There where many heroes during a Horrific Train Wreck in Emsworth in 1905 and the still eerie sound of a train whistle

It was a festive time a train full of individuals on there way to the president Theodore (teddy) Roosevelt  inauguration and it would end in a massive horrifying hell when 2 trains collided  just below the steep hill side of the Holy Family Orphanage  in Emsworth which sits along Pa 65 in Pittsburgh's northern suburbs

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940CE2DB133AE733A25757C0A9659C946497D6CF

Holy family sits high on a shear cliff of sand stone in Emsworth along the Ohio River a few miles  north west of Pittsburgh .
At one time at the top of Allegheny  Ave next to the  now Holy Family  Institute there was a set of steep wooden steps which would take you down to the railroad tracks and the Emsworth Train Station.

long gone Emsworth station

and it was at this station where the horrific crash took place because of a " Hot Box " malfunctioning and heating up I could see the remnants of  foundations one day while working at Shafner manufacturing and asked the owner about it  and he told me about the train wreck and also the terrible fire Shafner  manufacturing had at one time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_box

The hot box is the wheel and gear assembly also refereed to as trucks which the railroad carriages fit on.

Accident happened in this area and back to right around cliff

The first train on the Fort Wayne and Indiana railroad  of a 2 train assemblage had stopped to make repairs when the 2nd train of celebrants came at a high speed  40 mph down the tracks and into the rear of the first train splitting it open like an axe  and killing 7 people and maiming many more .

The priests from Holy family and workers and medical staff from Nearby Dixmont State Hospital for the Mentally Insane responded immediately rendering aide and comfort  to the injured and dying . 

Some victims where carried all the way up the steep steps to Holy Family where they where cared for.
 many hero's that day including the priests who cared for and carried victims to safety and Guardsmen  and a Dr. on train who helped the victims till there own injury's saw them fall.

Today you would never know there was such a horrific tragedy  just the 2 sets of dual rails of the former Fort Wayne and Indiana railroad which became part of the Pennsylvania main line and now is operated by Norfolk Southern and the foundation of the train station . Next to the river which is an extremely busy track with trains almost every 10-15 minutes 24/ 7 coming from and going to the Conway yards in beaver county

But occasionally when the track is quiet  people claim to hear an old fashioned steam whistle yet no train visible I have talked to those who fish the river along the area and claim a light of an oncoming train but one is not coming down track just the light  and some claim you can hear a large crash type noise.
all of the noises have been dismissed as coming from across the river on heavily industrialized  Neville Island  or echoing up the valley from one of the river boats going thru the locks and dams at Emsworth and beaver county   and being misinterpreted. Yet I have heard the eerie sounding steam whistle  as well and could not tell where it was coming from as well.
Yes its very quiet and  isolated area so who knows?

The Mystery of the Dead Boy in the Box

A traveler along Susquehanna Road in Philadelphia  on February 25th 1957 is driving along the road when they spot a box  beside the road and decide to check it out inside they find what they first thought was a doll but ended up a starved to death boy estimated to be 10 years old . The case has never been solved despite the chasing down of several leads.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mystery-dead-boy-box-baffles-nation-article-1.1898191

I first heard about this on a talk show while working in the  distant Philly area in  2003 when it was revealed that  a Dr. from Ohio that had a patient who told him her parents used the boy as a sex toy. and although she knew details that where not made public in the case the case still went no where .

So for now the case is still unsolved and will probably never be solved.

The good sisters still make sure the Children are safe at this Old Orphanage.

I can not reveal the name of the place but its located in the Ohio Valley and one time served as an orphanage started at the beginning of the 20th century for war orphans it greatly expanded . But then changed from an orphanage to a facility to handle at risk youth and families as more women where able to survive child birth  and the number of orphans dropped.
As time went on the campus expanded and the former orphanage building which had a walkway to the chapel became all administration offices  for the facility  and that's when the fun began mainly on the 2nd floor where children where cared for  and always seems after dark.

Many people working at night by them selves  have reported strange occurrences when upstairs by them selves.
Hearing voices of children or a caring adult possibly a nun  asking " Are you OK"

Then quickly looking around and no one is there.

One night cleaner had a most unusual encounter one night  a picture of one of the residential children was sitting on the floor it fell off the bulletin board he put it back up came back down hall it was on floor again he picks it up and at this point is a little apprehensive he starts back down hall and hears the toilet flush on 2nd floor . Ok there is some one up here working late probably one of the sisters . he turns around to see who it is when he sees a apparition of a child in old style night clothes walk across the hall between the door ways .
That was enough for the night he stayed down stairs rest of the evening.

The children who stay on the campus report they have seen  the priest who ran the place in the 30's walking around at night  as well as by sisters in old style dress  who will tuck them in at night if they kick off the blankets .

I had a strange thing happen on a Halloween night down there in late 90's I was working late and it was dark and I finished  and cleaned up and on my way out from maintenance garage some of the staff where out on this warm evening  sitting on one of the centers benches and I was talking to them when a police officer pulled thru center and stopped to say hello as he was patrolling thru the area  It was then we heard a noise down by the school and saw the  front school door open all by it self and then slowly close.  well we thought some ones playing a trick and cautiously checked it out with the officer and found nothing wrong with the door .

The old chapel has also often been  found to have doors open and close by them selves and people often claim it feels like they are being watched.

So is it the ghosts of those who ran the orphanage and the children they took care of or are we all just imagining things.  good question. But since they do not want publicity about the place I guess we will never know.

Airplane Joe never left his work station and is still around my customers place.

One of my customers a large welding business whose name  I can not reveal  in the Mon Valley  is housed in a large  multi building  former factory where they rebuilt  the electric drive engines for trains.
Wait a minute thought trains are diesel powered? No they are really electric powered the diesel engines drive a DC  or AC powered generator on train which does all the controlling and drive actions of the train.

Well they moved into this old factory and that's when things started getting strange .
 His workers often complained of the feeling they where being watched. or seeing a strange shadow across the shop floor. Well finally one night while the guys where working late they saw a guy in work clothes walk thru the back of the shop not knowing who he was  or how he got in  the shop they chased after him but as soon as they went to see who he was he was gone?
Well needless to say no one wanted to work evenings any more. While there have also been people who have worked in evenings and nothing has happened.
Now the Mon valley it self with all its busted up crime ridden decaying towns can be scary in its self so these strange activity's just helped get guys on edge to begin with.
The owner of the plant   thought the guys where feeding him a line of bull shit because they did not want to work at night in a dangerous community.

I have worked in the plant and it makes all kind of noises and you get a creepy feeling from it but I have never seen any thing . But it seems every time a new worker comes in they report the feeling they are being watched.
Well as time would pass and working there I would join the local Penn Hills  fire dept. and wouldn't you know it one of the members of the fire dept. was a former machinist at this plant over in the mon valley  .
So one day when no one was around I asked Terry if when he worked at the old plant was there any kind of strange goings on ? Why yes he said  that's Airplane Joe screwing with you guys .

Airplane Joe? I asked .
Well he goes on to tell me the Joe was a retired captain from the air force and after he retired from air force he came to the plant and worked long enough he was about to collect 2 pensions  Air force and engine plant he was set for life.
He was walking around the plant on his last day of work  bragging how he had the world by the ass when he suffered a fatal heart attack at his work station. Yep right where the guys saw the mysterious worker.

Terry told me that any time Joe shows up to cause mischief to tell him to go F*^K him self and he will stay away for a few weeks.Seems the guys who worked with Joe did not like him.

Well with this information in hand   the next time I went to the plant and told the owner and guys about it they had a good laugh and said OK so its not their imagination.
The owner still thinks its a bunch of bull but I have had professional ghost hunters come in at night and their equipment has picked up anomaly's .

The owner  says he just does not want to know what the team found  as he often works down there late at night himself.

So maybe its all a big bunch of nothing and everyone is letting their imaginations run wild but then again why are some bothered while others are not ?

Strangely a place with a record of horrific industrial deaths you would think would be haunted was not.

In the late 1800's early 1900's there existed the Pressed Steel Car Company  in Mckees rocks Pa.  Bottoms Section. A sprawling place with  some of the original buildings which can still be seen from the McKees Rocks Bridge .
It was a a horrific place to work even by steel mill standards of the time many a worker was horribly maimed or smashed and killed in this plant which made rail road cars and employed over 6000 workers at one time.
and yes there was an over priced company store and over priced housing just like you found in coal mine towns that took advantage of workers leaving them in virtual poverty  and which played one nationality off against the other.

A violent strike in 1909 would see 12 dead as workers finally had enough one day when wage envelops where short with no explanation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressed_Steel_Car_Strike_of_1909

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9502E2DF1438E033A25753C2A96E9C946897D6CF

The strike brought about changes but the plant did not last much past WWII and its buildings still exist to this day having been turned into an industrial park for multiple business

One of the cars produced at Pressed Steel 

 Now such a place of death and despair you would think would be haunted by the ghosts of  past incidents and there would be all kind of paranormal activity but surprisingly it is not going on as far as I can tell.

How do I know this ? 

Well in 1978 while attending Connely Skill Center where I was training to become a Refrigeration Mechanic  I needed to make money  and went to work for Burns International Detective Agency as an unarmed guard and my first assignment would be at your guessed it the Mckeesrocks  in the old Pressed Steel Plant 

 I guarded several buildings with in the complex  on a rotating 12 hour shift  the buildings where leased by American Forge who made Crane hooks and ratchet binders for  holding down loads on trucks. 

The place was  a total shit hole and dangerous to work in One of the kids in my neighborhood dad worked there  and always talked about how dangerous the place was  but these where days when OSHA was first enforced and eventually the place would be forced to close after fires and numerous other problems etc..
While the industrial park did a good job keeping the park buildings maintained and secured tenants like American Forge did them no favors in taking care of there places they leased.

I knew the place was some kind of mill and heard from those who worked there they made railroad cars. 

 But it was not till many years later and the advent of the Internet that I was able to dig out all the details of where I had worked ,and how horrifying the conditions where there at one time. 

Now with all the deaths and despair and working overnight in this place all by myself you think I would have experienced some kind of paranormal event but nothing happened I would run across guards from Paragon Security who worked the place as well and none of them ever spoke of any spooky goings on and one of my customers who started his business out in the place also said he never experienced any thing as well.  

So strange as it might seem there are no ghosts at the place it seems and if there are no ones talking about it. . Unlike many other places I work where there is all kind of unexplained activity's. In some ways its good because people are hesitant to work in such places and it draws plenty of curious people around some with good intentions some not .

UPDATE: 
When I went past the plant this past weekend of 11/14 they have started the process of tearing down the old forge buildings .

Where did Zippo Lighters original Advertising Car disappear to?

In the late 40's Zippo Lighters of Bradford Pa. commissioned a Pittsburgh  advertising agency to come up with a new gimmick and they did in the way of the Zippo Lighter car.

Made from a 1947 Chrysler Saratoga   the advertising  worked as My dad a a steel worker and many of his steel mill buddy's had them.Almost every one I knew who smoked had one until the Bic portable lighters came out. But Zippo is still a big player in the lighter market as they have become very collectible and commemorative lighters are still made to this day. 

http://www.zippo.com/about/article.aspx?id=1583

Unfortunately thou the car  fell into disrepair and was stored at a ford dealership in Pittsburgh and when Zippo asked that it be returned so it could be refurbished it had disappeared.

Now why a Chrysler was taken to a ford dealership in first place who knows. Were is the car either it was cut up for scrap or its sitting in some ones private collection some where or parts are. 

But what a neat find it would be to find it still in one piece in a garage some where.
Whikle the original car is gone a new replica of the car has been built and is on display at the factory .

A little known fire which killed 48 at Penn Ave. & S. Aiken Street in 1931 with many questions

1931 was a horrible time in Pittsburgh with the start of the depression  and numerous bombings by racketeers going on around the city .
But it was also a time of a little known and discussed fire in the city's Garfield neighborhood at the
Little Sisters of the Poor where 48 died in a tragic evening  fire.

 Photos From Pittsburgh Dioceses Archives

Ever since I was a kid and my dad drove down Penn ave at S. Aiken was an  institutional building which was old and run down looking and housed crippled children. I always got the strange feeling thou something horrifying happened there thou not that building the one before it and I was right.
on July 25th 1931.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paallent/page13/page13.html

Which would turn out to be a horrifying day for Elderly and infirm  Inmates as they where then called  at the Little Sisters of the Poor's home . 

A home I never knew existed as far as I knew like many Pittsburgher's their home has been up in the North End  of Pittsburgh  in Brighton Heights 

http://www.littlesistersofthepoorpittsburgh.org/

But this was not always the case as I have now found out they started in Garfield  in a fire trap of a building which appears to have been overcrowded and  exit doors locked at night including a high stone wall around the property.

48 people would die in the fire and many more where badly injured.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19310725&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19310727&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19310728&printsec=frontpage&hl=en 

The cause of the fire is believed to be accidental  but it might not have been as a careless smoker could have caused it or mentally unstable resident and the construction of the building with its lack of fire proof stairwells apparently no fire alarm not even pull stations and bells  and  no fire safety prevention just helped make the fire all that much worse.

The Catholic church among others seem to always think they are above following building codes. 

They know better they have divine protection well not that night.

So no wonder this fire has been hidden away and forgotten  I have always said the most dangerous place you can take your family on a Sunday is church too many of them are fire traps and accidents waiting to happen.

The old children's home which replaced the little sisters of poor home   on the site was torn down in the 90's and has been replaced with a modern sprinklered fire safe building .

But there are still plenty of old buildings the elderly are in around Pa. which have no sprinklers and lack proper protections and are fire traps and the state has done nothing about them. another tragedy like what happened in 1931 could happen today in a Personnel care home. 

A Look at the Strange Number of Business which Catch Fire right after they are Remodeled or days before there grand opening

Yes it is a very strange phenomena around Western Pa. seems a business is remodeled and a fire happens just days after reopening .
The Latest Rooks East Side Tavern in Ambridge which so far is considered accidental .
To make things even stranger in Ambridge another fire a few days later destroys a bridal shop just days from opening after being remodeled from a former retail store. Both appear to be accidental at this point in time

While many of these fires can be traced to the Unscrupulous Slob  Remodeling Contractors who cut corners  often times by doing work without building permits or inspections and violating building codes and using sub standard materials  which cash strapped business owners hire to do the remodeling on the cheap .
Many of these fires are Arson for Profit otherwise known as Insurance Fraud.

Typically a business remodels after profits start to fall and they need to update the business to bring back customers and their dollars.
This is especially true of restaurant and entertainment venues .
They do minimal remodeling to make the place look nice while not correcting code issues or actually causing additional code issues  and they then stock up the business with questionable  inventory they bought then mysteriously overnight there is a fire .
I can list case after case of this happening where no sooner is place reopened and its on fire all the way back to the vogue Terrace Fire .

But why a fire at night why not when the place is open?a good question.

If it is an electrical condition that causes the fire you would think its when the electrical system is under its most stress but a fire happening then would be discovered and fire fighters would be able to stop it.

But when it happens overnight and no one is around it gets a good head start and firefighters normally can do nothing but surround and drown it.
If the fire is set properly all evidence of arson is destroyed and a cause can not be determined or it appears to be accidental  if done so properly by the arsonist. Like stacking cardboard and other stock up close against a heater or  a portable heater being left on overnight . Deliberate Arson can also be made to look accidental like leaving loose an electrical connection as well and when it heats up and arcs looks like nothing more than sloppy electrical work. or blocking a vent on a piece of refrigeration equipment etc all innocent looking accidents and how do you prove it otherwise?

It is at this point Investigators are stymied for a cause they start looking at finances etc. and if there are enough red flags  it is then up to the Insurance company to pay off or not. In many cases they do not pay off
if there are enough red flags and some times a decision is challenged.
When there is not a pay off the business owner is ruined financially .But if there is a pay off  because the insurance company would rather pay off than face a court fight depending how much insurance they have  the bills are paid and small profit made or owner is just made whole and walks away not rebuilding.  No bankruptcy to file and loss of face with the community just a poor soul who tried and lost. all along a criminal no one knowing the wiser.

But this is if it is an arson fire what about accidental fires starting overnight?

 Yes plenty of fires do start overnight  often Heating Systems, Appliances and Electrical Wiring  are to blame.
due to poor maintenance.

A furnace overheats because filters have not been replaced and clog up restricting air or items being stored next to furnace ignite when they get too close because of  or deliberate poor house keeping

Bad wiring jobs wiring not properly terminated in box with cover and proper connectors  not properly grounded then when a wire gets rubbed due to vibration it makes contact with un-grounded  metal box on wood beam and small amount of current travels thru wood till beam finally drys out and catches fire a condition known as Pyrolysis  if box was properly grounded the fire would be prevented as overload device would operate  again this was either slob work or deliberate to cause a fire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis

Portable heaters,  and fans left on they get dirty and gummed up or wear out and catch fire again bad house keeping

Lights left on which go bad due to wiring drying out or undersized  lights which get up against combustible materials etc. and catch fire

Yes these are all things which cause fires overnight But again good house keeping and maintenance prevents this from happening and good contractors and business owners  make sure all items are shut off  and secured before they leave for the evening.

So even if it was accidental in many cases the accident was preventable in first place.
Of course a sleigh and crafty business owner can just let things like this go on a let a business catch fire as well its not an arson just bad house keeping but all  along it was deliberate but how do you prove the bad house keeping was deliberately done.

Yes Arson is a very complicated  crime hard to get convictions on and when you have experts being debunked all the time because they have used unproven junk science in determining a cause
 you can see the problem why so many fires go on and a crime is gotten away with.

Updates on previous articles B25 plane crash and missing Cherrie Mahan

Two articles I published in last couple months have popped back up in news.
Regarding the B-25 that crash landed in the mon a recovery group has asked permission to check out and dredge the gravel pit where they believe it has sunk.

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6448999-74/plane-group-bomber#axzz37sNuwaV4

Also in the news they have re-examined the site where Cherrie Mahan disappeared many years ago sadly no new evidence 

http://www.wtae.com/news/new-search-made-in-cherrie-mahan-case/27015936?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=wtae-tv%2Bpittsburgh#!bh2JBh

The town which people like to make fun of its name has a not so funny unsolved murder

Deery Pa. also known by the joke derry area  if you say it wrong  has a long history of being a quiet but big railroad town in Westmoreland County situated between US 22 and US 30
 not much goes on here except for a major  pedestrian accident involving the railroad as people try  to illegally  cross tracks in town instead of using the approved crossing and end up getting hit.
I have been thru the town several times as a short cut  from Fayette County to Altoona
So it was quite the shock in this town  when a murder was committed on a young woman 22 year old Samantha Lang on March 27 of 2007 in her Derry Twp home.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/03/26/victims-family-increases-reward-in-derry-twp-cold-case/

Its hard to believe no one heard or saw anything in this little town where everyone knows your business not even a $50,000.00 dollar reward has brought forth any leads .

So it makes you wonder was this some one local or is it a serial killer the case looks and sounds all to familiar to a case in West Deer Twp ,Bethel Park  and Arnold  all 4 women alone at home and viciously attacked and not one drop of evidence over many years.

The police have no clues and psychic family contacted is no better.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/psychic-murder-victims-family-you-will-get-closure/nfgxy/

Update : Sad ending for elderly missing Washington county man

Sadly they found 88 yr old  George Pochibas body this afternoon on a grass field  about a mile  from his home  It appears searchers never checked the fields in this area and concentrated on the wooded areas instead.
He was found by a farmer cutting hay in his  fields .

http://www.wtae.com/news/body-found-in-washington-county-believed-to-be-that-of-missing-man/26865074#!bbT2du

Pittsburgh was one of the city's visited the summer the Ringling Brothers Circus Tent caught fire The Tragedy could have well happened here and still unsolved

July 6th 1944 would turn into a day of Tragedy when the Ringling Brothers  and Barnum & Bailey Circus Tent would catch fire  in Hartford Connecticut  where 167 people who came to see the circus that hot sunny afternoon never made it home.
 http://www.circusfire1944.com/

http://troytaylorbooks.blogspot.com/

The actual cause of the fire and who caused it  or how it started has been debated even to this day but it is known the fire was so devastating because the tent material was waterproofed using gasoline and paraffin   wax.

But few people realize this tragedy could have played out right here in Pittsburgh as the circus made a stop in Pittsburgh east Liberty community a couple of weeks before the Hartford Tragedy .
It was during the war years and a chance to get away from the stress of war means the tent would have been packed here and many more lives likely would have been lost. But with luck the circus went off with out a hitch and proceeded on. Pittsburgh was very worried about Nazi Spy's coming to do sabotage  during the time period  as Black out drills where also conducted  yet no one knew the very danger they faced by simply attending the circus that summer .

The on going Arson Spree in New Castle and Lawrence county WHO is behind it and WHY I think I know the Why?

Arson its been with us since The time of the Bible in fact it is even mentioned in the Bible.

Arson is used for many purposes. for Revenge , To cover Evidence of a Crime, to Terrify ,Threaten and Scare people and Most Importantly for Profit.

So take your pick it seems that for the past 10- 15 years there has been Arson  Fire after Arson Fire in or around New Castle and at least 2 big Arson Rings busted up and people imprisoned for it. But Why.

What is it that could possibly make New Castle such a target.
There have been no big development plans announced other than a planned Horse Racing Track and Casino which does not seem will be built  Other than individuals looking to accumulate property by acquiring it cheaply thru shills why would they be accumulating it. Or is it just a big Fire Insurance scam?
One thought does come to mind.

New Castle has lots of flat area that could be developed for warehousing in particular for HUB facility's for shipping for big box stores ,Amazon etc.
It is also very close to major Interstates I-79 and I-80 and I-376 US-422 and US-19 runs thru it.
Also there is a heavy concentration of Train routes thru it a perfect place to transfer from train to truck .
New Castle has CSX lines which run thru and next to it and CSX like Norfolk Southern is developing a Stacked truck trailer Inter-modal  rail system and new castle is in the running .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodal_freight_transport

This means that flat development land will become very valuable in the near future.

Consider also the fact that by time the Inter-modal is in place that the New Locks to the Panama canal will be open  allowing bigger ships to pass thru and there will be a significant in flux of cheap materiel now being brought to  the East Coast Ports  almost doubling there imports /exports and all this material will need shipped to and from the Mid West as manufacturing and warehousing increases  and whats the best way to the Mid West ? That's right Rail and Truck  and New Castle sits right in the middle of the whole thing as a gateway to the Mid West.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_expansion_project

That's why so many rail lines like the Nickel Plate ran thru the area at one time.

http://nkphts.org/history.html

With easy access to Great Lakes and Cleveland  , Toledo and other Big Mid West City's  etc.
Yes when you take in the big picture it looks like this is why all the arson's scare the people out swoop in with shills buy up the property and wait for the buyers who need warehousing and manufacturing space.
Think I am crazy do the research. Do not forget there is a giant Walmart Hub just over in Ohio as well.
Just look at all the Arson's down in McKees Rocks another place being considered for the Inter-modal facility. Think its a coincidence I do not.
So then who is behind all this and going to be making the big bucks? I leave that up to you to investigate and speculate .
Needless to say if I am right they have very carefully covered there tracks and its going to take Federal effort to get to the bottom of it and why Lawrence County officials have not already called for Fed help or maybe they have .
This whole thing could also be behind so many arson fires in Beaver County as well.
Lets face it if the predictions about the Panama expansion is true it is going to be another industrial revolution in this area as manufacturing comes back to Western Pa. and warehousing and manufacturing is looking for flat ready to develop pads for the new facility they want to build.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pad_site

It appears I may be on the right track about railroads because recently this developer a little bit north of new castle  wants to develop a rail siding

http://www.sharonherald.com/news/local_news/article_845af5f0-2e4e-11e4-90fe-001a4bcf887a.html

200-600 Pounds of Missing Nuclear Materials from Apollo and Parks Twp. Processing Plant during the Cold War where did it go?

As I ride by the site in Parks Twp where they are cleaning up trenches filled with Nuclear waste from a former nuclear fuel manufacturer NUMEC Nuclear Materials and Equipment Company once owned by Atlantic Rich Field and then Babcock & Wilcox as I go up to take care of WAVL 910 AM  I use to ride by a fenced in field where the plant once stood and there was a run of the mill rent a cop guard watching the main gate.Then one day I ride by they are putting big stone block wall around trailer and then I see Homeland Security Police sitting armed in Blazers . What was going on.
Well it appears while cleaning up the trenches once used to dump low level nuclear waste  they found some really hot nuclear materials that should not have been there.

http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/babcock-wilcox.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2014/03/14/Federal-report-finds-nuclear-waste-underestimated-at-Armstrong-County-site/stories/201403140175

With this in mind it brings back all the nagging story's bout several hundred pounds of highly enriched uranium which went missing from the factory's in Apollo and Parks Twp.
Run by NUMEC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apollo_Affair

Known as the Apollo affair it is no wonder the uranium can not be accounted for when you look into the whole situation and see how poorly this facility was run and how loosely they kept nuclear safety policy's in effect as well as security.
Multi Million dollar lawsuits are still on going over all the major cases of cancer residents claim came from the loose handing on nuclear material and no doubt some of the high level stuff missing may well be up in those trenches and in air and water and grounds around Apollo and Parks Twp.
Was my Colon Cancer partly to blame on working in the area we will never know .

Still other claim the material was lost in all the piping as uranium was processed  or it was diverted to Israeli intelligence for use in there nuclear program either way 200-600 pounds of highly enriched uranium is unaccounted for. So many unanswered questions that never should have been allowed to happen in first place had rules been followed and facility properly run. there are plenty of people including Government inspectors who should be up on charges and in prison but so many are dead from Cancer  there is no one to hold accountable as time has now passed.

A Child found in a basket on a doorstep Christmas Eve 1928 whose mother was never found . But whose abandonment helped to create a world wide charity

When a group of 11 men from show business back round  set up a Charity for Children on October 10 1927 never in their wildest dreams did they ever realize just how big " The Variety Club " would become. But it was an even bigger surprise when on Christmas eve 1928 a child would be found in a basket outside there head quarters  with the following note.

Please take care of my baby. Her name is Catherine. I can no longer take care of her. I have eight others. My husband is out of work. She was born on Thanksgiving Day. I have always heard of the goodness of show business and pray to God that you will look out for her.

(signed) ‘A Heartbroken Mother’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety,_the_Children's_Charity

They would never find the girls mother and at age 5 arranged for her to be adopted by a family and be kept away from publicity to live a private life

She grew into a beautiful young woman who would go on to serve her country and much more

http://varietythechildrenscharity.org/our-history/

This is just one of many cases of children abandoned in 20-30's many to be sent to orphanages where they where not very well treated in too many cases.

But in this case although she never found out who she really was at least she had a first name and helped propel an organization world wide.  

Edward Surrat that Thing you feared in a Dark Alley , Who haunted this area in late 70's leaving behind more questions than answers.

You can still see many of the old farm property's out by the Greater Pittsburgh Airport   in Findlay Twp. that had hastily put up mercury lights on them in late 1970's when an animal  From Alliquippa by the name Edward Surrat was running around  Western Pa. on a drug fueled killing spree. A former Vietnam Combat Vet and Long Haul Truck Driver he sits in a southern Prison with 2 life sentences with no chance of parole an old man now in his late 70's .
Thou he has confessed to certain murders he was never charged and they are considered cleared many questions still remain why how and where his victims remains are which he claims can never be recovered.

Looking into the eyes of  a true evil animal 

Look Deeply into the eyes of this menacing individual who gave people nightmares for months as they lived in terror each day where they next and the constant heart ache of not knowing where your loved one is if has admitted to killing them.
His specialty was attacking couples shot gunning to death the male and then raping terrorizing and killing the female.
One haunting case Surrat is linked to  is a young couple attacked while sitting in a van near the airport the young man killed the young woman vanished.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19781022&id=nVcdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qlkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7054,1967213

In all he is suspected of over a dozen attacks in several states many victims he claims are unrecoverable

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19990321&id=88MiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hrYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1140,5183912

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=20070225&id=frwiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1rUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4831,5908261

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19780716&id=nOEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YVgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6486,8080

http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2007/02/27/Serial-killer-admits-to-2-Findlay-deaths-in-
1977/stories/200702270145

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19780810&id=jYBIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5561,1390803

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19800509&id=dBBZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oW0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6881,1958018

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19780722&id=JBleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hF8NAAAAIBAJ&pg=3855,3137500

I have included the original  newspaper articles and follow up links above so you can get to know the face of true evil and can see just how terrifying it was in the late 70's when surrat was running free.
Why he did what he did he blames on his service in Vietnam and not getting help.
He and other Vietnam vets who seemed to go mad where the inspiration behind the Rambo series of Films.
I know many Vietnam Combat  Vets and they are fine outstanding individuals and they never went mad so whats was Surrats excuse he has none other than fact that he  allowed his own self to become an animal.
Despite not getting treatment from the VA
What drives a man to go so insane as to kill again and again  having not been in the situation these men have endured I will never know but why do they trigger off and others serve honorably  come home and it is another day?

Pittsburgh has its own Stone Henge mystery near McKees Rocks bridge

Thousands of people drive by them everyday along Pa. Route 65 next to the Mckees Rocks Bridge about a dozen old concrete piers  in a circular  sticking out of the ground next to a Duquesne Light Company Sub Station .
No one seems to know there purpose.

Where they once used as a Military gun Platform for Anti Aircraft guns during WWII ?
Possible no one remembers

Stilts for a water or oil tank ? also possible

They held a building which was used by river men to watch the barge fleet below ? that's more likely
but no one seems to know.

I hope to poke around them some day and come up with the answer.

Pillars to left of Intersection 

Its True at one time to get home some people had to go under the Edgar Thompson Steel Works Via a Haunted Tunnel

Before the Massive Edgar Thompson Steel Works expanded to its current site there sat at the mouth of Turtle Creek and the Mon River a small little town called Port Perry

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2004/01/21/The-town-prosperity-killed-Few-traces-remain-of-Port-Perry/stories/200401210124

Just a small town with 13 saloons and such.  to reach it you had to take Hamburg Road which was a tunnel that went under the Edgar Thompson mil site.

Port Perry as it looks today 

That was till WWII broke out and the town was needed to make steel for the war. 

Oh but the story does not end there .

Rumors have it the tunnel was haunted by a ghost of  dead steel worker who lost his life in the mill still others say its the jilted wife killed by her husband . To this day it is said workers avoid this area of the mill because of the strange goings on.

of course this is not the only ghost around Braddock  where General Braddock lost his life in a battle with indians and where a fabricating shop I take care of is rumored to be haunted by a ghost known as Airplane Joe ,who died at his machine he operated the day he was to retire. 

You can not get onto the  Port Perry town property any more  its all posted but you can see it from across the creek down Dooks Hollow area  only couple foundations can be seen. 

Will the Mystery of the B 25 Bomber that crashed into the Mon River and disappeared ever be solved?

A customer of mine recently bought some property on Neville Island right next to the Army Corp of Engineers headquarters on the Island  where they maintain a fleet of boats which maintains the locks and river navigation aides along the 3 rivers and when we see the guard walk past in evening we often wave to him One time he stopped  to shoot the breeze as we say and we got a big chuckle out of him when we asked if the Missing B 25 Bomber was being stored over in the secure facility.

Missing B 25 bomber you say yes on January 31st 1956 during the cold war a B 25 Bomber ran out of fuel and crashed into the Monongahela River. near Hazelwood section of the City of Pittsburgh .   after running into an emergency and trying to land at the old Allegheny County Airport That parts correct what actually happened to it and why all the secrecy that's a whole different story.

http://www.damninteresting.com/retired/the-lost-bomber/

http://robertgoerman.tripod.com/b25/

http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/transportation/a/b25_bomber_2.htm

I have talked to many who say they where working the Hazelwood Mill side or where fishing along river and who said they saw it go in and others who say they saw it being taken out.

Most from what I can tell just telling tales for the most part they where never there.

First off it was a very cold winter in 56 and secondly only a handful of people would have had any reason to even be working in that end of the facility which was where they handled barges and rail traffic and all these people stayed up overnight to see this done?  Nonsense if it was that secret government would have made sure no one was watching or disguised the whole operation .

It was rush hour when plane went in so many saw it go in taken out that's a whole different story.
You also have to remember there was a smaller military aircraft which went down  in 1954 in the mon and was hauled out near Clairton and many people get the 2 planes mixed up.

As far as all the cold war secret stuff .
well that's possible it was carrying some kind of payload there was recently the Dive Detectives  TV show which recovered a secret navigation unit from a similar plane in a lake in the Midwest which has since become declassified. We will never know and we do not need to know what was on that plane this was during the cold war and the country needed to stay safe.
As far as them pulling the plane out whole , they may have got a wing or other piece but to pull the whole thing out not very likely we just did not have a crane that tall on river to do it . There was the Monella II steam crane  it was designed for barges not planes.
So they probably found what they needed and let the rest fall beck in river and get swallowed.
 back in early 90's The old WIIC now WPXI TV was going to do a show on the craft and people backed out at last minute claiming they where threatened by government agents . Really? any one could call them up and act and sound like an agent. Now some one visiting them that's a different story  and even that could be fake agents so I do not think any government agent threaten them they where hoaxed.
 Besides any thing these so called witness where going to say has already been published. Really its just one of hundreds of military  planes which have crashed all over this country on training or official flights and not everyone is carrying secret stuff.
As far asthe truck driver calling and saying he hauled the plane to a military base in middle of night  don't think so this is when 3 shifts where common here plenty of people out and about. If the plane was recovered it was put on a barge covered and floated down the river to a base some where not trucked out.
Besides its just a voice on a phone no way to check it out and there are plenty of people who can make you believe any thing.
Just go back and listen to all the old Coast to Coast AM  Talk Radio shows Art Bell hosted and the anonymous phone calls he would get from truckers claiming all kind of stuff.

About the only thing left now of the plane  would be the Engines as the polluted river at the time would have made short work of the plane .
The river was running high at time of recovery and when it does only the most strongest river boats can ply it even today the rivers are an extreme hazard in high running conditions.

So what happened to the plane .
I have to go with the River Boat Captain who feels its in a gravel wash by the Glen Hazel bridge having been smashed down by another riverboat deep into the mud.
Hopefully some day they will find the engines and put all this conspiracy nonsense to rest but till then all the story's will continue and just keep being mistold and added on to.

The haunted J&L Mill shop 2# on Pittsburgh's South Side no steel worker ever went back there by them selves unless they where looking for trouble.

I will never forget the one afternoon  in late 60's my mom and brothers and I went to pick up my dad from the mill and he was over an hour late getting out the mill gate . When he did finally come out to the van he had a very worried look on his face one of the workers he knew was missing in the Jones & Laughlin Massive  mill Complex he never checked out and my dad spent time looking for him.

 The worker would be found by a rescue crew later that evening  he had fallen and broke his leg and could not get help getting out  and his banging brought the crew to him but not with out its harrowing moments because he had fallen back in the old Mill shop 1 # and  2 #  area which was haunted by 40 dead steel workers souls who perished  after falling into a vat of steel  or other accident and noises he made trying to get attention caused just that much more tension going back to explore and find him. There was a bronze marker to all those who died in the mill on end of the old shop 2#  that was visible to public but I  do not know what happened to it after they tore down the old mill in 80's

http://www.popularpittsburgh.com/pittsburgh-trivia/spirits-of-the-steel-mills.aspx

My dad will tell you story's of when he had to go back into the old Shop 1# and  2# one time looking for possible parts to use to repair an old crane. 

he heard the wind blowing and banging and flapping of steel siding like there was a storm outside yet it was a perfectly calm summer day.

Old shop 1# and 2# in South side - thank you John Cross for photo image. 

Now how all this haunting started I have heard several stories
Including after a worker fell into vat and vaporized they would pour off a small amount and let it cool an give it to the family as a memorial and the tainted steel was then pored in a hole at the plant and discarded
and when renovations at the plant disturbed these old tainted pour offs which had workers who fell into them that's when the haunting's started.
The above article link also mentions Slag Pile Annie and I have never heard that story and know plenty of old steel workers who worked the south side works including several uncles none of them mentioned it  so this story appears to be just made up. Women did work the mill during WWII but never heard of any dying and they never would have been allowed do do any extremely dangerous jobs around the furnaces.
However one of my dads friends tells the time a worker was killed in the slag pits when water jet was turned on at wrong time . They used the jet on hot slag which granulated it to make it easier to handle and sell for use in driveways.

The mill has been replaced by a shopping complex and cinema and I have not heard of any further haunting's where the theater now sits on the old mill site.
So its either a bunch of old retired steel workers like my dad telling tales or there was something to it.
Of course now that the mill is long gone we will never be able to do further investigation of it.

Update on Young woman found in waste transfer facility in Grove City

Unfortunately a family s worse fears have been realized the body of young woman found earlier this week in a waste transfer plant .
Has been identified as 16 year old Gina Burger of Austintown Ohio

http://www.wtae.com/news/workers-find-womans-body-in-mercer-county-landfill/26668998#!5zltC

She went missing Monday evening as an endangered Runaway which means she was running with a known rough crowd of individuals .possibly one of them is the one who stabbed her and dumped her into a dumpster to be discovered in Pa.

Police now have the who and the how , they need to fill  in what happened and where  and who is responsible .

UPDATE : 18 year old male has been arrested in case further news to follow

A new mystery a young womans body found at a Mercer Waste Transfer Facilty What it takes to solve a case like this.

Just imagine you have been working all day in 80 degree heat in waste transfer facility  the stench so bad you have to take breaks your day is just about over when you come across something odd .
At first it looks like foot but then to your horror its a woman's mangled body. You shut down the line and call the foreman and he calls 911 soon police and coroner are on scene.
Well this is exactly what played out last evening Wednesday June 25th 2014 at a waste transfer facility in  Grove City Mercer County.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/womans-body-found-landfill-grove-city/ngSdq/

As Sherlock Holmes would say the game is a foot

But this is no game as investigators start putting the pieces together .

First the crime scene meticulously recorded in every detail. Next coroner removes the young girls body for examination .

As autopsy results are being prepared investigators are determining a time line for where possibly the body came from and what truck brought it and at what time it was brought to facility.  Its a very big area 2 states and multiple county's. My bet is it came from Youngstown area very rough crowd over there last couple times I worked  in the area. 

Who is she?  detectives are  working on description of victim and notifying other agency's in attempt to find out who she is. Possibly they will get a DNA  or finger print hit from evidence collected during autopsy  if she has a criminal record or some one will  call saying they know some one fitting description is missing. 

Is it a tragic accident or a homicide?

That's just one of the questions the autopsy will try and answer .

Was she homeless sleeping in dumpster or drunk from a party and fell in and unfortunately crushed or is this a body dump or was she stabbed strangled etc. 

Who, What ,Where Why  these are the questions that need asked and suspects and persons of interest will need to answer depending if its an accident or a homicide. 

 A jealous boyfriend, a rapist killer?
The way she is dressed in jogging work out clothing was she kidnapped from a trail  or gym then killed.

Developing a suspect and then a case  prosecutor can pursue after a suspect is linked.

This is what can take the longest time once suspects are identified being able to link them to the crime.

sometimes thou there are no answers Who or why?

In all over 20,000 man hours will be spent on this case and hopefully with results. 

Famous Pittsburgh Area resident John M. Phillips Ceremonial Chiefs Outfit has gone missing and no ones talking

One of the Honor Organizations with in  Boy Scouting is  "The Order of The Arrow  "also known as OA  it has 3 ranks  Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil  I made it to brotherhood in the Kiasutha Lodge which no longer exists and was renamed and merged over the years.

http://www.oa-bsa.org/misc/basics/

http://www.griesmyer.com/Pages/kiasutha_57_s1a.aspx

By time I was fully able to participate my work schedule often had me working weekends which kept me from attending  the weekend events ,and a certain family resented my belonging in the first place due to the fact on my mothers side of family they where deeply involved  with native Americans in the late 1700's . My 7th great uncle John Heckewelder  was a missionary who worked with Native American Tribes  right here in Western Pa. and wrote a book about them  and there customs and brought many to Christianity . He is one of our nations forgotten historical figures.
 Instead of welcoming me and my contributions I was often shunned by some because I had real Indian connections and they did not. The link below is a short bio on my uncle

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=184

  

Too bad for them and there ignorance and pettiness  no in fact Shame On Them for acting the way they did..

But I also suspect they are behind the disappearance of John M. Phillips   Ceremonial Chiefs Outfit.

He also worked with Indians  in the late 1800's and  early 1900's  and was known by them as Chief Silver Tip  the honorary name they gave him after rescuing a bear with silver tip  of fur on its head in one of his many western adventures. A boyscout district where I grew up  was named silver tip in his honor since he helped to start the scouting program but the name has since been changed.

http://wiki.carrick-overbrook.org/John_M._Phillips#This_article_is_from_the_Carnegie_Museum_Carnegie_Magazine_Sept._10th._1990_Issue

The last time I saw his outfit was in 1977 while at Camp Guyasuta in Sharpsburg  helping out during a camporee and members of the Kiasuta Lodge  mostly who where with silver Tip district

 found it in storage  above the little store  called the outpost where scouts could buy refreshments and get swimming pool passes ,for the pool. It was in a large silver colored tin box about 4 ft long and 2 foot wide. It was supposed to be restored and displayed and never was.  It has never been seen  from again no one knows what happened to it and people who where  around with me when it was taken down have all scattered  or left scouting and everyone denies or can not remember  the meeting ever took place or has no idea what I am talking about  because it has been 35 years since it was last seen . I personally believe it was sold off to a private collector , for a huge sum.

Thats what The former Allegheny Trails now Laurel Highlands  council does sell things donated to them then take the money and waste it.  They operate like the big money no name no conscious museums and corporations do around here .  Whats that again in the Scout Oath about Honest, Trustworthy  and Truthful or is that only when you where a scout growing up and now it no longer counts .
the OA and Scout Council  executive could not even bother to show up at his John M. Phillips  State Marker dedication why should I be surprised about this.

http://loneeaglescout.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-one-of-founders-of-bsa-was.html

Picture of Mr. Phillips with outfit he was given

I helped  with others to get Mr. Phillips his State Marker at his former homestead in Carrick I would really like to find his outfit have it restored and properly displayed as would his relatives.
But with so many selective memory's of people I once called friends who do not have the balls to stand up admit they where there and say what happened the outfit it is lost to history and another insult to John M. Phillips and Native Americans who gave the outfit to him.

Harry " Pittsburgh " Phil Strauss an unusual name for a Mobster who was never in Pittsburgh

Jewish born Harry Strauss  who became known as " Pittsburgh Phil Strauss"  was one of the most prolific contract killers of the mafias  Murder Inc hit squad said to have killed at least 100 individuals and as high as 500 people he was found guilty of murder in  1940 and electrocuted in the electric chair "old sparky " at Sing Sing Prison in New York.

Records show he was never ever in Pittsburgh at any time in his life time but possibly got the Moniker
Pittsburgh  by saying to an early criminal associate he was like a Minor League
Ball Player  practicing his skills and waiting to be noticed by the big guys one day.

Was he possibly referring to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and Honus Wagner who became famous in early days by  starting at the bottom and working his way up?
Did Harry ever get that right becoming the mobs number 1# killer .
 I am sure most people who live in Pittsburgh area like me wished he never adopted our city's name for a moniker.
of course there was never any effort to officially denounce it by proclamation or editorial in local papers  either after his death. But then again Mobsters in Pittsburgh have always been secretly admired even thou they where criminals.

http://www.j-grit.com/criminals-murder-inc-harry-pittsburgh-phil-strauss.php

http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mobsters/pittsburgh-phil-strauss/

30+ years and still no answers in death of Tillie Shilling in Bethel Park and or why recently a man tried to kill but was shot dead by a shop owner

Bethel Park is a middle class white collar community along the  T- trolley line   with fine shopping and dining  Big Vol. Fire dept excellent schools and a great Big south park next door.
Not the kid of place you expect to hear about serious  crime but recently a  Young man was shot dead by a music shop owner  after he attacked the owner and his wife with a baseball bat  for no known reason.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2013/04/28/Bethel-Park-store-owner-kills-

attacker/stories/201304280259

But with this attack brings for some community members it has brought bad memories of the Killing of 

Tillie Shilling in  August 15,1983

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-south/25-year-old-murder-mystery-re-emerges-411346/

This is also the sale year 3 young girls went missing and 2 never found  The Girl from Peters Twp right next door to Bethel Park had been beaten and viciously murdered  when found a coincidence I think not.

3 different county's right next to each other and no one looking at any possible connection scary

 1983 was an extremely dangerous year to be a a woman young or old. Period in this corner of the state.

it was all over the news all these murders and no answers in any of them all cold.  

A real tragedy.

Mud Slip a very strange geological condition in W. Pa when ignored by designers Kills like it did along Sawmill Run blvd.

There was an ambitious plan by developers along Pa.65 in Kilbuck  to turn the old Dixmont State Hospital Property into a Walmart Plaza.They started filling in the property and raising its level when all of a sudden there was a collapse and millions of tons of dirt went sliding out on to Pa. 65 and Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks completely blocking traffic and luckily no one was hurt. It has cost the developer$ 65 Million Dollars so far and the hill is still not stable.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20060927&id=9fFRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=V3IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5708,2807546

The developer and his Engineers have been ruined financially and  failed to recognize and respect a more deadly accident in the  City of Pittsburgh's West End section decades earlier.

As you approach the intersection of  Sawmill Run Blvd. and Woodruff Street just before you go under the old Concrete Railroad Trestle for the abandoned Wabash Railroad you will see a very large rock sitting there on the corner behind a wooden spoke fence.
Not much more than a rock sitting there but a very significant one which taught The state of Pa. the City of Pittsburgh and its contractors and engineers not to mess with mother nature.
For this rock is one of the many which killed a bulldozer operator and 2 motorists  when Blasting was being done on the hill side to remove rock and stabilize the hill.
Engineers and blasters assured everyone they could safely blast rock. Have a 15 minute waiting period then allow traffic to flow thru. They where very wrong after one of the blasts  and things went very wrong.
I was in the North Side that day working on a job when a Got a call from a used car dealer customer on  W. Liberty Ave. who needed service I finished up the North Side work and started heading into the South Hills When I hit a high amount of traffic on the Liberty Bridge  and then it came over the radio.
There was a terrible accident where they where blasting to clear rock along and the hill had come down and crushed vehicles. I was able to slowly get over the bridge and thru the Liberty Tunnels and up W. Liberty to customer by then it was all over the TV as he had a small set on in the sales office.
After stopping all traffic blasting then waiting 15 minutes to be sure it was safe they let traffic thru the area when the hill side gave way. Trapping and Killing a Bulldozer operator a motorist and tractor trailer driver.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19830224&id=5lUvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=39oFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3775,4318648

Why did it happen it was because of a very well known dangerous geological condition around Western Pa. called " Mud Slip "
Do not show it respect and it will kill you when building known all the way back to even the days when
Native Americans roamed the area.The Monongahela river is an Indian term loosely translated stands for river bank of sliding rocks.  But warnings in both cases where ignored when previous slides where ignored.

It is caused by the way the sediments and  soft rock layers came together to form the geology of the region.

http://pittsburghgeologicalsociety.org/landslide.pdf

It is also described on page 37 in Pa geology guide link below

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_014597.pdf

The soft porous rock allows for water penetration and dirt  and with the freeze thaw action  allows layers of rock to break off after a hillside is dug into. You have to allow for a gradual slope and cut in steps  or benches as they are called when you cut into a hill not a steep 90 degree angle unless you properly reinforce it.  Which was not done in both cases years of exposed outcropping allowed the stone to blow outward and give way.  There was  a prior slide in both cases and this area in particular is none for the extreme dangers it poses and likely hood of it happening . Its like a house of cards and must be properly managed to prevent problems. As you can see in case below before the sawmill run accident no bench cut in but afterwards  there where and there has been no further incidents.
http://www.dappolonia.com/pdfs/pprofile77.pdf