Robert Leo Kosmal, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was stabbed and shot after encountering a fight in Homewood on August 16, 1935.
Kosmal was off duty and returning home with his wife and friends when they came upon the two men, Robert Carter and Joseph Thompson. Kosmal died the next day.
Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder on December 14, 1935, and sentenced to life in prison. Carter was not charged.
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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
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 