Look Back: Railroad policeman in 1934 fatally shot Wilkes-Barre Township teen
Mar. 5—Central Railroad of New Jersey policeman George Koch was on a freight and coal train passing through the cut in the mountainside between Ashley and Wilkes-Barre Township when he noticed a group of young men walking along the tracks on March 5, 1934.
Koch, 42, of 142 Brown St., Hanover Township, fired his pistol striking John Halecki, 19, of 59 Summit St., Wilkes-Barre Township, in the head, instantly killing the young lad near the Northampton Street grade crossing and the Franklin stripping.
Halecki's body was taken to the Wyoming Valley Homeopathic Hospital in Wilkes-Barre where a post mortem examination was performed confirming the fatal gunshot wound.
The arrest of Koch took some time.
Hospital staff notified the police chief in Georgetown, John Skuba, who alerted Luzerne County detective John Dempsey.
Koch did not instruct the engineer to stop the freight and coal train that continued to Ashley where it stopped to take on water at the Ashley railyard before proceeding up the steep mountainside to Mountain Top.
After freight and coal cars were uncoupled at the Penobscot railyard, Kock returned to Ashley on a pusher locomotive.
Koch immediately sent a telegraph to the attorney for the Central Railroad of New Jersey and surerndered himself to detectives at the Luzerne County Courthouse.
Unlike today's court schedule, Koch's preliminary hearing was held hours after the fatal shooting before Judge W. Alfred Valentine.
"Several young men who were with Halecki were rounded up by Chief of Police Skuba and county detectives and were taken to the courthouse where they gave details of the shooting to Judge Valentine," The Times Leader reported March 6, 1934.
After hearing the testimony of only two of the five witnesses, Stanley Stavish and Stanley Mracukoski, Judge Valentine halted the preliminary hearing and ordered Koch to be jailed at the Luzerne County Prison without bail. Judge Valentine then ordered Assistant District Attorney John H. Dando to conduct an investigation into the fatal shooting.
Stavish and Mracukoski said they did not throw any stones at the train and could give no reason why Koch would fire his pistol.
A motive why Koch fired his pistol were coal robbers.
"The county officials were informed that groups of Georgetown residents raid the coal trains as they pass through Georgetown and shovel tons of coal from the cars to the ground, later gather it up in bags," the Times Leader reported.
Koch remained jailed for weeks until the murder case was presented to a grand jury in April 1934.
"The murder charge against George Koch, a railroad policeman, for fatally shooting John Halecki in Wilkes-Barre Township on March 5 was ignored," the Times Leader reported April 28, 1934.
Halecki's death certificate was initially listed as "gunshot wound in head; investigation as to murder."
After the grand jury's recommendation not to pursue the murder case against Koch, Halecki's death certificate was changed to "accidental."
Koch, of Brown Street, Hanover Township, was cleared of Halecki's murder and continued to arrest coal robbers through the 1950s. Koch died of respiratory failure at his home on Nov. 3, 1960, and was buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Hanover Township.
Halecki was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Wyoming.
