The Murder of Moonshine Musick

 

Early in 1934, a moonshiner disappeared under mysterious circumstances from his home in Yostville in Lackawanna County. George Musick, a 55-year-old farmer with an unsavory reputation as a bootlegger and small-time drug peddler, was known throughout Spring Brook Township simply as "Moonshine", and so it was with no great urgency that anyone attempted to find him. Moonshine Musick could have gone anywhere; he might have fled the vicinity to avoid arrest, he might have been slain by rival bootleggers or mobsters, or he might have drunk himself to death and fallen into one of the numerous nearby lakes or ponds. It was anyone's guess what might have happened to George Musick.

George was well-known to authorities in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and surrounding areas. Like many folks who run around with a bad crowd, it seemed that if George wasn't busy committing crimes, he was busy being on the receiving end of them. He served a short sentence in 1927 for possession of narcotics, and in July of 1930, federal agents raided his home and destroyed his still. The amount of alcohol confiscated so was great that, after his arrest, his bail amount was set at $7,500-- the highest amount for a liquor law violation in the history of the county up to that point. Federal agents located Musick in Monroe County, where he was already locked up in the county jail in Stroudsburg for forgery charges. That same year, however, he also won a $504 judgment in court against authorities who had unlawfully confiscated his automobile. In 1933, while walking along Penn Avenue in Scranton in an intoxicated condition, he was beaten and robbed of $150. Such was the life of a Depression Era moonshiner; you win some, you lose some. But in February of 1934, Moonshine Musick would lose the most important asset of all-- his very life.

The Disappearance of Moonshine

For fourteen years, the Musick family occupied the old William Pembridge farm between Yatesville and Daleville, about a mile south of the borough of Moscow. After the death of George's wife, his two young daughters, Helen and Mary, were taken away to an orphanage. For years, the sole inhabitants of the home were George and his son, John. As George grew older and physicially frail, he eventually rented the rooms of his home on occasion to boarders for extra income. One of these boarders was Stanley Lucas.  

The last time anyone had seen George 'Moonshine' Musick was on February 5, 1934, and visitors to the 152-acre farm were told by the bootlegger's 19-year-old son that Moonshine had gone to New Jersey to visit relatives. It wasn't until the end of March that anyone began to search for the missing moonshiner. On Saturday, March 31, county officials began their search, focusing on a large pile of sawdust near the sawmill which bordered the Musick property along Rattlesnake Creek. Officials chose this spot on the word of Stanley Lucas, a resident of Dupont who had heard from a man named Fred Peterson that George had been butchered with a cleaver on the night of February 5. 

Upon hearing Peterson's tale, Lucas reported this information to authorities, who, in turn, notified District Attorney Michael J. Eagen. According to Stanley Lucas, Peterson, along with a man by the name of Ellis, had been eyewitnesses to this supposed murder, and had overheard someone say that Moonshine's head had been lopped off with a cleaver and the body buried in a pile of sawdust. Accompanied by Detective Arthur McCann, Sheriff George Williams and Deputy P.J. Higgins, Lucas led the searchers to the Musick basement, where the murder was alleged to have occurred. Lucas pointed out a cupboard and opened the door. When the authorities opened the cupboard door, they were astonished to find what appeared to be fragments of a human brain.

 Being a farmhouse, there was plenty of butchering supplies inside the home, including a cleaver and a saw. Authorities discovered what appeared to be bloodstains on some of the wooden boards in the basement, but could not confirm if the blood was human or animal. A search was made for Moonshine's son, John, but it appeared that he had left home earlier that morning without telling anyone where he was going. As a result, John Musick immediately became the prime suspect. But what was the motive? Until John could be located, the lawmen focused their attention on the pile of sawdust. Armed with shovels, they attempted to to dig, but the cold and wet weather had frozen the pile of sawdust solid.

 

 

 
The Son Surrenders

Upon turning on the radio and hearing that he was being sought by the police, John Musick turned himself in on April 2, along with a moonshiner friend, Michael Bigar, was was living at the farmhouse at the time. Both men insisted they had nothing to do with George's disappearance-- but they knew what had happened to the man known as Moonshine. At the Wyoming state police barracks, John told the authorities a wild story.

"I was afraid to tell police," stated the 19-year-old bootlegger's son. "Four gunmen killed my father. They told me they would kill me if I opened my mouth about it." According to John, he had discovered his father's mutilated body in the cellar, but the corpse had mysteriously vanished before he had a chance to dispose of it. Although police doubted the truthfulness of this statement, there was no definite evidence linking John to his father's murder. Until the body -- or at least the supposedly decapitated head-- was located, John Musick was a free man.

"Young Musick admits that he saw the body of his father, the head split open, in the basement of their home," stated District Attorney Eagen to the press. "He says four strange men disposed of the body, but that he doesn't know where they buried it. We are convinced that he has not told all."

The police next turned their attention to the other boarders at the Musick home: Marin Derbian, Bladi Nickonovich and John Kolpak. These men were questioned, along with a neighboring moonshiner named James Cavanaugh, but none of the men could provide any useful information. A statewide search was begun for Fred Peterson and Howard Ellis, the men whose conversation had been overheard by Stanley Lucas.

 

The Musick Farmhouse

 

Searching For A Motive

Armed with picks, the police searched through the frozen sawdust pile until nightfall but found no human remains. Meanwhile, state police chemists were examining the brain found on the cupboard shelf along with the bloody boards found in the basement. Detective McCann, upon learning that one of George Musick's daughters had been recently adopted from the Elmhurst Orphanage by a family from Old Forge, questioned orphanage administrators and discovered that John had forged his father's signature on the adoption papers and presented them to the orphanage on March 9. 

McCann also uncovered other suspicious actions made by Moonshine's son during the time when his father was supposedly in New Jersey. John had purchased a new Chrysler from a dealer in Dunmore, but the vehicle had been registered in the name of Michael Bigar. A new truck had also been purchased during by John Musick during the same time period. This led Detective McCann to believe that John had been the murderer, and that the motive was purely financial. These suspicions only grew stronger when McCann questioned an old friend of the missing bootlegger and learned that George Musick refused to keep his money in a bank. "He was a good spender," the man admitted. "He planned to get married this summer and to furnish his home."

McCann found a large steel box hidden behind the chimney in the attic, which was opened at the district attorney's office. It contained a small amount of cash in coins along with an assortment of legal documents. The box also contained a list of Moonshine's regular customers, and by some quick calculations the detective was able to determine that George Musick had a sizable stream of income. With the old man out of the picture and one of his sisters adopted, John could take over the family business and pocket most of the income himself. The detective's theory was bolstered by the papers found inside Moonshine's steel box. The family home and 154-acre farm was placed in trust for John and his two sisters by George's wife, Mary Melba Musick, shortly before her death nine years earlier.

It appeared to McCann that John's friend, Michael Bigar, might have helped the teenager formulate the plot to kill George Musick, while Peterson and Ellis may have helped John dispose of the body. The district attorney agreed with the detective's theory. However, until either the body was found or John made a confession, the theory could not be proven.

 

Police searching the basement for evidence

 

 The Body Discovered

On April 4, the remains of George 'Moonshine' Musick were found buried under a coal pile in the back yard by the state police, just a few feet from the farmhouse. The head was crushed, the body partially undressed. The hasty nature of the burial on the large 152-acre property hinted that there might have been a quarrel between the father and son that turned violent. If John had been the killer, this could mean the difference between life and death; unless the murder was premeditated with financial gain as the motive, John might be spared the death penalty. If he had killed his father in self-defense, he might get off the hook entirely. The only thing District Attorney Eagen could do was to wait until further evidence-- or the alleged eyewitnesses-- could be found. 

On April 5, Fred Peterson and Howard Ellis were nabbed in Philadelphia and transported to Lackawanna County. District Attorney Eagen promptly arrested John Musick for homicide and charged Peterson and Ellis as accessories after the fact. Eagen also ordered Michael Bigar and Stanley Lucas to be detained as material witnesses. Finally, it appeared that all the pieces necessary to build a case had been obtained.

To assemble these pieces, the body of the victim was thoroughly examined and experts concluded that Moonshine's skull had been torn from his forehead by a shotgun blast at point blank range. X-rays showed the presence of pellets lodged in the body. Based upon the available evidence and statements from the suspects, authorities concluded that John Musick was alone when the killing took place, while Lucas, Ellis and Peterson were in Tobyhanna harvesting ice. These men returned a short time later and learned of the murder from John, who told them that he had struck his father over the head during a drunken quarrel.

"We told him to call the police and tell them of the affair," Peterson and Ellis said in a joint statement to authorities after their arrest in Philadelphia. "We left the house then, thinking that he was on his way to tell the police. The first we knew we were wanted was when we read it in the newspapers."

 

The scene of the murder

 
 

The Funeral of Moonshine

At eleven o'clock on the morning of April 9, the body of George Musick was laid to rest at the Moscow Cemetery. While only a handful of close family members attended the services at St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church in Dunmore, more than three hundred curiosity seekers stood outside the church, eager to catch a glimpse of the moonshiner's son, who remained handcuffed during the service. After the funeral, John was rushed by to the county jail by Sheriff Williams. At first, John had refused to attend, but his lawyer, Morris Gelb, was able to convince him to be present. Perhaps it was a legal strategy to make John appear less ruthless and repentant for what he had done to his father.

Meanwhile, the Musick farm was also beseiged by throngs of morbid curiosity seekers, with hundreds of motorists getting out of their car to inspect the coal pile where Moonshine's body had been found. Newspapers reported that traffic was so heavy that a detail of state highway patrolmen had to be dispatched to the scene to untangle the traffic jam. At one point during the afternoon, 200 cars were parked on the property, with upwards of 700 people walking around the house and yard. 

On April 16, habeus corpus proceedings were instituted in court by Mary Lowry to secure the release of Michael Bigar. The following week, a grand jury returned a murder indictment against John Musick.

The Trial of John Musick

On May 22, John Musick went on trial for the murder of his father before Judge W.R. Lewis. Witnesses called by the assistant district attorney, James Powell, told the jury how John had shown them Moonshine's body in the basement, claiming that he had been slain by rival bootleggers. To procure Peterson's help in disposing of the body, John promised to buy him a truck, which would be turned over to him at a later date.

Howard Ellis testified that he had seen John on the morning of the murder, and did not see him again until after midnight, when Ellis was awakened by the teenager who claimed that "someone had killed the old man". Ellis accompanied John to the basement and saw the body, but failed to convince him to notify the authorities. John said that he did not want to disgrace the family name by getting the police involved. Finally, John ageed to go the police, and Ellis returned to bed. However, the body was still on the cellar floor in the morning, though the floor had been washed clean of blood. Ellis stated that George had been on a drinking spree during the three final days of his life. This supposedly irritated John, who was not a drinker.

Fred Peterson also described George as a heavy drinker, and had been drinking with the deceased in the farhmouse cellar on the afternoon of the murder. He said that he went to bed around 8 o'clock, and when he woke up the next morning John told him the same story he had told Ellis. He told the jury that he saw the dead body two days later in an adjoining room, when John showed the body to Stanley Lucas. John told the men that he had notified an undertaker, who was to bury George's body the following day. Peterson admitted to seeing John scrubbing the cellar floor, and told of how John had promised to buy him a truck in exchange for his silence.

Damning testimony was also provided by Stanley Lucas, who was away harvesting ice when John drove to Gouldsboro to inform him of the death of his father. Lucas said that he returned to the Musick farm with John and viewed the body, which had been locked in a room in the basement. John told Lucas that he intended to bury his father somewhere on the farm. "You can't do that," Lucas protested at the time. "He's not a pig or a dog. He's your father." Lucas stated that he returned to work at the farm on February 15, and saw bits of flesh in the cellar, which he pointed out to Ellis and Peterson. Deputy Sheriff Higgins testified that he found bits of brain on a shelf in the basement, but the defense objected to this statement on the grounds that Higgins was not qualified to make such a determination.

On May 26, the jury reached a verdict, finding 19-year-old John Joseph Musick guilty of murder in the first degree, and recommended a sentence of life imprisonment. John continued to insist upon his innocence as he was sentenced by Judge Lewis on May 31. After telling John that he was very fortunate that the jury had not recommended the electric chair, Judge Lewis ordered John Musick to the Eastern Penitentiary.

The Killer's Fate

John Musick was paroled on January 31, 1942, seven years and eight months after entering prison. His freedom was brief; he was arrested later that year on a charge of receiving stolen goods. He was paroled again a few years later, but was arrested in October of 1949 in a Moscow tavern, where he was followed by police who were attempting to apprehend him for leaving the scene of an accident. When it was revealed that John had been driving a stolen car, he was returned to prison. In September of 1954 he was arrested again in Palmerton, this time for a technical parole violation, and committed to the Lehigh County Prison.

Seven months later, in April of 1955, Musick was transferred from Eastern Penitentiary to Farview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Wayne County, based on the findings of a sanity commission appointed by Judge T.L. Hoban at the request of prison officials. Three suicide attempts in a short period of time had prompted prison officials to make this request.

In September of 1991, John Joseph Musick-- now an old man who had spent more years of his life behind prison walls than outside of them-- was pardoned.


 

Sources:

Scranton Times-Tribune, March 31, 1934.
Lancaster New Era, April 2, 1934.
Scranton Times-Tribune, April 2, 1934.
Lancaster New Era, April 4, 1934.
Scranton Tribune, April 6, 1934.
Scranton Times-Tribune, April 9, 1934.
Scranton Times-Tribune, May 22, 1934.
Scranton Times-Tribune, May 26, 1934.
Scranton Tribune, Sept. 4, 1954.
Pittston Gazette, April 16, 1955.
Scranton Times-Tribune, April 26, 1955.