Vernon Porter Moses, Chief of the Ross Township Police Department, was shot and killed during a traffic stop on May 3, 1932. John Maug, head of a notorious gang of robbers and bootleggers, was in the car, as were Edward Turpack and Charles Moyer. They shot Moses twice and fled.
The three men were apprehended in October 1932. At trial, Moyer was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison; Maug and Turpack received sentences of life plus 60 to 120 years.
Maug and Turpack escaped from Western Penitentiary on April 27, 1933. They were arrested for robbery in Colorado soon after. At trial there, they were convicted and imprisoned for life.