The Wheelerville Murder
Ernest Hipple Home to some of our most stunning state parks and known for its abundance of wilderness beauty, Sullivan County is the second-least populous county in Pennsylvania. The county seat of Laporte, with its population of just over 300, is among the smallest in the United States, leading some people to joke that Sullivan County doesn't have a county seat-- it has a county footrest. Not surprisingly, this quiet rural county rarely finds itself embroiled in murder mysteries, at least not since the days when lumber camps dotted the slopes of the Endless Mountains. But in 1938, Sullivan County grabbed the spotlight after the suspicious death of an elderly woman on her farm near Wheelerville. On the Monday afternoon of February 7, 1938, after finishing supper with his wife, Jennie, John Porter left his farm to mail a letter at the post office in Wheelerville. Jennie walked with her husband as far as the main highway, where they parted. Up the road, he encountered Ward No...
