Julius “Beefer” Moten,* a 36-year old railroad porter, and his common-law wife, Mamie Wheeler, a domestic, fought frequently. Shortly after midnight on July 31, 1910, drunk again and jealous, Moten shot and killed Wheeler. He then attempted suicide by shooting himself once in the head. Wheeler’s 12-year old son was in the room at the time.
The killing occurred in the 1015 Webster Avenue, Hill District home of Sallie Davis, Wheeler’s friend, where she had gone to escape Moten’s abuse.
After Moten and Wheeler, both Virginia-born, fought on July 29 at their home, she called the police. Wheeler had been badly beaten. Moten was arrested, fined, and released the next day. After being released, he told others that he would kill Wheeler and another man, Frank, her alleged lover.
At trial, Sallie Davis described the night of the shooting and the history of abuse that preceded it. Wheeler’s young son, Louis Moore, described the scene inside the bedroom where the shooting occurred. Moten, who argued that he had been mentally incapacitated by delirium tremens two years earlier, was convicted of first degree murder on October 14, 1910.
After his motion for a new trial was rejected, Moten was sentenced to death on November 26, 1910.
His conviction was reversed on appeal on February 6, 1911, due to a “manifestly erroneous” charge to the jury related to Moten’s insanity (alcoholic dementia) plea (Commonwealth v. Molten, 230 Pa. 399, 1911).
On retrial, on February 22, 1911, Moten was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to twenty years in Western Penitentiary. He was paroled on October 22, 1917.
After his release, Moten remarried, remained in Pittsburgh, and worked for Carnegie Steel. He died on February 17, 1936.
* Court records list Moten’s name as Molten. However, census, military, and death records record his name as Moten.
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 