what did you kill her with?”
Sheriff McGrath demanded.
“A poker,” Selz retorted lightly. “But
say, you'll never find her. I put her
away—and wouldn’t you like to know
where. But you’ll never know.” And
his same stupid laugh echoed through
the room.
Hurriedly I opened the door to an
adjoining room. Out stepped District
Attorney Gilbert Ferrell, a corps of
deputies and a shorthand man. They
took their places around the parlor
table. “Now I want the details—all of
them,” the Sheriff ordered.
“It was June 13—last year,” Selz
began as the reporter took down every
word. “Mrs. Rice was getting ready to
move. I wanted to occupy the house.
Two nights before, I’d taken her to
town with that Bulgarian officer,
Baronovich.
“Well, I walked into the house that
night and into this room. It was dark.
I sensed there were two people in the
room. Then somebody slugged me. It
felt as if I’d been hit on the head with
a sandbag.
“T was dazed. I stumbled to the fire-
place—there—and grabbed the poker.
I couldn’t see a thing—but I swung out
—-Wway out—like this...”
Selz illustrated with a wide sweep
of his arm.
“Go on,” McGrath ordered
tiently.
“I hit something,” he continued,
“and I heard a thud—like somebody
dropping to the floor. I heard some-
I felt my
impa-
ODS
WAVE
“That, Madame, is—
“FOR MEN ONLY”
Walter Winchell writes
in his syndicated
column:
‘‘FOR MEN ONLY is
catching on, according
to news vendors.”
For the first time in
his life, Walter
Winchell is guilty
of an understate-
ment. FOR MEN
ONLY has caught
on, and if you rush
to the nearest
newsstand you
may still be able
to swap one of
your quarters for a
copy.
Case of the Barking Dogs
[Continued from page 23]
“Just a minute, Torrence,” I exclaimed.
“I have another little matter here.” He
whirled on me with his huge hands half
raised. For a moment I expected him to
reach for my throat.
“You're under arrest.”
His face paled for an instant beneath
the leathery skin and he glared at me
balefully. “For what?” he snapped.
“Bigamy and adultery,” I told him. The
outburst we had expected failed to take
place. He accompanied us to the district
attorney’s office where Muse and Young
were waiting. Confronted with the record
of the marriage license, the statement of
the minister and the corroborative and
identifying evidence that Chief Elder had
gathered, White whimpered out a confes-
sion. Gone was his bravado of a few
minutes earlier. His great frame sagged
and he slumped wearily into a chair.
“I guess you're right,” he wailed. “I'm
guilty.” There was no fight in him now
and something told me that there was a
reason for his weakness. Muse sensed
the same thing.
“Now, where’s Sadie?” he demanded.
His gray-thatched head jerked at the
words and the huge right paw came up
with the index finger pointing to me.
“I told Boyd where she is,” he replied.
“You lie,” I shot back. “Sadie White is
not at Warren. We've checked up the
records.”
“Maybe the Pittsburgh doctor hasn’t
sent her over yet,” countered White, but
he couldn’t or wouldn’t reveal his name.
“You mean to tell us you interrupted
your honeymoon with your new wife to
take Sadie to Pittsburgh?” Detective
Young snapped.
With questions and accusations pop-
ping at him from all directions, White
closed up like a clam. Just then Chief
Elder came in with the certified copy of
the Pittsburgh records. Muse looked
through it quickly.
“So you swore that Sadie died on
March 3, 1919,” the prosecutor exclaimed.
“She may be dead but she didn’t die last
March,” Muse went on. “Where is she?”
But White refused to answer. It was
clear that he was through talking. We
led him away toa cell with an added per-
jury charge against him while detectives
rushed out to question Mrs. Jean Wal-
dorn White.
The attractive young woman burst into
tears at the news of her husband’s arrest.
She told the officers the circumstances of
her marriage to White. \
“He started courting me back in 1919,”
she declared, “and I thought he was a
widower. Last fall when we were to-
gether on one occasion he pointed to a
grave in the cemetery and told me his
wife was buried there.”
She readily consented to confer with
District Attorney Muse but could furnish
no information on the mysterious disap-
pearance of the woman she had believed
dead. Muse quickly excused her as an
innocent victim of the 50-year-old Lo-
thario.
During 'the ensuing days the officers
concentrated on interviewing relatives
and scotes of acquaintances in the hope
of finding a clue to the destination of
Sadie White’s last ride. More and more
they became convinced that only the
giant White could reveal the details of
that last ride. But White refused to talk.
Any reference to his missing wife merely
brought an abrupt denial of knowledge as
to her whereabouts. The giant spent his
time stalking back and forth across his
cell or sprawling across the iron cot.
It was on Feb, 2, 1931 that I called on
the mother of the missing woman. Im-
mediately my suspicions gave way to the
fear that the helpless little woman had
been cruelly murdered by the man who
could have broken every bone in her
frail body had he chosen to do so.
“I lived with them for several years,”
the aged mother told me, “but last sum-
mer things got so bad I had to leave. They
were down in the basement and Torrence
was in a rage. Suddenly I heard Sadie
scream, ‘Oh, Torrence, don’t kill me!’
“IT ran to the head of the stairs and
looked down. He was crouched before
Sadie like a great gorilla with those pow-
erful, hairy arms outstretched and in one
hand a long-bladed carving knife with
the point at Sadie’s throat as she leaned
back against the wall. I screamed and
he dropped the knife.”
I learned that for 14 Sundays just be-
fore the mother left the White household
her son-in-law“remained away from the
home. Sadie had received a bill from a
local jeweler for the purchase of a dia-
mond ring by her husband but she had
never seen it. When she asked him
about it she was told that it was none of
her business.
Paper Offers Reward
Wiaw I returned to the office I found
the story of the disappearance of
Mrs. White spread all over the papers
along with the story of White’s arrest for
bigamy as a result of jhis union with the
dark-eyed, pretty brunette. The New
Castle News offered a cash reward of $200
for information leading to the solution
of the mystery which now gripped
western Pennsylvania.
“She’s dead,” I told my colleagues, “and
her body must be concealed nearby be-
cause he didn’t have time to take it far.”
The second Mrs. White had told us that
her new husband arrived at her home
about half an hour after the neighbors
said he had left the Neshannock house
with Mrs. Sadie White.
“That only gives him a half hour.”
We raced out to the barn where I had
‘found White with the horses and in the
numbing cold we searched it thoroughly
without finding a trace of anything that
might have been used as the lethal
weapon. Minute examination of the Buick
car disclosed nothing. We poked around
in the tons of hay in the mow but finally
we gave it up.
But with the reward posted scores of
searching parties under police and depu-
ties scoured the brush-covered hills and
the coal banks of the countryside. Within
a week every inch of the ground within a
six-mile radius of New Castle had been
combed, wells plumbed and ponds
dragged. Wearily the searchers gave up.
In the jail in New Castle we had sub-
mitted the taciturn White to hours of per-
sistent questioning. The only result was
that he finally admitted he had lied about
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sending his wife to Warren and taking
her to Pittsburgh. He knew that we were
convinced he had killed his wife so that
he could marry the younger and more
comely woman. And he also knew that
as long as we were unable to produce the
body we could prove nothing.
“All right, boys, I lied,” he sneered at
me. “Sadie’s in Chicago.”
“We want the truth, not fairy tales,”
I countered.
“I’m telling you the truth now and you
can believe it or not.” White continued.
“We'd been having a lot of trouble and
I’d sold some property on West Wash-
ington for cash. I had $1,500 and she
finally agreed ‘that she’d go away and
never come back. She promised not even
to write or try to get in touch with her
relatives if I’d give her $1,000. That was
the deal we made. She put on her best
clothes. I drove her to the square and
gave her the money. She left for Youngs-
town on the 4:30 car.”
“What was the trouble all about?” I
asked. ;
“She found out about Jean and she
didn’t like it.”
Hooey was the word used by Detective
Young to describe this latest story.
Nevertheless we checked the car termi-
nal and White’s finances but we were
unable to get a line on the woman.
Financial Report Wrong
H's financial report didn’t jibe either.
He’d received $1,300 instead of
$1,500 for the property and of that he had
paid something like $400 for the team of
blacks that I later sold. He couldn’t have
had more than $500 left at the time his
wife disappeared.
We had now completed a minute to
minute check of.White’s whereabouts on
December 22. He and his bride-to-be had
left New Castle at 10 in the morning
for Pittsburgh and had returned 12 hours
later. He had spent his wedding night
with his bride, leaving early the next
morning. We were unable to account for
his movements from then until he ap-
peared at his home to take his wife away.
They’d left about 4:15 in the afternoon.
Half an hour later he was back at the
Cochrane Way house.
“He isn’t human,” I told Detective
Young and Chief Elder. “If he killed his
wife, he killed her and disposed of her
body in less than half an hour.”
“And then, before the blood of his wife
was dry, he flung himself into the arms of
his new love,” Young replied. “He’s colder
than a block of ice.”
F Now complaint after complaint came
in concerning the activities of the gray-
haired Romeo who sat in his cell and
mocked ‘us. He’d forged a $400 note some-
time before and collected the money. He’d
papered the town with bad checks from
time to time. But these petty things only
served to aggravate us as the days passed
and the mystery surrounding the vanish-
‘ing of Sadie White became deeper and
deeper.
At last District Attorney Muse gath-
ered all of us in his office. Papers and
public had been loud and insistent in their
demands for a speedy solution of the
case that had baffled us for weeks. The
reward was boosted to $1,000.
“The body must be found,” Muse
ordered. I agreed with him but I was
tay. that we had done everything pos-
sible. :
“We've got enough on him to put him
away for a long stretch,” I told Muse.
66
\
“Long enough to enable us to continue
our search until we find the body or find
Sadie’ White.”
We tried strategy by placing an in-
former in jail with White as he became
more confident and boastful. We didn’t
know it then but we were nearing a so-
lution to the mystery.
. From his cell White sent out numerous
letters to newspapers in Chicago asking
them to publish an appeal to Sadie White
to return to New Castle and clear him of
the suspicion of murder.
“If Sadie knew the spot I’m in, she’d
come back,” he told his cell mate. But
Sadie never came back.
I’d just settled myself down for supper
the evening of Feb. 17 when'I got a call
from the jail office. In the outer office
I found Earl Streib awaiting me. He lost
no time in getting down to the business
_ on his mind.
“I’ve been reading about the disap-
pearance of that woman,” he began. “You
know this man White rented that barn
near my home. Since the warm spell, a
couple of dogs in the neighborhood have
been acting mighty peculiar.
“Ordinarily they don’t bark or make .
any commotion except when there’s
something wrong and for several days
now, they’ve been pawin’ around the barn
like they were aimin’ to get in.”
“I'll get hold of the boys and we'll go
out right away,” I told Streib, “and I'll
not forget your tip if anything develops.”
Some 15 minutes later half a dozen of
us met at Chief Elder’s office. We raced
out to the barn on Cochran Way. There
we found the two dogs carrying on about
the barn. They were barking excitedly
and scratching at the door.
Dogs Lead To Loft
T WAS evident to each of us that
something inside the barn, large and
gloomy in the dusk, monopolized the at-
tention of the dogs. As we wrestled with
the lock.to force open the door the ‘dogs
kept jumping impatiently against it. Once
the door opened they disappeared in the
darkness inside. We flashed our lights
around but they were nowhere to be seen.
Then scratching feet over our heads sent
us rushing up the steep, ladder-like stair-
way. How those dogs ever made it in
the darkness I don’t know.
In the spacious haymow we flooded the
huge pile of hay with our lights to find
that the animals were already burrowing
their way under the timothy hay.
“There’s something under the hay
against the way there,” Chief Elders re-
marked and we collared the snorting,
barking dogs temporarily. They growled,
snapped and howled their objectives while
we forked the hay away from the wall.
As we neared the floor I discarded the
fork and removed hay in armsful, With
the last grab my fingers closed about
something cold but soft. I brushed the
hay aside as my son held the light.
“Sadie White!” I exclaimed as her face
came into view. It was just a guess be-
cause the features were beaten and_bat-
tered until they were beyond recognition.
When: Coroner J. P. Caldwell arrived
his hurried examination disclosed that the
midget wife of the giant White had been
clubbed to death.
“But I can’t figure out the type of
weapon that was used,” “Caldwell in-
formed us. “It wasn’t a sharp instru-
ment.”
“How about a huge fist?” Chief Elders
asked. Caldwell decided that might be it.
We hurried back to the jail ahead of
the ambulance. If the news leaked out.
we feared the temper of the citizens. I
faced White in his cell.
“You're through,” I told him. “We just
found your wife’s body.”
“Where'd you find her?”
“Right where you left her, you killer,”
I replied. “Now get your clothes on and
get them on fast. You know what will
happen when the news gets out. They'll
take this jail apart to tear you limb from
limb. We're taking you to Beaver county
for safekeeping.”
Outside the crowd that had only been
curious at first now was booming loud
and angry. Cries of “String him up!”
reached my ears. I went out front and
a few moments later a trusty whispered
that White had been slipped out the back
door, cuffed to Detective Young, and
. was on his way to Beaver.
Coroner Caldwell’s final report dis-
closed one of the most brutal killings on
record. Hardly an inch of the body of the
frail little woman had escaped the beat-
ing, kicking and pounding of the killer.
Several days later when the anger of
the public had subsided we quietly re-
turned White to New Castle, intent upon
obtaining a confession. Shortly after
midnight on Feb. 20 we led him into the
almost pitch-black morgue. White slabs
and caskets filled the room, giving the
place an eerie air.
Killer Taken To Morgue
E LED him in and out among the
corpses and halted him beside a
sheet covered slab. His quivering arm
rattled the shackles in the ghostly silence.
Suddenly the sheet seemed to float
away. Lights flashed on with a blinding
glare. The slab rose slowly until the slim,
battered body on it was only inches from
the giant’s eyes.
Whether it was the light or something
else, I don’t know, but White was cool as
ice now.. He turned to me.
“Who.is she?” he asked calmly. He
glanced at the plain, gold wedding band
which we had purposely left on her hand.
“I wouldn’t mind having that ring,” he
remarked. “I suppose someone will get
it.”
Just one month later to the day 12.
jurors filed back into the jury box in the
courtroom of Judge E. Plummer Emery.
For five hours they had been discussing
the strange disappearance of Sadie White
with all the details furnished by the
witnesses, the domestic discord, the illicit
romance, the bigamous marriage and the
finding of the body in White’s barn.
“Guilty as charged,” announced the
foreman.
White, steadfastly denying his guilt,
carried his conviction to the highest court
only to have it affirmed.
_ A year later as I was leading White
out of the jail to take him to Rockview
penitentiary, Bart Richards of the New
Castle News stepped up.
“Anything you want to say, White?”
he asked. ;
White stopped in his tracks and for an
instant he glared at the reporter. Then
his huge arms shot out and he lunged for
Richards. I managed to jerk him back
before his fingers throttled the news man.
“Your paper’s reward got me into this,”
he snarled.
But White was wrong. It was a couple
of barking dogs that had played the lead-
ing role in sending him to the chair.
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Pitts murder, second in three days in
30 miles, caused panicamong truckers
effect on the senses of the smell
of gasoline exhaust, of listen-
ing to the monotonous whirr of the
motor, hour after hour. He'll tell you
that his toughest job is to stay awake.
Take the Pennsylvania Turnpike,
which runs 325 miles from Valley
Forge to the Ohio state line, much of
it straight as a plumb line—a four-
\" ANY truck driver about the
Jane superhighway with speed limits
of 60 to 70 miles an hour—monotonous .
and ° sleep-inducing to an unwary)
trucker. —
At night, under cover of darkness
broken only by the glare of oncoming
headlights, drivers must be especially
watchful. Piloting the huge trailer
trucks on long overnight hauls is seri-
ous business, for these juggernauts of
the road, are stern taskmasters, . re-
quiting strength and skill, and split-
second reflexes. . .
For 15 years, since the turnpike was
opened, it has been @ rule of the road
for truckers to pull over to the side
when they become drowsy; never to
take a chance, It is not uncommon to
see a dozen trucks lined: up in close
file—drivers stretched out, catching
some sleep. Hundreds of thousands of
them have. obeyed that rule and
napped, unmolested.
But that was before July, 1953,
when sudden, violent death struck
twice in three days to give the turn-
nickname, “Murder
Alley.” i :
There had been unsolved homicides
before, but they were different. In
October, 1951, Andrew J. Pfister, of
Carrick, Pennsylvania, was shot to
death by a blond young hitchhiker as
he approached the Pittsburgh Inter-
change. His killer had leaped from the
car and vanished into the woods, In
August, 1952, Marine Sergeant Rob-
ert K. Wright, of Dillon, South Caro-
lina, was found by the roadside near
the Breezewood Interchange. He had
been beaten to -death with a claw
hammer.. Wright’s automobile was
found abandoned near Blue Mountain,
some 40 miles east. But never, in the
millions of miles traveled by truckers,
had a driver who pulled alongside the
road been harmed as he slept. Never,
that is, until very early on a certain.
Saturday morning, July 25th, 1953.
elec. PA (Westmoreland) 9/26/1955.
ground near the right side of the cab.
On the grass, a few feet from the
trailer, were marks of automobile
tires. Westmoreland County Coroner
Joseph R. Check estimated that Wood-
ward had been dead since about mid-
night. ‘
“But at that hour there must have
been fairly heavy traffic,” District At-
torney Alexander Sculco said. “A
man would have to be crazy, to fire
a gun right out in the open like that,
where any number of persons could
hear it.”
“Maybe,” County Detective Merle
Musick admitted. “But like as not,
they’d think it was a truck back-
firing.” _
Milepost 67, within a few yards of
where Woodward was slain, was a
favorite resting place for drivers. It
was possible, Sculco decided, that
Woodward’s truck had not been the
only one by the roadside at that time.
_ “Maybe,” Musick, “but a
trucker gets used to all kinds of ‘noise
and, after humping along for eight or
ten hours, he’s so tired that it would
take a cannon to wake him. A single
2000 miles away, a gun, a watch and a girl unmask
A driver, pushing slowly along the
turnpike in the gray dawn, noticed
the shoeless feet of a man dangling
out of the cab window of a trailer
truck. . Something grotesque about
their angle made the driver stop. He
peered into the cab, saw that the
trucker’s head and face were covered
with blood. That one glance told him
the trucker was dead. He sped toa
_ service station, called the state police.
Officers rushed to the scene, near
the Shafton Bridge.about two miles
west of Irwin. A wallet in the dead
man’s trousers identified him as Lester
B. Woodward, of Duncannon, Penn-
sylvania. There was no money in the
wallet and less than a dollar in small
’ change in his pocket, although a re-
ceipt showed that he had delivered a
load of automobiles to a dealer in
Ohio, 110 miles away, the preceding
day. -
It was obvious that Woodward had
pulled his trailer truck to the side of
the road to get some sleep before
- continuing. From the position of the
body, he apparently had been shot
without warning while asleep. i
An ejected shell was found on the
= |. phantom
shot could be fired without too much
risk.” , : :
Whether others had been parked at
the scene would have to be, for the
present, at least, a moot question.
. But there was no doubt in the minds
of the officers that another vehicle had
stopped -alongside the truck. It had
had little space in which to maneuver,
‘for the woods were only a few feet
away.
A laboratory expert said it probably
was a medium-sized passenger car,
for the tracks in the grass were not
very deep. He believed the fatal bul-
let, of .32 or .38 caliber, had been
fired near the trucker’s head, between
the parked car and the cab of the
truck. .
Automobiles and trucks roared by
the murder. spot, their drivers un-: —
aware of the grim hunt for a killer.
Patrol cars stopped motorists up and
down the turnpike, examining their
tickets for someone who: had been
near Milepost 67 around. midnight the
previous evening. Other state police-
men watched interchanges, vehicles
‘entering or. leaving the pike. Still
others checked. Woodward’s known
moveme
he was
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Commissioner Colonel C. M. Wilhelm. Every available
afl patrol car was assigned to duty, although it was apparent
that the killer had had a good six hours’ start and could
have left the turnpike soon after the murder. The fact that
two slayings had been committed only 30 miles apart in the
same county prompted Wilhelm to hope that he lived in the
immediate area. |
Musick and Dodson examined the ground carefully. There
were tire marks circling the front of Pitts’ truck and head-
ing out onto the turnpike.
“See the way the tracks show on the concrete,” Musick
said. “‘There’s a skid, sure as you’re born. Then they cut
right across the center strip.” .
- “The driver headed in the other direction,” Dodson said,
“in a hurry.”
i The body was removed from the truck cab and taken
i to Ligonier for an autopsy. Coroner Check promised to
have the bullet from Pitts’ head rushed to headquarters
for ballistics tests. Technical men made impressions of the
tire treads and the footprints, and went over the truck
for fingerprints. Others searched the woods for the murder
weapon.
After Woodward’s murder there had been the inevitable
discussion about it wherever truckers gathered, at diners,
service stations, delivery and pickup points. But now, as
radios blared the news of the second killing, even the
( hardiest driver quailed, realizing that he could be the
ta next victim—shot without warning while he slept.
Mike Shipley, safety director of the Pennsylvania Motor
Truck Association, a group of 3,400 trucking firms operat-
ing throughout the state, issued a warning: “Stop for noth-
we
Midge Harmon (I.) and Caroline Smith, mystery fans who
thought New Mexico manhunt great fun, spotted fugitive
~
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BY SVL VV
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as a guard of life and property has been settled in a Pennsylvania
anked by Detective Merl Musick. (I.) and Corporal William Smith
Paradox of murder and robbery suspect employed
court. Handcuffed fugitive leaves Albuquerque fi
*
. : bow POS ate.
movements the last few hours before
he was slain.
After formally identifying the body,
“a member of the trucker’s family said
he believed that Woodward had car-
ried no jewelry except the watch and °
ring he still wore. It had been’ his
custom, however, to carry between
$60 and.$80 in his wallet. This ‘was
gone.
It seemed likely that if the motive
for the murder was robbery, it would
be difficult: to find the slayer since
there was no pattern for the crime
and there had keen no.reports of re-
cent turnpike holdups. The veteran
policeman knows that the most diffi-
cult murder to solve is the one com-
mitted by the casual, transient rob-
ber, and it is on the mistakes of this
type of killer that officers must often
depend’ for a solution. In this case,
experts found no fingerprints. Hoping
that the tire treads would help, they
made plaster impressions,
The bullet that had killed Wood-
ward was removed from the. slain:
man’s head in good condition. It was
a .32 caliber. Although more than 50
to turnpilce
men were picked up and questioned
in connection with crimes of many
types,‘and although about half of
them had guns, ballistics tests failed
to connect any of the weapons with
the fatal bullet.
The fact that one of their number
had been shot by a holdup man did
not change the habits of the thousands
of truckers using the turnpike.’ They
slept in their vehicles as before, scof-
fing at the possibility of another mur-
der, ignoring it, or accepting it as an
occupational hazard.:
That was before 6:15 Tuesday
morning, three days after the Wood-
ward murder. Herbert Parr of Balty,
Virginia, was bowling westward in
his automobile carrier, heading for
Detroit and a load of new cars. On
the roadside, at Milepost 97, facing
east, he recognized the trailer truck
of his good friend, Harry Franklin
Pitts.
Parr pulled his van off the road
and crossed to the other side to pass
the time of day with Pitts. The latter
appeared to be asleep and Parr was
about to leave when he noticed® the
blood on Pitts’ face and head.
tig te
‘shot without warning, while asleep.
the right side of his forehead near
“I saw he was badly hurt,” Parr
said later, “so I hurried back to my:
truck and drove to a telephone.” ©
Captain Jack R. Dodson, of the.
Pennsylvania State Police, recognized
at once that Pitts was dead. To Dod-
son, there was something hauntingly
familiar about the scene—the out-
stretched body on the seat of the cab
truck, the shoeless feet protruding to-
ward the road, the bloody face and
head. Grimly Dodson realized that
he was looking at almost an exact
duplicate of the Woodward murder,
three days before and not 30 miles
distant. And that Pitts also had been
“I know who killed them,” he told
police after 90-mile-an-hour chase
As Dodson continued to examine
the scene, he noticed footprints in the
mud, headed. directly toward the
truck cab from tire tracks not six feet
away on the right. He pointed out the
similarity to officers Merle Musick,
State Police Lieutenant Eugene Fon-
taine and Corporal William Smith,
when they arrived.
“What’s going on here?” Musick
asked. “This surely is no coincidence.”
“There’s a‘ maniac loose on the
by GEORGE K. WYNNE
turnpike,” Dodson declared. “There
are more killings coming.” .
Coroner Check and Deputy Coroner
Carmen Perna estimated that Pitts
had been dead since about midnight.
A large-caliber bullet had entered
the hairline, indicating that the weap-
on probably had been discharged
through the open aateaiiad at the side
of the cab.
Pitts wore a wrist watch. In his
trousers pockets were a small amount
of change and a wallet containing
$85. On the dashboard of his truck
was a turnpike toll ticket, showing
that the truck had entered the high-
way July 27th, at Beaver Valley, at
7:18- P.M,
“Woodward was robbed. Pitts
wasn’t,” Musick pointed out. “Maybe
one guy didn’t do both jobs.”
“Maybe,” Dodson grunted. “Or
maybe he was frightened off the Pitts
job before he had time to rob.”
By now it was 6:35, only 20 minutes
after the first policeman had arrived
at the scene. Every exit on the 325
miles had been blocked off at the
direction of Pennsylvania State Police
i 5
a
de
a
t
3
q
-
s fired vainly
ng at terrific
‘ad to Belen
lavez set up
Los Lunas
hot in pur-
companions
len Drive-in
f the village.
ifthe entering
ow dusk and
tourist camp
left the car
Imen were
the car was
ind the two
ig during the
ir-old J. D.
rvin Parson,
ation in the
- elder man
they were
e Desert in
nan Arganas
s, were still
irolyn Smith,
irse, stopped
ving seen a
the robber
f the gasoline
ion, Midge
ar Belen on
y spotted a
an in brown
ig at the side
into a clump
road as they
o patrolmen
nerged from
thrust out an
lished signal
zing that the
the darkness
the hour he
rque, where
d his identity
ter Geis that
stolen two
wn, Pa.
tted being the
{ over to the
police by the
issy. He ad-
watch which
ullet-riddled
ttacked while
» side of the
| any guilt in
» two murders
yeen used, or
owner of the
le no attempt
confession,”
the time he
igated in con-
of counterfeit
“divert the
atters.””
e by the same
1 bogus dough
ple weeks ago
is quoted as
that, I loaned
larrisburg. He
e looking for.
> killings.”
is mysterious
called Tom,”
to discredit his
est, he waived
“ned to West-
moreland County in Pennsylvania to
face charges of murdering oodward
and Pitts, the two men who died during
the three-month reign of terror on the
haunted highway. The two youths to
whom he’d given a fift before burglariz-
ing the filling station in Albuquerque,
were released the same day and ex-
onerated of any blame in connection with
the crime.
When returned to the county jail at
Greensburg, the erratic Wable again °
offered to make a statement and this time
it was put in writing. According to
Captain Dodson and Corporal Smith, he
could offer no motive for his crimes, but
convinced them that he and he-alone
caused the two deaths and one near-
fatality.
Scheduled to be tried late in 1953, the
sullen suspect has entered a formal plea
of not guilty and once again reverted to
his earlier story of a mysterious friend
to whom he claims to have loaned the
murder weapon and from whom he claims
to have received the wristwatch stolen
from Sheperd.
When Wable does stand trial, however,
he will be confronted by the girl to whom
he gave the weapon, and by the pawh-
broker to whom he sold Sheperd’s watch.
The pawnbroker has turned over to police
a pawn ticket bearing Wable’s signature.
Also appearing against him, will be the
sports store owner from whom he bought
the gun; the two men to whom he made
his original confession while serving time
in the Fayette County jail, and the officers
who witnessed his signed confession
weeks later.
Paths of the Damned
(Continued from page 37]
~ Smiddy was a tall, well built 30-year-
old by the name of Walter Moore. He
was driving an almost new Chrysler with
Kentucky plates. He didn’t, immediately,
tell his youthful companion that he had
recently stolen the car in Covington. He
also didn’t explain that he was out on
parole from an Ohio State prison after
having served a number of years on a
murder charge.
Instead, he said he was a professional
gambler, showed the youth a handful of
paper money, and began to ask questions.
Within minutes he had learned about
Smiddy’s own background.
“Kid stuff,” he said, when Smiddy tnen-
tioned the stolen truck and a golf club
he had broken into. Moore took out a
heavy automatic pistol. “This is what you
need to make money,” he said, carelessly
injecting a shell into the firing chamber.
That night at a motel outside of Jack-
sonville, Fla., Moore demonstrated what
he meant. He held up the woman pro-
prietor and relieved her of $7.
Smiddy was not overly impressed with
the haul and mentioned as much as the
pair headed south toward Miami. It was
then that Moore showed him his arsenal
of eight stolen revolvers ranging from a
.22 derringer to a pearl handled .45 auto-
matic; his knives, and his handmade
blackjack. He also explained that he had
done time for robbery and assault in an
Ohio reformatory and had later killed
a fellow convict. He was out on, parole
and had left the jurisdiction of the state.
They arrived in Miami the following
day, Thursday, September 3. After cruis-
ing the town for several hours, they
finally found a lonely house on the out-
skirts. Smiddy later told Sheriff Snag
Thompson of Lee County that they
entered the house after knocking at the
door and held up a man, and after pistol
peas him, took his wallet which con-
tained about seventy dollars.
That night they drove the Tamiami
Trail and arrived in Ft. Myers on Friday
afternoon, after sleeping along the road
in their parked car. It was a hot after-
noon and Moore wanted to take a sy’im,
so he drove over to the beach, a matter
of several miles. Not having swimming
suits, they drove a short distance up the
beach to a deserted section.
There was only one house in sight, ‘the
luxurious beach cottage of. 56-year-old
James Galloway. It was at this point that
an ironic fate was to play~a strange part
in the destiny of Galloway, for Galloway
was himself a peculiar anomaly on the
American scene.
A short, stocky, good-natured man,
James Galloway was well known to the
citizens of Ft. Myers, where he had lived
for a number of years. But not one of his
neighbors really knew Galloway or his
background.
Oddly enough, the ex-tavern owner
himself had come from Moore’s home
state of Michigan. And oddly enough, he
was also an ex-convict. He had served a
number of years in Jackson Prison on a
murder and robbery charge. Moore had
served his time in Jackson, O.
Galloway had been involved in a bank
robbery and whereas the robbery itself
had been successful and the gang had
made a clean getaway, they had later en-
countered a roadblock. The driver of
Galloway’s car had whipped out a pistol
and shot and killed one of the deputies
guarding the highway. A moment later,
both men had been subdued.
At the trial, Galloway turned state’s
evidence and his partner received a life
sentence. Galloway, too, had gone to
prison. He became a model prisoner. He
also became an expert tool and die maker
and during the first part of World War
II.did valuable work for the government.
He was ultimately paroled and finally
pardoned.
Released, he was shortly married and
he and his young wife, Mary, moved to
Florida, where hey were unknown. He
purchased a tavern in Lee County for
$32,000. They prospered.
In 1948, Galloway sold his business for
better than $65,000, built his luxurious
beach house and retired. The past was
dead and he was a prosperous, happy man,
well liked in his community. He had a
private bar in his home and often threw
parties. He liked a drink and he liked a
good time.
It was just 4 o'clock when Moore, start-
ing to strip for.a quick dip in the tepid
waters of the Gulf, toaked up and saw the
outlines of the Galloway residence. He
put his shirt back on and turned to young
Smiddy.
“The hell with the swim,” he said. “This
looks like it.” He pointed to the isolated
house up the beach.
A moment later he was behind the
wheel of the Chrysler, a revolver in his
trouser pocket. The place seemed de-
serted when they drove up the gravel
drive,
With Smiddy at his heels, Moore
climbed from behind the steering wheel
and approached the front door.
There had been no car in the drive or
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Walter
WINTERS, John. and MAXXXXH, whites hanged Chester, Pa., July 3, 1728.
"Pennsylvania: "The Confessions of Walter W inters & John Winters
at the place of-execution in Chester on the 3rd day of July, 172 8."
AMERICAN WEEKLY MERCURY, Philadelphia, *ennsylvania, July 11, 1728.
Sent bf Hearn who describes the article as follows: "What follows is
a long speech by each brother in which they describe the brutal mur-
ders of three peaceful Indians who they allegedly thought to be
hos tile. They shot one to death and brained two women with axes,""
oe
shia ok.
Sccleaile a eck MA ahd oklnas ncn 5 a ase hous aseesons acts
So Dither arene. a
428 (Pa.) 144 ATLANTIC REPORTER
PE
the cote below thane tee ee court (Hoyts Matern ona eae meres by the
ership of 150 shares of the stock of a cobiais 203: Ruel Maree inten
corporation, held by the accountant as trus- 723), and e tee cece gly te cpl
jor Fes Rag jrise, being of opinion place till Wevesnie? joa aot ox
cree ater re ye 2 stock represented in- [2] Appellees refer to rule III of the court
ro beget pepe pee een oxi ste rule in question fixes 15 days as
a Oe POPs .. eG tO in- the limit of time for filing ex ‘i
i ae Sy peeing this adjudication, adjudication, “irbiebastive, of ara ke
eres EGE oe a holds 100 shares auditing judge] shall or shall not have direct-
; } ie principal, the said ed the submission of a schedule of distribu-
He ice Mes + alte and the above bal- tion.” This may be an effective manner to
é attected by the said appraisement, dispose quickly of the poi i
oS oints of
ae Ke Syardes to the accountant as in the adjudication, tte it casnoh ane tce
a " The account also shows right of appeal to this court, nor does it so
[the] ity shares of "#9 6 gee en ad_attempt ;
- i « - 4 *
making a total of $ 4 shiek tA een sagen: x tae SS
is awarded to be distributed to the parties
entitled to income. * * * Counsel will
prepare a schedule of distribution in dupli-
cate, and certify to its correctness in con-
formity herewith, which, when approved by
the Auditing Judge, will be annexed hereto,
and form part hereof.” Exceptions filed !+ Criminal law C641 (1)—Attorneys appoint-
were dismissed on June 29, 1928, and the or- ©4 for accused had duty to appeal, if they con-
der then entered by the court below reads ag ON eee essential (Pa. St. 1920, §§
sang — oe is confirmed absolute- ier intea 1
b oge n November 2, 1928, the same ec y. Re ae er net Mareh
entered an order entitled “Final panne sting Bh nk capes
Wid fae ox tebe that doe 4s ai represent defendant charged with murder, had
‘ ' : duty to appeal if the consider
November 2, 1928, the appraisement of the sential to protect his rights. Rist ie Sn
stock referred to in the adjudication, and
therein ordered to be made, having been 2+ Attorney and client ¢=>132—Fee paid coun-
(294 Pa. 495)
COMMONWEALTH v. WORMSLEY.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Dec. 6, 1928
made, and the schedule of distribution as
therein ordered having been filed and ap-
proved, and the exceptions to the adjudica-
tion filed on behalf of John §. G. Dunne hay-
ing been dismissed, itis ordered and decreed
that distribution be made as set forth in the
said schedule of distribution and the adjudi-
cation is hereby confirmed absolutely.”
An appeal was taken on November 14,
1928. <A motion to quash is now before us;
appellees contending that the appeal was
taken more than three calendar months aft-
er the order of June 29, 1928, which they as-
sert was the final and definitive decree, eon-
sidering the decree of November 2, 1928, as
surplusage,
[1] The motion to quash cannot be sus-
tained. The order of June 29, 1928, was not
final; at that time, so far as income is con-
cerned, no awards of definite amounts were
made to named beneficiaries. A decree
awarding a balance for distribution to those
entitled thereto, without naming the parties
or fixing their shares, is an interlocutory or-
der not subject to appeal. Monnia's Extate,
270 Pa. 367, 113 A. 550. Moreover, on June
29, 1928, the stock in question had not been
appraised, and the schedule of distribution,
then ordered to be prepared and submitted
for approval, had not been drawn or ap-
proved. There can be no final decree until a
se! appointed to represent accused by county
must represent exclusive compensation, and
they had no right to contract with others for
fees (Pa. St. 1920, §§ 8165, 8166).
Fee paid to counsel appointed to represent
accused, under Act March 22, 1907, P: I 31
(Pa. St. 1920, §§ 8165, 8166), must be their ex-
clusive compensation, and they had no right to
contract with others for fees and expenses.
3. Costs €>317—Costs of appeal, including cost
of printing “paper hook,” which comprehends
record and brief, could be collected from coun-
ty bose ipenae were appointed to represent
ccuse ‘a. St. 1920, §§ 8165
cae §§ » 8166 and §
Costs of appeal including cost of printi
is if al, & + printin
paper book,” which comprehends record aaa
brief, can be collected from county under Act
— 3, 1911, P. L. 627 (Pa. St. 1920, § 8205)
where counsel were appointed under Act M. ‘
22, 1907, P. . 31 (Pa. St. 1920, §§ 8165 8160)
to represent accused, ; 3
Appeal from Court of Oyer and Terminer.
Washington County. :
Wray Wormsley was convicted of murder,
and he appealed. On petition for leave to
discontinue the appeal. Leave granted and
record remitted. :
W.N. Butler and R. J. Knox, both of Wash-
ington, Pa., and Frank R. Steward, of Pitts-
burgh, for appellant.
>For other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
JENKINS v. FADY (Pa.) 429
(144 A.) :
Warren §S. Burchinal, Dist. Atty., and Don-
ald R. Hart, Asst. Dist. Atty., both of Wash-
ington, Pa., for the Commonwealth.
PER CURIAM. Counsel were appointed
under the Act of March 22, 1907, P. L. 31 (Pa.
St. 1920, §§ 8165, 8166), to represent defend-
ant; he was found guilty of murder of the
first degree, and the jury fixed death as the
penalty. A new trial was refused by the
court below, and defendant was sentenced on
the verdict. His two counsel filed an appeal,
which they now-ask permission to discon-
tinue.
[1-3] In support of their petition for leave
to withdraw the appeal, counsel aver that
it was taken on assurances from relatives
of defendant that they would pay an at-
torney’s fee and the expenses connected with
its prosecution, which they have failed to
do. Petitioners, having been appointed by
the court to represent defendant, had a duty
to appeal, if they considered that course es-
sential to protect his rights, and the fee paid
them by the county must be their exclusive
compensation. Under the circumstances, they
had no right to contract with others for fees
and expenses. The act of 1907, supra, spe-
cially provides for the payment of ‘all [prop-
er] personal and incidental expenses” in-
curred by counsel in such cases, and the costs
of the appeal “including the cost of printing
the paper book” (which, in this connection,
we have always construed to comprehend the
record and brief), can be collected from the
county under the Act of June 3, 1911, P. L.
627 (Pa. St. 1920, § 8205).
Upon the trial, defendant offered neither
himself nor other witnesses; but several
points for charge were submitted, all of which
were aflirmed without qualification, except
one, where a proper explanation of the mean-
ing of the words used was added. Counsel
for defendant were asked by the trial judge,
before the jury retired, whether anything had
been overlooked in submitting the case, and
they suggested a restatement as to certain
testimony alleged to have been insufficiently
detailed; further explanation, as requested,
was then given by the court.
Defendant moved for a new trial on the
ground that the verdict was against the law
and the weight of the evidence; at the same
time, he complained of the admission of cer-
tain confessions and of statements by the
trial judge on legal aspects of the case, par-
ticularly as to the meaning of “reasonable
doubt” and concerning the proof necessary to
convict of first degree murder.
An examination of the entire record, in-
cluding the evidence, discloses no error in the
admission or rejection of testimony, nor can
any just complaint be made of the instruc-
tions contained in the charge, which were
both adequate and legally accurate. The
facts necessary to a conviction of murder of
the first degree Were plainly established, and
the verdict rendered was fully warranted by
the evidence. In short, we have reviewed
both the law and the evidence, as required by
the Act of February 15, 1870, P. L. 15 (Pa. St.
1920, §§ 559, 560), and find nothing which
would warrant interference with the judg-
ment entered.
In view of our conclusion that defendant’s
guilt of murder of the first degree was clearly
proved, and that no trial errors appear, leave
is granted to discontinue the appeal.
It is directed that the record be remitted
for the purpose of execution.
(294 Pa. 490)
JENKINS v. FADY.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Nov. 26, 1928.
1. Automobiles €=>245(75)—Whether workman
was contributorily negligent in continuing
work after seeing automobile approaching
held for jury.
Whether one working. at railway grade
crossing was guilty of contributory negligence
in leaning down and continuing work after see-
ing approaching automobile, rear wheel of
which ran off edge of temporary crossing and
struck scantling plaintiff was nailing down,
causing end to fly up and injure him, hed for
jury.
2. Automobiles €=>245(9)—Negligence of driv-
er of automobile striking scantling workman
was nailing down at railway crossing held for
jury.
Negligence of driver of automobile, rear
wheel of which ran off edge of temporary rail-
way crossing and struck seantling which work-
man was nailing down, causing its end to fly up
and injure him, he? for jury.
3. Automobiles €=>245(50)—Whether negligent
operation of automobile striking scantling
workman was nailing down at railway cross-
ing was proximate cause of his Injury held
for Jury.
Whether negligent operation of automobile,
rear wheel of which ran off edge of temporary
railway crossing and struck scantling which
workman was nailing down, causing its end to
fly up and injure him, was proximate cause of
injury, held for jury.
Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Alle-
gheny County; A. B. Reid, Judge.
Action by Charles Jenkins against A. H.
Fady. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant
apperis. Affirmed. i"
Argued before MOSCHZISKER, ©. J., and
FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEP-
HART, SADLER, and SCHAFFER, JJ.
Narry J. Nesbit, Oliver K. Eaton, and Wal-
ter L. Riggs, all of Pittsburgh, for appellant.
John IH. Lauer, of Pittsburgh, for appellee.
PER CURIAM. This is a suit to recover
damages for personal injuries alleged to be
>For other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER In all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
+
*9c6T* TcreT (equdtepet ud) equeatéauueg peqynooaqoete SyoerTq *feap *AFTSIROM
WIRBACK, Ralph W., hanged at +ancaster, Pa., June 7, 1899.
"MURDERER HANGED::Lancaster, Pa., June 7. - “alph W. Wirback
was hanged here in the jail yard today in the presence of
several hundred people. Life was pronounced extinct in
fifteen minutes. Wirback on April 7, 1898, killed his
landlord, Dawid B. landis, president of the Conestoga
National bank, who was attempting to eject him from the
premises,"
HAMILTON. DEMOCRAT, Hamilton,, YVhio June 7, 1899 (1:2)
