The Mysteries of Sugar Notch Swamp

Anthony Kozlarek, believed to have been murdered by wife's lover

 

The tiny borough of Sugar Notch in Luzerne County reached the height of its population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when hundreds of men were employed in the local mines owned by the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, while hundreds more were employed at the neighboring Warrior Run Colliery. These miners, most of whom were immigrants, often had a difficult time adjusting to their new homeland, and, as a result, murders, violent crimes and suicides-- often precipitated by domestic troubles, financial hardships and strong liquor-- were a common occurrence. 

Sugar Notch was also home to a 300-foot-wide swamp, which stood north of the borough and west of the DuPont Powder Company's dynamite sheds and railroad siding. This swamp played a role in a strange mystery in December of 1915, when the headless body of a man was found entombed in ice.

On Sunday, December 12, 1915, a group of boys from the borough of Ashley decided to go ice skating at the swamp. One of the young boys, Fred Adams, had just laced up his skates and was gliding across the frozen swamp when he saw something sticking out of the ice. As he skated closer, he saw that it was an old pair of shoes. But, upon closer observation, the boy was startled to discover that the shoes were on a very rotted pair of feet. The boys raced to the DuPont barns, where they obtained assistance, and the body was cut from the ice and laid atop the frozen surface. Much to everyone's horror, the head was missing.

Believing that they had stumbled onto a crime scene, it was decided that the body would not be touched until the arrival of the Hanover Township police and the Coroner Marley. This provided an opportunity for one enterprising and steel-nerved newspaper reporter to make his own examination of the corpse. After darkness had fallen, the reporter, accompanied by Undertaker John Mooney, visited the swamp. Armed with lanterns, the two men found their way to the body by following the ruts left by the blades of the boys' skates. The body was near the center of the swamp, about 150 feet from the roadway. The grisly scene was described thusly:

The corpse lay just as it had been taken from the water. Only the protruding feet gave evidence of anything more than a cake of ice. Because of the condition of the body, and because the clothing was frozen into the ice, it was impossible to make a thorough examination. From what could be seen... the head had been severed a short distance above the neck. About one and one-half inches of brown hair remained. The suit was of black or blue serge. There was no overcoat, which may be an indication that the body has been in the swamp before the beginning of cold weather. There was, however, a suit of extra heavy underclothing... These were in splendid condition, looking almost new, in fact... The shoes, which were light tan, were practically new.

In the rear pocket of the dead man's trousers-- the only pocket accessible due to the frozen condition of the body-- was found a blue handkerchief and a double-bladed pocketknife. The body, covered in a three-inch glaze of ice, was in an unusual position, with the arms and legs outstretched. Probing the hole from which the icy corpse had been cut, it was discovered that there was only about one foot of water between the thick ice and the bottom. Undertaker Mooney and the newspaper reporter concluded that this could only have been a case of foul play, as the water would've been too shallow for death to have been caused by drowning. They also ruled out an accident, as numerous dead tree stumps poked through the surface, and would've made it impossible for a man to make it that far into the swamp by accident. To the newspaper reporter, the location seemed like an ideal place to hide a murder victim.

The authorities arrived early the following morning. They were not completely sold on the murder theory, however. Although they searched for the head for hours, without success, they believed that it might've become detached through the decomposition process. Until the body could be thawed at Mooney's undertaking parlor, it would be impossible to determine if the victim had suffered other injuries. 

The Quest for Clues

One of the DuPont workers, Grant Shaner, recalled that, about a month earlier, he had heard three gunshots at around ten o'clock in the evening. Because of the remote location and lateness of the hour, this struck Shaner as being unusual, though he did not report this matter to anyone at the time. Police also scoured missing persons reports, trying to find someone whose clothing might fit the description of the clothing worn by the man frozen in ice.

Undertaker Mooney believed that the body had been in the water for about three months, but the most promising clue was what he had found inside the pocket of the man's vest-- a lady's pocketwatch and chain. The watch was stopped at 5:40.

The Missing Shoemaker

Eight weeks before the skaters made their chilling discovery, a shoemaker from nearby Warrior Run named Anthony Kozlarek (also spelled Kozleski or Kazlareski in some accounts) disappeared under strange circumstances. Kozlarek and his wife operated a boarding house, and quarrels ensued after Anthony claimed that his wife had been intimate with two of the boarders, one of whom was a man named Teofil Sargol.  After one particularly heated argument, Kozlarek threw the two men out of his home. He disappeared later that night, never to be seen again.

Sargol and the shoemaker's wife were questioned by police after Anthony's cousin, John Gostinski, went to Chief of Police John Killeen and reported that he hadn't seen or heard from Anthony in several days, and that he had heard his cousin mention that he was afraid of his wife. Killeen and his son visited the Kozlarek home, where they found that Mrs. Kozlarek had allowed the two boarders to move back into the house. They also found a bloody axe. The missing man's wife claimed that she had used the axe to slaughter chickens, and had shown the men bloody feathers as proof. Chief of Police Killeen was satisfied by this explanation, at least until the discovery of the headless corpse at Sugar Notch Swamp.

After the discovery, Mrs. Kozlarek was questioned again, and told authorities that Anthony had been wearing a gray suit, a rubber rain coat and slippers when he had left the house several weeks earlier. This, of course, was nothing like the clothing found on the frozen body, but by this time there's no doubt that the shoemaker's wife had already read about the description of the clothing worn by the man in the swamp. Is it possible that one, or both, of her lovers had cut off Anthony's head and throw his body into swamp, and that Mrs. Kozlarek lied to the authorities? Because the headless corpse was in such an advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible for any of Anthony Kozlarek's friends or relative to make a positive identification at the morgue and the rotting remains were buried. As for Mrs. Kozlarek, she and her new lover left Warrior Run in April of 1916 and moved to Mocanaqua. They later married.

Watch found on the corpse

Detectives Exhume Corpse

Besides the Warrior Run shoemaker, there was another local missing man whom detectives believe might have been the same man found in Sugar Notch Swamp. On March 31, 1915, 17-year-old William Kupstus (or Kupstis in some accounts) left the home of his uncle, Simon Kosloski, in Wilkes-Barre after an argument. He stayed at the Salvation Army barracks until April 7, which was the last day he was seen alive. Incidentally, this was the same day that an unknown assailant fired a gun through the window  of the Kosloski home on Kent Lane. The bullet struck Simon in the jaw, though he made a full recovery.

But what if William Kupstus had been the one who fired the shot? Perhaps he had been laboring under the impression that the wound his uncle received was fatal. If so, it's possible that he could've taken his own life out of remorse. Detectives William Moyles and P.J. Connolly believed this was the case, and had the remains of the swamp corpse exhumed and re-examined.

Inside one of the dead man's pockets, they found a money order receipt found made out to William Kupstus and a newspaper clipping featuring a picture of a house which had once belonged to William's father. Two friends of Kupstus positively identified the watch found in the dead man's vest pocket as William's, and it was reported that the mystery of the Sugar Notch Swamp had been solved. Detectives arrived at the conclusion that the teenager had shot himself through the mouth, which unhinged his skull and led to its separation from the rest of the body.

Money order receipt found in corpse's pocket

 

However, there are some things about this conclusion that raise serious questions. The Kosloski home on Kent Lane is four miles from the swamp. While not an overly grueling journey on foot, there are plenty of more readily accessible places for an enterprising young man to take his life. The Susquehanna River is only a mile away from the Kosloski home, while the South Street Bridge (which crossed the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad yard and the North Branch Canal) was just a few blocks to the north. Why would a man hellbent of self-destruction ignore a river, a canal, a high bridge and busy railroad tracks to end his life in a tiny swamp four miles away? And if such a journey was made on foot, how does this explain the like-new condition of the tan shoes found on the corpse? Also, since Kupstus was lodged at the Salvation Army and essentially penniless at the time of his disappearance, how would he have obtained new shoes?

The remote location of the swamp made it virtually unknown to those outside of Warrior Run and Sugar Notch, and the fact that the body was found almost exactly in the middle of the swamp seems to rule out suicide. The swamp, after all, was only about a foot deep and there were no currents to move the body. And how did delicate scraps of paper like a newspaper clipping and a money order receipt manage to survive nine months in stagnant, marshy water? Why was Kupstus carrying a lady's watch? Also, despite a massive search of the swamp, the gun which police believe Kusptus had used to shoot his uncle and then shoot himself in the head was never found.

Interestingly, after the remains were exhumed, they were also viewed by Anthony Kozlarek's cousin, John Gostinski, who identified a prayer book found inside one of the pockets as one belonging to the missing shoemaker. Unfortunately, after the book had been dried out, the signature on the page was too illegible to establish the owner's identity, though Gostinski insisted that the signature was that of his cousin. 

Section of swamp where body was found by skaters

The Head Finally Found

While hunting bullfrogs at Sugar Notch Swamp on July 28, 1916, a party of two men and two boys found a skull while prodding the mud with a stick. Chauncey Walizer and Garfield Booth, both of Sugar Notch, were the ones who found the skull. John and Ziggy Churneski, two local boys, were with them. Knowing that the skull was probably the one long sought after by detectives, the party took the skull to the No. 9 colliery and notified the authorities who, in turn, presented it to the coroner, Dr. C.L. Ashley.
Coroner Ashley declared that the skull was that of teenager William Kupstus. There were no signs of damage caused by a gunshot, though there was a darkening of part of the skull that was a possible indication of blunt force trauma. This would seem to suggest murder, rather than suicide. When the investigation failed to provide any further clues, the case was closed and matter soon forgotten. 

While the area around the swamp was eventually developed in the name of progress (a remnant of the swamp still exists behind a warehouse on New Commerce Boulevard), it played a role in not one, but two Luzerne County mysteries: Who killed William Kupstus? And what ever became of the missing shoemaker, Anthony Kozlarek? Unfortunately, both of these baffling mysteries are destined to remain unsolved.

 

Sources:

Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Dec. 13, 1915.
Pittston Gazette, Dec. 13, 1915.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Dec. 14, 1915.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Jan. 27, 1916.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Jan. 29, 1916.
Wilkes-Barre Record, Feb. 1, 1916.
Pittston Gazette, Aug. 29, 1916.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Aug. 29, 1916.