Pennsylvania Oddities

While Solomon Boscov is remembered for founding the chain of department stores bearing his name, he also played a role in a chilling and mysterious Berks County murder. In August of 1941, Boscov opened an icebox door-- and discovered the tragic fate of little Billy Krewson.

In March of 1930, one Harrisburg woman suffered the sort of death typically reserved for horror movies or nightmares.

In 1909, Harry Keener confessed to murder. What makes this case truly remarkable is that it is one of the few instances in which a man who confessed to murder was set free, even though a witness testified that she had helped Harry dispose of the body-- in a rather gruesome way.

In September of 1930, the peaceful village of Spry was the scene of the bloodiest murder in York County history. It was here where an entire family was slaughtered by the blade of an insane farmer's axe.

Warning: This episode contains graphic depictions which some listeners may find disturbing. On February 14, 1891, Edward McMillan of Exeter Township committed one of the most revolting murders in the history of Luzerne County-- a crime which, according to one newspaper reporter, outshone Jack the Ripper in terms of sheer brutality.

On Friday, June 28, 1929, William Kennedy was building a new fence on his farm near York Springs when the circling of vultures led to shocking discovery on the banks of Bermudian Creek, about a hundred yards from the old Gettysburg-Harrisburg highway. It was the badly-decomposed body of a woman lying face-down in the mud. The victim, a 27-year-old deaf mute and mother of four from Harrisburg named Carrie Shellenberger Weiss, hadn't been seen or heard from since June 22. Though her husband was questioned, he was never arrested-- though evidence seems to point the finger directly at him.

Lined with quaint shops and historic buildings, Annville is one of the most charming towns in the Lebanon Valley. However, in 1887, Annville became the scene of horror after 60-year-old William Showers committed two of the most sensational murders in the county's history on the outskirts of town.

Penn State Altoona, built on the site of a defunct amusement park, has a dark secret. At the center of the campus is a pond, the remnant of the warming dam which once fed Ivyside Park's massive swimming pool. There is one particularly sad tragedy associated with this pool-- a tragedy involving a distraught mother who drowned herself and her children one spring evening in 1930.

In February of 1900, a tiny, middle-aged German tramp found himself confined to a steel cell in the basement of the Lebanon city hall. He had been brought to Lebanon from the Berks County, where he had been picked up on a vagrancy charge. This was nothing out of the ordinary for 50-year-old Leopold Rowe, who had been drifting from town to town for the past ten years of his life. Rowe was no stranger to county jails and small-town lockups, and, under normal circumstances, he would've been out on the streets in a day or two. But this time, things would be different. This time, Leopold Rowe admitted to murder-- and claimed that the ghost of his victim had tormented him into confessing his crime.

In 1915, a group of boys skating on a frozen swamp discovered a headless body entombed in ice. All signs pointed to foul play, but who was the victim?

Over one thousand criminals have paid for their crimes in Pennsylvania with their lives. But one man, Lorenzo Savage, holds the distinction of being the only voodoo doctor executed by the Commonwealth.

The story seems like a tale ripped from the pages of a dime-store novel: A lovelorn nurse is brutally slain, her body found outside an abandoned mansion. In her hand detectives find an arrangement of playing cards, which they soon learn is the black magic "hand of death". But the tragic tale of Elsie Barthel is not a work of fiction. It really happened in Pittsburgh in the fall of 1923.

In Lebanon County there exists a place known to locals as Ghost Hollow. For more than a century, strange things have happened near this rural stretch between Shaefferstown and Newmanstown. In 1876, a teenage girl lost her life in a horrific carriage accident just outside the tiny village of Millbach. According to those who witnessed the entire incident, something "otherworldly" was to blame. 

Every Halloween, children's thoughts turn to black cats, goblins and ghouls. For most, it is a joyful occasion, a chance to indulge in all things delightfully wicked. From magic potions to witches on broomsticks, the imagery is often lighthearted and playful because Halloween monsters are just make-believe. But tragically, in October of 1954, one little girl discovered that some monsters are real.

One of America's most successful serial killers was Martha Grinder, an Allegheny County woman who rose to notoriety in the years following the Civil War as "The Poisoner of Gray's Alley". What made Martha Grinder so successful in playing her deadly game, aside from the fact that she killed indiscriminately for years before getting caught, was that she appeared beyond reproach-- for Martha was adored by her neighbors and was regarded as one of the kindest-hearted women in the Pittsburgh area.

The historical record shows that 1,043 criminals are known to have been executed in Pennsylvania, beginning with the hanging of Derek Jonson in Bucks County in 1693 and ending with the lethal injection of Philadelphia serial killer Gary Michael Heidnik in 1999. Of these 1,043 persons who paid the ultimate price for their crimes, only one was a clergyman-- Cyriacus Spangenberg.

Two young lovers, killed by a single sniper's bullet. For 99 years, the Lamb's Gap Murders have perplexed law enforcement. Who killed Harry Ganster and Leah Ellenberger in May of 1924? Moonshiners? A jealous ex-lover? Or was it a murder-suicide? At various times, all of these explanations seemed to fit. The problem, however, is that none of these explanations fit perfectly.

With Guest Host Ashley Bemis. In April of 1875, the most sensational murder trial in the history of Fulton County took place. Charged with one of the most shocking crimes imaginable were Mary Mellott and her husband Daniel, a Civil War veteran who was known throughout Buck Valley as "Wolf Dan" on account of his disfigured face.

The McKean County township of Wetmore once boasted an architectural gem of a mansion with a dark and mysterious past. Rumored to the inhabited by maleficent spirits, the "Haunted House of Wetmore", as it was known to folks in Kane and surrounding towns, was erected in the early 20th century by a businessman who had something of a fire problem-- that is to say that every building he owned was destroyed by a bizarre series of fires over a period of several decades for which there was no discernible cause.

Stranger still, several family members of the man for whom the mansion was built died under strange circumstances, leading many to believe that the family of Thomas Keelor had been cursed by someone-- or something.

In the backwoods of Cumberland County live some of the kindest, gentlest souls you could imagine; decent, God-fearing folks who'd gladly give you the shirt off their own back or drive you into town if you should happen to run out of gas on a lonesome country road. But the backwoods of Cumberland County have also been the home to some of the most depraved and reprehensible folks who ever trod God's green earth. One example is John Gampher, who, in the late 19th century, pulled off one of the most diabolical stunts in the annals of Pennsylvania crime.

In 1911, witchcraft hysteria spread across central Pennsylvania, with dozens of superstitious citizens swearing out complaints against men and women accused of being hex or "pow-wow" doctors, but one bizarre story of Schuylkill County made newspaper headlines across the commonwealth. Alleging that her father, Howell Thomas of Tumbling Run, died as the result of a hex placed upon him, Mary Isabelle Thomas went to the press with a long list of peculiar incidents which she believed would prove that her father succumbed to the effects of black magic. Mary claimed these mishaps began immediately after a black cat showed up on the Thomas farm-- a cat that assumed monstrous proportions, growing to four feet in height before magically returning to its previous form.

In 1862, the residents of Providence Township in Lackawanna County decided to establish a poor farm for those who were impoverished, handicapped, elderly, and otherwise unable to work and care for themselves. This facility, which was then known as the Hillside Home, also provided housing and treatment for the mentally ill. In 1943, the name was changed to the Clarks Summit State Hospital, which continues to operate to this day.

As with any asylum with such a long history, the Hillside Home has seen some dark moments, including several violent inmate deaths at the hands of staff members, but none so tragic as the brutal murder of two female inmates in the summer of 1906 by a deranged mute named Ignatz Krewzyk.

In March of 1928, William Ward and his young wife, Catherine Ward, occupied the second floor of a Pittsburgh duplex with their two children, three-year-old Billy and eight-month-old Dorothy Mae. Once, the Wards had a been a happy family with all-American dreams of white picket fences and a garage to park their car. But everything changed one cold, dreary Thursday morning in March.

On February 14, 1928, seven-year-old Lawrence McCall went to school at the No. 5  Mine schoolhouse in Springfield Township, near the Mercer-Lawrence county line. It was Valentine's Day and the teacher, Miss Ebba Widing, had planned a special presentation and all the parents were invited. Sadly, for the twenty pupils in attendance, this Valentine's Day would forever be remembered with horror, because on this particular day they looked on helplessly as Mrs. McCall slashed her own son's throat in full view of everyone.

During the early 20th century, James Black Spahr was a popular member of the Chambersburg borough council. Unlike many politicians, Spahr genuinely cared about his community and those who called it home, and his many years of public service were unblemished by scandal. A devout Christian and family man, he didn't seem to have an enemy in the world. But on December 3, 1909, the beloved public figure made a horrifying discovery... someone had stolen the remains of his infant son. Who did it and why? Therein lies the mystery.

Guest hosted by Ashley Bemis. In 1936, a perplexing triple murder occurred on South Braddock Avenue in Pittsburgh. Described as the "ideal family", five-year-old Bobby, three-year-old Janice, and their mother Eleanor were found brutally slain inside their luxurious apartment on June 18 while the husband was away from home. But who would want to slaughter Eleanor Feely and her two young children? To this day, no one is quite sure who carried out this gruesome act.

Connellsville dates back to the early 19th century, but it did not become a city until 1909, when the borough of Connellsville and its neighbor across the Youghiogeny River, the borough of New Haven, were joined together. While Connellsville is famous for being the center of the coke industry in western Pennsylvania during the late 1800s, New Haven was at the center of a spectacular quadruple murder in 1893.

Near Falls Creek in Jefferson County is a region known as Beechwoods, a locality which includes some of the finest farmland in Washington  Township. The area was settled in 1824 by Henry Keys, Alexander Osborn,  John McIntosh, John McGhee and Thomas Moore. These early settlers,  mostly of Scotch and Irish origin, named the community after the large  number of beech trees they found there. It is one of these founders, Thomas Moore, who played a role in one of  the most colorful chapters in the history of Jefferson County. It is a story that seems ripped right out of the pages of a novel, and features murder, suicide, a haunted farm and a buried treasure of silver and  gold.

The mysterious 1914 kidnapping of seven-year-old Warren McCarrick created a media sensation and culminated in the finding of a boy's body in the Delaware River. While the boy's abductor has never been caught, it's possible that Warren might have been one of numerous child victims tortured and killed by a monstrous degenerate.

A baseball executive, a sex-crazed playboy, and a wealthy doctor all suffer strange fates courtesy of the "evil eye".

Ask any resident of Exeter Township, and they'll tell you the most famous haunted house in the area is the Lizzie Lincoln house-- an abandoned 19th century structure that beckons spook-seekers from behind a rusting fence festooned with "No Trespassing" signs. The legend of Lizzie Lincoln is so famous around Berks County that it has found a home in numerous books about Pennsylvania ghost stories. However, it turns out that the entire legend may be nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by a lawless landfill owner... with a penchant for toxic waste.

When a small child was found hungry and crying inside an abandoned automobile parked along a rural stretch of Lycoming County in the summer of 1922, the first chapter of a perplexing mystery was written. When the bodies of a man and woman, their throats slashed as if by a razor, were found a few feet away in the waters of Lycoming Creek, the mystery deepened, and to this day no one knows if Henry Shearer and his wife were victims of a double murder or a murder suicide.

In 1909, an old hermit named David Cutschall died at the home of his brother-in-law in a sparsely-populated spot in Franklin County known as "The Corner". On his deathbed, Cutshall made a series of strange comments that left many scratching their heads, including a possible confession regarding the mysterious disappearance of an eight-year-old girl who vanished in the mountains below Mercersburg in 1869. At the time of the girl's disappearance, it was believed that she had either died of starvation after wandering off, or had been kidnapped by gypsies, but others believed until their dying day that David Cutschall had murdered the child in cold blood.

Perhaps the most famous haunted location in Erie County is the site of the old Gudgeonville Covered Bridge, which spanned Elk Creek for over a century near a gorge known as the Devil's Backbone. With rumors of paranormal activity stretching back to the early 20th century-- and a verifiable track record of bizarre deaths-- it is no surprise that Gudgeonville has become a favorite spot for ghosthunters. But when it comes to this spectacularly spooky site, what is fact and what is fiction? 

Just outside of Lewistown in Mifflin County is a picturesque little valley of patchwork farms and ancient barns. Known as Ort's Valley, this was the home of Henry Ort who, in 1903, bequeathed the cemetery on his farm to be held in trust for future burials of his descendants. Perhaps then it is no surprise that, shortly before his death in 1907, Henry Ort experienced a supernatural event that not only astounded newspaper reporters, but seemed to suggest that a heavenly reward had been set aside for him by a Higher Power. 

In 1903, the residents of York were terrorized by the appearance of a woman in a long black veil who strolled through Penn Park every night, imploring frightened passersby to lift her veil and take a peek. As if this nightly occurrence wasn't bizarre enough, it just so happened that Penn Park was once the site of a potter's field where York's impoverished and unknown dead had been buried in unmarked graves, as well as the site of a Civil War hospital.

Thousands of meteors streaked across the Pennsylvania sky for several weeks in October of 1907, with meteorites crashing into Schuylkill, Dauphin, Northumberland and surrounding counties by the hundreds. Across the mid-state, enormous chunks of red-hot space rock set forests ablaze while farmers and livestock alike huddled in barns and basements, fearful of their lives. From Wilkes-Barre to York, hundreds of men and women dropped to their knees in prayer, with many in hysterics. Surely, they thought, this is an omen of the end of the world.

It was a Wednesday morning in May of 1939 when neighbors of the Cook family made a startling discovery-- a bloody axe lying upon the ground. Being a farming community not far from the Ohio state line, blades and bloody implements weren't terribly uncommon in South Beaver Township; the necessities of daily life often required the butchering of a chicken or the slaughtering of a pig. But there was indeed something about the bloody axe that was very uncommon, and grounds for some concern-- there was hair stuck to the blade, and the hair appeared to be human.

Constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1961, Kettle Creek  Reservoir in Clinton County is a popular destination for fishermen,  boaters and swimmers. Yet, beneath its peaceful waters rests the bones of long-forgotten early settlers of Leidy Township.

Just about everyone in Pennsylvania knows about the ghost town of Centralia, and most folks who were born and raised in the area, such as myself, have spent many a summer day exploring the post-Apocalyptic terrain, marveling at the smoke billowing from cracks in the abandoned streets, and pondering the fire that has been burning underground for generations. However, very few locals remember Centralia's smaller and lesser-known neighbor-- the once-bustling village of Logan. Like Centralia, Logan also became a casualty of the infamous mine fire.

When one thinks of murder scenes, the mind naturally gravitates towards secluded wilderness spots, dark basements, bar rooms and back alleys. The actors in these grisly crimes, if justice is lucky, are arrested and locked up until such time as they are called upon by the  criminal justice system to face the consequences of their sinister deeds in a courtroom. We tend to view courtrooms as impregnable places where killers go to face the music for their crimes-- not places where a murder is likely to occur. Yet, the Cumberland County Courthouse in Carlisle was the scene of a shootout in 1955 which resulted in the death of an attorney, and the wounding of several others, including a judge.

The story of the rise and fall of Frank Lee Wilson is a remarkable tale; it is the tragic story of a quiet, tiny man tasked with the awesome responsibility of meting out justice to the state's most hardened and repugnant criminals. And it is a cautionary tale about how a mild-mannered individual can turn into a cruel, hardened shell of a human being in just a few short years after being granted the God-like power of revoking human life.

When John Wentzel discovered a human skeleton buried in the basement of his Federal Street home in Lebanon in 1926, it set into motion a bizarre chain of events that whipped the entire city into a frenzy. It is a  story of a chilling nightmare-- following by a gruesome find-- that still puzzles fans of paranormal unsolved mysteries to this day.

Built in 1894, the seven-story Hotel Jermyn has been a Scranton landmark for over a century. Named after coal baron John Jermyn, the 200-room hotel has seen scores of famous and infamous guests alike, from President Eisenhower to mafia hitmen, and has boasted a bevy of locally-famous bars and nightclubs such as the Omar Room, which opened in 1935 and showcased renowned performers of the era like Pauline Gaskins, Frank Fay and Red Nichols.  

Today, the Scranton landmark once known as the Hotel Jermyn now operates as an apartment building for seniors. Perhaps some of the older residents may remember dancing the night away in the hotel's Arabian Ballroom or slaking their thirst in the Manhattan Bar. And perhaps some of them might still recall that strange night in 1947 when a young woman named Ethel White mysteriously jumped to her death from her seventh floor window.

Located about seventy-five miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Reynoldsville is a small, quiet town which hasn't seen much excitement since the 1920s, when a handful of factories and silk mills attracted workers to the tiny borough. In the summer of 1928, Frank Chiffin was employed at the silk mill as a watchman. The close proximity between the mill and his home allowed him to keep tabs on his family. He kept a particularly close watch on his wife, who was fifteen years younger and said to be quite attractive, and before long Frank Chiffin began to suspect that Gertrude was having an affair. What happened next? Listen to this episode and find out.

Located near the center of the Lock Haven University campus, Woolridge Hall is home to over two hundred college students. While scores of students have passed though the doors of this modern building since its construction in 1962, many would be surprised to learn that this spot was once the location of "Hillside"-- the sprawling estate of state senator Samuel Richard Peale and his wife, Harriet. It was also the site of a mysterious suicide in 1884.

The story of Solomon "Bip" Vawn is well known throughout Pennsylvania. It is a classic tale of a runaway slave who, despite unbelievable odds, finds freedom north of the Mason-Dixon Line and lives out the remainder of his days in peace and prosperity. There are many different versions of the story; in some accounts, Bip dies at a ripe old age and is buried on his farm in Mont Alto in Franklin County, while other versions of the story have him retiring to Ohio or Southern California. But what is the truth behind this classic Pennsylvania fable?

One of Montgomery County's most perplexing unsolved mysteries is the 1932 death of Samuel Forti, whose battered body was found hanging in the washroom of the Werner Foundry in Lansdale, where he worked as a night watchman. At various times, authorities believed that Forti's death was the result of suicide, an attack by a burglar, revenge by a jealous lover, and-- perhaps strangest of all-- a shadowy religious cult.

A decade ago, the law enforcement community of Chester County wanted to pay tribute to a sheriff who was killed on his second day on the job in 1887. They chose to memorialize the long-forgotten sheriff, Benjamin Irey, with an 18-by-15-inch bronze plaque at the courthouse in West Chester. Usually, such ceremonies involve descendants of the fallen hero's family. But in the case of Benjamin Irey, county officials were unable to find any of his descendants-- and, for a very peculiar reason: The Irey family bloodline was obliterated by a baffling series of strange deaths.

The Moosic Mountains of Lackawanna County are just a stone's throw away from the urban centers of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, yet they still contain dark, shadowy, seemingly impenetrable places steeped in mystery dating back to Indian times. However, one of the most fascinating mysteries doesn't date back to the early settler days, but to the early 20th century, when the coal mining industry reigned supreme. It is the mystery of a skeleton of an unknown man whose bones might be scattered anywhere except the spot they were first buried in 1906.

In the early hours of September 10, 1896, the sleepy town of Bloomsburg became the center of one of the most diabolical murder plots ever concocted by the human mind. Poison, dynamite and deadly microbes-- these were the tools used by Clifton Knorr, a disgruntled son  of a wealthy businessman hired by prominent local lawyer Lloyd S. Wintersteen to eliminate his chief rival.