The Vanishing Corpse of Cubby's Swamp

 

Just outside the city of Scranton, near the borough of Moosic, stands Montage Mountain, a popular destination for skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports. At the foot of the mountain one can explore the grounds where Rocky Glen Amusement Park once stood more than 120 years ago, or enjoy a round of golf at Glenmaura National Golf Club, which now sits on a  mysterious spot known for two centuries as Cubby's Swamp.

No one is quite sure how the swamp got its name; one article published in the Scranton Tribune in 1888 says that the name goes back to 1797, when the surrounding land was purchased by a Philadelphia-based lumber firm. Back then, the pond now shown on maps as Glenwood Lake was known as Covey's Swamp, ostensibly in honor of an early settler to the region. The author of the 1888 article claims that the true name of the place is Cubby's Swamp, on account of the number of bears and cubs that once inhabited the area. This explanation may be partially correct, as there appears to be no record of anyone with the last name Covey having occupied that area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. There was, however, an early settler named Asa Cobb, who lent his name to nearby Mount Cobb, so it's possible that Asa may have been known to his friends as "Cobby", which suggests the possibility that the original name of the marshy region might have been "Cobby's Swamp."

Regardless of the origin of the name, this locality is steeped in secrets-- many of a dark and disturbing nature-- such as the secret of a vanishing corpse, said by many to be the body of a murder victim.
During the early 20th century, when Lackawanna County became one of the leading coal producing regions of the world, the population of Scranton and nearby cities exploded with immigrants who had come to work in the mines. Many of these immigrants, who were largely Italian and Polish, could not afford the amusements at Rocky Glen, so they entertained themselves by visiting Cubby's Swamp, which was a popular spot for picnicking and berry picking.

On Wednesday evening, July 6, 1904, Sergeant Thomas at the Scranton police headquarters received a telephone call from Alderman Butterman of the Tenth Ward stating that a body had been found by a group of Italian women who were picking berries at Cubby's Swamp. The male victim, who appeared to be around thirty years of age, had apparently died from heart failure or heat stroke, as it was reported that two large German shepherd dogs (presumably belonging to the deceased) ferociously and loyally guarded the remains. Some believed the man might have died after being bitten by a venomous snake. One of the berry pickers noticed several facial wounds, leading many to wonder if the dogs had bitten their fallen master in a vain attempt to rouse him. Others, however, insisted the wounds were the result of a murderous assault by an unknown assailant.

Beside the man's body was found a twelve-quart bucket half filled with huckleberries, proving that the unfortunate stranger had also been out berry picking. This was corroborated by several berry pickers who had seen the man earlier that day. He seemed healthy and in good spirits, and had talked freely with his fellow pickers.

It was around nine o'clock in the evening when County Detective William A. Phillips, accompanied by Coroner Saltry and several volunteers, arrived to take charge of the remains. After several hours of searching the swamp and mountainside, they managed to locate the two German shepherds and the pail of berries, but the dead man was nowhere to be found. 

The detective learned from a local resident that spot where the body was seen by berry pickers was about a mile above a rifle range used by the Thirteenth Regiment of the National Guard, and that live fire exercises had taken place earlier in the day. "I am of the opinion that a stray bullet struck the victim in the head and shattered the face to such a great extent as to render identification almost impossible," stated the local resident. "The report that the dogs inflicted wounds in his face I regard as preposterous, for such friendly companions, and again state that a stray bullet did the deadly work." If this theory was correct, perhaps it was possible that the shooter-- fearing criminal prosecution-- concealed or disposed of the body.

On Thursday, Detective Phillips, suspecting a possible hoax, went to the settlement known as Little England to interview the women who had discovered the body. They agreed to take the detective to the spot on Friday morning. In the meantime, a reporter from the Scranton Republican had been informed that a "group of Italians" had secretly removed the body from Cubby's Swamp and had hidden it somewhere on Sport Hill.

 

The Second Search

On the morning of Friday, July 8, Detective Phillips returned to Cubby's Swamp. This time the search party would be led by Angeloria Pennilla, one of the two women who had made the gruesome discovery. Also joining the party was Mrs. Pennilla's husband, a reporter from the Scranton Times, and two female berry pickers who were familiar with the swamp. The party traveled to the swamp on foot by way of Lake Scranton and Stafford Meadow Brook, on the same path the women had taken on Wednesday. By retracing their original route, Detective Phillips was confident they would find the man's body.

According to Mrs. Pennilla, she was positive that the man she had seen was dead, and, from the look of it, he had been dead for some time. She had even poked the corpse with a stick to make sure. She believed that the man, who was dressed in laborer's clothing, was an Italian between the ages of 30 and 40. Although she was confident that she had led the search party to the spot, once again, the body was nowhere to be found. The party scoured the woods until nightfall before Detective Phillips called off the search. 

The Body Reappears

The following day, Saturday, July 9, two boys picking berries on East Mountain, Alvin Davis and Nelson Whiting, claimed to have stumbled across the mysterious remains. Alvin, the son of Bellevue mine fireman Edmund Davis, reported the discovery to his parents, who, in turn, told Police Captain Tom Williams. Strangely, the location of the body was six miles away from the spot Detective Phillips and his search party had scoured the previous day. But if the body had been moved, who moved it, and why? Perhaps a wild animal had dragged it further up the mountain, or maybe the dead man wasn't dead at all but only wounded and unconscious. Or, as some insisted, the body had been moved intentionally to conceal a ghastly crime. Authorities didn't give much credence to this theory, however, as very few immigrant berry pickers went into the woods with expensive jewelry or their wallets stuffed with cash. If it was a case of murder, what would have been the motive? Or was the East Mountain body was that of a different man entirely?

Having heard about the story of the vanishing corpse, the boys made sure to mark the spot and count their steps all the way home so as to be able to find it again. Captain Williams passed along this information to the detective, and, once again, a search party was formed. The Scranton Times reported that the search party would leave the following morning at nine o'clock.

Unfortunately, the boys lost their way. It appeared that someone had intentionally removed their trail markers. As a result, Davis, Whiting and Detective Phillips roamed the mountainside for hours without finding a clue. The detective eventually turned back, believing that the boys had merely stumbled across the remains of a large animal and their imaginations had gotten the best of them. The boys, however, insisted they had not been mistaken. If the body had been moved for the second time, perhaps the newspapers were to blame, as they had published the time when the party was to leave for the mountains. If somebody wanted to prevent the body from being found, they knew they had plenty of time to move it again. 

A Military Cover-up?

While curses, jinxes and hoodoos have been attributed to the vanishing corpse of Cubby's Swamp, the truth of the matter might be less than supernatural. One possibility could be a military cover-up.
The Thirteenth Regiment saw action in the Spanish-American War and, later, the Philippine-American War. The regiment, made up of men from the 13th Pennsylvania National Guard, also trained with heavy artillery. As reports indicate that the spot where the body was found was about a mile away from the regiment's training grounds, it seems unlikely that a rifle shot could've inflicted enough damage to render the victim's face unrecognizable. But what about an artillery shell?

The National Guard's primary field artillery piece during this era was the 3.2-inch M1897, which fired a deadly thirteen-and-a-half-pound projectile loaded with shrapnel or canister shot, which would certainly be capable of producing the type of facial injuries seen by Mrs. Pennilla. The maximum range of the M1897 was 6,530 yards (approximately 3.7 miles). Conversely, the state militia would've been well-stocked with Winchester Model 1895 rifles, which, at the time of the Cubby's Swamp mystery, would've fired a .30-03 Springfield cartridge-- a cartridge that was yanked out of production in 1911 because it was notoriously inaccurate. The .30-06 cartridge contained a heavy 220-grain bullet, which not only would have the capability of traveling from the shooting range to the swamp, but would also be capable of traveling through the air in a wildly unpredictable trajectory. In other words, either weapon could've fired the shot that killed the victim.

If such was the case, the shooting most certainly would've been accidental. But, if the guardsmen knew one of their errant shots had taken an innocent life, would they attempt to cover up the fatality? Interestingly, on July 5, 1904-- the day before the body was found-- a former commander of the Thirteenth Regiment, Captain John L. Huff, was charged with embezzlement by Alderman Millar. Of course, being accused of a financial crime is not the same thing as tampering with a corpse, but it does raise questions about the character of some of the men who served in the regiment.

The Lazy Thirteenth

During the Spanish-American War, the 13th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (comprised of men from the 13th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard) consisted of 858 enlisted men and 37 officers. Seeing no combat action whatsoever, they earned the less-than-courageous nickname, "The Lazy Thirteenth". By the time the soldiers were mustered out, four of the men had been court-martialed and ten additional men had deserted. Nevertheless, the men received a hero's welcome when they returned to Scranton on March 13, 1899.   

The reason for the shooting exercises which occurred on the day the body was found in 1904 was because the Thirteenth Regiment was preparing for the state shooting championships at Camp Quay at Mount Gretna, which were held in early August. The August encampment proved to rather controversial, as there were accusations that many of the enlisted men from Scranton had ditched camp entirely. Corporal E.C. Gray reported six absences in his company, with three men having hired "replacements" to take their spot and another three absent without leave. Corporal Gray also reported that one of the men, Sergeant Renshaw, sold his uniform to a civilian for two dollars. Another company from the Thirteenth had five substitutes, who proved to be so hapless on the parade grounds that their captain threatened to resign on the spot. 

Yet, for all their problems, the 13th Regiment performed quite well at the shooting championships, with Private James Burns taking third place overall and Sergeant Moore finishing in seventh place. The Thirteenth actually took first place in the 200-yard shoot and third place in the 600-yard shoot, but they failed to place in the 1,000-yard shoot, which seems to suggest that these men weren't the best when it came to shooting targets at a long distance-- as one unfortunate Italian berry-picker might've found out the hard way.

A Fiery Crash in a Snowstorm

There were no further developments in the Cubby's Swamp mystery. The body was never seen again, and there were no reports of missing persons fitting the dead man's description. Some wondered if the swamp and its surroundings were haunted, or, at the very least, cursed. After Detective Phillips closed the case, the Scranton Republican wrote: Cubby's Swamp and all the country around it and all the air above it and every dead thing reported to be in it is hoodooed.

This statement proved to be eerily accurate, as it seemed that, yes, even the very air above the swamp was cursed-- as evidenced by the crash of a military aircraft which claimed three lives forty years later.
On the night of March 3, 1944, a twin-engined U.S. Army AT-11 "Kansan" bombing trainer based at the San Marcos Air Field in Texas, after departing from North Carolina in the middle of a cross-country hop, was lost in a snowstorm en route to Mitchel Field in Long Island and crashed into a wooded hillside at Cubby's Swamp. The victims, who were burned beyond recognition, were later identified as Chesley Brawner, an aviation cadet from North Carolina, and Captain Ronald Harris and aviation cadet Arthur Scott, both of Texas. A fourth member of the crew, Albert Yurgelun of Massachusetts, escaped with only minor burns. 

 In recent decades, commercial and residential development have encroached upon the swamp, and gone is much of the mystique surrounding this fabled, once-spooky location where restless spirits may still wander-- perhaps the spirits of an unknown berry-picker and three army aviators who never made it home.