A most unusual Robbery of my Grandfather when he was a young man

When I was diagnosed with stage IV colon Cancer which is a terminal diagnosis you better believe  plenty of old skeletons started coming out of the closet. People who wanted to get things off there chest before I died and plenty of stuff which happened in our family over the years.
Well thru the grace of God and skilled hands of surgeons and dedicated medical team I am still here 8 years after being diagnosed with a terminal disease and no evidence of it I am still in remission.

So while rehabilitating and having all kind of time on my hands I love to do research on historical things so why not research my own family and 2 incidents on my moms side of the family stand out as mysteries to this day. The one I just discovered  a few weeks back.  involving my Grandfather  who  will refer to as J.AH.

While doing research I found a disturbing  newspaper article involving my grandfather when he was a young man still living with his parents in East Liberty.
In September of 1929 while on his way driving  to or thru Schenley Park in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill Section   a car full of men pull up and block his path and rob him . He never ever spoke about it.

Now what makes this a most unusual robbery is that 4 white men and 1 Negro was involved.
A most unusual pairing of robbers in the city for that time period.  and for such a large gang of men to be involved.
The depression would not start for another month but even in 29 my grandfather had already lost his job when place he worked for closed so all they got was his watch.  Times where already starting to get bad .

 So just who was this gang who robbed him ? where they from out of state? good possibility  as most criminal gangs where not of mixed race.  You had the Black Hand which would become the Mafia in East Liberty but that was mostly Italians and there as a Jewish Gang of young men in Squirrel  Hill
who terrorized mostly business people . So it was a most unusual crime  which I have not been able to find much on as no similar crimes with these 5 men seem to have happened in the area at the time. However there where plenty of others involved in crime during these trying days.

http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/prohibition/

Luckily my grandfather came out of this unhurt and went on to  get a job during the depression with the WPA where he helped to clean up down town Pittsburgh after the St .Patrick day flood in 36 and would hold several different jobs till he was able to get a good steady job as a milkman for Sealtest dairy's. 

Missing Persons from mid state Pa. area courtesy of Penn Live

There are many individuals missing from Middle part of Pa. here is a link to some of them.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/04/missing_persons_midstate_pa_be.html#0

A very strange and random attack of a Music Store owner leaves more questions than answers in Bethel Park Pa.

Imagine you are working in your long time music store and its a beautiful day outside everything is going well until a middle age man walks into your store looks at one of the guitars you have on display  he looks it over leaves  then goes out to his car grabs a big wooden stick  and then starts to  attack you apparently for no known reason.
Well it happened a couple of years ago in Bethel Park Pa.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/bethel-park-music-store-owner-shoots-kills-attacke/nXZty/

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2013/04/28/bethel-park-store-owner-kills-attacker/201304280259

When a 31 year old Andrew Moore walked into the Armens Music Store along Library Road  Pa 88 and he would attack the stores owner  Alfred Armen  with a wooden stick and then his wife Silvia at which time Mr Armen is able to stop the attacker when he pulls out a hand gun and shoots him dead. leaving the Armen's beaten and injured

I passed this store many times in my travels and this is the last thing I would ever had thought would have gone on but it did.
Had Mr. Armen not been able to draw his fire arm it may well have ended with them dead and  I would be writing an article instead on their mysterious deaths .  For as far as the police have been able to find out it was a totally random crime and in the end Mr. Armen was not charged with the killing as it was determined to be self defense

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/charges-wont-be-filed-against-owner-bethel-park-mu/nXc8P/

As far as Mr. Moore police did an extensive investigation into him and his mental health and other than him buying some guitar strings many years before he had no interaction with the Armen's. Who at the time of the incident did not recognize him.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2013/04/30/bethel-park-store-owner-not-expected-to-be-charged-in-fatal-shooting/201304300163

Was it Robbery? Had they offended him or friend  in the past  and this was payback?  did he just Snap ? would he have gone on to hurt others after fleeing ? we will never know what was in Mr. Moore's mind that day and we can only speculate.  Either way it was a horrifying incident  the communities and the family's had to deal with and hopefully have healed as time has passed.  But it teaches a very important lesson about mental health issues why they need to be taken seriously and proper treatment made available  when needed instead of the archaic system we now have in the area and it also teaches lessons about  crimes and there randomness that they can happen anywhere to any one at any time even in the quiet community of Bethel Park.  It also goes to prove how you must always be on your guard and with who you interact with. For years later there could be deadly consequences.