A daily feature from our surrounding historical societies.
September 5 marks the 65th anniversary of the murder of Harry J. Wallace, 52-year-old manager of the Orange Cleaners on South Broad Street in Lansdale and a father of three. Between 9:15 and 9:30 that Saturday evening, while watching television in an easy chair in his living room at 134 Cowpath Road, Wallace was killed by a shotgun blast to his face, fired through a screen window on the side of the house fifteen feet away.
At the time of the shooting, Wallace's wife Thelma was at the Montgomeryville Mart, working as a cashier in Miller's 5 & 10. Wallace's fifteen-year-old daughter Thelma was on a date at West Point Park, his eleven-year-old son Alan was upstairs preparing for bed, and his three-year-old daughter Patricia was asleep. A twenty-something gunman then entered the Wallace home carrying a shotgun. The killer came face-to-face with Alan, who had come downstairs, discovered his father and tried to revive him by massaging his heart. When the gunman learned that only Alan and his baby sister were in the house, he ordered Alan not to call the police, then disappeared. Alan did call the police moments later, and Wallace was taken to North Penn Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:50.
Lansdale Historical Society Facebook The murder was reportedly the first in the history of Hatfield Township, and both Hatfield Township, Montgomery County and state police investigated. For a time, son Alan was considered a suspect, but was ruled out after he was given a lie detector test and injected with sodium pentathol, and after a very extensive exploration of the home and adjoining property failed to reveal the murder weapon or a shell casing. Police also unsuccessfully searched for a man who had made two unexplained appearances at the Orange Cleaners just hours before the killing. Alan reviewed photographs of known criminals and tried to help police develop a sketch of his father's killer. Although over 250 persons were interviewed and a $500 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer, the case has never been solved.
Wallace, a World War II veteran, was interred at the Beverly National Cemetery in New Jersey. The Wallace family immediately vacated the murder site and the next spring relocated to New Jersey, where Mrs. Wallace kept the shades drawn, fearing that the killer would pursue them and kill them. According to her daughter, Mrs. Wallace believed that the killing had been a case of mistaken identity, aimed at a nearby neighbor, a theory the police discounted. The daughter in time came to suspect that her father's dry cleaning establishment may have had some connection to organized crime and that the murder was a mob killing.
The house today at 134 Cowpath Road, Hatfield Township.
