Louise Carroll: Remembering the 1941 bank robbers shootout in Ellwood City

ELLWOOD CITY – "Come out with your hands up!" How often have you heard that on reality shows, movies or TV series?

On Sept. 15, 1941, Ellwood City Police Chief Ernest Hartman barked out the order as he stood where the north end of the Fifth Street Bridge intersects Wampum Avenue.

He had his 45-caliber Thompson machine gun pointed at the 1939 Buick Club-Coupe with three armed robbers.

It was the big shoot-out on the North Side of Ellwood City. I was 8 years old when it happened and our house was less than half a block from the scene of the action. I was in school, of course, but I heard all about the excitement when I got home.

My mother said she hurried to the cellar as soon as she heard the shots and was not an eyewitness to the great shootout. She said men who were coming or going to work in the mill were laying on the ground.

The three bandits Albert Feelo, 26, of Republic, Virgil Evarts, 27, of Smithfield, and Kenneth Palmer, 33, of Volant, had been on a crime spree and were heading toward Ellwood City. When Hartman got the news he hurried to the north side of the bridge and was ready. Instead of getting out with their hands up, shots were fired and the exchange of fire was at close quarters, but Hartman's machine gun had the advantage and he hit all three.

The bandits took off across the bridge and headed south toward Koppel and Belton Road in Beaver County with Hartman following.

Off-duty policeman Edward Shaffer witnessed part of the scene and got into the car of James Pasta, a drug store clerk, and they careened after the car. Weakened by the loss of blood, Evarts lost control of the car and went over a 10-foot embankment.

Palmer and Evarts crawled up the embankment and stopped a car driven by Angelo DeCarbo with passenger Laura Kash of Ellwood City. She had stalled her car on Belton Road and DeCarbo was helping her.

DeCarbo and Kash were forced out of their car at gunpoint to carry the wounded Feelo to DeCarbo's car. Just then, Shaffer and Pasta, both unarmed, arrived. Evarts and Palmer leveled their guns at them and ordered them to help carry Feelo.

Evarts laid his rifle on Palmer's lap as he went around to the driver's side. Pasta seized the rifle and pointing it at Evarts, he shouted, "Don't move!"

Evarts yelled to Palmer, "Get the gun in the glove compartment!" Shaffer and Palmer reached for the glove compartment. Pasta shot through the open car window at Evarts hitting him in the mouth. Evarts fell backward down the bank and as he struggled to get up, Pasta ran down the hill and hit him on the head with the butt of his rifle.

Palmer picked up a wrench and struck Shaffer below the left eye. Kash joined in the fight, striking Palmer with another wrench.

Shaffer and Pasta grappled with Palmer and Shaffer wrestled the wrench from him and beat Palmer over the head, battering him into submission.

Chief Hartman arrived at that moment.

Feelo, who had been put in DeCarbo's car, got a gun from somewhere and was about to shoot when Hartman disarmed him. It was all over.

New Castle Police and Pennsylvania State Police arrived and took Feelo and Palmer and the dead Evarts to the Ellwood City Hospital. Feelo had been shot in both lungs and the spine and died the next day. Palmer, the sole survivor of the trio, was shot in both legs and had head injuries.

The bodies of the two dead bandits were taken to the W.D. Porter morgue on Fourth Street.

The three men had recently been released from Rockview Penitentiary, Palmer in June after serving a seven-year sentence for robbing a bank in Volant.

After the shootout, Palmer was convicted of bank robbery and returned to Rockview, where he was released in 1945 after serving four years.

Souvenir hunters dug spent 45-caliber slugs from the Red Hot Hotdog stand at the end of the Fifth Street Bridge and one was preserved by the Ellwood City Area Historical Society.

A testimonial dinner sponsored by the Ellwood City Chamber of Commerce honored Hartman, Pasta and Shaffer and they received plaques and gold watches for their valor in capturing the bandits.

Hartman, who served as a police officer for 18 years, went on to sell insurance and then opened a Maytag store on Fifth Street. Hartman died at 83 in 1980. Pasta went on to become a sales manager for a local furniture store and became head of the Sons of Italy Lodge in 1961. He died at 75 years of age in 1994.

Since the shootout was in 1941, there was no television but many were eyewitnesses to the event and talked about it for years.

The bandit car was stored outside on a vacant lot at the corner of College Street and Todd Avenue. I was 8 years old and gathered with my friends to peer in the shattered windows to see dried blood on the interior that was covered with small pieces of glass. With hearts pounding, hair standing on the back of our necks, we bravely reached in and each took a piece of the glass. I remember putting it in an envelope and keeping it for years.

The complete story with all the details written by Robert Barensfeld is at the Ellwood City Area Historical Society.

This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: Carroll: Remembering the 1941 bank robbers shootout in Ellwood City