Convicted killer serving life in Florida confesses to 6 Pa. slayings, including 3 in native Beaver County
Jun. 2—A convicted killer serving life sentences in Florida has confessed to six slayings in four separate incidents across Pennsylvania in the late 1970s, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
Edward A. Surratt, 71, has been serving two life sentences for a series of Florida crimes, and he has also been convicted of murder in South Carolina. Now, Pennsylvania State Police said, Surratt has also confessed to three slayings in Beaver County: William and Nancy Adams in 1977 and John Shelkons in 1978.
State police said they began communicating with Surratt from his Florida prison cell in 2018 and traveled to the Raiford Correctional Facility this past March.
"PSP investigators never stopped seeking justice for the victims of these terrible crimes and their families," said Lt. Col. Scott Price, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. "We hope that the confessions announced today will help bring some semblance of closure to the victims' loved ones."
In addition to the Beaver County cases, Surratt also confessed to killing Guy and Laura Mills in Fulton County on Dec. 31, 1977, as well as Joel Krueger the same day in Bedford County, officials said.
District attorneys in Bedford, Beaver and Fulton have agreed not to prosecute Surratt for the crimes because of his numerous life sentences in other jurisdictions.
Surratt, an Aliquippa native, was suspected in several killings in Pennsylvania, Ohio and, later, South Carolina after he was spotted driving a dead man's car in Beaver County, according to records from the time. In fall 1978, Surratt was given two life sentences and an additional 200 years for burglary, assault and rape. He's also been convicted of murder in South Carolina.
Surratt first admitted to killing Shelkons around the time of his rape trial in Florida, according to a 1978 Associated Press article. A detective told the news outlet that Surratt "asked me which one did I want to know about. I told him Shelkons." The detective further told the AP that Surratt promised to talk about other cases at a later date.
In 2007, Surratt confessed to a slew of other previously unsolved homicides in Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to the Miami Herald.
William Adams Jr., 31, was found dead in his Fallston home early Nov. 20, 1977. His wife, 29-year-old Nancy, was missing. She has never been found. The couple's two children, aged 4 and 7, discovered their father's body and called their grandmother when they couldn't find their mother, according to a report by the Pittsburgh Press at the time.
Shelkons was 54 when he was shot to death in his Baden home on Jan. 7, 1978. His wife had been beaten but survived, according to The Pittsburgh Press.
In all, authorities linked 18 killings in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio in 1977 and 1978 to Surratt.
A New York Times story from December 1977 describes the spate of killings across Allegheny and surrounding counties, noting that hardware stores sold out of locks and bolts and one gun dealer sold 20 firearms in one week.
The story, published prior to Sheklons's slaying, touched on the Adams's deaths and noted other similar crimes in the region, including Richard and Donna Hyde, of Moon, and teenagers John Feeny and Renee Gregor in Findlay.
Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter .
