Oct. 26—One of the most bizarre unsolved homicides in Northumberland County turns 120 years old next month.
For more than a century, the mystery of the Shamokin Head has intrigued residents since it first made headlines in 1904. Although the identity of the victim was never truly realized and the crime was never solved, the story continued in the decades that followed.
Even now, the fascination with the case persists, weaving itself into the fabric of local legend and urban myths until it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. It’s been the subject of plenty of local content from children’s books to documentaries, articles to interviews, podcasts to short horror films and stories.
The head’s location remains hidden today, but the interest cannot be buried.
“This is an unsolved crime,” Northumberland County President Judge Paige Rosini said. “The victim is unidentified. In this day and age, you could do DNA and potentially solve it. It’s fascinating, it’s macabre. Here’s a human head. That doesn’t happen every day. There’s a mystery surrounding it, the way it happened, all that contributed to the lasting memory.”
“It’s part of our unique history,” Kathy Vetovich, the president of the Shamokin Area Business for Economic Revitalization, said. “It’s a unique situation with so many tentacles. We want to understand it.”
“It was never solved,” Andy Farrow, of Farrow-Campbell Funeral and Cremation Service in Shamokin, said. “Nobody ever found out who he was. Was he a miner somewhere? They never found out how he died, who he was, who killed him, where he was from. You don’t know any background or anything about him.”
Body found first
On Nov. 19, 1904, six young men in search of wild game found a headless nude body riddled with bullets along a Mount Carmel Township road near a colliery leading from Hickory Ridge to Natalie just northwest of Marion Heights. The bruised corpse was brought to the undertaking establishment of W.J. Higgins, of Mount Carmel, on Nov. 20 where it was viewed by “hundreds of curious people,” The Daily News reported.
“All wear a horror-stricken look upon their faces and shudder when they look at the gruesome object,” the newspaper reported.
The victim was believed to have been about 35 years old, weighing between 150 to 175 pounds and stood 5 feet, 8 inches. He was “a man of fine physique and had a well-developed chest. His legs show that he was used to much walking. The arms and hands are those of a man who was used to very light work and shows no signs of manual labor. His hands are small and delicate,” The Mount Carmel Item reported.
He had a scar on his left arm, a deformed nail on the forefinger of his right hand and his body was “profusely covered in hair,” according to newspaper reports.
While the number of bullet holes is disputed in various reports, the Mount Carmel Item wrote, “There are six bullet holes, one on each breast, one under the right arm on the chest, two on the back and one on the left back of the knee. The hole under the arm was likely caused by a bullet leaving the body.”
The blood-soaked coat found near the body was a sack coat made of black fabric. Part of a pair of suspenders, a blue necktie, a gold tie pin shaped like a horse containing small pearls and a pair of black woolen gloves were also found, the newspaper reported.
“One thing there is a certainty and that is that the murderer was very clever,” The Daily News wrote. “He destroyed everything that could possibly give any clue to the man’s identity.”
Body buried
The Northumberland County Commissioners announced a reward of $50 for the finding of the head and a reward of $200 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murder.
With no leads and the head not found, the body was buried. It was originally reported by the Mount Carmel Item that the remains were laid to rest on Nov. 22 in the Potter’s Field in St. Mary’s Cemetery near Mount Carmel in Beaverdale by Higgins. The newspaper soon ran a correction that the burial took place at the Mount Carmel Cemetery at Alaska along the Locust Gap Highway.
“There were no mourners and no services,” The Daily News wrote.
Head found
On Nov. 29, two teenagers who were hunting with their dog found a head believed to be from the body less than a mile east of the original discovery. The head was found under a pile of rocks and tied up in a red undershirt, a pair of trousers, suspenders and a brown soft hat.
“It is evidently that of an Italian, and the indications are that he was a cultured gentleman,” The Mount Carmel Item wrote. “He had black hair and a curly mustache. The head was in a fairly good state of preservation, considering the length of time it was exposed.”
The man “had delicate features” and was “a fine looking man,” The Miner’s Journal wrote.
“The lower jaw is smashed — likely with a blow from some blunt instrument,” The Daily News reported. “On the right side of the face between the ear is a bullet hole. The wound is burned with powder showing that the weapon was held close to the head. Another hole is in the corner of the left eye and is likely the hole where the bullet came out. A heavy blow was also struck on the back of the head, a little on the right side.”
The identity of the victim was widely speculated. Many names were discussed in newspaper articles, but all were dismissed for varying reasons. One popular theory that persisted through the years is that the victim was an Arabian peddler who sold rugs and shawls and was killed by an Italian secret organization known as the Black Hand Society.
Head on display
The head was first given to Higgins and hundreds of people viewed it in hopes of identifying him. It was then taken to Farrow Funeral Directors, established in 1876 on Liberty Street in Shamokin, where it was embalmed. The original Malcolm Farrow was one of the first undertakers in the state who knew the embalming trade in 1904.
“The head is on exhibition in Farrow’s undertaking establishment at Shamokin and has been viewed by thousands, none of whom can identify it,” The Daily News reported.
“A crowd resembling a bargain counter rush surged into the undertaking rooms to view the head,” The Pottsville Republican wrote, “and today it was placed on exhibition in the window of the store where people might gaze upon the ghastly sight.”
The head was never positively identified and no one came to claim it. The head remained with Farrow’s for the next 72 years.
Case reopened
The case was reopened in 1932 after an unnamed Italian man confessed on his deathbed in a hospital — in either Buffalo or Brooklyn, depending on the newspaper reporting — to killing a man in Northumberland County. The confessor, whose name was never revealed in newspaper reports, did not recall the name of the man he murdered.
State Trooper Cyril Edwards and Susquehanna Company Police Chief Michael J. Halton were detailed to investigate the alleged confession. The two officers ran into an issue of record keeping and were also never successful in solving the crime, according to The Morning Press in December 1932.
Edwards “made an exhaustive search of the county criminal court records but found nothing related to the case due to the fact that no suspect had ever been arrested and the case, insofar as the commonwealth is concerned, is still open,” the newspaper reported.
Current Northumberland County Coroner James F. Kelley, of Coal Township, said he has never seen any records on the case and doesn’t believe they exist. The coroner in the early 1900s likely wouldn’t have kept any records for an unidentified person, he said.
Head in basement
The head disappeared from headlines for the next 44 years, but not from the public eye. Those wanting to see it could visit and ask Farrow’s Funeral Directors for a peek in the basement, either at the original location or the current location at 240 W. Chestnut St., Shamokin. The head, stored in a box in the basement, also made many trips out of the funeral home to a mortuary school and local bars.
Andy Farrow, the 73-year-old great-grandson of the original Malcolm Farrow who performed the embalming, said the head’s nickname was “Sammy.” The head was “very hard” and “like a rock” due to the embalming process using mercury instead of formaldehyde in 1904, he said.
“I’m not sure when I first saw it, but we were quite familiar with it,” Farrow said. “We took it out to the mortuary school to show them. It wasn’t the smartest thing, but he (the head) was at the Rescue Fire Company (on North Liberty Street) many times. I have done it myself. I took him to a bar or two, go in and sit down and put the head up on the bar and say ‘Get me a drink and get my buddy one, too.’ It didn’t go over real big with the bartenders. We probably shouldn’t have done that, but we were teenagers or early 20s. Sammy got out quite a bit.”
Mal Farrow IV, the brother of Andy Farrow, was unable to be reached for this report due to medical issues, but the Shamokin History Channel on YouTube released a 15-minute video of an interview with Farrow, 77. He said he would show visitors the head in the basement of the funeral home.
“It did some trips outside the basement,” he said. “It’s a possibility it made it to the Hosey (Independence Hose Company in Shamokin) and other places. I’d hate to tell you all the stories I heard. Some of them weren’t so nice. I won’t go into that. It did move around. Different people would take it out. Unbeknownst to us, they’d just take it out. It wasn’t always handled with the best of care.”
Head ‘was our buddy’
Former Coal Township Commissioner and retired realtor Joe Bressi, 81, said he often went out with the Farrows in the 1960s when they were in their early 20s.
“We’d go drinking and we catered to Sam in many bar rooms in Shamokin and Coal Township,” Bressi said. “Sam was our buddy. Sam was well-known in the community. Sam got around on a Friday night. It was always a topic of conversation.”
The head made frequent stops at the former Layman Cafe at Mulberry and Fourth streets, Shamokin. Bressi said the head was always treated with respect.
“Nothing was ever done in a negative manner,” Bressi said. “We never threw it around or spit on it. The head was handled with care. If I had to do it over, I would never, ever, ever do that (take it out). We were in our 20s, having a good time.”
Kelley, who grew up in the Shamokin area, said he remembers the rumors that the head was displayed at Farrow’s.
“I remember going over to Farrow Funeral Home as a kid,” Kelley said. “You heard that it was in the window, so we’d go over to the window to look. We’d just look in the window and take off. We never actually saw it.”
Historic display
In June 1976, the Farrows donated the head to the Anthracite Heritage Center for display as part of its mining and heritage collection, located at Lincoln Street adjacent to Shamokin City Hall. The announcement brought an influx of visitors — more than 3,000 — interested in viewing the morbid exhibit, which was kept in a glass case under a black cloth and was viewable only upon request.
“Visitors were told what was beneath the cloth, then asked if they would like to look,” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in February 1977. “Most did.”
Irene Buczeskie, of Coal Township, worked as the secretary of the chamber of commerce in Shamokin, the organization that started the Anthracite Heritage Center.
“They brought it in on a round plate and the head was on it under a glass dome,” Buczeskie said. “They sat it right in front of me and I stared at it for quite a while. He had a mustache and it was kind of brownish-red. The hair was a similar color and it came down a little bit over his ears.”
The late Clarence E. “Mooch” Kashner, who was president of the Center, told the Press Enterprise in 1995 about the display.
“If somebody wanted to see it, we’d lift the cover off it and let them see it,” Kashner told the newspaper. “If nobody said anything, we just wouldn’t say anything.”
Vetovich, Kashner’s granddaughter, said she knew about the head, but her grandfather rarely talked about it with her.
“I was young,” Vetovich said. “I graduated high school in 1979, so I wasn’t paying attention. I knew it was going on.”
Former Mount Carmel Mayor J. Kevin Jones said he remembers the display being a big draw.
“Mining equipment wasn’t as great of an attraction,” Jones said. “When the head went on display there were lines to get in. I remember the ears were chipped and the face was darker.”
Legal battle
On Nov. 24, 1976, Northumberland County Judges Peter Krehel and Samuel Ranck took offense with the exhibit and issued a court order calling for the interment of the head, but the center challenged the removal. The nearly three-month legal battle brought in the state solicitor general who joined in on the judges’ efforts.
“The public display of a lifeless human body, with an appeal to the morbid curiosity of the public, is not only contrary to the sense of morality of Western Civilization in its Judeo-Christian heritage and highest esteem for the individuality of every member of mankind, but also offensive to our American religious beliefs, traditions and concern for and about the mortal remains of a human being,” the judges said in the order.
Kelley’s father, James P. Kelley, was a county commissioner at the time.
“I remember him becoming involved as a county commissioner,” Kelley said. “I was 17, but I don’t remember anything about it. It didn’t stick in my memory.”
Judge remembers
During the legal battle, District Attorney James Rosini was given custody of the head for a period of seven weeks until the matter was settled. Rosini, who died in 2012, is the father of Northumberland County President Judge Paige Rosini, who was 9 at the time.
“I remember it very well,” Judge Rosini, a Shamokin native, said. “It was in a cardboard box in my father’s safe. At that time, the DA’s position was part-time and there was a small office in the courthouse and another private office in Shamokin. He kept the head in the legal office on Independence Street in Shamokin.”
Judge Rosini said she loved detective shows growing up, so this head in her father’s office fascinated her. She was not scared of it.
“It was an embalmed head,” she said. “It looked like leather, how skin would get if mummified. It still had hair and a mustache. It was clearly a human being.”
Rosini said she distinctly remembers the reddish hair.
“It certainly made an impression on me,” she said.
Her father was also interested in the legality and mystery of the case.
“It was an emotional issue for a lot of people,” Judge Rosini said. “The judge said it was an abomination. The Heritage Center thought it was part of the history. It was clearly a big deal in Shamokin. I was too young to appreciate that aspect at the time.”
When her father died in 2012, Rosini said she found a file labeled “The Head” in his office and it was full of newspaper articles. She was grateful the documents didn’t get shredded when the private office was closed.
Head buried
James Rosini called for a hearing on the matter in 1977, but the center eventually dropped its challenge. Rosini delivered the head to Coroner Ernest Korten Jr. on Feb. 14, 1977. Krehel issued an order on Feb. 15 directing Korten to inter the head upon instructions from the court.
“The head will be placed in a ‘proper burial case’ and will be buried in an undisclosed cemetery” to prevent tampering with the head by vandals, Korten told the Shamokin News-Item.
The Daily Item reported that Korten received a sealed envelope marked “confidential” and “restricted,” which supposedly contained the instructions for the burial of the head. Korten told the newspaper that the specific instructions on burying the head would not be made public to prevent anyone from later trying to find and exhume it.
No official court records or orders exist that would indicate the location of the head, Judge Rosini sai.
“In this day and age, you would document it and seal it, and keep it on the up and up,” Rosini said. “In 1977, maybe not. There’s no indication of a sealed order.”
‘Imagine my surprise’
When Lori Campbell and her business partner purchased the Farrow Funeral Directors in 2018 and changed the names to Farrow-Campbell Funeral and Cremation Service, Campbell said she had no idea about the history of the Shamokin Head. She came across a file in a cabinet kept by Malcolm Farrow IV full of articles and photographs of the head.
“Imagine my surprise,” Campbell said. “People ask about the head all the time, families we’re working with. It’s really captivating for a lot of people.”
People think the head is still in the basement, Campbell said.
Where is the head?
Many theories exist about the location of the head. It is not known whether the head was reunited with the body, whether it was cremated or whether it was buried at the county burial ground in Potter’s Field in the Trevorton area. In 1977, the head’s body was believed to have been buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Mount Carmel.
Jones, the manager of the Mount Carmel Cemetery Co., said their death records do not go back to 1904.
“At no time in my 27 years as a director/manager of the Mount Carmel Cemetery Company did I ever hear that the rest of the body was buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery,” Jones said.
Vetovich said Kashner claimed to have been one of three people to have buried the head. She believes it’s at a Pauper’s Grave in Odd Fellow Cemetery along Trevorton Road in Coal Township, but her grandfather never told her for sure.
Rosini said her father chose to not be told where the head was buried. It was her understanding that Korten and the late Wilbur Reddinger, the county detective, were part of the burial.
Andy Farrow said he knows where the head is buried.
“I know where it’s buried, but I’m not supposed to say,” he said.
Kelley said the same thing. His father, who died in 2008, told him the location, he said.
“I was sworn to secrecy by my father,” Kelley said. “I remember my dad telling me that. I don’t want him spooking me. I have more fear of my father than of the head.”
‘Stood the test of time’
Shamokin filmmaker and curator of the Shamokin History Channel Matt Spade, who made the documentary “The Shamokin Head: A Chet Davis Story,” said Shamokin has many strange stories, but nothing compares to the story of the Shamokin Head.
“Why has it stood the test of time? Why are people still drawn to the story near and far? Because the city decided to keep and preserve a decapitated head,” Spade said. “In the interest of identifying the victim back in 1904 the head was kept as a relic, which is not something people normally do. The fact that many people in the 1970s saw the head, most likely at a local fire hose company. It wasn’t that long ago as far as history is concerned.”
The fact that the head went missing for a few weeks, also stirred up some interest, Spade said.
“We know what happened to the head during that time now, but I like to think that that added to the mystery of the mystique of the head,” he said. “I have friends from California who can’t wait to see this documentary. People 3,000 miles away who have never been to our region are captivated by the story of the Shamokin head.”
‘A book without an ending’
Northumberland historian Steven Klinger, a collector of local folklore and stories, believes the head would still be in relatively good condition.
“In Reading, a man referred to as Stone Man Willie was embalmed in a similar manner and his body became very hard and looked to be in great condition after 128 years after his death,” Klinger said. “I think the head remains an interesting topic locally because a lot of people fear being forgotten after their death. This man was murdered and he doesn’t even get a headstone with his name on it. I think this man was loved and missed by someone. I think the circumstances that led to his head being preserved and kept from 1904 to 1977, turned his story into a local tragic legend. He turned into an object of wonder and curiosity.”
Klinger said the man deserves to be exhumed, have DNA testing done, have his name reclaimed and receive a headstone.
“Somewhere, there are descendants who have no idea what happened to their ancestor,” Klinger said. “I truly think if he could be given back his name, maybe the mystery of his murder could be solved. I think his story is a book without an ending, and it’s the mystery of that missing chapter that keeps the mystery alive.”
Rosini said it would take a court order to reopen the case and exhume the body.
“It’s a shame we don’t know,” Rosini said. “If we could do it in an appropriate way, we could figure out who this person is or his relatives.”
