For the crime of burglary, three men of Wiconisco, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, were hastily rounded up and quickly convicted. Although they were first-time offenders, they were sentenced to ten to twenty months in jail. The article in the Lykens Standard, June 19, 1925, noted that the sentencing, which took place one week after the crime, would have “a deterring effect upon the criminally inclined.”
WICONISCO TRIO GET TEN MONTHS
William Pontz, Edward Long and Charles Starnowski, all of Wiconisco, who as alleged on June 10 [1925], burglarized the store of S. J. Snyder at Sheridan, were tried and sentenced at Pottsville on Wednesday, June 17th.
Quick capture and sure punishment will soon have a deterring effect upon the criminally inclined. Twelve hours after the crime was reported, State Trooper William Miller assisted by Officer Kopp of Tower City, rounded up the three suspects and secured written confessions from two of them and the trio were taken to the Schuylkill County jail at Pottsville.
The stiff sentence meeted [sic] out to these first offenders by the Schuylkill County Court were as follows: “A fine of $10.00, cost of prosecution, restoration of the goods, and imprisonment in the Schuylkill County jail for not less than ten months and not more than twenty months.”
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Story from Newspapers.com.
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