A witch Craft Shop a Funeral Home and a Catholic Church makes for a major dispute and a unsolved mystery in late 1960's Pittsburgh

The late 1960s was an interesting time when I was a kid growing up in Carrick   the 29th ward community which is part of the City of Pittsburgh. The race riots had happened and people where still on edge when a small red brick store front across the street from St Basil's where I attended grade school  on Brownsville Road  all of a sudden went from a Tailor Shop to a shop called " The Hanged  Man " which sold Witchcraft Supply's. Now in the 60's WICCA was a very much misunderstood  nature religion and seen as devil worshiping and pagan in nature .

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

So locating beside a funeral home a church and school was not a good thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hanged_Man_%28Tarot_card%29

The shop had a sign in the window which looked similar to the tarot card image above and inside they sold all kind of candles and scents etc which was used in The Craft as they call it. All harmless when correctly used yet they where persecuted by many in the community who wanted them gone.
it got so bad with the shop and its customers being there from all kinds of unfounded rumors  from sacrificing baby's to trying to kidnap local kids that the local Funeral Director Mr. Boron  bought the building evicted the shop and tore down the building and made it a parking lot .

A few days after the shop was evicted the funeral home was severely vandalized by vandals who threw balloons full of multi colors of paint  all over it which cost thousands to repair and sand blast off. The people who ran the Hanged man where considered suspects but no one was ever arrested for the crime and they where never heard from again.
Today such shops are no big deal but back then it was because of church teachings it was bad and evil and a sin. Just another case of people not being able to live in harmony with each other ,and true Wiccan's would never had done what was done to the funeral home it was more than likely kids in the niehborhood pissed off they chased the store out but they where easy scape goats to blame.The grade school I went to closed and is now a Pittsburgh Public School

Where a Burglar Alarm Distributor now operates Ironically was once the scene of a Major Computer Theft

In the early 80's Moose Products came out with the 725 panel an attempt at an integrated alarm system  which ended very badly for Moose Products  bottom line as it had a very fatal flaw it would disarm all by itself for no reason. This became a focal point in a very large computer theft at the then Laurel Computer Systems which has since gone out of business  at the corner of Banksville road and Potomac Ave. in Pittsburgh. Which Ironically is now the location of Alarmax Distributors  a large burglar alarm distributor. Where I purchase equipment and where not in business at time of the theft .
I became involved in the case when a fellow electrician called my self and another friend Frank M. to come and look at the Moose 725 panel he installed at laurel Computer to determine if a burglar had intercepted and gotten around the system as there was a major theft  approx $500,000 .00 of  PC desk top computers
 This was back when a desk top unit ran $3500.00 a piece.

Well myself and Frank meet up  and looked the system over and it was a well done installation

Perimeter and Interior where well covered and panel and sirens tampered when the door was manipulated and  opened by the burglars the alarm should have gone off if it was armed

But it did not the owners where all polygraphed and passed and the crime was never solved to my knowledge and Laurel went out of business a couple months later  and the site became several things over the years including a cell phone store. It was a couple months after the burglary when it was realized the panels had the fatal flaw of disarming by themselves from power surges which where not as well understood as they are today  and since the panels at the time had no logging of events like they do today the employees swore under oath they had turned the system on.but apparently the panel disarmed over the weekend and the burglars where got lucky when they struck. Of course this was not the only panel moose made which had this problem its MPI 50 also had a problem of disarming when attacked in a certain way. I never heard again from the electrician or the owners of the business 
but it appears there was no further legal action and I have no idea if there was even insurance coverage. But these where the high stakes days of constantly turning technology which was new one day and old the next and much was learned and technicians like my self completely aggravated by products like the 725 which where never fully tested before shoved out into the market place.

Homestead a town with many Haunted structures and scene of tragic labor strike which resulted in deaths

Homestead Pa. a river town near Pittsburgh  was once the site of a very large US Steel mill where a bloody labor  battle in the  late 1800's resulted in many deaths. But thats not what sets Homestead apart from most communities.
It also has a Haunted High School , Library and  Former Police Station

But why so many haunted places in such a small area?
A  friend of mine Mark (Drake) Bowan  the Director of Oakmont Paranormal Society has been investigating this area particularly the Library for many years now and may have some answers on the Library as it is believed it was built over a former cemetery and all of the graves might not have been moved. when the library and park where built .

http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmckeesport/2785979-87/library-ghost-carnegie-paranormal-homestead-tour-walk-hunters-oakmont-salsberry

http://hauntsandhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/homestead-carnegie-library.html

One of my institutional customers  at one time Holy Family Institute rented the former St Micheal's
High school near by the Library and it too is rumored to be haunted as many people claim to have seen shadows moving about  the floors

Now a Charter school  when I took care of it we had many strange false alarms and when camera tape was reviewed we often saw strange flashes of light when alarm would go off  which went un explained. thou in Munhall its right on the line many people mistake the area for being part of Homestead .

Then there is the haunted Police station which would often creep out the night dispatcher.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2010/09/03/Ghost-seekers-uncover-spirits-in-Homestead-police-station/stories/201009030155

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/neighborhoods/2008/04/17/Haunted-in-Homestead/stories/200804170314

No longer in use  and falling down it still attracts ghost hunters who want to explore it. and its strange noises.

Homestead has seen its hard times and is slowly rebuilding and hopefully what has started along the waterfront will continue on up the hill to the whole community but till then it will be crime ridden and full of abandoned structures which is a shame for this once very proud community.