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| This article originally appeared in Murder will Out! A Unpublished Manuscript by the late Glenn H. Waight. |
Three men were eventually captured, tried and convicted of the 1972 murder- robbery of a city auto parts dealer and coin collector in his downtown East Liverpool apartment.
Willis Smith, 55, was found lying in the kitchen of the second floor quarters over his business at Broadway and Fourth St., shot three times with a German World War II pistol.
Around 8:28 am. on Monday, Nov. 13, police received a telephone call from person in the neighborhood reporting unusual noises and a gunshot somewhere in the area around 6:45.
Patrolmen William Talbott and Ron Roach went to the site, and checked doors of several buildings. Finding the Smith entryway door ajar, they went up the stairs and discovered Smith lying face down on the kitchen floor of the lavish apartment, partly under a breakfast bar.
He was wearing a red bathrobe and shorts, his feet bound with his own shoelaces. A belt, found nearby, had apparently been used to secure his hands.
Officers believed he had been seated but not tied to a chair, and managed to work loose from the belt. He probably surprised the robbers who then fired a hail of bullets. He had been shot under one eye and through the upper left arm.
INVESTIGATION REVEALED two men were seen leaving the vicinity about the time the unusual noises were heard by the phone caller. The door of a safe was open, contents of its drawers scattered. A later check showed the loss less than first estimated.
Part of a coin collection was taken, but friends said Smith kept only coins worth $1,500 to $2,000 in the home, his more valuable items stored in bank safety deposit boxes. The victim's own gun was lying near the body, loaded but on safety and unfired. It had been given him only a few weeks before by one of his sons.
An autopsy revealed the shots had been fired from above the victim, two hitting him in each arm, coursing downward causing hemorrhaging in the lung area and death. Coroner William Kolozsi said Smith literally strangled in his own blood.
The bullet under the eye could have been fatal, smashing through the cheek bone and into the head. The Coroner said the victim might have lived eight minutes afterward, but would have been unable to seek help because of the severe wounds.
Police found a total of eight spent cartridges, either 9 mm or 7.65 mm of the type used in German P38 models.
Smith, who lived alone, owned and operated the Smith Auto Parts at 329 Broadway for 27 years. It was an isolated corner building which was originally the Potters National Bank. Few homes are near -- the former high school, Carnegie Library and parking lots are opposite.
He was survived by his widow, a daughter and two sons.
The slaying remained unsolved for some two years until a Pennsylvania man was arrested at Midland, Texas, for theft of a car in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Frank Ringler, 50, of McKeesport, Pa., was returned to Las Vegas, and under questioning by police there said he had knowledge of a murder and coin theft in East Liverpool. He provided the names of Charles Breon and Joseph Crane in connection with the crime.
Nevada police notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation which relayed the report to city officers. This was the first solid clue, and the case was turned over to Det. William Devon, because the original investigation was directed by Det. Capt. Kenneth Mooney, since promoted to Police Chief.
Breon, 26, of Milroy, Pa., reportedly had been in the apartment with Crane, 45, of Philadelphia who fired the fatal shots. Ringler claimed he waited outside in a car. He said he first heard of Smith's coin collection from a chance acquaintance when he stopped in East Liverpool on his way to Pittsburgh from Cleveland on a bus.
Ringler told police he contacted Breon who got in touch with Crane, a helper for a brother who was a plumber in Philadelphia. The three men had known each other as fellow prisoners.
Ringler denied he knew about the shooting until the other two men came back to the car.
Eventually all three men were brought to Columbiana County under indictment -Crane for aggravated murder.
Crane went on trial in October 1975, but a jury of nine men and three women could not reach a verdict after ten hours of deliberation, and Judge Warren Bettis ruled a mistrial.
BREON HAD pleaded guilty to armed robbery, and was sentenced to four to 25 years. Transfer to prison was delayed so he could testify at Crane's trial. Ringler, held in the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution at Lucasville for unarmed robbery, was brought to the county as a state witness.
Crane's second trial began Nov. 17, 1975, with Prosecutor Joseph Baronzzi and David Buzzard, chief assistant, representing the State, and Attorneys Lawrence Stacey and Douglas Jenkins appointed Crane's counsel.
The first prosecution witnesses were Linda Mattern and Patricia Boyd who said they were parked on the old Central School lot and heard what they said sounded like pounding.
Later they saw two men cross Broadway and Fourth St. and walk along the north side toward the Salvation Army building. One was carrying a suitcase with a floral design, the other held something in his arms.
On the stand again, Breon testified he and Crane went to the Smith apartment on the pretense of wanting to look at some coins. When they made themselves known at the door, Smith spoke over an intercom, and unlocked the door.
The pair entered and climbed the stairs, Crane in front. Smith led them to the kitchen area, and told them to have a seat, Breon testified. Crane then pulled out his gun and said, "No, you sit down." Then Smith was forced into an adjoining bedroom, and bound with various materials found in the apartment.
But the victim started to shake, and explained he needed his medication and a glass of water. Breon said he got a butcher knife from the kitchen and cut the bindings, taking Smith to the kitchen where he obtained the medicine.
Then Smith was placed on a kitchen stool, and Crane demanded to know the combination of the safe. The safe didn't open on the first try, but Crane was successful on the next.
Breon said he was looking out a living room window to see if anyone had observed them come in when he heard several shots. Frightened, he ran down the stairway to the landing when Crane called, "Get back up here!"
He turned around to see Crane pointing his gun at him, so he went back upstairs where Crane told him to find some suitcases. The two packed some coins in a suitcase, and then hurried back to the parked auto.
The trio drove to Breon's home at Miliroy near State College, arriving the next morning after getting lost for a while in Pittsburgh.
Breon said he went to work that same day, but Crane and Ringler traveled on to Philadelphia. Crane "fenced" the coins there, and they met later to spliothe profit from which Breon said he got about $200.
Crane did not take the stand. The defense case rested on the deposition of a retired probation officer and two relatives. Crane's brother-in-law recalled Crane had visited him the night of the murder and watched television -- "The Tom Jones Show" and "The FBI."
His brother, Harry Crane, a Philadelphia plumber, said Joe had worked for him Nov. 13-14.
The jury deliberated seven hours in bringing in a verdict of guilty. Crane was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1983, while in Hocking County Prison, Crane was denied by Judge David Tobin a motion to set aside his conviction. The prisoner claimed he had been indicted for first degree murder, but was found guilty of felony murder. Tobin ruled that Crane had competent legal counsel, and questions about the indictment should have been raised when Crane's original appeal was filed in 1976.
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