1937 WB Record Almanac, Other Capitol Crimes in Luzerne County in 1936

January 29 – Lawrence Heffernan, 53, of Mountain Road, Larksville Mountain, found shot and beaten to death in snow near home. Ronald Paul Hill, 31, neighbor and business associate charged with crime, was adjudged insane by lunacy commission and sentenced on March 10 to Farview State Hospital for the Criminal Insane.

January 31 – Body of James Giordano, 19, of 41 LaGrange Street, Pittston bearing 17 bullet wounds, found in front of side entrance to St. John’s Slovak cemetery, Exeter, at 12:15 a.m.  He had been dead about one and one-half hours. Police traced two revolvers recovered near the body to a Pittston sporting goods store, but the dealer had failed to keep a record of the purchases, and the murder has not been cleared up.

March 3 – Ruth Houser, 3 dies Hazleton State Hospital of fractured skull suffered  when police charged, her mother, Mrs. Clara Houser, 35, wielded a hammer while the child was asleep in the home at Harwood Mines, near Hazleton, on the afternoon of March 2. Mrs. Houser was declared insane on April 15, and ordered committed to hospital for insane at Retreat.

March 27 – Mrs. Grace Cook, 47, found dead shortly before noon in cellar of home, 904 West First Street, Hazleton, from skull blows inflicted with blunt end of ax.  Police arrested husband, Prof. Ernest L. Cook, 45, who was indicted by a grand jury on a murder charge, but was adjudged insane by a lunacy commission on May 18 and committed to Farview State Hospital.

July 13 – William P. Lynch, 50, of 83 Elizabeth Street, Pittston, WPA foreman, dies in Pittston Hospital at 1:45 a.m., three hours after he was shot twice in the back while walking with his wife near home.  Lynch, Pittston’s, first murder victim in five years lived three hours with a bullet in his heart.

July 19 – John Mazerkevich, 52 of 194 Rees Street, dies in Wyoming Valley Homeopathic Hospital from injuries suffered when brutally beaten on July 16 in a Joseph Lane garage Joseph Boklsky, 40, and John Walukonis, 47, both of 339 South Empire Street, were charged with the crime. Boklsky pleaded guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge and was sentenced on October 1 to serve from one and one-half to 10 years in county jail.  Walukonis was found guilty by jury on a similar charge September 29, and sentenced on October 3 to serve from two and one-half to five years in Eastern Penitentiary.

July 31 – Thomas Bradshaw, 40, of 881 Main Street, Sugar Notch, deputy game protector, found slain in thick underbrush a mile from Bear Lake-Thornhurst Road in Meadow Run section.  A companion, Anna Balla, 34, of 32 O’Neill Avenue, was unable to help authorities, who made an intensive search for the fatal bullet at the scene of the crime without results.

August 6 – Frank Neffgen, 64, jobless silk worker of 194 Pringle Street, Kingston, shoots and kills his wife, Mary, 57, and then ends his own life, police say, after argument in kitchen of their home.

August 15 – Walter Yanchas, 34, of 62 ˝ Mitchell Street, Sebastopol, fatally injured in a brawl at home.  Stanley Michlesavage, 22, brother-in-law, pleaded self-defense on September 14, and was adjudge guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and costs and to serve from three to ten years in the County Jail.

September 16 – Peter (Randovanich) Randage, 23 of 3 ˝ Buckingham Avenue, Luzerne, dies in Nesbitt Memorial Hospital of internal hemorrhages caused by stab wound in abdomen in a fight at Luzerne.  Matthew Willich, 48, of Durland Avenue, Courtdale, was indicted by grand jury November 9 on a charge of murder.  He entered a plea of guilty to general charge of murder on November 30, relating a story of self defense, but had to been sentenced at press time.

October 15 – Stanly Sussool of West Hazleton fatally assaulted.  Joseph Potochney of West Hazleton indicted on a charge of murder on November 10 by grand jury.  Trial was delayed until February.