The Curse of Capouse Avenue

 

On Friday, a 44-year-old Scranton man by the name of Paul Rowe made national headlines after police officers discovered that Rowe had been hiding a dead body beneath a tarp in his apartment at 851 Capouse Avenue for several weeks. Rowe, who was charged with abuse of a corpse and possession of drug paraphernalia, might have gotten away with it had he not refused to allow Lackawanna County detectives Michael Schultz and Ed McIntyre permission to enter the apartment, because, according to Rowe, he had methamphetamine inside. After Rowe's admission, authorities obtained a search warrant and found the corpse.

While Rowe is certainly a strong contender for this year's America's Dumbest Criminal Award ("Sorry, officers, you can't take a look around right now, my place is full of drugs."), it turns out that this bizarre turn of events may not be entirely his fault; the fact of the matter is that Capouse Avenue has been ground zero for Scranton-area strangeness since the day the first white settlers arrived in the 18th century. In fact, the very house in which the corpse was found, a three-story multiple tenant apartment home occupying 849-851 Capouse Avenue, has been the scene of dozens of tragedies and strange mishaps since its construction over a century ago, when it was used to board immigrant miners from the nearby Delaware & Hudson's Manville coal mine. 

Strangely, in October of 2022, a 45-year-old woman, Roseanna Chalus-Glover, was found dead in a shabby apartment at 849 Capouse Avenue strewn with trash and human feces, resulting in housing inspectors condemning the residence and the deceased woman's three children being placed into foster care. 

The owner of the property, Robert "Bert" Sherman, has so far refused to comment on the recent deaths, but it's safe to say that he's probably not what one might describe as an upstanding pillar of the local community; in the early 90s, community development director Judy Gatelli ordered the temporary closure of Sherman's Sun Hotel on Cedar Avenue for numerous fire and safety code violations, and Sherman's history of operating dangerous flophouses was the focus of a Scranton Tribune article in March of 1997. This article shone a light on another seedy Bert Sherman-owned property on Madison Avenue, which (before being set on fire by an emotionally imbalanced tenant) featured tenants using "makeshift toilets" out of plastic wastebaskets and so many cockroaches that city inspectors ordered Sherman to hire an exterminator. 

Records show that Sherman owned over 20 properties in Scranton at one time, nearly all of which have been hit with serious code violations since 1987. In 1991, inspectors cited Sherman for illegally adding four apartment in his Vine Street property which failed to meet minimum size requirements. The following year, his rooming house at 826 Capouse Avenue was the scene of a homicide. Most properties owned by Sherman typically featured one to two toilets and showers per floor, with as many as 21 tenants occupying each building. With conditions like that, it's no wonder renters had no choice but to piss in trash cans. Nevertheless, Lackawanna County authorities continue to allow slumlords like Sherman to operate; as one unidentified caseworker stated in a 1992 Times-Tribune article, "There are people who live in those buildings that no one else would put up with. In that way, he's providing a service."

The Origins of Capouse

So, aside from low-rent slumlords and drug addicts, what makes Capouse Avenue such a charmingly disreputable place? To answer this question, let's go back to the days when the area was inhabited by the Delaware (Lenni Lenape) tribe. These indigenous peoples were part of the eastern branch of the Algonquin peoples and were referred to by the western branch as the Wapanachi, or "Dwellers of the Rising Sun", which makes a lot of sense, as the sun rises in the east. The Delaware consisted of three smaller tribes: The Unami (Turtle clan), the Unalatigoo (Turkey clan), and the Minisi (Wolf clan), and it was the Minisi who occupied territory in present-day Scranton. Monsey Avenue, which runs parallel to Capouse Avenue, is a corruption of the word Minisi. During the mid-1800s, when much of Scranton was constructed, workers unearthed a Minisi burial ground near the 1400 block of Monsey Avenue (about seven blocks north of the house where Paul Rowe was hiding a corpse). Though some historians disagree, it was widely believed that this burial ground was the final resting place of Chief Capoose, the namesake of Capouse Avenue.

Capoose Village was the name of the Minisi settlement which was visited by Moravian missionary Count Zinzendorf in 1742. Zinzendorf recorded that the portion of fertile land situated on the west bank of the Lackawanna River, across from present-day Capouse Avenue, had been used for the planting of maize since around 1700. This plot of land, "Capoose Meadows", was purchased by Isaac Tripp in 1771, who built himself a cabin among the pines, making him the first white settler in the region. In the following years this area became known as Tripp's Flats. After the infamous Wyoming Massacre of July 3, 1778, in which 227 Pennsylvania militiamen under the command of Zebulon Butler were scalped by Iroquois warriors loyal to Great Britain, droves of white settlers fled the Wyoming Valley in terror, with hundreds attempting to escape north to New York by following a route where Capouse Avenue now runs. Sadly, countless men, women and children would perish along the way.

In May of 1784, more settlers were driven from the Wyoming Valley-- this time by Pennsylvania militiamen (the Pennamites). As early as 1769, the present-day counties of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Bradford, Susquehanna and Wyoming were disputed territory, with Pennsylvania and Connecticut both claiming the land as their own. These land disputes became known as the Pennamite-Yankee Wars. With the Decree of Trenton in 1782 it was ruled that this disputed territory belonged to Pennsylvania, and the Pennamites moved in lock, stock and barrel, rounding up the Connecticut Yankees living along the Susquehanna River and marching them north.

History records the account of Elisha Harding, a member of the party of 150 Yankee families force-marched through Capouse during heavy rains which made the rivers and streams swollen and uncrossable. On the first night of their involuntary exodus, the party encamped at Capouse, shivering and hunger-stricken. It was here one infant perished from exposure to the elements and, according to legend, was roasted over a fire by its mother in order to provide food for her surviving starving children. Perhaps it was this incident, or one like it, which seemed to imbue Capouse Avenue with an aura of tragedy.

A House of Bad Fortune

Most low-rent apartments, tenements and rooming houses have tragic histories, but the house at 849-851 Capouse Avenue is unique because it seems that bad things have been happening to the people who have lived there for over a century. Here are some of the peculiar incidents which have occurred in the left half of the building, 849 Capouse Avenue, or to those who once lived there:

October 30, 1891. The 16-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Dunleavy dies in home, though this may have been an earlier structure built on the site of the current building.

May 17, 1909. Miner Frank Aubriun fatally injured after fracturing his spine under a fall of rock.

December 25, 1930. Emma Casterline, 39, dies after lengthy illness.

May 13, 1932. Three-year-old Delores Casterline escapes with minor injuries after being struck by car while playing outside.

June 30, 1934. Six-year-old Nellie Kohut taken to hospital after being struck by automobile outside her home.

April 26, 1935. Thirteen-month-old Margaret Kohut dies from respiratory infection.

July 1, 1937. Three-month-old Nicholas Kohut dies inside home.

January 26, 1940. Louis Kohut, Junior, dies from congestive heart failure inside home at age of 28.

March 12. 1948. Louis Kohut, Senior, dies from heart attack inside home at age of 63.

September 30, 1948. Angelo Scaramastra involved in fatal accident in North Chinchilla when his truck collides with a car driven by Walter Bukauskas. Bukauskas was killed with a fractured skull while his wife was seriously injured. According to the police report, the Bukauskas car was traveling west when it veered for an unknown reason into the eastbound lane in front of Scaramastra's truck.

April 24, 1952. Helen Kohut injured after the car in which she was a passenger strikes telephone pole on Capouse Avenue. Driver suffers fractured skull.

February 2, 1954. Anthony Scariato, former city police officer, dies at State Hospital after two-month illness at the age of 48.

December 11, 1956. Mary Williams, the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Williams, dies shortly after birth.

August 12, 1957. Mary Kohut, 65, critically injured after being struck by a car on Capouse Avenue, suffers skull fracture.

February 15, 1958. Helen Kohut, now of Prescott Avenue, drinks a glass of Clorox bleach at the home after a fight with her ex-husband. Strangely, this act is carried out not at her own home, but at the home of her family at 849 Capouse Avenue. Helen is treated at hospital and survives.

December 9, 1962. Alex Potocki, residing in the rear apartment at 849 Capouse Avenue, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after hitting a man in the side of the head with the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun and threatening to kill him. The fracas resulted from Potocki's attempt to steal a flashlight from the man's child.

August 12, 1963. Alex Potocki is assaulted and knocked unconscious at his home by James Lahey after Potocki makes "improper advances" to Lahey's 12-year-old sister.

June 29, 1966. Mary Kohut hospitalized after being struck by a bicycle on sidewalk near her home.

June 2, 1972. Anna Knapik, a 71-year-old deaf mute, suffers broken jaw after being beaten with a clock by neighbor John Vidmosko inside her home as she was sleeping.

February 12, 1976. Fire leaves seven homeless after spreading from an adjacent building.

June 10, 1977. Rose Marie Barr, residing at rear 849 Capouse Avenue, suffers minor injuries after being struck by a car.

September 26, 1978. Infant son of Edward and Theresa Shoemaker dies shortly after birth.

March 27, 1980. Albert Brittain suffers fatal heart attack at home.

April 13, 1982. After his apartment is raided by police and 500 amphetamine pills are found, Donald Lavendure is charged with multiple felonies. During the investigation, it is learned that Lavendure was involved in a burglary at a city dress factory.

September 24, 1994. Martin J. Golden, 59, found dead at the bottom of a stairway inside apartment building.

January 28, 2004. Police are stymied by the death of 52-year-old Steven Richard Brown, whose mailing address is listed as 849 Capouse Avenue but whose body was found in an apartment on New Street. 

December 8, 2015. Martin Brodbeck and Marie Telford, both living at 849 Capouse Avenue, are charged with arson. Brodbeck is accused of helping Telford set fire to her previous apartment. The fire spread to three adjacent houses and a business, and four firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.

And here's the peculiar history of 851 Capouse Avenue:

July 20, 1898. Catherine Connell, 55, dies of fractured skull and broken neck after porch railing she was leaning on collapses.

March 1, 1908. Twenty guests at a christening are arrested after a brawl.

November 26, 1913. Resident Frank Tyrzak killed instantly while at work at the Manville mines after being crushed between two cars. Body was removed to his home.

December 11, 1944. Samuel Dolinger dies at age of 58 after brief illness. For several years, Dolinger operated a grocery store at 851 Capouse Avenue.

June 2, 1972. John Vidmosko, 26, of 851 Capouse Avenue, charged with aggravated assault after beating Anna Knapik, a 71-year-old deaf mute with a clock inside her home at 849 Capouse Avenue as she was sleeping.

September 15, 1974. Joseph and June Morgan, both of 851 Capouse Avenue, were captured by police at gunpoint after breaking into the C&D Sportswear plant.

February 12, 1976. Fire leaves seven homeless after spreading from an adjacent building.

November 3, 1983. Harold Albright, 58, dies suddenly inside his apartment.

February 15, 2003. Lifelong criminal Charles Polito sentenced to lengthy prison term after breaking into a nearby bar. Polito, whose rap sheet dates back to the 1980s, was sentenced to 5-10 years in 1989 by Judge Walsh for multiple robberies of businesses, home buglaries and firearms violations. In 2011, Polito was found covered in blood inside a vehicle on Maiden Lane, though he refused to tell police how he obtained his injuries.  Later that year, Polito was arrested for attempting to steal an SUV-- while undercover police officers were inside the vehicle. The following month he was arrested at the Rodeway Inn in Moosic for burglarizing four homes and businesses. He returned to prison in 2017 for DUI.

While every old house has its share of tragedies, it seems that few can compete with 849-851 Capouse Avenue, which makes you wonder how many forgotten misfortunes took place in the days of Chief Capoose and Lenape warriors who called this land home for centuries.

Sources:

Scranton Sunday News, July 24, 1898.
Scranton Truth, Nov. 27, 1913.
Scranton Tribune, Mar 11, 1948.
Scranton Times-Tribune, Oct. 1, 1948.
Scranton Times-Tribune, Dec. 26, 1958.
Scranton Tribune, June 3, 1972.
Scranton Tribune, Sept. 16, 1974.
Scranton Times-Tribune, April 14, 1982.
Scranton Times-Tribune, June 16, 1992.
Scranton Tribune, March 17, 1997.
Scranton Times-Tribune, Dec. 9, 2015.