The Altoona Railroad Spike Murder

 

Roy Lockard and Margaret Karmendi

A black sedan with out-of-state plates barreled down Jaggard Street in Altoona on the night of April 21, 1936. As the car sped toward the intersection of Jaggard Street and Bell Avenue, its headlights illuminated a tall, gangly man who was walking long the road with a small child slumbering in his arms. A young woman-- a friend of the man carrying the sleeping three-year-old boy -- walked alongside in the brick-paved gutter. But the driver did not slow down, nor did he stop. As the sedan raced past, it struck the back of the sleeping boy's head, nearly knocking him out of the man's arms.

"I couldn't see the license number, but I think the plate was green," recalled Roy Lockard, the 24-year-old WPA sewer worker who was carrying the child, Matthew "Sonny" Karmendi. The mother, Margaret, remained at the home of a neighbor, Paul Iorio, who had appeared on the scene shortly after hearing Margaret had knocked on his front door in a hysterical state. He attempted to flag down passing motorists to rush Sonny to the hospital, with no luck.

"They only tramped on the gas and passed by," Iorio later explained to police. 

Sonny, bleeding profusely from head wounds, was taken into the Iorio home and bandaged before another neighbor drove Roy Lockard and the child to Mercy Hospital. Sonny's father was notified at the silk mill where he worked the night shift, and he raced to the hospital just before Sonny was pronounced dead. The child had suffered a fractured skull and severe lacerations. Coroner Chester Rothrock and local law enforcement declared that Sonny Karmendi's death had been caused by a hit-and-run-driver.

But the child's father, Matthew Karmendi, had his suspicions.

The Suspicious Husband

When Matthew arrived at the hospital he he brushed past Lockard and gazed down at his dying little boy. And then he turned to Patrolman A.J. Winninger and pointed an accusing finger at Lockard. "Hold that man for being with my wife!" he demanded. The patrolman, believing that the anguished father's reaction was a result of stress, told Roy Lockard to go home. The rest of the evening, police cruisers patrolled Altoona and its outskirts, looking for the phantom driver who had killed little Sonny Karmendi.

Hundreds of drivers were stopped and questioned during the night, their vehicles examined by officers for evidence of a collision, perhaps a missing passenger side mirror, or splatters of blood. None of the license plates matched the description of the green out-of-state plate which Roy Lockard had claimed to have seen on the speeding sedan. However, Margaret Karmendi, when questioned by authorities, claimed that the car had Pennsylvania plates, and that the death vehicle had been a coupe, not a sedan. 

This discrepancy could've been accounted for by the darkness of the night or the fog of excitement. After all, the vehicle had come from behind and had whizzed by in a blur. Many people in such a situation would've been lucky to catch a glimpse of the plate at all. But then Patrolman Winninger remembered Matthew's outburst at the hospital, and began to wonder if there could be other reasons for the contradicting descriptions. And, besides, what was a married woman doing walking with another man late at night while her husband was away at work?

Others had their own suspicions. One was J. Edward Wertzberger, an Altoona newspaper reporter, who wondered whether a side mirror or protruding door handle could have produced the fatal injury to Sonny Karmendi. Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Puderbaugh wondered the same thing, after learning from Coroner Rothrock that the fatal wound was a jagged hole on the top of the skull, just behind the hairline. Puderbaugh decided to conduct some experiments to satisfy his curiosity.

Puderbaugh Reconstructs Accident

An old coupe and an old sedan, both with protruding door handles, were towed up the Jaggard Street hill under Puderbaugh's direction. The assistant district attorney stood on road's shoulder and made careful observations as each vehicle was driven past him at a snail's pace. In both cases, the door handle passed exactly where a child's head would be resting while being carried in someone's arms.
But, still, Puderbaugh felt that something wasn't quite right. He visited Sonny's father, asking him why he wanted Roy Lockard held for accompanying his wife.

"I'll tell you why," said Matthew. "Several times recently Sonny mentioned Roy's name while talking to me. Once he was chewing gum and I asked him where he got it. He replied, 'Nice Roy gave it to me.'  When I heard someone call Lockard 'Roy' at the hospital last night, I figured that he was the man Sonny had spoken about, although I never saw him before."

Matthew explained that he worked evenings and didn't get home until after 10 o'clock, but he was never suspicious of Margaret because she was always at home by the time he returned. At the hospital, Lockard had claimed to be a friend of the family, but Assistant D.A. Puderbaugh now realized that Lockard was only friends with one member of the Karmendi family. Once again, Puderbaugh decided to investigate. He sent for Constable Dennis Flynn and asked him to question neighbors to see if Roy Lockard had been seen with a member of the family who wasn't Margaret.

Lockard Loosens Lips 

Constable Flynn, having failed to find any proof of an affair between Margaret Karmendi and Roy Lockard, decided to speak to Lockard directly. Flynn, accompanied by newspaper reporter J. Edward Wertzberger, drove to his home at 2918 Pine Avenue. While Flynn stayed inside the car, the reporter went in and talked to Lockard, who had little to say.  As the reporter left the apartment, he overheard a voice from an adjoining room talking about bail money.

The reporter's ears pricked up. No one had yet been named as a suspect, much less arrested, so why would Lockard need to worry about bail money? Constable Flynn also found this statement interesting. He confronted Lockard and wanted him to go through this story of Sonny's death one more time. Lockard, visibly frustrated, blurted out, "The baby interfered with our dates!"

The constable took Lockard into custody and dragged him before Assistant D.A. Puderbaugh. At Puderbaugh's office, he confessed his secret love affair with Mrs. Karmendi:

"About a month ago I met Margaret on a downtown street corner. We met often after that where we wouldn't be seen, usually on the steps of Pleasant Valley School, about fifty feet from the Karmendi home. Always it was before the husband got home from work."

According to Lockard, Margaret would often bring the child along, but it "cramped his style". He kept Sonny quiet with candy and bubblegum, but he feared that one day Sonny would spill the beans to his father. 

"We could not go to any shows because Sonny would go home and tell his dad and grandmother," he explained. The lovers then decided to get the obstacle out of their way. Around six o'clock on the night of April 21, Lockard met Margaret and Sonny at the Pennsylvania Railroad station. They began to walk the tracks. Before returning to the station, one of them picked up a rusty railroad spike.

They left the station at around nine o'clock and walked to Jaggard Street and waited for a car to drive by as Lockard positioned Sonny on his left shoulder. According to Lockard, it was Margaret who brought the railroad spike crushing down on her baby's head. "We stopped and Margaret opened her coat," claimed Lockard. "She took an iron bolt or spike from an inside coat pocket. She held it in her hand and we started to walk down the street toward her home. As we neared Bell Avenue, Margaret hit Sonny over the head with something which she carried in her hand.

"I wouldn't kill the baby," said Lockard to Assistant D.A. Puderbaugh and Constable Flynn. "I liked him. I can still hear the baby saying before he went to sleep in my shoulder, 'I like you, Roy'."

 Margaret's Story

Margaret Karmendi was brought in for questioning, but authorities found her statements rather incoherent and absent-minded. She could not recall times or dates or the sequence of events. She was unsure of details and gave statements that conflicted with her earlier account of what had transpired. The only thing of which she was certain was that it was Roy Lockard who had murdered her three-year-old child. 

"He got a spike out of his pocket while crossing the 17th Street bridge and said something is going to happen," she told Puderbaugh and Flynn."I then asked him what, and he said wait and see. We were going down the hill when he stopped. He turned and hit the hit the baby... I heard him groan and I screamed. He then threw the bolt into the field by the right side of the road."

Margaret Karmendi and Roy Lockard were taken to the Altoona city jail while officers searched the vicinity of the crime scene for the murder weapon, to no avail. On Thursday, April 23, they were taken to Jaggard Street and instructed to re-enact the crime, only to find a mob of several thousand curiosity seekers lining the road, many of them outraged over the killing of the innocent child. The crowd was so vicious that Lockard wasn't even able to exit the patrol car, as dozens of Altoona residents threatened to hang him from a tree.

With conditions being too perilous on Jaggard Street to reconstruct the crime, Police Captain Harry S. Carey had Margaret and Roy re-enact the killing at city hall, using a doll. When she was brought from her cell, Margaret said, "I may as well tell you this truthfully. Instead of Roy holding Sonny in his arms and hitting him, he stood on the ground in front of him and struck the child with the spike." She then demonstrated how Lockard had allegedly stabbed Sonny in the skull. Lockard was then brought out and gave his demonstration, showing how Margaret had allegedly stabbed the child. After the demonstration, Roy and Margaret were jointly charged with first degree murder.

Husband Demands Electric Chair for His Wife 

Meanwhile, Matthew Karmendi grieved over the death of his beloved son from a makeshift bed in the parlor of his parents' home on Bell Avenue. On April 23, he met with J. Edward Wertzberger of the Altoona Tribune and discussed his feelings about his wife and the accusations against her, while Sonny lay next to him, ready for burial, in a white satin-lined casket. "I don't care what happens to her now," he said to the reporter as he turned toward the casket. "All I ever loved in this world is gone."

Matthew also spoke of Margaret's recent change in behavior, about how little Sonny had recently taken a dislike to her, and about how Margaret had begun neglecting their child. "Many a night I would come home from work and find Sonny sleeping on the floor... She would never put him to bed and when we went to bed I always had to cover him. He would never let his mother put him to bed." He then told Wertzberger about Margaret's behavior over the Easter weekend, just a week before Sonny's murder.

"Let's stay home tonight and color eggs for Sonny instead of going out, I said. She refused, and put on her coat and left the house. I stayed home and fixed the Easter baskets while she was out."

Matthew couldn't understand how his wife would choose murder over simple abandonment. "I can't see why she wanted to kill him and get rid of him," he said. "She didn't have to do that. My family wanted to take him. But, no, she thought she was the boss. If she did this terrible thing, the chair is too good for her." Then a sudden thought crept into Matthew's mind.

"They won't let her out of jail for the funeral, will they?" he asked the reporter. "She didn't want him when he was alive and I can't see why she would want to come to the funeral." Much to the relief of the Karmendi family, Margaret was not permitted to attend the funeral.

 

Murder Weapon Found

Handcuffed together in the back seat of Constable Flynn's automobile, Margaret Karmendi and Roy Lockard were taken from jail on April 25 to a preliminary hearing before Alderman Robert Conrad. On their return, Lockard told the constable that he kicked the railroad spike out of the truck while a neighbor drove him and the victim to Mercy Hospital after the stabbing. Patrolman William Stephens, accompanied by Assistant D.A. Puderbaugh, retraced the route to the hospital and were able to locate a rusty railroad spike in the gutter in front of 2208 Fourth Avenue. When examined at city hall, several human hairs were found on the spike.

On April 27, Constable Flynn found another important clue. While searching the Karmendi home at 1602 Pleasant Valley Avenue, William Karmendi took Flynn to an closet in an upstairs bedroom where a blood-stained dress was hanging. Flynn noted that there were bloodstains on the left shoulder, which contradicted Margaret's claim that Lockard had stood on the ground and stabbed Sonny. Flynn also found a bloody handkerchief, which he believed had been used to wipe the railroad spike after the stabbing. He collected these gruesome relics and delivered them to District Attorney Chester Wray.

On June 2, 1936, Roy Lockard and Margaret Karmendi were indicted by a grand jury in Hollidaysburg. The following day, Judge Marion D. Patterson appointed attorneys Frank B. Warfel and Frank J. Reiser to defend them. Unfortunately for the accused killers, there was very little time to build a defense, as their murder trial was set for June 10. Warfel's request for a continuance was immediately shot down by Judge Patterson, who insisted that one week was "ample time" to build a defense for the two individuals accused of the most heinous murder in the history of Blair County. 

Roy and Margaret Stand Trial

The murder trial opened on Wednesday, June 10, and a jury was selected without difficulty. The following morning Lockard, handcuffed to Mrs. Karmendi, stood before Judge Patterson and entered a plea of not guilty. Testimony began, with the prosecution calling for the death penalty and reading the three different confessions which Lockard had made to authorities. 

The first witness called was Dr. Samuel Dershowitz, a Mercy Hospital intern, who described the injuries to Sonny Karmendi. These included a compound fracture of the skull and three depressed fractures, indicating that at least four blows were struck. Next, Patrolman Winninger testified and described what he observed at the hospital and at the crime scene. Paul Iorio, into whose home the injured child was first taken, was next on the witness stand. He described telling Margaret to summon an ambulance and how, when she refused to do so, he ran into the street and attempted to flag down passing motorists.

Also taking the stand was Dr. C.E. Shope, the coroner's physician, who corroborated the injuries described by Dr. Dershowitz. According to Dr. Shope, any of the four skull fractures may have killed the three-year-old victim, making it impossible to determine just who had inflicted the lethal blow. Constable Flynn also took the stand. The following morning, the railroad spike was entered into evidence, and experts produced by the Commonwealth confirmed that it was indeed the weapon which had been used to murder Sonny Karmendi. 

The defense presented its case on June 12, claiming that Roy Lockard was insane. "Lockard is the type of whom we say there is a screw loose," insisted attorney Frank Reiser. "He's cracked, he is not all there. He has the mind of a child." Lockard's stepmother, Mary Katherine, was called to the stand. After 24 minutes of answering questions, she fainted and had to be carried out of the courtroom.

Roy the Baby

Also testifying for the defense was Mrs. Helen Williams, in whose home Lockard lived. "One morning, upon rising at six o'clock, I found Roy lying on my front porch," testified Mrs. Williams. "I asked him what was the matter and he told me he had left home. I invited him in for breakfast, and he had been there ever since." 

According to Mrs. Williams, she had tried, without success, to get Lockard to move out several times, but he just didn't seem capable of adult behavior. Her 24-year-old boarder even wrestled the seven Williams children whenever Helen baked a cake to lick the batter from the bowl. "Many times I had to go out into the yard and bring him into the house for fighting with the smaller children over a game of marbles," she stated. "And, yes, even at Easter time we had to fix him a basket just like the baby's."

After several more character witnesses testified to Lockard's childish behavior, the defense rested at 4:31 that afternoon. Lockard was not called as a witness, neither were any mental health experts who might've offered evidence that the defendant was mentally deficient. After the prosecution announced that it had no rebuttal, Judge Patterson adjourned court until the following morning, when he gave the jury its instructions. 

 

Jury Reaches Verdict

On the Saturday afternoon of June 13, the twelve jurors filed into the courtroom and the verdict was read. Roy Lockard was found guilty of first-degree murder. As state law required at the time, the jury was also tasked with deciding upon the punishment a convicted murderer received. Eleven jurors voted for the death penalty. Only one juror voted for life imprisonment. While the defendant's stepmother sobbed hysterically, Lockard, attired in a baby blue suit, appeared uninterested. Matthew Karmendi, after hearing the verdict, quietly stood up and rushed out of the building. "Thank God, justice is being done," was all he said.

Family friend Albert Gatsche stands alongside a weeping Matthew Karmendi, as Mr. and Mrs. Kreutner (foreground) leave the gravesite.

Four neighborhood boys carrying Sonny's casket

The Trial of Margaret Karmendi

The trial of Margaret Berkheimer Karmendi got underway the following day. This time, jury selection was considerably more difficult, with 56 potential jurors examined. Margaret appeared before the court in good spirits and entered a plea of not guilty. While most of Blair County believed that Margaret had been the mastermind of the murder plot, the defense argued, in its opening address, that she not only had nothing to do with the crime, but that Lockard had threatened to give Margaret the same treatment if she didn't cooperate. And, perhaps most remarkably, the defense claimed that Mrs. Karmendi had actually made a valiant attempt to save Sonny's life after the stabbing.

However, one of the witnesses for the Commonwealth, Betty Huber, offered testimony which seemed to refute this claim. Betty Huber, from whose telephone calls were made for help, said that Margaret and a neighbor, Betty Halow, had knocked on her door on the night of April 21 asking to use her phone.  Miss Halow, a high school student, was in her room doing homework when she heard a woman's scream outside. When Betty Huber handed the phone book to Margaret, she handed it back. Ultimately, it was Miss Huber herself who called a doctor, who insisted that Sonny be rushed to the hospital immediately.
"After hearing that the mother was not going to the hospital with her baby, I said it would be nice for the mother to go also," she testified. 

Constable Flynn was called to the stand, and his testimony did little to paint Margaret in a good light. He told of a meeting he had with Margaret at the county jail. She had told him that the first story of the baby being killed by an automobile was correct and that she was going to stick with it. "When I go to court next week I'll say the same thing and stick to it," said the constable, quoting the prisoner. "They can't do much with me-- maybe give me a year and a half or two years in here, and I don't care. This is a pretty good place. I don't mind it, I have lots of company."

Many of the witnesses who testified at the Lockard trial also took the stand, repeating what they had already said. But an air of mystery pervaded the courtroom when an elderly storekeeper named August Seel was called to the stand. One the night of Sonny's death, Margaret had entered his store to use the telephone. No one but Mrs. Seel heard the conversation between Margaret and the party on the other end of the line, presumably her husband. What was said will probably never be known because Mrs. Seel died suddenly a few days later, however, Mr. Seel recalled that Margaret didn't appear particularly shaken up by the tragedy.

Surprise Tactic Backfires

The defense opened its case with a surprise by calling Roy Lockard as a witness. "I hit the baby with the point end of the spike, then turned it around and hit the baby with the blunt end," he stated. But the bombshell was thrown back at the defense on cross-examination, when prosecutor John Sullivan got Lockard to admit that his confession accusing Margaret of striking the baby with the spike was correct and accurate. He testified that he struck Sonny three times with the spike, while evidence clearly showed that the baby was struck no fewer than four times. Lockard also claimed that he had no idea that Margaret was married, and Margaret had told him that Sonny was her little brother.

During the afternoon session, Margaret took the stand. She began with a summary of her life. Margaret Irene Berkheimer had been born in Ore Hill, Bedford County, twenty-three years earlier to Samuel and Juniata Berkheimer. One of nine children, she dropped out of school at the age of 15. After she married Matthew Karmendi, they moved in with one of her sisters in Hollidaysburg. Margaret claimed that it was unhappy marriage, as Matthew's parents disapproved of their relationship. Margaret denied any romantic entanglement with Lockard, and claimed that she had tried to grab his arm to prevent him from stabbing Sonny. She also repeated her claim that Roy had threatened her life if she didn't go along with the fake hit-and-run story. 

The jury wasn't convinced. On the evening of June 18, the verdict was rendered and Margaret Karmendi was found guilty of murder in the first degree. Barring an appeal, she would be only the second female to die in the Rockview Penitentiary electric chair. Margaret displayed no emotion when the verdict was read, and with a carefree, nonchalant attitude she returned to jail. Her husband left the courtroom without making a statement.

 

Margaret Granted Second Trial, and a Third

The defense was able to win an appeal for both Lockard and Mrs. Karmendi, largely due to the defense team's contention that Judge Patterson had wrongly denied their request for a continuance. On January 5, 1937, the state supreme court granted Margaret a new trial, but upheld the conviction and sentence of Roy Lockard. During Margaret's second trial, Lockard wasn't called as a witness. Nonetheless, the verdict and sentence were the same-- guilty of first-degree murder. 

In March, insisting that Margaret was unable to get a fair trial in Blair County, her attorneys successfully petitioned for a change of venue in and another retrial. As a result, her third trial was held in Cambria County in December of 1937.

Margaret's trial got under way in Ebensburg on December 13, 1937. As in the Blair County trial, the prosecution was helmed by District Attorney Wray and Assistant District Attorney Puderbaugh, though, on paper, the case now belonged to District Attorney Mayer of Cambria County (Mayer had to temporarily admit Puderbaugh and Wray to the county bar before they could present the Commonwealth's case). Meanwhile, attorney Frank Reiser mounted the defense. Judge John H. McCann presided over the affair. A jury was chosen that afternoon, comprised of 10 men and 2 women.

This time, the prosecution pulled a new trick from its sleeve by introducing into evidence, for the first time, the written and signed statement Margaret had made to Patrolman Winninger at the home of her mother-in-law the day after Sonny's death, which contained glaring discrepancies from her subsequent statements. The defense objected vociferously, but were overruled by Judge McCann. Doctors Shope and Dershowitz once again testified for the prosecution, as did Patrolman Winninger, Constable Flynn and Paul Iorio. August Seel, the shopkeeper, also testified. "She was happy and not worried," he said, when questioned about Margaret's attitude when she came in to use the telephone to call her husband.

Despite the fireworks provided by the prosecution, the jury retired and returned a verdict finding Margaret Karmendi guilty of murder in the second degree, thus sparing her from the electric chair. She received a sentence to 10 to 20 years at the State Industrial Home for Women in Muncy. She was later transferred to Laurelton State Village in Union County, a home for "feeble-minded women of child-bearing age". Inspired by the eugenics movement, this facility was intended to segregate "genetically undesirable" women until the age of menopause to prevent them from having children.

 

Walking to the Chair with a Smile

Though he was rewarded with 15 stays of execution by two different governors, Roy Lockard's luck eventually ran out, and the date of his execution was fixed for March 27, 1939. With Margaret's case finally dispensed with, there would be no more postponements. On the morning of March 26, Lockard was transported from Blair County to the death house at Rockview Penitentiary. Incidentally, the drive took Lockard past the scene of the crime. As the car chugged up Jaggard Street, the handcuffed passenger averted his eyes and sank down into his seat.

Later that afternoon, Lockard was visited at Rockview by his family and Reverend Strayer of the United Brethren Church. Lockard appeared cheerful, though he had been chainsmoking cigarettes all day. During his three years behind bars, Lockard had grown resigned to his fate. "If I have to go, I'll keep my chin up," he said to Deputy Warden Rhodes.

At thirty minutes past midnight on the morning of March 27, Lockard was removed from his cell and marched to the death chamber. He had requested no final meal, gave no instructions for the burial of his body and offered no final statement. 

Meanwhile, fifty miles away, an uncustomary churchlike atmosphere pervaded the Blair County Jail. During his incarceration, Lockard had become a favorite to the other other prisoners and jail staff alike. Earlier that evening, Warden Hamilton had granted a request from the prisoners to sing hymns and kneel in prayer from midnight until the time the switch was thrown at Rockview. The warden granted the request. "It only goes to show how close to the edge of hell we sometimes find our God," said the warden. "The element of good, and the thoughtfulness in the hearts of these men out here is clearly shown in their actions tonight."

Roy Lockard, with a half-smile of his youthful face, did not flinch when the straps on the chair were adjusted, or when the cap was lowered over his head. The switch was thrown as 12:32. Two minutes later, Lockard was pronounced dead by Dr. Schwartz, the prison physician. His father claimed the body, which was taken back to Altoona by undertaker S.P. Hickey. On March 29 he was given a private burial at Rose Hill Cemetery, in a grave next to his mother.

Laurelton State Village

 

The Fate of Mrs. Karmendi

On the night of April 7, 1947, Margaret Karmendi, along with a female inmate from Beaver County named Margaret Stefanik, escaped from Laurelton State Village by picking a lock on a window. Their freedom was short lived; they were captured in Pittsburgh twelve hours later. She would escape again in 1939, only to be captured ten hours later. Nonetheless, Margaret was set free at the expiration of her sentence, and she moved in with her parents, who had since moved from Ore Hill to Hollidaysburg. What became of her after her release is unclear.

There was, of course, no happy reunion for Margaret and Matthew Karmendi. Matthew had taken a new wife, the former Vernita Kauffman. He passed away in 1967 at the age of 66. 

 

Sources:

Altoona Tribune, April 22, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, April 23, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, April 24, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, April 27, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, April 28, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 4, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 11, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 12, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 13, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 15, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 17, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, June 18, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, Dec. 8, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, Dec. 15, 1936.
Altoona Tribune, March 27, 1939.
Altoona Tribune, March 30, 1939.
Altoona Tribune, April 9, 1947.