Suicide by Printing Press: The Strange Death of David Shilling

People's Register building, as it appears today.

On the morning of Thursday, June 11, 1908, the body of David Shilling, a 16-year-old office boy, was found hanging from a printing press at the office of the Chambersburg People's Register. While evidence seemed to suggest suicide, there are many peculiar facts surrounding the incident which has led to some speculation that the young man may have been murdered in a botched robbery attempt, or worse-- murdered by his own co-workers.

It was around 7:15 in the morning when Blake Kepner, a linotype operator, entered the newspaper pressroom and found Shilling hanging by his feet and neck, having been strung up in the most peculiar manner. Apparently, the boy had tied bundling twine around his ankles, and then looped the twine around the wheel of the larger of two presses. Next, he tied the twine around his waist, hands and neck, and then looped it around the pulley wheel of a smaller press, located three feet away. This caused his body to hang suspended over the ground, with death resulting from strangulation.

For some reason, Kepner didn't notify the police after finding the body; instead he sought out the paper's local news editor, Herbert Foltz, who was in a different part of the building. It was Foltz who later called the coroner, Dr. J.C. Greenewalt, and notified Chief of Police Swisher. According to the police report, the boy's body had already been cut down by the time Greenewalt and Swisher arrived on the scene.

At the scene, Coroner Greenewalt pronounced Shilling dead and then notified the boy's mother. Next, he empaneled a coroner's jury, consisting of five local citizens and the dead boy's employer. The Chambersburg Valley Spirit reported that six jurors were sworn in before the remains were removed from the scene: Dr. W.S. Hallet, N.O. Huber, J.H. Sollenberger, C.C. McLaughlin, H.G. Hockersmith and Morris Lloyd, owner of the People's Register (when Lloyd retired in 1923, he sold his shares of company stock to Herbert Foltz).

Shilling's body was taken to the Sellers Brothers undertaking parlor, where the inquest was held a few days later. Among the witnesses to testify at the inquest were Herbert Foltz, Blake Kepner, Fred Shields, Morris Lloyd and Dr. F.G. Wright, who was the Shilling family physician.

Lloyd's Surprising Testimony 


According to Foltz, he had arrived at work at 7:05 on Thursday morning and about ten minutes later he was summoned to the press room by Kepner, who showed him the body. Foltz cut down the body and discovered that the office boy was dead. Kepner testified he thought Shilling was merely playing a joke on him, and it wasn't until he called out to the boy and received no response that he finally notified Foltz. Shields testified that the twine had been tied with six or seven knots into a noose, and said that Shilling had spoken about hanging himself on several previous occasions.

But it was the testimony of Morris Lloyd which raised questions about the true cause of David Shilling's death. Lloyd claimed that he had placed $30 in cash and $60 in checks in the cash drawer on Wednesday evening. When he arrived at the office the following afternoon, he found that the lock on the drawer had been pried off, and found a large nail on the floor. Upon making this discovery he raced to the bank to stop payment on the checks, but when he returned, he learned that one of his office employees had located the missing money under the cash drawer. "I regret to give this information, but deemed that honesty demanded it," stated Lloyd, implying that Shilling had been the one who attempted to steal the money.

 

The Boy Who Swallowed a Thumbtack
 

To say that David Shilling was a peculiar boy would be an understatement; described by witnesses as an "inveterate reader of trashy dime novels" and being of "weak mind", he had allegedly spoken about taking his own life to his co-workers, yet his brother Theodore testified that he never appeared sullen or disturbed. Less than a month before his death, he had been treated by Dr. Wright after accidentally swallowing a thumbtack at work-- an accident that earned David plenty of ribbing from his co-workers. The last time Shilling was seen alive was around 6:30 on Thursday morning, at the Goodman Conn department store on South Main Street.

After Theodore Shilling gave his testimony, the jury went into deliberation and the following verdict was rendered:

"That David H. Shilling came to his death by strangulation by hanging and we do hereby recommend that, as there is a suspicion and possibility of foul play, that the case be referred to the district attorney for further investigation."

District Attorney Edward Long, however, was unconvinced. He stated it was his opinion that Shilling had "deliberately planned his death or for some spectacular effect had tied himself up and met accidental death". Declaring that he would not put any unnecessary cost on the county, he refused to investigate the matter further.



Did Newspapermen Cover Up a Murder? 
 

Yet, there are too many angles to the story that clash with the district attorney's opinion. For instance, Morris Lloyd testified that it was around 3 o'clock in the afternoon when he discovered the lock had been pried off the cash drawer-- a full eight hours after David Shilling's body was found. There are only two possible explanations for this: that the lock was broken before David's death, or after David's death.

If we are to believe that David Shilling attempted to rob his employer but then had a sudden attack of remorse and took his own life, then the following events had to have taken place: After leaving the Goodman Conn department store on South Main Street, he would've had to have walked north to the town square, crossed Lincoln Highway, and then continued past the courthouse and walk a full city block to the People's Register office. At this point he would've needed to find a tool to pry off the lock of the cash drawer in Lloyd's office, walk back to the pressroom, make an elaborate noose out of twine, rig himself up to two printing presses and die of strangulation all before being found at 7:05 by Blake Kepner. That's a lot of things for a "simple-minded" boy like David Shilling to accomplish in a mere 35 minutes without being seen-- especially considering that it takes around five minutes to die of strangulation.

This leaves the alternate theory, suggesting that the lockbox was broken into after Shilling had already died, and this seems more plausible. Could it be possible that Shilling was killed by a co-worker and the "robbery" theory concocted over the course of eight hours by Morris Lloyd and Herbert Foltz to provide cover for the true killer?

While this may seem like a far-fetched theory-- and a theory that impugns the legacy of two respected Chambersburg publishers-- there just doesn't seem like any other logical scenario that could explain the death of David Shilling. The murder-coverup theory explains why the money was not taken and why the nail was left in a conspicuous place. Why would a robber go to the trouble of hiding the money under the cash drawer but leaving the nail in plain sight? Who does that? Are we to believe that Shilling took his life out of remorse for a crime that he didn't even finish committing?

And how did a lowly office boy even get inside the building? Did he have a key? And why did Blake Kepner notify Foltz before notifying the police? And why did Foltz cut down the body before the police arrived? It couldn't have been in an attempt to save Shilling's life--- remember, Kepner testified that he didn't notify Foltz until after he was already sure that Shilling was dead. Isn't there some sort of law against tampering with evidence of a possible crime scene?

To my mind, it seems more likely that David Shilling was an oddball kid who had probably been teased and bullied by his colleagues since the day he was hired. If he really did commit suicide at his workplace, bullying could've certainly been a contributor factor.  Or, there's the possibility that he was the victim of a practical joke gone terribly wrong. The whole attempted theft subplot could've been constructed by Morris Lloyd and his People's Register cohorts to paint Shilling in a negative light.

Interestingly, Blake Kepner resigned his position at the People's Register about a year after Shilling's death. The December 15, 1908, edition of the Valley Spirit reported that Kepner moved to Philadelphia to accept a different position, and it appears that, a short time after that, he and his wife moved to Akron, Ohio, where they lived happily ever after.

Well, that was nice of them.

The Curse of the Schaff Family


What makes the story even more bizarre is the tragic history of the newspaper's founding family. Founded by Rev. Jacob G. Schaff in 1876 as the Centennial Register, the paper changed its name to the People's Register the following year, setting up shop at 61 North Main Street in Chambersburg, across from the National Hotel. After Jacob's death in 1881, the business was handed down to his children, who operated the business under the name of J.G. Schaff's Sons. Motte and Merle Schaff learned the printer's trade from their father, and Motte succeeded him as editor after the reverend's death; however, his tenure at the helm of the People's Register was short-lived. Motte passed away in Denver in 1897 at the age of 35. As for Merle, who handled the paper's business matters, he died in 1894 at the age of 22. Both men appear to have died from tuberculosis.

After Motte's death, ownership of the paper passed to another son named Bruce Harris Schaff. Bruce operated the People's Register until 1900, when he sold his share of the business and moved to Philadelphia and, later, to Riverton, New Jersey. Two of Jacob's daughters, Thesta and Orpah (both of whom were educated at Wilson Female College), also helped manage and edit the paper. Thesta retired in 1885 due to an unspecified illness, while Orpah sold her share of the business in 1895. Thesta died in 1911 at the relatively young age of 49.

After Bruce H. Schaff moved to Philadelphia, the People's Register was sold to Morris Lloyd, who was also the general manager of the Chambersburg Public Opinion. The Register continued to operate until 1923, when Lloyd retired and sold his shares of company stock to Herbert Foltz.

Ironically, the old People's Register office building where David Shilling met his untimely death on a printing press still stands, and is currently a bookstore.





Sources:
Chambersburg Weekly Opinion, April 6, 1894.
Philadelphia Times, Feb. 12, 1897.
Chambersburg Valley Spirit, June 17, 1908.
Chambersburg Public Opinion, November 16, 1931.
Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Volume 1. George Seilhamer (publisher), 1905.