Vernon Porter Moses

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.

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