1902 WB Record Almanac, Capital Crimes in 1901
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  Those Who Met Death at the Hands of Others in Luzerne County

There were six murders and one case in which there was suspicion of murder in Luzerne County 
during the year 1901, as against seven during 1900.

Joseph Brazinski of Freeland died of a bullet wound inflicted in a Freeland saloon on December 
15, 1900.  He was 30 years of age and the shooting was the result of a quarrel. Several arrests 
were made, but there was not enough evidence to convict the defendants and the murder so far 
has gone unavenged.

January 6 the body of Thomas Gilson a Plymouth mine foreman, was found along a lonely road
 with a skull fracture. Gilson had been called at night to one of the mines and it was on his way 
home that he met death.  The night was cold.   The fact that there was nothing much the matter
 at the mine when he reached there gave rise to suspicion that he was decoyed to the place 
and assaulted while at the lonely place mentioned. The general belief, however, is that he fell 
on a stone and fractured his scull and was so numbed by the cold that he could not help himself. 
No arrestswere made.

March 5 Rudolph Dimorio was shot while walking along the street at Freeland and died soon
 afterwards.  Nicholas Capace, also a barber was connected with the crime and jealousy in
 trade was alleged as the motive which prompted it. The evidence was circumstantial, but it 
was so damaging that at the trial in Jun e he pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree 
and was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. It was brought out in the course of the
 trial that Dimorio was shot from the cellar window.

April 9 Adam Rhodes of Parsons was stabbed while going home from Wilkes-Barre about 
1AM. The stabbing occurred on one of the main streets of that borough.  A companion, who
 was with Rhodes, said they met a drunken foreigner and he was making considerable noise
 they told him to keep quiet. Soon after Rhodes’s companion left him he heard Rhodes scream
 and on going to him found that he had been stabbed. He died fifteen minutes after. A couple
 of days later county detective Jones, after an unusually good piece of work, arrested Michael 
Crooks, living near Laflin. At the trial the latter stated that he was on his way home when the 
young man began teasing him and finally there was a fight during which he, Crooks, got his 
pocket knife, opened it with his teeth and one hand,  and stabbed one of the young men. He
 was acquitted on the ground of self defense.

May 17 Martin Cawley of Duryea was shot and killed in the saloon of Joseph Yescawicz by
 the latter. Cawley was a member of a gang of young men that had been out drinking I was
 alleged that they went into Yescawicz’s saloon and ordered some drinks without paying for 
them. Later all but Cawley left the place.  The latter and the saloonkeeper got into an altercation
 and it was alleged that Cawley threw a beer glass at Yescawicz.  The saloonkeeper secured
 his revolver and fired.  When Cawley’s companions returned he was dead.  Yescawicz 
 pleaded self defense, but was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to
 two years in jail.  

June 29 Ralph Salvadora was stabbed in a Freeland saloon during a quarrel and Joseph Vite
 was arrested charged with the crime.  Jealously is alleged as the motive. The defendant plead 
guilty of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years. 

July 4 John Mulish died as the result of a fracture of the scull sustained while being assaulted 
and robbed.  He with some companions was going along one of the lonely roads near Maltby
 when they were stopped.  The Companions escaped and Mulish was relieved of his watch and
 some money. The case was made known to the authorities until several days after the assault. 
 An Arabian named Abrehem was suspected and the authorities learned that he had escaped 
to South Africa.

Governor Stone fixed the date for the execution of John Lutz of West Pittston, twice convicted of 
murder in the first degree for killing his wife, for November 21, but this was afterwards postponed 
to Jan. 21, 1902, in order that a report on his sanity might be made. 
   The insanity expert having reported that Lutz is sane, the Board of Pardons on Nov. 21 refused
 to interfere.