For weeks, a gang of bandits toting sawed-off shotguns terrorized Scranton businesses in 1931, until a tip from an observant housewife helped police catch them.
The group members, who ranged in age from 17 to 19, committed at least five robberies at stores around Scranton. Police caught up to them just two hours after their last heist at a store at 144 Throop St.
The Jan. 9, 1931, holdup began around 9 p.m., according to proprietor Louis Kaufman. The robbers confronted him and four others — Joseph Caffrey, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Gard and the Gards’ 4-month-old daughter — and demanded money.
Searched pockets
“Three youths … covered the inmates of the store with a sawed-off shotgun and revolvers, while the other two proceeded to search the pockets of the men,” according to an account published in The Scranton Times the next day. “Kaufman had no money in his clothes but the highwaymen took $12 from the cash register. Gard lost $40 in cash.”
Then, the robbers ordered all five “into the refrigerator, locking the door from the outside. They instructed Kaufman not to open the icebox or follow them from the store,” the newspaper reported. “They then fled across a vacant lot to a waiting automobile.”
Upon receiving the report of the robbery, information about the gang was broadcast to every police officer in the city. A search for the robbers began.
Around 11 p.m., Jessie Melville and her husband, F.T. Melville, were entertaining a guest at 1000 S. Main Ave., where the couple’s pharmacy was located.
Looked out window
and screamed
The couple had undoubtedly heard of the gang of bandits holding up businesses throughout the city. So, when Jessie Melville looked out the window that night and saw a young man standing outside, a handkerchief over his face, she screamed for her husband.
F.T. Melville and his house- guest grabbed guns and “rushed outside in search of an officer,” The Scranton Times reported. Soon, they found Patrolman William Harmer, who jumped into the visitor’s car and chased a Ford containing the masked figure Jessie Melville spotted.
The officer caught up to the fleeing vehicle in the 1100 block of St. Ann’s Street, according to the newspaper. Although it was not reported at the time, one of the fleeing men tried to shoot Harmer. The gun jammed, saving the officer’s life.
The officer took the group to the West Scranton police station, where three police officials began interrogating them. “After an all-night grilling, the youths … confessed to five recent stickups, including the one” at the Throop Street store, according to The Scranton Times article.
The gang included Michael Louryk, 18, 1451 Amherst St., Scranton; John Kortaway, 17, 702 Laundry St., Dickson City; Michael Holland, 18, 1404 Cornell St., Scranton; Henry Bialczak, 19, 1344 Rundle St., Scranton; and Walter Mack, 17, 1419 Amherst St., Scranton.
Police said the “brains” of the gang, who also served as a fence, was Neal B. Alexander, 28, 316 Sanderson St., Throop. He was arrested later the same day.
The men also confessed to holdups at:
• John Marcinowski’s store, 1249 Rundle St., on Dec. 19, 1912. The bandits got $150 after cutting the store’s telephone wires and shooting the store owner’s dog.
• A store at 821 Eynon St. on Jan. 3, 1931. They took $60 from a cash register.
• Harry Auslander’s store, 239 Greenbush St., on Jan. 5, 1931. After locking the owner in a refrigerator, the bandits took $30 from the register.
• John Killian’s store, 1183 W. Elm St., on Jan. 6, 1931. They took $31.91 from the register.
Three months later, the gang of bandits faced Judge E.C. Newcomb and learned their fate.
Newcomb sentenced Bialczak, the leader of the gang, to serve 7½ to 15 years in prison. Holland, the triggerman, received the same sentence from the judge.
The other three — Kortaway, Mack and Louryk — were sent to Huntington Reformatory.
At the sentencing hearing, city Detective Lew Roberts talked about the arresting officer’s close call, saying Bialczak tried to shoot when Harmer stopped them.
“They told us that if the gun had not jammed, they would not be here,” the city detective testified, according to an April 8, 1931, Scranton Times article.
Further crimes
It seems prison did little to reform at least one of the gang members. In March 1937, police arrested Louryk at a beer garden in the 1400 block of Bryn Mawr Street in the city. He had been wanted in a series of robberies stretching back to 1933. In each case, he and two others worked together. They “backed their victims against the wall with guns and then rifled the cash registers,” according to a March 5, 1937, Scranton Times story about his arrest. Police also questioned Louryk about “recent safe robberies in business places on Lackawanna Avenue and a series of burglaries in Dockash Place,” according to the article.
ERIN L. NISSLEY Is an assistant metro editor at The Times-Tribune. She has lived in the area for 11 years.
Contact the writer:
localhistory@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100, x5436.