Capital Crimes In 1950 The following information is posted for the sole purpose of family research within the Yahoo Group, The Court House Gang. It is not to be published to any other web site, mailing list, group, etc. without prior written permission and guidelines from the group owner, to ensure that proper credit is given to the group and all of our volunteers that helped with this project. There were two capital crimes in Luzerne County in 1950. Mrs. Belinda Wyckoff, aged Pittston woman, was beaten to death with an iron furnace shaker by her husband, Frank Wyckoff, on January 10. Wyckoff pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to serve from 5 to 12 years in Luzerne County Prison on October 2. Carmen James Adams, Shamokin formerly of Dupont, pleaded guilty to murder generally in the saying of Charles Edwin Snyder, Herndon tavern keeper. Snyder’s body was found with a bullet hole through his abdomen on a lonely road near Dupont. Adams was remanded for sentence. Frank Rakus 122 North Main Street, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Eastern Penitentiary on April 19 for the December 10,1949, murder of Leone Handin, 62, in his Wilkes-Barre furniture and second hand shop. Rakus pleaded guilty to murder generally. Typed by Breanna Morgan Smith, June 2004