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Coal miner Peter Blaso, 27, showed up at Wilkes-Barre Police Headquarters on State Street with a woman’s body inside his vehicle on Oct. 28, 1935.
Blaso was described as a wild-eye, disheveled young man.
“Police detectives making a hurried investigation found the assertions of the frightened man were only too true. A woman’s body was found slumped in the back seat of a sedan at the police entrance,” reported the Times Leader on Oct. 29, 1935.
A Times Leader photographer captured a deputy coroner and two assistants removing the body to an ambulance. She was identified as Edna Reilly, 37, who lived at 101 Prospect St., Wilkes-Barre.
An autopsy at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital revealed Reilly suffered a fractured skull, a broken neck and fractured ribs that pierced her lungs, the Times Leader reported.
Reilly’s chest showed a distinct imprint of a heel of a man’s shoe, the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper reported Oct. 30, 1935.
Deputy Coroner J. Emmett Brislin estimated Reilly was dead four to five hours when Blaso showed up at police headquarters.
Police interrogated Blaso who informed detectives Reilly “was his best girl” and they had been living together as man and wife.
During a second interrogation of Blaso, he told detectives Reilly fell asleep in the vehicle and he realized she was dead when he offered her water when he stopped near a natural spring on Middle Road in Hanover Township.
Blaso maintained his innocence for two days until he was charged with murder and manslaughter on Oct. 31, 1935, when he admitted he killed Reilly at Ryman’s Lumber Yard under the South Street Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, the Wilkes-Barre Evening News newspaper reported the same day.
Blaso drove around for several hours before he went to police headquarters.
Defended by attorneys Frank McGuigan Sr. and Frank McGuigan Jr., Blaso pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Feb. 3, 1936.
Judge W. A. Valentine sentenced Blaso to five years in jail to be served at the county jail, the Evening News reported Feb. 13, 1936.
Two years later, Valentine paroled Blaso from jail on July 13, 1938, on conditions he maintained employment by the coal mines and refrain from alcohol.
Blaso remained in the news for several years and was the victim of a police shooting.
The Times Leader reported a drunken Blaso was stabbed by a man on Sambourne Street on Jan. 3, 1940.
When police responded to a fight on Glenn Street in Wilkes-Barre where Blaso assaulted his wife and stepson, John Weber, police officer Orville Allen shot him in the back as he fled across railroad tracks at Dana and Hazle streets.
“The bullet entered Blaso’s back on the right side, passed through his body and out through his chest just below the right shoulder,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Jun 18, 1941.
Despite being shot, Blaso challenged Allen to fight, the Record reported.
“It was the second time Blaso had been shot by a policeman. Detective John Burke fired at him in 1929 while chasing him after a robbery of an employee near Hazard Rope Works near Hazle Street, the Record reported June 19, 1941.
Blaso was fatally stabbed during a fight with his stepson, John Weber, on Aug. 18, 1960, inside a residence on Lincoln Street in Wilkes-Barre, the Evening News reported the same day.
District Attorney Stephen A. Teller opted not to pursue a murder charge against Weber.
