Martin Pluter

Martin Pluter, a Pennsylvania State Constable, was shot and killed after an altercation with five men in Wall Borough on April 16, 1934. After telling the men to go home, a fight broke out. Pluter drew his gun and shot one of the men in the foot; his gun was then turned against him and he was killed.

Two men, John Arendas and Paul Hardin, were formally charged. Arendas was the son of the former Wall Borough constable; Pluter had been appointed to replace him after the senior Arendas was removed from office for corruption.

John Arendas pled guilty to second-degree murder in September 1934 and was sentenced to six to twenty years in prison. Hardin was convicted at trial of voluntary manslaughter the following month and sentenced to four to eight years in prison.

Author: Bill Lofquist

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