125 Years Ago

Herald of Dec. 2, 1897

Frank Wilson of Massillon, O., and James Farrell of Allegheny county, were sentenced last week in Blair County courts to be hanged. The prisoners had been convicted of the murder of Henry Bonnecka, an aged man in Altoona, on April 7, 1895. The evidence against them was circumstantial, with detectives testifying that Wilson and Farrell had confessed their crime to them in Taylor’s hotel in Jersey City. After the conviction, Henry Hildebrand, a convict in the penitentiary at Baltimore, Md. confessed that he had murdered Bannecka. Hildebrand took his own life after making t...