In May 1930, Henry Noel, a miner, came staggering out of the woods near Williamstown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, bleeding from the neck. After being taken to the office of a local doctor, he was sent to the hospital in Pottsville. He couldn’t speak because of his injuries so he wrote notes to the authorities who questioned him telling them where to find his “wife,” Mrs. Leitzel, who he claimed was attacked by the same stranger who attacked him. His description led the police to locate the body of Jennie Leitzel and subsequently a post mortem exam was done and a coroner’s inquest was held. Following the inquest, Noel was charged with murder. However, Noel’s condition worsened, and just before he died, he denied that he had killed her. Apparently, any efforts to determine whether someone else murdered Mrs. Leitzel were dropped because the authorities believed that the evidence against Noel was too strong.
Today’s blog post tells the story from two available newspapers, the Lykens Standard, and the Pottsville Republican. There is less detail in the Lykens newspaper. The Pottsville newspaper covered the basic facts as reported in the Lykens newspaper, but got more into the details of the relationship between Noel and Mrs. Leitzel, who was not Noel’s wife. She and her children had lived with Noel after her husband died, and witnesses described the relationship as threatening and violent.
For those readers wishing to research this story further, there are two articles available on-line from the Elizabethville Echo: “Charged with Slaying Bear Valley Woman,” May 22, 1930, and “Alleged Slayer Died in Hospital on Thursday,” May 29, 1930. However, not much additional information is provided in those articles except for the name of Mrs. Leitzel’s daughter, Mrs. Ralph Lebo, of Elizabethville. Also, Mrs. Leitzel was buried in the United Brethren Cemetery in Spring Glen, Schuylkill County, and Henry Noel was buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Williamstown.
______________________________________________
From the Lykens Standard, May 23, 1930:
ACCUSE MAN OF SLAYING WOMAN IN MOUNTAINS;
POLICE ARE TOLD THREATS WERE ADVANCED;
ACCUSED MAN CONFINED TO HOSPITAL WITH SLASHED THROAT
Henry Noel, 35, Bear Valley, near Williamstown, Wednesday was formally charged by the district attorney’s office with the murder of his housekeeper, Mrs. Jennie Leitzel.
Her body was found Tuesday afternoon in the mountains about a mile from Williamstown. her throat had been slashed. Near the body was found a pocket knife, blood clotted, believed to have been the murder weapon.
Assistant District Attorney E. LeRoy Keen filed the charge against Noel before Justice George J. Wren, Williamstown. Noel’s hearing mut await the outcome of a gash in this throat, charged by Mr. Keen to have been self-inflicted.
Noel, weak from loss of blood, was found Tuesday afternoon wandering near a mountain road between Bear Valley and Williamstown. Taken to a doctor for treatment, he could not speak but wrote notes in answer to queries about how he was injured.
Writes of Woman’s Fate
Then he wrote about Mrs. Leitzel’s tragic fate, insisted that while he was walking with her in the mountains they were attacked.
But Mr. Keen, after an investigation, declared that he believed that the mysterious circumstances surrounding the woman’s slaying and evidence collected at the scene warranted the murder charge.
Noel in his notes, told of the location of the woman’s body. It was found in a clump of bushes by Henry Savage, Williamstown, one of a searching party. A cap said to belong to Noel was covered over her face.
The accused man wrote that Mrs. Leitzel had been shot. County authorities said no trace of bullet wounds had been found on her body.
At the Pottsville Hospital, where Noel was taken, he is reported to have said “I did it” while coming out of either an operation to close his windpipe and gash in his neck.
The woman’s murder is believed to have occurred Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock. State Police in Harrisburg were called Tuesday evening at 5:15 o’clock. They started an investigation, but have not been able to find a motive for such action nor learn exactly what happened along the lonely mountain trail.
In one of the notes, State Police say, Noel told of an adopted daughter who died last March. A son of Mrs. Leitzel told State Police that Noel has threatened her several times during the past week, because of jealousy of her.
Dr. H. A. Shaffer, one of the men who found the body, reported to Coroner Dr. Howard E. Milliken, that Mrs. Leitzel’s left jugular vein had been severed. Dr. Shaffer will make a post-mortem examination of the body.
Inquest Held Wednesday
At an inquest held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the office of Squire Wren of Williamstown, with a jury composed of Harry B. Mace, foreman; Thomas Warlow; Claude Findley; Francis Reigle; Cletus Polm and James Allen, the following verdict in connection with the death of Mrs. Jennie Leitzel was returned: “Death was caused on May 20, 1930, by bleeding caused by having her left jugular vein and carotid vein severed by a pocket knife at the hands of Henry F. Noel in Williams Township, Dauphin County.”
Four State Police Working on Case
Since the tragedy was reported to the authorities, four members of the State Police, Technical Advisor Funk of the State Department, and Privates Whitecotton of Harrisburg; Privates Edwards and Darey of Tamaqua, have been on the grounds doing all in their power gathering data as to the exact pot the body was found and other important evidence which will be of great help in bringing the guilty party to justice.
__________________________________________________
From the Lykens Standard, May 30, 1930:
HENRY NOEL DIES DENYING THAT HE KILLED WOMAN
Repudiating his confession in his last minutes, Henry Noel, 35, Bear Valley miner, alleged slayer of his housekeeper, Mrs. Jennie Leitzel, 35, died in the Pottsville Hospital Saturday from the knife wounds of the neck.
Noel staggered into Williamstown last Tuesday afternoon with a gaping wound in the neck and speechless from severed vocal cords. While being treated by a physician he scribbled notes telling of an attack upon himself and Mrs. Leitzel by a stranger in the mountains near Williamstown.
Directions furnished by the miner led to the finding of the woman’s body, with the throat cut lying in the woods. A man’s coat lay rolled under her head, a sweater was wrapped about the neck and an open umbrella shaded her face.
Later State police say they obtained a written confession from Noel that he had killed Mrs. Leitzel, a widowed mother of three children. A murder charge was lodged against him Wednesday by Assistant District Attorney F. LeRoy Keen.
The State’s attorney planned to prosecute him for murder on the theory that he killed his housekeeper in a jealous rage when he told that she planned to marry a Mt. Carmel man on June 1.
_______________________________________________
From the Pottsville Republican, May 21, 1930:
Henry Noel, 35, of Bear Valley, near Williamstown, was formally charged with murder today in connection with the death of his housekeeper, Mrs. Jennie Leitzel, whose body was found Tuesday in the mountains near Williamstown.
Her throat had been slashed and a blood stained pocket-knife was found near the body.
Assistant District Attorney E. LeRoy Keen, of Dauphin County, filed the charge against Noel before Justice of the Peace George J. Wren, of Williamstown. A hearing will be held when Noel, who is suffering from a cut in his throat, has recovered. Keen charged that the man’s wound was self-inflicted.
Noel, weak from loss of blood, was found wandering on a mountain road between between Bear Valley and Williamstown Tuesday afternoon. Unable to speak, he wrote his replies to questions put to him and said he and Mrs. Leitzel had been attacked while walking.
Assistant District Attorney Keen said the mysterious circumstances of the slaying and evidence found at the scene warranted the murder charge lodged against Noel. Keen said Noel had written that Mrs. Leitzel had been shot but that no bullet wounds were revealed. A cap said to belong to Noel was found over the woman’s face.
Able to Sit Up
Noel was brought to the Pottsville Hospital on Tuesday afternoon and was at first believed to be in a critical condition as the result of loss of blood. After the wound in his throat had been treated and closed with 18 stitches, he rallied and on Wednesday morning was able to sit up in bed. Unless a hemorrhage occurs, he had a good chance of recovery.
Privates Gay and Davey, State police officers, of the Tamaqua substation, are on guard to prevent any further attempt of Noel to take his own life or escape from the hospital. No attempt has been made to question him. He appears to be unconcerned as to what has happened.
Told Where to Find Woman
The first indication of anything amiss came about 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon when a man was seen staggering along a road near Williamstown. Here the man attempted to tell of the tragedy but his speech was gone, and after wildly gesticulating he was finally given a piece of paper and pencil; on this he scribbled that “She would be found near the oak tree, in the woods near the old pine line along the Tunnel Road.”
Deputy Coroner George Wren was summoned and with the doctor left for the place indicated, where the woman’s body was found.
Her throat had been cut from ear to ear and near her body was found the blood stained pocket knife with which the deed had been done. Her head was badly bruised, as though she had fallen against the trees, and he clothing was torn as of from a struggle. The coat of Noel was rolled and placed under her head and his cap was covering her face.
Everything pointed to murder and because of the man’s knowledge of where she was, the deliberateness with which the body had been laid out, and the fact that the knife belonged to him, casts suspicion on Noel.
According to two miners by the name of Klinger and Bigman, who were on their way to work one morning, they saw Noel and Mrs. Leitzel walking through the Tunnel; this was about 8:30 o’clock; at nine o’clock a foreign boy, living near the woods saw them enter, and told the authorities this when he was questioned.
Dead About Six Hours
According to Dr. Shaeffer who accompanied the men to the place where they found the woman, she had been dead about six hours.
The man, Henry Noel, is well known in these parts and had lived there for years, following the occupation of a miner. Mrs. Leitzel had lived with him as a housekeeper for a number of years, and has one son living in Elizabethville. reports at first stated that Noel was married to Mrs. Leitzel, but this was later denied.
Second Tragedy in Vicinity
This is the second tragedy to occur in this vicinity in the past eighteen months. George Wessner, slayer of his brother, William Wessner of Tower City, is stall at large since the 18th of March 1929, when he came down the steps, approached his brother with a gun and with the words “Bill, I am going to kill you,” shot him. He has not been seen since, although evidence of his presence has been found several time.
Deputy Coroner Wren will hold an inquest into the woman’s death at his office on Wednesday afternoon.
____________________________________________________
From the Pottsville Republican, May 22, 1930:
INQUEST INTO WOMEN’S DEATH
An inquest was held into the death of Mrs. Jennie Leitzel, of Bear Valley, at the office of Squire Wren, of Williamstown, on Wednesday afternoon, and the coroner’s jury found that Mrs. Leitzel had met her death at the hands of Henry Noel, of Bear Valley, who is at present, in the Pottsville Hospital, as the result of apparently attempting to end his life by cutting his throat.
Four State Police were working on the case since the finding of the body of Mrs. Leitzel, on Tuesday afternoon, in the woods near Williamstown with her head almost hacked from her body as a result of being cut with a penknife. Technical Advisor Funck, and Private Whitecotton, of the Harrisburg Barracks, and Privates Edwards and Davey, of the Tamaqua Barracks, went over the case thoroughly and investigated every angle of it. Noel is held on a charge of murder as a result of the findings.
The jury rendered the following verdict: — On May 20, 1930, Mrs. Jennie Leitzel, came to her death by bleeding caused by having her left jugular vein and left carotid artery severed by a pocket knife in the hands of Henry S. Noel.
The members of the jury were: Harry Mace, foreman; Thomas Warlow; Robert Finley; Francis Reigle; Cletus Polms; and James Ryland.
Many items of interest regarding the lives of Mrs. Leitzel and Henry Noel were unearthed at the inquest.
The witnesses included, Mrs. Leitzel’s two sons, a sister, Mrs. Lubold of Bear Valley, Dr. Shaeffer, who performed the post mortem, Stephen Chinchosky, Mike Thomas, and Harry Savage of Williamstown, all threw more light on the subject.
Chinchoski, a foreign boy who lives on the Williamstown side of the tunnel saw them coming through the tunnel on Tuesday morning; Thomas saw them cut into the woods; Savage was the one to discover her body; and her sisters and sons gave the most graphic accounts.
The 17-year-old son of Mrs. Leitzel testified that he and his mother had lived with Mr. Noel since he was about four years old; that hey went to live with him after his father died. He said that through the years, Noel was very jealous of his mother and had at times become enraged when she suggested leaving him that he had made the statement that some day he would kill her.
Her sister likewise said that she had heard him threaten her life; the older son did not live with his mother for a number of years.
In March of this year, following a quarrel, Mrs. Leitzel and her son left the Noel home and she made her home with Mrs. Lubold; later she hired out in a family and had been living with her daughter in Elizabethville, for the past three weeks and was to nurse her in the next week or so. Noel came to the daughter’s home on Monday evening and asked Mrs. Noel to return to him; she told him when her daughter was better she had made a sum of money and was sorry for the way he treated her and would come back. He was invited to spend the night spend the night there, and they decided to come to Pottsville on a shopping trip on Tuesday morning.
At six o’clock on Tuesday morning they were seen coming through the tunnel that is used to haul the coal, and is used by Bear Valley residents to reach Williamstown.
It is the supposition that he decoyed her into the woods by saying they were late for the bus and would cut through the woods to the Greenfield bus stop.
Dr. Schaffer reported that he found all her organs in a hundred per cent perfect condition when he performed the autopsy, and it is believed that he first stunned her and then cut her throat as there was little evidence of a struggle about the little grassy space in which the tragedy occurred.
Although the couple were unmarried, Noel referred to her as his wife; when weakened from loss of blood and unable to speak he wrote a statement before Constable Jacob Umholtz, who preferred the murder charged against him, and said that they would find his wife in the woods near the site of the old pump house under the large white oak tree. No funeral arrangements have been completed.
_____________________________________________
Articles from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.