Louis G. Spencer, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed on December 24, 1946, while pursuing a man who had fired a gun near Spencer’s Hill District home. Spencer, who was off duty at the time, responded to the shot and encountered Oneal Coleman firing into another neighbor’s home.
The two men fought and Spencer was killed. Coleman was convicted of second-degree murder on April 9, 1947, and sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison.
Like this:
Like Loading...
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