Pittsburgh Police Department Officer Roy Freiss was directing traffic on the south side of the Smithfield Street Bridge on February 3, 1935, when he was struck and killed by a car driven by Marcel Forcinal.
Forcinal, proprietor of Frenchy’s Restaurant, was drunk at the time. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on May 27, 1935, and was placed on probation for three years and ordered to pay restitution to Freiss’s widow.
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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 