City of Greensburg Incorporated
City of Greensburg Incorporated
In 1928 the Borough incorporated into a City with a sixteen-man police force led by Chief George Westover. The new city police force was instructed simply and to the point by Mayor Yont:
1. Not to “bawl out” citizens for law infractions;
2. To cooperate and not carry tales about each other; an earlier problem;
3. Avoid being “boozed up” on the job;
4. Not to shoot craps in city hall;
5. Be broadminded enough to overlook minor infractions;
6. Use common sense in making arrests;
7. Be neatly dressed in uniform with shined shoes;
8. Do no raiding for liquor law violations without a search warrant; and
9. Do not talk to ladies on the street.
From that time until January 30, 1933, Greensburg Police performed their duties without unusual incident. Then, like a bolt from a clear sky, tragedy struck with such force; it threw a pall of gloom over the community. Patrolman Clyde Murtland was killed in the line of duty. Murtland was assigned motorcycle duty. He was a skilled rider and fond of his work. Everybody knew Clyde. His smile won him many friends. It was an honest smile, sincere, wholesome, both penetrating and invigorating.
While patrolling at 3:45 o’clock at the Main and Third Street corner on that fatal day, his motorcycle collided with the back end of a passing truck. The force of the collision threw him over the handlebars, his head striking the curb or a pole. He was rushed to the hospital where an emergency operation was performed in an effort to save his life, but all efforts failed and he died at 4:40 o’clock, little more than an hour after the accident. Murtland was born at Kecksburg, January 2, 1888, and was survived by his widow and two children.
After the shock of this tragedy, the police carried on with no unusual occurrence until “step-in, step-out” bandits surprised John Woodruff at the monument works on West Otterman Street. It was a fast job. Woodruff was forced at gunpoint to open the safe, hand over the cash and surrender the keys to his car, which the bandits commandeered, for their flight.
An alarm was telephoned to the State Police barracks of Troop A. Immediately, the warning was broadcast to all patrol cars by wireless telephone. Trooper Harry F. Anderson and “Rookie” George Donadio, patrolling near Irwin received the flash. In another moment the officers spied the thieves coming. A 90 mile-an-hour race ensued, marked by intermittent gunfire. Trooper Anderson was at the wheel while “Rookie” Donadio manned the guns. It was discovered later, that five bullets had pierced the bandits’ car. The terrific speed of both cars that reached a peak of 98 miles-an-hour was too great to round Cemetery Curve at East McKeesport. There, both vehicles smashed into a stone wall, first the bandits, then the officers, with both cars ending their wild course crashing together.
All three of the robbers were captured with much of the loot recovered and restored to the owner. The trio of bandits were given accumulative sentences totaling about 20 years in the Western Penitentiary.
This and a series of flash holdups elsewhere impressed council that some means was needed to combat this quick-acting banditry and as a result, wireless telephone equipment was installed in all police patrol cars in 1948. This afforded the flash robber little time to make his get-a-way.