Luzerne County Sheriff Remmel LaBar, picture published Wilkes-Barre Record Aug. 9, 1926
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A public example for all hotels, speakeasies and red light houses was put on display outside the Luzerne County Courthouse on Sept. 10, 1926, when a steam roller was used to smash more than 100 slot machines confiscated in the Back Mountain and the Wyoming Valley.
The confiscation of slot machines was a pledge by Sheriff Remmel LaBar to clean up the county of what he considered inappropriate and immoral behavior during the decade of Prohibition. Confiscated slot machines were placed in a garage kept under guard before a sufficient number of the gambling devices would result in the steam roller destruction.
News of LaBar’s slot machine raids garnered publicity during 1926 that the police chief in Lake and Lehman townships, Captain John T. Ruth, sought for his own.
LaBar and Ruth, two law enforcement men, would come to blows in a fist fight.
The occurrence took place at the Lake Silkworth Inn on June 30, 1926.
Perhaps dismayed by LaBar getting attention in newspapers at the time, Ruth secured a warrant from Alderman Frank B. Brown to seize slot machines from the Lake Silkworth Inn, the Red Barn in Lake Township, and a speakeasy near Harveys Lake.
When LaBar learned of the warrant, he and several deputies rode to the Lake Silkworth Inn to seize the opportunity away from Ruth.
The Wilkes-Barre Record on July 2, 1926, reported LaBar entered the inn with a warrant of his own and found four slot machines. Before the machines were removed, Ruth had shown up with his posse of policemen.
“At that minute, Captain Ruth and several of his policemen walked in, read the warrant to LaBar and carried the machines out. The fight occurred outside a few minutes later between Ruth and LaBar,” the Record reported.
News of the fist fight between the two lawmen made headlights in the Record, Evening News and the Times Leader newspapers from July through September.
LaBar filed assault and battery charges against Ruth.
As the confiscated slot machines were destroyed by a steam roller outside the courthouse on Sept. 10, 1926, Ruth was inside the courthouse preparing his defense.
After a four day postponement, Ruth’s trial before a jury and Judge Henry A. Fuller began Sept. 14, 1926. Fuller instructed the jury their only purpose was to determine who threw the first blow.
Ruth testified LaBar was intoxicated when he showed up. LaBar told the jury Ruth punched him and ran away like a coward.
“Ruth declared Sheriff LaBar became angered and insisted upon taking possession of the slot machines. At his time, LaBar struck at Ruth, hitting him a glancing blow on the left ear,” the Record reported Sept. 15, 1926.
Lawmen from Ruth’s posse and LaBar’s camp testified as they expected, each detailing the other threw the first punch.
After the two day trial, Ruth was acquitted of assault and battery.
“Capt. John T. Ruth, head of Lake and Lehman Township police, was found not guilty by a jury yesterday of charges of assault and battery preferred by Sheriff Remmel LaBar,” the Record reported Sept. 16, 1926.
The Record reported the jury deliberated for five hours.
The fist fight was not the first time LaBar engaged in disputes with other lawmen.
LaBar passed through a red traffic light at Wyoming Avenue and Vaughn Street in Kingston on Aug. 8, 1926. The light was controlled by the hand of Police Chief L.S. Reese due to a parade on Wyoming Avenue into Forty Fort.
LaBar could have paid a small fine at the Kingston justice of the peace but wanted a county judge to hear his traffic citation. LaBar ended up paying a $50 fine.
