Author: Bill Lofquist

John Mancos, a Pennsylvania State Constable, was stabbed to death by Michael Plavetich while attempting to serve a warrant on his wife, Cecelia, in Braddock Park on July 22, 1925. The warrant alleged assault and battery against a neighbor.

Plavetich, who claimed the police were treating his wife with excessive force, pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

Joseph Jovanovic, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed by Henry Edwards on Monday, July 7, 1924. The shooting occurred pursuant to Jovanovic’s arrest and search of Edwards and Charles Allen, who are reported to have been acting suspiciously. A second police officer, John P. Abbott, was shot in the arm and wounded. The suspects fled.

By the following evening, at least 26 black men were being held in the South Side Police Station as suspects. Edwards was among them. He was picked out of a lineup by a white teenaged girl who saw the killing from inside her home.

Edwards was convicted of first-degree murder on November 25, 1924, and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 29, 1925.

Max Lefkowitz, an officer with the McKeesport Police Department, was shot and killed by Jose Gonzalez on May 14, 1924. Lefkowitz was attempting to arrest Gonzalez for suspicious conduct when Gonzalez stabbed him. Gonzalez then took Lefkowitz’s service revolver and shot him. Gonzalez was badly injured during the altercation.

Gonzalez was convicted of second-degree murder on October 9, 1924.

Frank X. Mooney, a deputy with the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, was shot by Charles L. Hoard as he attempted to serve a writ to dispossess Hoard of his furniture on May 2, 1923. Mooney died of his wounds on May 19, 1923.

At trial, Hoard claimed that he acted in self-defense, believing that Mooney was attempting to steal his furniture.

Hoard was convicted of second-degree murder on December 13, 1923.

Casper Thomas Schmotzer, a sergeant with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed on January 23, 1923, when he and two other officers attempted to retrieve a stolen gun at Michael Globek’s residence.

The two surviving officers testified that Globek shot Schmotzer without provocation as Globek attempted to flee. Globek, who fired the fatal shot using the stolen gun, claimed self-defense, saying the officers struck him when they entered his home.

Globek was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in June 1923.

Daniel J. Conley, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed in the pre-dawn hours of December 30, 1922, in the Hill District. He was killed with a single shot to the upper chest by Henry Jackson.

Conley was walking his patrol when he approached four young men whom he suspected of carrying liquor. He was apparently enforcing an informal 3am curfew. When he questioned the men, Jackson pulled a gun, shot him, and fled.

The police put out a dragnet, in which dozens of black men were arrested and a shoot to kill order was issued. A lengthy investigation followed, which focused on a jacket found near the scene.

Jackson was arrested in June 1923 after robbing a man in the Hill District; he was linked to the Conley murder by descriptions provided of the man who purchased the jacket.

At trial, Jackson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He was executed on March 30, 1925. His was the first execution for killing a police officer in Allegheny County history.

Edward George Couch, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed by Joseph Valotta on October 30, 1922. In another case involving labor unrest, Valotta, a strikebreaker, had shot and killed Thomas Hopkins, a striking railroad worker who had called Valotta a “scab.” When Couch responded to the scene, he was shot. Valotta fled the scene.

A nationwide manhunt ensued, leading to Valotta’s arrest in Pitcairn on November 5, 1922. Claiming he acted in self-defense, Valotta was convicted of second-degree murder for killing Hopkins and first degree and sentenced to death for killing Couch.

Valotta’s convictions were reversed and he was freed on December 18, 1924, when the federal court held that his rights had been violated by being tried simultaneously on two separate murder charges.

A new indictment was immediately filed. Valotta was retried, convicted, and sentenced to death a second time. This death sentence was commuted to life on June 23, 1926 and he was transferred to Western Penitentiary.

Joseph A. Coghill, an officer with the Dormont Police Department, was shot in the head and killed instantly as he and his partner, Byron Schwartz, responded to a report of a prowler, on December 25, 1921. The assailants fled.

John P. Rush was arrested on January 23, 1922, on an unrelated charge in the Hill District and was held for Coghill’s murder. Prior to Rush’s arrest, enraged citizens had threatened to lynch two groups of suspects.

Rush attempted suicide in his jail cell soon after being apprehended. Then, on March 20, 1922, Rush was found in jail in possession of a gun and was implicated as the leader of an escape plot that included three other inmates facing murder charges.

Rush was convicted on June 24, 1922, and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life by Governor Pinchot on October 31, 1923, due to concerns about his mental health.

Peter K. Tsorvas, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot on October 30, 1920, and died three days later. Nicholas Epiotis was arrested.

The shooting appears to have been linked to tensions within the Pittsburgh Greek community. Tsorvas, a plainclothes officer, and his brother were alleged to have been using their influence to extort money from Greek gambling interests that included Epiotis.

Epiotis pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in May 1921 and was sentenced to four to eight years in prison.

William Frank Smith, an officer with the Homestead Borough Police Department, was shot and killed on October 6, 1920, by Ernesto Martinez, a Mexican “maddened by smoking Indian hemp or hasheesh.” Police had responded to reports of a man with a gun.

After killing Smith, Martinez moved through Homestead before barricading himself in a home. He was found there by pursuing officers and shot numerous times. He died at the scene. Two other officers were also injured by Martinez.