John Stacks, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, died April 24, 1872, from injuries suffered on April 23 on Smithfield St., downtown. Henry Bender, who owned a saloon in which Stacks had just dined, was charged with the killing.
Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, April 23, 1872
Bender was acquitted at trial on June 14, 1872. After this verdict, charges against his alleged accomplice, William Kocher, were dropped. Both defendants were German immigrants.
I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa.
This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed.
Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County.
View all posts by Bill Lofquist
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 