Erie's History and Memorabilia

In February 08, 1911, a macabre crime took place in the Erie Cemetery. There was a break-in at the Scott Mausoleum, disturbing the body of the late Congressman William L Scott — a wealthy railroad man. The grave robbers carried away the body of his sister in law, Mrs. McCullum. Several of the crypts were broken into, the copper cases holding the caskets had been opened, apparently with chisels, and two or three of the caskets had been opened, apparently with chisels, and two or three of the caskets themselves practically demolished, while one was taken away entirely. Private Detectives investigating the desecration of the Scott Mausoleum in the Erie Cemetery reported a body had been taken. Later it was announced that the marauders entered the mausoleum, removed the body, and it was later found in another crypt. The detectives were the only ones giving out information, and most, if not all of it, was false. The detectives formulated a theory that the robbers were after jewels that m...

The myth of a mafia crime family in Erie has existed since...but in recent years the myth has been perpetrated to new heights by the mystifying and glamorization of Erie native Raymond W. Ferritto who was associated with the Licavoli crime family in Cleveland, not Erie. Ferritto at the time was associated with a criminal element in Erie who would love to brag that they were connected to the mafia because of their association with Ferritto, but in reality they were only common criminals, with no real connection to any family within the American Mafia. Ferritto took a percentage from Erie's criminal activities, but his personal associates in Erie were that, not associates in the Licavoli crime family — An associate is not a member of the Mafia, but works for a crime family nonetheless. Associates can include a wide range of people who work for the family. An associate can have a wide range of duties from virtually carrying out the same duties as a soldier to being a simple errand b...

One of the most infamous crimes in Northeast Ohio were the Torso murders of the mid-1930s, also known as the Kingsbury Run Murders. Still unsolved, the killings were committed in Cleveland, Ohio. The gruesome crimes were the talk of the decade, challenging Cleveland’s safety director Eliot Ness and the Cleveland Police for years. Erie was not only interested in the crimes, but shared a connection to the killings in Florence Genevieve Polillo, the third victim of the torso killer in 1936. Florence’s body was found on the 26th of January in 1936, when a woman discovers about half the body of a female neatly wrapped in newspaper and packed in two half bushel baskets. The baskets were left alongside the Hart Manufacturing building on Central Avenue near East 20th Street in Cleveland. In the following month, upon another discovery made on February 7 by a young mechanic, everything except the head was recovered in a vacant lot on nearby Orange Avenue. The cause of death ...

In 1953, Doris Hatch was a 22-year-old girl who lived in the small college town of Cambridge Springs, about 25 miles south of the city of Erie. She was tall, dark-haired, wore glasses, and was generally attractive. She lived with her widowed mother, Mrs. Lucy Hatch, then 54. After graduating from high school Doris had taken a commercial course in Erie before going to work as a clerk in the First National Bank of Cambridge Springs. She also took a local part-time job in Cambridge Springs keeping books for the Park Hardware Store, which was managed by William Ray Turner, a native of Cambridge Springs. William Turner, a graduate of both the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, failed the bar exam. He attempted to join the FBI, but failed. During World War II Turner served in the Philippines as a lieutenant in the military police. Turner also worked as a personnel investigator at the Keystone Ordinance Plant in Greenwood Township, Craw...

In August of 1975, Debbie Gama had an argument with her mother, Betty. Debbie stormed out of her mother's house in Erie, and wasn't heard from for days. Betty thought maybe her daughter had run away. "We started looking for Debbie, going to her friends' house, calling people," Betty said. After days of agony, the family received some devastating news. Debbie's body had been found in Cussewago creek, in Crawford county, with wire around her hands, neck and ankles. She had been raped and strangled, according to the coroner's report. Debbie Gama was 16 years old. Months dragged by and the police found few leads in the case. Early in 1976 Daniel Barber, a private detective that Betty hired, soon found a connection to what most people believed to be the most unlikely suspect — Debbie's favorite high school English teacher, Raymond Payne. But police still dragged their feet, says Betty. It took several months for the police to test the wire and make a conn...

On March 24, 1990, Edna Deshunk Mumbulo died of old age. At age 99, she had not been the oldest resident at the Erie County Geriatric Center, but she may have been the most famous — if they had only remembered. In the following days, Edna’s body was taken from St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Erie where she had died, to St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Perry, New York. There, in the small local cemetery grounds, in a plot freshly dug, despite the frozen ground, Edna was buried. Edna Deshunk Mumbulo was a mystery to those people who surrounded her; to those who came in and out of her life just before her dying days in 1990. She was, likewise, a mystery to the people who she encountered in 1930. Edna Deshunk Mumbulo was not simply a little old lady, frail and sweet. Edna was the Torch Killer of 1930 . In April of 1930 Edna Mumbulo was charged with the murder of her stepdaughter Hilda. It was alleged that Edna deliberately set fire to the eleven-year old girl with the hopes of o...

Robert Owen was 30 years old when he left his job as a local ironworker and joined the Erie Bureau of Police on June 14, 1971. An Erie native and a U.S. Navy veteran, Owen was persuaded to join the police by two young officers who had befriended him. "When (Police Chief Charles Bowers) and I were rookie patrolmen we used to stop by Bob's house and have coffee. At different times Bob would ride in the cruiser with us," said Dennis Tobin, former deputy chief. Tobin, who first met Owen in 1963, described him as a big, tough guy who knew the streets of Erie well. Owen never took a back seat to anybody, Tobin said, and brought his assertive, no-nonsense style with him to the job. "He enforced the law the way it was supposed to be enforced," Tobin said. "If he knew he was in the right and you were wrong, he would enforce the law. Some people could consider that hard. I consider that good police work." Owen became a motorcycle patrolman in t...