Crime cluster 1917–1945: outside research (agent notes)

Working file, 2026-09-06/07. Findings only; nothing here has been merged into entry/. Newspaper quotations are OCR transcriptions from Chronicling America (loc.gov) unless noted and should be checked against the page image. Tool notes at the end.

Status legend: NEW = fact not in the entry or in research/2026-09-05-connections-and-leads.md; CONFIRMS = matches entry; CONTRADICTS = differs from entry.

shull-harry-h-captain-1917

NEW / CONTRADICTS (given name). Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), Oct. 13, 1917, p. 3, short item headed (OCR) “‘TRAIL HITTER’ FOUND DEAD,” dateline Bridgeton, N.J., Oct. 13: “The body of Henry Shull has been found at Fortescue with a bullet wound in the head. Shull was about sixty years old and lived alone in a cabin on the Delaware Bay shore. He was indicted at the recent court term for selling liquor at Fortescue without a license and this is believed to have preyed on his mind. During the ‘Billy’ Sunday campaign in Philadelphia he ‘hit the trail.’” (OCR: “Henry” is clear; the entry and notebook say Harry H. — one of the two is a reporter’s error; Billy Sunday’s Philadelphia revival ran Jan.–Mar. 1915, so “hit the trail” = made a public conversion.)
- This first report treated the death as suicide, and gives a motive (the liquor indictment) that the notebook’s Oct. 16 Philadelphia-datelined clipping (family suspects robbery of $250; Coroner Howard S. Carll reopens, inquest set for the following Thursday, i.e. about Oct. 25, 1917) does not mention. So the sequence is: found Thursday Oct. 11 → reported as suicide/accident → relatives push robbery theory → inquest ~Oct. 25.
- Citation: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045211/1917-10-13/ed-1/?sp=3
Open: inquest verdict. Chronicling America has no Bridgeton paper for 1917; the Bridgeton Evening News (microfilm, Cumberland County Library / NJ State Library) for Oct. 12 and Oct. 26, 1917 is the next stop. The liquor indictment would be in Cumberland County Quarter Sessions, Sept./Oct. term 1917.

paul-david-f-1920

Nothing beyond the existing notes (State v. Schuck / State v. James; executed Aug. 30, 1921). Wikipedia’s NJ execution list spells the second man Raymond P. Schuck; the E. & A. opinion caption is State v. Schuck, 96 N.J.L. 154, and the entry uses “Raymond W.” — check the middle initial against the opinion text before publishing.
Tabernacle Historical Society (“Tales of Murder and Mayhem”) names the finders as four duck hunters — William and James Cutts and C. B. Inston of Tabernacle, and George W. Duncan of Audubon — at Irick’s Crossing; the entry says “two farmers hunting.” Treat as a CONTRADICTION to resolve against the Oct. 1920 clippings.

notebook-man-1927

Not identified. No Chronicling America title for South Jersey or Philadelphia is digitized for 1927 (the Evening Public Ledger run ends Dec. 30, 1922). Nothing to add without a new scan of the clipping.

tote-pin-man-1928

Chronicling America search (“Red Men” pin, Ewing, Saginaw, 1928) returned nothing; the Nov. 11, 1928 Trenton-datelined story did not reach the indexed wire papers. Not resolved.
Note on the pin: T.O.T.E. is the Improved Order of Red Men’s motto abbreviation “Totem of the Eagle” (used on lodge jewelry); the entry’s expansion is correct.

perry-joseph-1928

Nothing new beyond the Washington Times July 9, 1928 item already recorded. Chronicling America has no Camden/Atlantic County title for 1928, so the July 24, 1928 “Three Are Held” follow-up and any disposition of Mansly/Buckle, Dellarea and Laboone are not indexed. Next stop: Atlantic County Prosecutor / Camden County Quarter Sessions 1928; Hammonton News microfilm.

freyberger-howard-hermit-1931, roberts-roy-1931, sharp-anthony-j-1931, domioni-giuseppe-1938, sbraccia-galiano-suicide-1934, bryan-howard-g-1936-dix, moses-spencer-1945

Chronicling America searches (Freyberger 1931; “Roy Roberts” Penns Grove 1931; Sbraccia Waterford 1934; Domioni/Domiono Penns Grove 1938; Bryan Camp Dix soldier 1936; “Spencer Moses” 1945–46) returned zero relevant pages. These were local (Camden, Salem, Gloucester, Burlington county) stories that never reached the indexed wire papers. Nothing to add from free online newspaper indexes; they need Courier-Post / Salem Sunbeam / Penns Grove Record / Burlington County Herald microfilm.
Moses: no reported New Jersey appellate opinion 1945–49 names Spencer Moses or a Maxwell killing in Mount Laurel (CourtListener), which is consistent with either a plea or a non-appealed verdict. Burlington County Oyer and Terminer minutes, 1945–46, would have the disposition.

3-murdered-1934 (Ong’s Hat)

CONFIRMS + NEW wording. San Antonio Light, Sept. 24, 1934, p. 3 (AP, Mount Holly): the three were “mowed down by unseen killers as they stepped from their machine after being lured to the lonely spot”; police called it “a mass gang murder.” Ellis Parker, quoted: “The slayers had the spot all mapped out … I found marks around on the trees indicating the place had been ‘blazed.’ One tree, a small pine, had been freshly stripped of its limbs.” He called them “the most brutal and vengeful murders I have ever seen.” Police believed the men were slain “as early as last Wednesday” (Sept. 19); a farmer found the scene Sunday Sept. 23. Zimmer owned and drove the car and “was identified through records he had made at his home while studying fingerprinting”; Schwar had a Pennsylvania police record. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85060004/1934-09-24/ed-1/?sp=3
Indianapolis Times, Sept. 24, 1934, p. 8 (UP, Mount Holly): “One suspect was held today in connection with the slaying of three men believed to be members of a gang of hijackers.” Names not given. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015313/1934-09-24/ed-1/?sp=8
Also indexed for the same day: Evening Star Sept. 24, 1934, p. 4 and Washington Times Sept. 24, 1934, p. 1 (page text checked below when fetched).
Outcome: not found. No indexed paper after Sept. 25, 1934 mentions Zimmer, Schwar or Riehl, and no New Jersey appellate opinion names them, which points to no conviction (an unsolved gang killing is consistent with Parker’s later focus on the Wendel case in 1935–36). Next stop: Easton Express microfilm (Easton Area Public Library), Sept. 24–Oct. 15, 1934, for the Easton suspect’s name and release; Burlington County grand jury minutes, Oct. 1934 term.

perry-joseph-1928

CONFIRMS. Washington Times, July 9, 1928, p. 3 (INS, Philadelphia, July 9), headline OCR “WOMAN SOUGHT IN SLAYING”: Joseph Perry Jr., 23, “found slain, his head nearly severed by a razor, in the weeds along the Iron Mill Road at Elm, N.J., three miles from Hammonton, yesterday” (July 8); police theory that a woman provoked the attack; possible link to gang feuds “which have flared anew since the killing of Frankie Uale [Yale] in New York last week”; police tip that 15 gunmen had assembled in Atlantic City; body found by Antonio Chalk, a baker of Waterford, N.J., “as he drove along the narrow road.” https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1928-07-09/ed-1/?sp=3

(remaining entries below are filled in as batches finish)