Apr. 13—Constables Richard Cotter and George Sunday walked out the front door of Alderman Michael Sullivan’s office on Blackman Street, Wilkes-Barre, with an arrest warrant for Steven Richau on April 15, 1906.
Richau was accused of stabbing Felix Staucheck near today’s Casey Avenue in Wilkes-Barre Township.
As Cotter and Sunday secured Richau when located at a house in the Georgetown section of Wilkes-Barre Township, they were attacked by a mob wielding clubs, bats and metal prongs.
“The two constables secured the man about 6 o’clock in the evening and after handcuffing him were on their way with him to the alderman’s office when the mob of about 50 men, women and boys set upon them, stoned and fired at them and took their prisoner away from them,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported April 16, 1906.
Constables Cotter and Sunday emptied their revolvers at the mob and ran for their lives returning to Sullivan’s office, the Record reported.
Sullivan, the alderman, was told what had taken place and dispatched 15 more constables in a hurry to Georgetown. State policemen were also sent to Georgetown to assist in finding those who fired upon constables Cotter and Sunday.
After a house-to-house search, four men — Peter Bearnot, Charles Stouck, John Ruschavage and the original prisoner, Steven Richau — were arrested after constables Cotter and Sunday identified them as being in the mob.
A fifth man, Joseph Whichouski, was located hiding in a tub of a house with a gunshot wound to his lower left leg and transported on a horse wagon to Mercy Hospital in South Wilkes-Barre. Whichouski’s wife, Mary, was also found with a gunshot wound to her right hand.
“The arrival of the state policemen caused considerable excitement in Georgetown, but their numbers awed the foreigners and no trouble of any account was experienced. They searched a number of houses while pickets were placed on several of the streets in case there should be any outbreak,” the Record reported.
Hopes of peace in Georgetown was short lived as another riot erupted on April 16, 1906, when more constables were dispatched to the area to arrest more of the mob that attacked constables Cotter and Sunday the day before.
“The additional constables succeeded in placing George Valinitus under arrest who was one of the men wanted for leading the mob yesterday evening. Valinitus resisted and several of his countrymen bonded together but fortunately there was no shooting,” the Record reported April 17, 1906.
Rocks, bottles and iron railroad spikes were thrown at the constables who retreated with their prisoner, Valinitus, back to Sullivan’s office.
Fearing the mob would converge onto his building, Sullivan requested state policemen to patrol the neighborhood for 24 hours.
“Tensions finally eased in Georgetown as there were no more disturbances or uproars,” the Record reported April 18, 1906.
No charges were filed against constables Cotter and Sunday for recklessly firing their revolvers into the mob.