New Castle and Lawrence County an area of many unsolved Murders and Arson's

Located along US-422 in the central section of Western pa. is located Lawrence county and its City of New Castle both with a long history of unsolved Murders back to 1800's  and Crimes which includes a current Arson Fire Spree .
New Castle was primarily a Railroad  connecting town with several railroads having junctions there including the famous Nickel Plate Road  and a heavy industrial manufacturing base which suffered like the rest of Pa when big steel went down.
I have spent a good deal of time around Newcastle when I was a kid being involved with collecting minerals and attending the mineral shows at the magnificent Scottish Rite Masonic Hall on the hill  and currently service customers in the town which suffered greatly and is now rebuilding and looking good.
However there are those determined to ruin it with a constant string of arson fires despite numerous arrests and convictions.


One of the oldest  unsolved criminal cases goes back to the late 1800's where a New Castle City Treasurer was killed during a robbery of the treasurers office  one criminal admitted to it but was discounted .


It is also believed that a Cleveland Ohio Serial killer known as the Torso Killer may have dumped victims in a swamp in Lawrence county with it only being a 2-3 hour ride away.
When I was a member of the New Castle Mineral Club we held a yearly show open to the public at the big mason lodge and I would often stay over night as part of the security for it and to save driving back and forth from Pittsburgh aprox. 2 hr drive and we often had a New Castle Police officer they would hire especially when we hosted the national mineral show in 1976 and had a piece of the moon rock on display. Got to know several of them best guys you would ever want to meet and we often talked about the community and they said there job was for the most part dealing with locals who caused crimes very few strangers from outside the area caused problems as most people just bypass the town on US  422 bypass   Which is why some murders more than likely went unsolved  as there was no trail as they where done by outsiders . But this was
before the industrial base was destroyed in Lawrence county  it was mostly  Bar fights, bookies and gambling and domestic disputes with an occasional rare  murder.  But as industry went down and jobs where lost drugs came in and section 8 housing proliferated  New Castle became a battle zone. With constant series of Arson Fires , shootings and stabbings.Most of it due to drug activity with I-79 a well known drug Corridor which runs near the community .
While they have worked hard to keep the town from falling apart and keep crime low I feel perfectly safe working in town  and you know what areas to avoid like many city's  it is a constant battle in the town and I wish them the best in continuing to make the town shine like it once did.
The officers and officials of New Castle and ts surrounding Lawrence County are to be commended for their hard efforts in making Lawrence County a great tourist destination. 


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