Sniper stalked truckers in 1953

In 1953, a roving sniper was on the loose terrorizing communities, shooting people to death at random. All the shots allegedly were fired from the same weapon. Detectives frantically pursued the killer, questioned suspects, analyzed clues, and followed countless leads.

The story dominated the national media, which called the shootings “an unprecedented wave of fear.” The story sounds a lot like the DC sniper story, but it happened about 56 years ago in Pennsylvania.

On July 25, 1953, trucker Lester Woodward, 30, was fatally shot while sleeping in his truck’s cab near the Irwin Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Western Pennsylvania.

Three days later and 30 miles farther east on the turnpike, near Donegal, trucker Harry Pitts, 28, was slain by the same “phantom killer.”

Three days after that, trucker John Shepherd, 36, was shot and wounded as he slept in his truck’s cab near Lisbon, OH – 18 miles from the western end of the turnpike.

Truck driver and OOIDA Life Member John Taylor, of Cross Junction, VA, vividly remembered those events. He told me about it during the 2002 Beltway shooting spree prior to the arrests of John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo. I wrote it up for Land Line in November 2002.

“It was a scary time,” said Taylor. In the summer of 1953, he said he was running the Pennsylvania Turnpike hauling apples out of Winchester, VA, into Pittsburgh. “Everybody was concerned. Most truckers, including myself, were carrying a firearm for protection.”

Drivers began bunching at service plazas and taking turns sleeping and standing guard. “The police discouraged us from sleeping along the turnpike so a lot of us began parking at Howard Johnsons,” said Taylor.

Suspects were questioned in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, as well as a gang from St. Louis.

A week after the third shooting, a 24-year-old farmhand from Fayette County, PA, was arrested on a minor assault charge in Uniontown, PA. John Wesley Wable told police he was the “Turnpike Phantom,” but they dismissed him as a “screwball” and let him go.

A week later, however, the wounded trucker’s stolen pocket watch turned up in a Cleveland pawnshop. Police traced it to a nearby rooming house where they found the .32-caliber German pistol used in the three shootings – and a woman who said she was Wabel’s girlfriend.

After a nationwide manhunt, Wable was arrested Oct. 13 near Albuquerque, NM.

Wable later was convicted in the shootings. He was executed by electrocution on Sept. 26, 1955.

“The police never said why he did it,” Taylor recalled, “but it must have been because the turnpike was in his area, and it just was easy access for him.”

Pass me a grape Nehi …

Truck writers are a nutty bunch. I got an e-mail today from Rufus Sideswipe, the gearjammin’ imaginary pal of Land Line columnist Bill Hudgins. This e-mail was a copy of a note sent to another Land Line columnist, Dave Sweetman.

Rufus, it seems, read Sweetman’s column in the October Land Line and liked it a lot. If you haven’t read it, it’s called “Blue Highways,” and I agree it’s one of Sweetman’s best. Good enough to bring a fictional character like Rufus “to life,” I guess.

Allow me to share this exchange. The fictional Rufus writes to Dave:

That was one fine journey back down the backroads in Land Line. That other writer fella, Bill Hudgins, what quotes me all the time – he says he read “Blue Highways” and “Travels With Charley” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and did some roaming, too. But then he got sidetracked and stuck in one place with that Wilma of his. Thanks for the trip! – RS

Now considering that Bill wrote this in the guise of Rufus, I really like the “Wilma” touch – seeing as how Bill’s wife is WILDA, not Wilma.

In fact, I couldn’t resist shooting off a totally fictitious note to Rufus myself, claiming to have run into Hudge back before we were truck editors. I said I thought I saw him once, standing on the corner in Winslow, AZ.

I copied Sweetman, who was quick with a reply to Rufus, copying me back, of course.

Awww, shucks! To get a word or three of kind encouragement from the well traveled Rufus, is plum flatterin’ alright. Guess that means I have nine readers now, including my dear old Mom.

And I always did like that Hudge feller’s writing. Met him a time or two, but not in Winslow, or Show Low or Tupelo. We talked once about sharing a couple pulls on some Lem Motlow, till we found out it costs more than the GNP of BearWhizBeckistan. When the subject of who was buying came about, the subject pert near changed fast as greased lightnin’. A bottle of grape Nehi was affordable and had the same effect.

Again, many thanks for the kind words and for being a Land Line reader.

That Dave feller

This Rufus Sideswipe stuff is all in fun, of course. Hudge says he invented the character years ago. Did you know that many readers actually DO think he is real?

OOIDA Member Bob “Cowpoke” Martin of Lafayette, IN, is one guy who doesn’t buy it, though. In fact, Hudgins’ literary leaping back and forth in and out of the Rufus character once prompted CP to e-mail me with the question “does Land Line have a random drug testing policy in place?”

SCR comes to cars in ‘Oz’

With all the hammering the diesel engine industry – which in the U.S. means trucking – has taken over emissions, it’s nice to see that attention is turning toward four-wheeled emitters. At least, it is in Australia (aka Oztralia or Oz), where Mazda is testing a car that uses SCR to reduce greenhouse gases in exhaust.

Selective catalyst reduction – SCR – is emerging as a popular choice for diesel engine makers to meet 2010 EPA emission requirements. Being Australian, The Age web site naturally reports on this with tongue in cheek (I’m surprised they didn't make some kind of pun about it running on pee-trol), but the intent is serious.

Trucks have taken the blame for being “the cause” of pollution too long.

It’s time for the rest of the driving population to shoulder some of the burden. Who knows – that might inspire better systems that don’t rob power or reduce fuel efficiency. Dare I say that the solution could come from some Wizard in Oz?

Truckers and flu

As noted in Land Line’s daily news, the White House, DOT and Centers for Disease Control are advising drivers how to try to keep the flu out of your rig – and presumably your home, your body and your loved ones.

Here’s my advice: Do it.

Health risks aside – and these may range from mild to serious, depending on how healthy you are to start with and perhaps how old you are – there’s a very practical, and powerful, economic reason for wanting to keep truckers and others in the nation’s transportation industry healthy.

In “The Great Influenza,” published in 2004, historian John M. Barry notes that today’s system of just-in-time delivery means that a significant drop in the transportation system’s capacity could ripple across the entire economy.

Writing about the 1918-19 flu that killed at least 650,000 people in America and sickened or even crippled millions more, he notes that many localities ran out of coffins for the dead.

Barry said the average time in 1968 between manufacture and use for coffins was five months; now, it’s about three and a half weeks. If H1N1 were to mutate into a far more lethal strain – as the 1918 flu did from a milder strain that hit that spring – some communities could run out of coffins.

Think also about the impact on produce and fresh food shipments. Anyone who has seen a stack of produce wilting on a dock because there was no truck to carry it can well imagine what that would look like multiplied many times.

Of course, it’s not just truckers. A serious pandemic could sideline people at every level of commerce for perhaps weeks at a time.

In a white paper for MIT’s Engineering Systems Division updated this past July, Barry extends that example to other critically needed medical supplies:

“Just-in-time, of course, discourages stockpiling supplies, not only for health care – and not just antibiotics but also syringes, gowns, gloves, and so on – but also for businesses. A mild pandemic could well infect the same proportion of the population as a severe one, and some workers would stay home to care for sick family members; this could easily cause peak absenteeism in the 20 percent or higher range for a week or more.

“This could ripple through the economy and create major bottlenecks.”

We don’t know if this flu will be the one that morphs into a serious killer. Plain old flu is bad enough, killing far more people each year in America than AIDS does, according to Barry. But it’s showing some eerie similarities to the 1918 virus. So keep the hand gel handy, try to stay out of crowds, and wash your hands.

On the scene at ‘Convoy for a Cure’

Last weekend, I traveled to Willie’s Place in Carl’s Corner, TX, to cover the first-ever U.S. “Convoy for a Cure” for OOIDA’s Land Line Magazine. And I am proud to say that I convoyed with some of the most courageous truckers you will ever meet.

Many of the women truckers I met at the “Cure” convoy are also breast cancer survivors, who have done battle with this brutal disease and won. Their survival stories would truly touch your heart. I know they did mine. For those of you who took the time to tell me your stories, I am honored to have met each one of you. Fight on!

All who were there had the same goal in mind to “drive out breast cancer one truck at a time” by raising money for research and early detection efforts.

I hitched a ride in the convoy with new OOIDA member Belinda Blacketer and her sweet dog, AJ, who now call Springfield, MO, home. She raised the second highest amount of money for the “Cure” convoy. She told me she was at the convoy to honor her sister-in-law who passed away from breast cancer at the age of 30. Thanks again for the ride!

OOIDA Life Member Cindy Stowe of Will’s Point, TX, organized the Texas convoy, which had 31 trucks and raised $13,000 for breast cancer research.

Although she was thoroughly exhausted after the convoy, I am happy to report that Cindy has already confirmed there will be a convoy next year at Willie’s Place. I think the foot rub Cindy received from one of the servers at dinner convinced her that the “show must go on” again next year.

Several bands and musicians turned out to perform for convoy attendees, including OOIDA members Leland Martin and Howard Salmon. Howard’s wife even flew in from Hawaii to attend the day’s festivities.

Representing Canada were “Cure” convoy founder Rachèle Champagne and Chantal Rheault, who has had her hands full this year wrangling the “Cure” Web sites for the convoys.

Rachèle is one ambitious lady. She is hoping that more female truckers will be inspired to host more “Cure” convoys across the U.S. and in Canada. The goal is for this “Cure” convoy idea to grow and to raise money for breast cancer research.

This year, the four convoys, three in Canada and one in the U.S., raised nearly $100,000 for breast cancer research.

“This has been an amazing experience,” Rachèle said.

And let me tell you something: OOIDA member Michele White of Rockwood, TN, is one tough cookie. She has battled cancer not once, not twice, but five times, and has beaten it back every time. She is an amazing woman. Michele also raised the most money and earned the lead truck position at the convoy.

“My philosophy now is that every day you wake up breathing is a good day,” Michele told me.

You can bet I will do my best to make it back there next year.

You can see more photos from the Texas “Convoy for a Cure” on Land Line Magazine’s Facebook Fan Page.

PHOTO: Land Line’s Clarissa Kell-Holland (left) poses with OOIDA Life Member Cindy Stowe, who organized the first-ever U.S. “Cure” convoy on Oct. 24 at Willie’s Place in Carl’s Corner, TX.

Dashing home, but only briefly

Jasmine Jordan, 16-year-old daughter of two OOIDA members, is home resting a stress fracture for the next three to four weeks. Jasmine found out last week she had a small fracture in her foot, and will take an additional three weeks off minimum.

If you follow Jasmine, also known as Jazzy, on her www.runwithjazzy.com/ Web site, or follow her on the Facebook or Twitter social networking sites, you probably already knew that.

Jazzy is running coast to coast to raise money for the St. Christopher Fund and to bring awareness to rising healthcare costs. The St. Christopher Fund helps truck drivers obtain medical procedures or equipment they couldn’t otherwise afford.

She was midway through New Mexico when the pain required her to take time off and visit a doctor.

The stress fracture wasn’t good news, but it does allow Jasmine to see her family, rest her exhausted body, and sleep in her own bed for a few weeks, said Lee Jordan, Jasmine’s dad and a truck driver.

“She’s doing good,” he said. “She wants to be running. She’s glad to be home but wishes she were still in New Mexico, running.”

Jasmine has grown a healthy following from many truck drivers who have followed her posts on Facebook, Lee said. Their messages are a welcome pick-me-up after she puts in 16-20 miles of running per day, studies, and shares a small camper with her dad.

“The support we’ve gotten from drivers on Facebook has just been incredible,” Lee said. “It is so, so nice. Everybody’s keeping up with her and wishing her the best. It’s very encouraging to her. Every time she reads more she just wants to get back out there and run.”

One runner has become friends with the Jordan family, and has lent his running experience to Jazzy.

The 44-year-old has completed a transcontinental run himself, actually running 3,200 miles in 109 days, Jordan said.

He made a video slideshow available here.

Before the Jordan family left New Mexico, they were able to meet up with Katie Visco, a 22-year-old woman running from Boston to San Diego.

Meeting Visco (pictured above with Jazzy) was very special, Lee said.

“For the first time in history, not only have two runners met during a cross-country tour, but two female runners have met,” Lee said. “It’s just unheard of.”

‘Convoy for a Cure’ – it’s personal

After I finish writing this, I am heading to Willie’s Place in Carl’s Corner, TX, to participate in the first-ever U.S. “Convoy for a Cure” on Oct. 24.

OOIDA Life Member Cindy Stowe (pictured here) of Will’s Point, TX, has been planning the “Cure” convoy for months now, and I can’t wait to see it all come together. It’s for such a great and worthy cause – to raise money for breast cancer research.

Cindy was inspired to host a convoy after reading an article I wrote for Land Line in October 2008 about the first-ever all-female convoy, which was organized by OOIDA member Rachèle Champagne. And believe me, that first story wasn’t just an assignment for me, but a way to deal with – and heal from – my family’s own breast cancer battle.

I stumbled upon Rachèle’s idea to organize the first ever “Convoy for a Cure” to raise money for breast cancer research about a year and a half ago, just a few months after my big sister, Michelle, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

And as anyone knows who has witnessed a family member or friend battle cancer, it is the most helpless feeling in the world.

During this time of helplessness, Rachèle’s idea for a “Cure” convoy gave me hope and a purpose. I could help spread the word about her event. Her initial convoy in 2008 raised more than $15,000 for breast cancer research.

In 2009, Rachèle inspired two other female truckers in Canada to organize convoys in their areas, raising more than $80,000. A total of five convoys have already been planned in Canada for next year.

And I have complete confidence in Cindy that her convoy is going to be amazing, too. After all, I can personally attest that nobody I have spoken to has been able to say no to Cindy once she’s told them what she’s doing and what the money is for. Everyone knows a family member or friend who has battled this disease.

So I will close for now, put on my pink and head out on my big journey to Texas for the convoy. So if you are in the area, come convoy with us; all truckers are welcome. And say hello to Cindy and to Rachèle, the “Cure” convoy founder.

I promise these women will inspire you. Oh, and don’t forget to wear pink!