Nicholas Glazner, a well-known trolley motorman, dated Margaret Hall, who lived and worked as a servant in the 412 Atwood Street home of John M. Roberts, a downtown jeweler. Glazner, who was 46, was separated from his disabled wife, Louisa. Hall was 35 and single.
After returning from an evening together in the city on February 10, 1903, Glazner and Hall were heard by neighbors to be arguing near the rear door of the Roberts’ home. Glazner then shot Hall once in the face. He attempted suicide immediately after the killing, but sustained only a minor bullet wound to the head. He was moved from the hospital to the jail on February 11.
Prior to his trial, Glazner claimed Hall was the shooter, having shot him before taking her own life. At trial on September 28, 1903, however, Glazner refused counsel and insisted on pleading guilty. The state’s efforts to encourage him to withdraw his plea and go to trial were unsuccessful.
Testimony given to determine the degree of murder refuted Glazner’s claim that he was drunk at the time of the killing. Rather, the story that emerged was that Hall was involved in a relationship with another man, also a trolley motorman, and that she had received and worn two rings from that other man, Isaac L. Glump. Glazner’s murderous jealousy related to that relationship, rather than any diminished capacity on his part.
Glazner was sentenced to death on December 5, 1903. His pardon request, which was financed by his fellow motormen and which advanced a claim that he suffered from post-typhoid insanity, was rejected.
As with the Woodley case eight years earlier, newspaper accounts seemed to struggle to reconcile Glazner’s crime with his race and station in life, referring to him as “intelligent looking” and emphasizing the atypicality of his crime.
Nicholas Glazner was hanged on July 21, 1904, steadfast to the end in his refusal to discuss his crime. The speed of his death made his “one of the most successful hangings that has taken place in the county for years.”
Glazner’s past legal troubles were not mentioned during his trial.
Louisa Byerly Glazner died in Pittsburgh on June 11, 1911.
John M. Roberts & Son Jewelers, which originally opened in Pittsburgh in 1832, closed in 1997.
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 