From left: Deputy Sheriff John Bednarz, Jonah Roberts and Deputy Sheriff John Sullivan. Published Wilkes-Barre Record Aug. 1, 1952

From left: Deputy Sheriff John Bednarz, Jonah Roberts and Deputy Sheriff John Sullivan. Published Wilkes-Barre Record Aug. 1, 1952

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<p>Spectators waiting to enter a Luzerne County Courtroom for the murder trial of Jonah Roberts. Times Leader archive photo</p>

Spectators waiting to enter a Luzerne County Courtroom for the murder trial of Jonah Roberts. Times Leader archive photo

<p>Mary Roberts, published Wilkes-Barre Record June 12, 1952</p>

Mary Roberts, published Wilkes-Barre Record June 12, 1952

Luzerne County prosecutors made several typographical errors in typing up the arrest warrant, in this case four warrants, for Jonah Roberts, who was charged with killing his wife Mary on June 10, 1952.

When Roberts was brought before a Luzerne County judge on Aug. 15, 1952, the judge found discrepancies in the language nullifying the first, second and third warrant.

Roberts was arrested four times inside a courtroom within 20 minutes before the judge finally accepted the fourth warrant.

Maintaining two hitchhikers shot and killed his wife, Roberts, 46, a machinist who lived on Church Street, Edwardsville, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison following a long and an exhausting 17-day trial in February 1953.

The jury of seven women and five men were sequestered and stayed at the Sterling Hotel with two sheriff deputies taking shifts guarding their floor. On Sundays when trial proceedings weren’t held, jurors were taken to Montrose in Susquehanna County and Stroudsburg in Monroe County at taxpayers expense to spend the day.

Roberts’ trial was highly publicized and reported in the Times Leader and Wilkes-Barre Record, the saga beginning when Mary Roberts was found dead inside their vehicle on a secluded road in Bear Creek Township.

When Mary’s body was found, Roberts’ story about two hitchhikers was almost believable. Roberts himself suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder as his wife died from two gunshot wounds to her head.

Roberts told investigators he was enjoying a leisurely car ride with his wife, first stopping for ice cream in West Pittston before driving to Scranton where they picked up two men at the Laurel Line rail station.

As they drove on the Dupont highway, Roberts claimed the two men seated in the rear seat brandished pistols, demanded their wallets and commandeered their vehicle. When they stopped on a secluded road in Bear Creek Township, Mary began fighting with the two men resulting in the gunfire.

Investigators had suspicions about Roberts’ story and the investigation uncovered Roberts had a mistress, Frances Allen, 24, of Canal Street, Shickshinny, and owned a firearm.

Investigators also tapped the phone inside Roberts’ room at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital recording several hours of his conversations.

One phone call Roberts made from his hospital bed was to his mistress Allen and another to Joshua Bryant, a bicycle dealer in Kingston who sold Roberts a .32 caliber pistol on April 12, 1952, just weeks before Mary was killed.

Roberts initially denied he owned a firearm but later admitted he purchased the gun to shoot rats at his place of employment, Barre Apparel Company in Edwardsville.

Bullets recovered during the autopsy of Mary Roberts matched .32-caliber bullets investigators recovered from a door and floor at the apparel company, the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Feb. 21, 1953.

Roberts testified in his own defense maintaining two hitchhikers killed his wife and shot him. Roberts identified one of the assailants as “Wop.”

“Jonah, did you kill your wife Mary?” asked Chief Defense Attorney Frank Slattery. Roberts replied, “I did not,” the Record reported Feb. 26, 1953.

District Attorney Louis G. Feldmann and First Assistant District Attorney Stephan A. Teller called 41 witnesses, many of them investigators including a criminologist. Slattery and his co-defense lawyer, Michael J. Farrell, called 12 witnesses.

Spectators lined out the front entrance doors of the courthouse and crowded the halls each day of the 17 day trial. The front row inside the courtroom were reserved for reporters from media outlets while the back rows were removed to make room for evidence and a projection screen.

Judge J. Harold Flannery, who presided over the proceedings, promptly began each day at 9:30 a.m., took a lunch recess, and ended each day at about 6 p.m. Trial proceedings were also held on two consecutive Saturdays.

“Jonah L. Roberts, 46-year-old Edwardsville machinist-handyman, was found guilty of murder in the first degree last night,” the Record reported Feb. 28, 1953.

The jury announced their verdict at 9:45 p.m. after deliberating for less than three hours.

Roberts was sentenced to life in prison. He remained at the county jail for more than a year while an appeal for a new trial was denied.

Four months after being transferred to the state penitentiary at Graterford in Montgomery County, Roberts died of a heart attack on Oct. 30, 1954. He was buried in Forty Fort Cemetery.