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CAPITAL CRIMES -- 1932

December 7, 1931 --Dominick Grecco, 48, of Pittston, was shot and killed while at a party. Ross Cantella was found guilty of manslaughter in the case by a jury which was out twenty-six hours. Mercy was recommended. He was sentenced to serve from three to six years.
	
January 1932--Joseph Peopas, 24, of Hazleton, was shot and killed while seated in a Hazleton theatre. Chester Perlinsky, 27, of Hazleton, was arrested. Perlinsky was tried before a jury and was acquitted on March 30.

February 1932--Body of a woman found floating in the Susquehanna river at Berwick was identified a few days later as body of Mrs. Corodo Morelli, 35, of Shickshinny. Autopsy showed that the body was thrown into water after death. The neck had been broken in two places. Her slayer had not been arrested at the end of the year.

March 1932--Joseph Yebenec, 40, of Wilkes-Barre, died in Homeopathic hospital of tenanus, resulting from knife wounds suffered on March 7. Ignatz Turon, also of Wilkes-Barre, was arrested.

May 1932--On the night of May 15, Stanley E. Yurish, 26, of Butler township, was shot and killed and his body burned by two men who had come to his house and asked for gasoline for a stalled car. Joseph E. Hudock and Stephan R.. Barron were arrested. Hudock was adjudged guilty by three judges of murder in the first degree and the death penalty was imposed. He had pleaded guilty to the murder charge. Barron was brought to trial in November and was acquitted. Early on the morning of December 1 Hudak was found lying in his cell at Luzerne county prison with his throat and wrist slashed. He was taken to General hospital and later returned to county prison pending action by the State board of pardons on his application for commutation of death sentence.

June 14,1932--Luis Nicholas, 44, of Parsons, was shot and instantly killed in his store by Vaso Radulovich, 48, of Parsons, when Nicholas refused to lend some money to the latter. Radulovich commited suicide.

August 5, 1932--The body of August Boasak, 42, of 110 Custer street, city, was found in the woods on the newarby mountains with a bullete wound in the neck. Police believed that he was slain but no arrests had been made when the Almanac went to press.

August 13 --Stanley Vance, 21, of Nanticoke, was killed during a fight at a party. Joseph Purka, 19, of New York City, was arrested and pleaded self defense. He was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. His attorney filed reasons for a new trial but they had not been disposed of when the Almanac went to press.

August 30 --Early on morning of August 30 members of the State police stopped an automobile driven by Joseph Mulcahey of Pittston and found a newly born baby in a nailed box. The baby was taken to Nesbitt Hospital where it died. Mr. Mulcahey and his wife Helen, and Arline Kearney, Mrs. Mulcahey's sister and the mother of the child, were arrested on charges of murder and Mrs. Mary Loftus, midwife of Exeter was arrrested on a charge of abortion.

The murder charge was later reduced to manslaughter and when the trial started Miss Kearney was freed. Mr. and Mrs. Mulcahey were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a jury. Mrs. Loftus was found guilty of performing a criminal operation. Reasons for a new trial were presented but had not been acted upon when the Almanac went to press.

September 18, 1932--Charles Ford, 48, colored, of Wilkes-Barre, died in Mercy hospital of injuries suffered in a fight. William Johnson, colored, also of this city, for whom police searched  in connection with the case, gave himself up a week later. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to server from three to six years in the county jail.

November 3, 1932--Mrs. Agnes Rokus, 56, of Edwardsville, died in General hospital of a broken neck, alleged to have been suffered when she was pushed from a porch by her husband, Michael Rokus. He was arrested and held on a charge of murder to await action by the grand jury.

November 9, 1932--Arcangelo Cicilotti, 34, of Wilkes-Barre, was jailed on a charge of manslaughter for the killing of Joseph Camparini, 44, of Freeland, while both were hunting.

November 14, 1932--Peter Cutler, 50, Heights hardware dealer, was shot down in hist store by two men and died shortly after in General hospital. A widespread search was  made for two suspects and a week later Anthony Petroskey, alias Tetroskey, was arrested in Allentown. Several days later Frank Stabinski, the second man sought, was arrested on a central city street here. Police reported connecting them with a number of robberies, burglary and assault cases, included the fatal assault on Miss Mary Malinowski, daughter of County Assessor Emil Malinowski. Miss Malinowski died on November 27. The grand jury was recalled and Stabinski and Tetroskey were indicted on two murder charges and for other felonies. Dates were fixed for trial of the first murder cases but the pair asked for a change of venue and a Supremem Court justice granted a stay pending an argument before the Supreme Court in January.

On January 22, 1932--Louis Biesiadocki of Glen Lyon pleaded guilty to a charge of murdering his wife on May 30, 1931, and was remanded for sentence. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

On February 11,1932--Charles Adamovich, who was held in connection with the death of his father-in-law, Bala Gall, of Plains, which occurred November 16, 1932, was acguitted of a charge of murder.

Peter M. DeLuca, sought in connection with the murder of Alex Campbell and Peter Reilly in February 1928, was arrested in Honolulu. Capt. W. A. Clark of the State Police and Chief County Detective Richard Powell returned him to this city for trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Joseph Roselli of Buffalo was arrested at Buffalo in September on a charge of murder for the fatal stabbing of Anthony Durka of Kingston, on Christmas night, 1923. He was placed on trial here in November and was freed by direction of the Court when his connection with the case was not fully established.


Typed by Gene Linkoski
and 
Pat Dundore, May/June 2003