Marie Nolan: The Roadhouse Queen of Paxinos

Stretch of highway between Paxinos and Weigh scales where numerous roadhouses once stood

 

The stretch of Route 61 between Shamokin and Sunbury has been an important route since the Colonial Era. Established on January 16, 1770, this road, known as "The King's Highway" was laid out to connect Fort Augusta in Sunbury with Ellis Hughes' saw mill, which stood along the Schuylkill River thirty miles north of Reading. After the Revolution, most locals began referring to this highway as the Old Reading Road, and it was upon this road the early settlers from southeastern Pennsylvania traveled in order to reach the "New Purchase", as the territory around Shamokin (which had been acquired in 1768) was popularly known.

As one might expect, a great number of inns, taverns and hotels were built along this well-traveled stretch of highway to offer food and lodging to farmers, politicians, soldiers and businessmen alike. However, during the Prohibition Era, at the height of organized crime in the Coal Region, this stretch of Route 61 was home to countless brothels, roadhouses, gambling parlors, speakeasies and all manners of "houses of ill repute".

There was one particular stretch that was notorious for its brothels, and this was the five-mile stretch between Paxinos and Weigh Scales (so named because this was where the coal from the mines of Shamokin was sorted and weighed before being shipped to market). One of the early madams of this lawless region was Mary "Mame" Goodall, who, during the 1920s, operated a roadhouse known as the Out-of-Town Inn, which stood across from the old Shamokin Fertilizer Plant, near the spot where Masser's Restaurant currently stands.

The Early History of the Out-of-Town Inn

The wild stories of the early days of the inn could filled a book; after the State Department of Health decided to crack down on "communicable and venereal diseases", the inn was raided in January of 1921. Philadelphia armed robber James Harvey (who was employed by the inn) was captured there in 1926, and the inn played a prominent role in a sensational love triangle murder in 1925-- it was here 16-year-old Ruth Wojciechowskie and her boyfriend, Clem Shebuskie, and a carload of friends had stopped for cigarettes just moments before being gunned down by Ruth's 17-year-old husband, Eddie, who fired the shots from his Oldsmobile. Ruth Wojciechowskie died on the way to the hospital, and Eddie would be pardoned for his crime after serving just four years of a ten year sentence.

After Mame Goodall was held up at gunpoint in January of 1928 in a bungled robbery attempt by George Shuminskie and Stanley Austro (an incident that resulted in Austro accidentally shooting his partner in the face and leg), she decided that she had had enough of the Out-of-Town Inn, and turned her attention to her other brothel in Montour County, the "Chicken Farm" (also known as the Oak Tree Inn, which was located on the Danville-Bloomsburg highway), where the clientele was of a slightly higher quality. In her absence, control of the Out-of-Town Inn was handed over to one of her more trusted callgirls, Jessie Drumm. Mame Goodall continued to operate various bawdy houses and illegal taverns throughout the region until her death in 1950 at the age of 65, though few achieved the level of success, or notoriety, as the Out-of-Town Inn. 

The Rise of Marie Nolan

By 1929, the inn was under the control of the mob, and was a part of "Vice King" Louis Moff's network of saloons and bawdy houses throughout the Coal Region, along with such infamous establishments as the Sunset Inn in Numidia, which figured prominently in numerous murder investigations. The new madam of the Out-of-Town Inn was Marie Nolan, a stunning 26-year-old redhead with a shadowy past who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

One of Moff's handpicked thugs was Felix Bocchiccio, a ruffian from Atlas who later rose to notoriety as the East Coast mobster and hitman known as "Man o' War". On May 4th, 1927, Bocchiccio was arrested in Mount Carmel on a charge of kidnapping a teenage girl from Jackson, Michigan, named Helen Schesney. Also implicated in the abduction were Victor Stello, of Kulpmont, and Marie Nolan, who had given her address as Chillicothe, Ohio.

According to the victim, she had arrived in Shamokin two weeks earlier seeking work at the silk mill, without success. The following week she and a friend named Anna Sopolovich went to Mount Carmel seeking employment at the General Cigar Factory, with the same result. While standing on the street waiting for a trolley, Felix Bocchicchio approached the girls in an automobile and offered to drive them home. Helen Schesney claimed she refused, and the girls boarded the trolley to Shamokin. One week later they decided to return to the cigar factory, but when they reached Mount Carmel they found Bocchiccio waiting for them. Also in the car were Marie Nolan and Victor "Duke" Stello, who, unbeknownst to the teenagers, owned and operated a roadhouse in Mount Carmel at the corner of Third and Willow streets known as Duke's Place.

 

Felix Bocchicchio

 

"What are you doing in Mount Carmel?" asked Bocchiccio. When Helen replied that they were looking for work, Bocchiccio offered them a position at a restaurant for $15 a week. Helen was hesitant at first, but the girls were eventually persuaded to get into the car. Bocchiccio drove them to the Soper Chestnut Farm in Irish Valley, which was a roadhouse also under mob control, and upon their arrival the girls became scared. Anna Sopolovich asked to be taken home, and after she was dropped off, Bocchiccio drove Helen Schesney to Tower City, where another girl was dropped off, and finally to Mount Carmel, where she was hustled into Duke's Place and forced to remain there against her will for four days. Helen claimed that she was forced to work at the restaurant without pay, and made her escape by convincing a girl from Shamokin to drive her to that city to visit friends. Once in Shamokin, Helen ran to the police station and told County Detective Charles Densavage her story. 

Densavage called Constable Zeno Pogorgelski of Mount Carmel Township and State Trooper J.P. Herman onto the case. Felix Bocciccio and Marie Nolan were arrested, and a warrant was issued for Victor Stello. At the preliminary hearing, Bocchiccio was committed to county prison in lieu of bail and Nolan was sentenced to thirty days in jail. Helen Schesney, whose story was riddled with holes, was also committed to jail and held as a material witness. Stello was soon apprehended, and the trial date was set for May 20. It took the jury just five minutes to find the men guilty.

Marie Nolan may or may not have hailed from Chillicothe (some sources claim she was born in Northumberland), but she remained in the Coal Region after her release from jail. When the Out-of-Town Inn was raided by state police on the night of April 20, 1929, Marie was one of three women arrested by Sergeant Merryfield and was identified as the madam of the seedy establishment during a hearing before Alderman Clyde Smith. Two men were also nabbed in the raid, though their names were withheld from papers because they were said to be "prominent" members of the community. After the raid, the Shamokin News-Dispatch described Marie was one of the key figures in white slave traffic in the region.

The Great Roadhouse Brawl

Of all the colorful and unfortunate incidents to occur at the Out-of-Town Inn, none were as dramatic as the brawl that occurred on September 6, 1929. Marie Nolan had scarcely returned from jail when a group of twelve men wearing the uniform of United States artillerymen rolled up in a large truck at around 1:30 in the morning and caused a ruckus. When the men arrived, William Pupo, of Marion Heights, was working behind the bar. Though he owned the building (at least on paper), Pupo worked as a bartender out of boredom and for a little "extra income". Marie Nolan, Pupo, and another employee named Ray "Soullie" Schmeck were engaged in conversation when a man wearing a military uniform began pounding on the door of the roadhouse demanding admittance.

After Marie Nolan told the visitor that the establishment was closed, the men began battering the doors and windows and soon succeeded in knocking down the front door. They charged into the roadhouse, rushing directly into the kitchen. Pupo began to protest, but quickly shut his mouth when three revolvers were pointed into his face. He was struck in the head and chest several times and very well might have been killed if not for Nolan, who released her German shepherd into the fray. The guard dog viciously attacked the intruders, biting one of them so severely that he begged for Nolan to call off the animal. The intruders then assailed the dog with kicks until it retreated for safety in an adjoining room where Soullie Schmeck was hiding. Then they renewed their assault upon Marie Nolan and William Pupo.

Pupo was able to escape into the barroom and barricade himself in a corner, hurling bottles of soda and "near beer" (this was the Prohibition Era, after all) at the advancing goons. Pupo waged a terrific battle; he hurled the bottles with such violence that several of the men were knocked to the floor, but the thugs began returning fire with bottles of their own. One of them even picked up the cash register and hurled it at Pupo, who was able to duck out of the day just in the nick of time. Pupo then grabbed an ice pick, and buried it deep into the shoulder of one of the attackers. This proved to be the turning point of the melee. The man's companions, fearing their friend was dying, carried him outside, placed him onto the truck, and sped away-- but not before helping themselves to large quantities of cigars and cigarettes and the contents of the roadhouse cash register. As for the unbroken bottles of near-beer, reports indicate these were not stolen. The artillerymen may have been desperate criminals, but they weren't quite that desperate.

Police immediately began an investigation and surmised that the marauding soldiers were en route to an army camp in the southern part of the state. Meanwhile, William Pupo and Marie Nolan were treated at Shamokin Hospital for their injuries. Soullie Schmeck, who had managed to protect himself by hiding, escaped without a scratch. 

A few days later, Sergeant Edward S. Pyles, an Army recruiting officer and World War I veteran, shot down the theory that the uniformed men were U.S. servicemen, issuing the following statement to the press: 

"The infamy of such an action by a man in uniform just did not fit in with the army code. Following a report of the alleged raid by United States artillerymen in which Marie Nolan and William Pupo, occupants of the place, were badly beaten, I started to investigate the case. I found out definitely yesterday that the truck used was not a service truck. I also discovered that the men who broke into the place, while they wore khaki shirts and trousers, were not soldiers."

Pyle's conclusion was based on information he had gathered from a local mechanic, who, just an hour after the brawl, had been summoned to Stonington (about five miles west of Paxinos) to tow a truck out of a ditch. The mechanic found only six young men at the scene-- not twelve, as Pupo had claimed-- and none of them were dressed in khaki shirts or trousers. As he fastened a chain around the axle of the truck, which was painted black and not green, the mechanic also noted that the vehicle bore a Pennsylvania license plate. Sergeant Pyles pointed out that if the truck had belonged to the U.S. Army, it would have had a special government plate. "The satisfaction of knowing that no soldier in Uncle Sam's khaki entered into the episode is all that I care to have as a reward for the work I have put into running this matter down," said Pyles, after declaring that he was dropping his investigation. 

The police also wrapped up their investigation. Much to the surprise of Nolan and Pupo, none of the men who were driving the truck were brought in for questioning, and no arrests were made, though Nolan, who was still awaiting trial on charges of "keeping a disorderly house" stemming from the police raid in April, probably thought it wise not to press the issue.

The Disappearance of Marie Nolan

On the afternoon of Monday, October 1, 1929, Marie Nolan was found guilty of keeping a house of ill repute. District Attorney Edward Raker presented rock-solid evidence against the proprietress of the Out-of-Town Inn, whose attorney, John Pipa, argued that she was innocent and had been "framed" by the state police when they raided the establishment in April. The star witness for the prosecution was Trooper Tackey of the state police, who went on an undercover assignment to the brothel. Upon securing one of Nolan's girls for the evening, Tackey took her to a bedroom and haggled over the financial side of the transaction. The girl, according to Tackey, eventually agreed to the price of fifty cents. Twenty-one witnesses were called to the stand during the trial to offer testimony against Marie Nolan. After reading the verdict, Judge Albert Lloyd ordered her to return to court for sentencing later that month. William Pupo, serving as Marie's bondsman, posted her bail in the amount of $1,000 and the roadhouse queen of Paxinos was released from custody.

Marie Nolan, however, had no intention of showing up for her sentencing. She skipped town, causing Pupo to forfeit the bail amount. Sheriff J.W. Timmes searched high and low for Nolan, looking in every known brothel, speakeasy and roadhouse in Northumberland County, but it was as if she had disappeared into thin air. With underworld connections as powerful as Louis Moff and Felix Bocchicchio it wasn't too difficult for a mobster to secret Marie away to some undisclosed locale; they had connections as far north as Buffalo and as far south as Miami. As William Pupo didn't seem too distressed by losing such a large sum of money, it was safe to assume that Moff had reimbursed the barkeep for his loss. By week's end, the police dragnet had extended to New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, but leads were few.

On November 4, William Pupo appeared before Judge Albert Lloyd and was ordered to show cause why the $1,000 bail he had posted for Nolan should not be forfeited. Pupo argued that he had met every one of his responsibilities as bondsman; he posted the bond to ensure Marie's appearance in court, and she had appeared. She only skipped town after the judge had increased her bail amount to $2,500 in advance of her sentencing, and Pupo insisted that his liability ceased the moment the jury had found her guilty. Judge Lloyd was not convinced, however.

 

 

Capture of the Roadhouse Queen

On April 1, 1930, Chief of Police Levan of Shamokin received a telegram from Lancaster, stating that a woman had been picked up fitting Nolan's description. The woman, who had given her name as Marie Morris, had been apprehended after the Lancaster chief of police of them had read about Marie's disappearance in one of the local papers. Chief of Police Levan, accompanied by County Detective Densavage, took the telegram to the office of District Attorney Raker, who ordered the sheriff to travel to Lancaster County and pick up the fugitive. 

Once lodged at the Northumberland County Prison, Marie, along with four other female inmates nabbed for prostitution, had their mugshots taken by a photographer from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Criminal Identification for the state's official "rogue's gallery" of outlaws. According to Warden Reitz, he had never had in his charge a female prisoner with as many "gentlemen callers" as Marie Nolan. The Shamokin News-Dispatch reported:

Scores of them call at the prison to exchange greetings with the Nolan lady, indicating that she must have had a large following during her successful days of conducting bawdy houses in this locality. The warden has found it necessary to place restrictions on the proximity of Marie and her callers during their meetings, an iron barrier keeping the men from becoming too affectionate with Marie, who is now awaiting sentence by the court.

On Monday, April 28, Marie was sentenced by Judge Lloyd to a term of one to two years at the county prison and ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $500. By all accounts, Marie was a cool customer at the sentencing. Attired in a brown coat and tan hat, she was not surprised by the sentence; in fact, as she was led to the courtroom by Constable Eddie Fleming she had correctly predicted, "It's one to two years for me."

Return to the Underworld

As it turned out, Marie would not serve out her full sentence; she was released in November of 1930 for good behavior, though one of the conditions of her release was that she would move out of Northumberland County and never return. She agreed to this stipulation and relocated first to Williamsport and then to Girardville, where Louis Moff owned and operated a number of seedy establishments. During Marie's absence, the Out-of Town Inn was placed under the control of David Hine, and continued to uphold its unsavory reputation.

In August of that year, the Out-of-Town Inn was the focal point of another kidnapping investigation, after 16-year-old Mary Thomas of Natalie was abdubted by five young men, three of whem were from Marion Heights, and held captive at the roadhouse for two days against her will. Arrested for the crime were Thomas Rocco, Anthony Christiano and Andrew Stechnock. According to reports, the youths had attempted to "sell" the teenage girl to the inn's proprietor. At the time of the kidnapping, Stechnock-- though just sixteen years of age-- already had a long rap sheet and was awaiting a court appearance for statutory rape and criminal assault upon a girl from Marion Heights. 

By 1931 Nolan had returned to Williamsport and turned her attention to bootlegging liquor. In July, she and her partner, Edward Wojciechowski (the same man who had shot and killed his teenage wife near the Out-of-Town Inn in 1925), were arrested by Shamokin police for transporting alcohol. Nolan and Wojciechowski were released when Alderman Daniel Keeler dismissed the charges for lack of evidence. Nolan was fined $10, however, for driving without a license. 

Nolan continued to operate various rackets in Northumberland County in defiance of the law; she became the proprietor of a speakeasy next door to the Blue Moon Cafe in Paxinos (an establishment with only a slightly better reputation than the Out-of-Town Inn, the Blue Moon was also raided by authorities on occasion), but as the combination of time and hard living eroded her once-beautiful features, she drifted away from the prostitution rackets and specialized in bootlegging-- though she continued to run with the same old unsavory crowd. 

On August 1, 1931, a devastating fire ripped though a speakeasy at 426 North Franklin Street in Shamokin, sending pajama-clad families running wildly into the street in the early morning hours. The building's owner, James Flanagan, knew that his tenant, James LaCrosse, had operated an illegal tavern on the premises-- it had been raised by police on numerous occasions-- and the blaze started not long after Flanagan had ordered LaCrosse to cease operations. Police immediately suspected LaCrosse, who had developed a habit of renting buildings which mysteriously erupted into flames.

Patrolman Kelly arrested LaCrosse and threw him in jail, and it soon developed that LaCrosse had not acted alone. State Trooper Joseph Lyons, of the Reading barracks, obtained statements from several key witnesses. These included Eva Schmeck (who was no stranger to the police), who was sitting in a car with a friend across the street when she saw LaCrosse enter the building a few days before the fire carrying gasoline cans. On the night of the fire Schmeck was sitting in the same car with the same friend when she saw LaCrosse enter the building in the company of Chester Rhoads and Mildred Moyer. The trio carried more gasoline cans into the building, which aroused Schmeck's suspicions. Right before the fire broke out, Schmeck claimed that she saw LaCrosse dousing the walls with gasoline as he left the building. Eva Schmeck also said that she was able to identify one women who had been standing outside the building as it burned-- Marie Nolan.

At the hearing, Rhoads and Moyer confessed to helping LaCrosse spray gasoline throughout the building, though they stated that their purpose had not been to burn the place down, but to kill bedbugs and cockroaches. Lacrosse was acquitted of arson and Nolan was never called to testify, leaving her role in the incident a mystery.

End of an Era

On December 5, 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed and the 21st Amendment ratified, thus bringing an end to the era of Prohibition. While the end of Prohibition was celebrated by breweries and bar patrons across the country, it was undoubtedly a crushing blow for organized crime. The roadhouses and brothels along the old King's Highway disappeared quickly, and the mobsters who made their ill-gotten fortunes had disappeared almost as quickly; Louis Moff, the "Vice King of the Coal Region", met his demise in a hail of gunfire outside his home in Atlas in 1931. Calvin Tyson, the "Boy Bandit of Shamokin", who had participated in many capers with Marie Nolan and Felix Bocchiccio, would serve a life sentence for murder, though Bocchiccio would go on to graduate to the "major leagues" of organized crime in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey.

As for the Roadhouse Queen, she appears to have fallen off the map. Perhaps she settled down and started a family, perhaps she moved away. Or perhaps she continued to quietly haunt the dank watering holes of Northumberland County for the rest of her days, her beauty faded, her hair turned gray, her voice rendered raspy from countless cigarettes, nursing a cold beer on a hot summer night with Mame Goodall and reminiscing about their days as the most powerful madams in the Coal Region.