Leo Held

Mass murderer

6known / alleged victims

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Case Facts

Gender: male
Country: followed by more bullets. This continued until he was finally hit in the head. He stopped firing then. He died later in the Lock Haven Hospital unable to answer any of the questions that police had. home last updates contact
Location: Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, USA tatus: K illed during a shoot-out with the police the same day On morning in the fall of 1967, Leo, a devout Christian, woke up and decided to take care of his problems. He drove his kids to school, dropped his wife at her job and showed up at the paper mill where he worked packing heat. There he wasted five supervisors. Then he went to a local airport and wounded a switchboard operator that was part of his car pool. Next he went home and shot his neighbors, the Quiggles, while they slept. One died, the other survived. When he returned home, the police had surrounded his house and shot him. He died in the hospital but not before saying why he shot each person. All the victims had irked him in some way or another. There was one person he couldn't get to, a seventy-year-old neighbor, a fact which he lamented on his death bed. Shooting tragedy October 25, 1967 A berserk paper mill worker at Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, apparently upset over a dispute with members of his car pool, his superiors and a neighbour, killed six of them yesterday in a shooting spree. Seven other people were wounded, three critically. The gunman, Leo Held, aged 39, was later wounded and seized by the police in his near-by Loganton home. He was rushed to Lockhaven Hospital in critical condition. Killer of six dies October 26, 1967 Leo Held, aged 39, who went on a rampage of death on Tuesday, killing six people and injuring six others before he was felled by police bullets, died yesterday at Lockhaven Hospital, Pennsylvania. Berserk gunman kills 6 friends October 23, 1967 LOCK HAVEN, Pa., – A crazed laboratory technician opens fire with two pistols in a crowed paper mill here today, beginning a one-and-a-half-hour shooting spree that left six dead and six wounded. The police, family and friends, all at a loss to explain what made Leo Held go berserk, said that until the 39-year-old father of four strode into the Hammermill Paper Company plant here with guns blazing he was known to all as "a quiet, peaceful man devoted to his family." The police said Held shot five dead and wounded four others in the plant. Then he killed a sixth man and wounded two more in a trail of gunfire that took him to his home in Loganton, 17 miles southeast of Lock Haven. An avid hunter and a good shot, he apparently knew his targets and went for them, the police said. With icy calm, Held used a .38-caliber revolver and a .44-caliber Magnum while 40 to 50 employees watched struck dumb by shock. The shootings, which began shortly after 8 A.M., lasted just a few minutes. Then Held, a 21-year employee of the Hammermill plant, quickly turned and walked out the main door leaving fellow employees crouching behind machinery and desks in fear. The six-foot 200-pounder’s next move gave the police what they thought was their first clue to a motive. The bespectacled, baldish former school board members climbed into his station wagon at the plant and drove to Lock Haven Airport. There he sought out Mrs. Geraldine Ramm, a neighbor in Loganton. He found her at the switchboard she operates for the Piper Aircraft Corporation. It was then about 8:15. He fired several times into the office and managed to hit Mrs. Ramm twice, wounding her seriously. Her husband, Schuyler Ramm, told a newsman later that his wife was the driver today in a car pool that had blackballed Held about three months ago "because of his reckless driving." But of the victims at the paper mill, at least two were not in the car pool or even close friends, according to victim’s relatives. They were Allen Barrett Jr., 45, a laboratory employee from Lock Haven, and Richard Davenport, 32, a quality control supervisor from Woolrich. The others killed there were Donald V. Walden, 31, of Lock Haven, paper manufacturing superintendent; Carmen H. Edwards, 62, of Mill Hall, superintendent of wastes and bacteriological control, and Elmer Weaver, 37, of Lock Haven, a laboratory employee. Slain in His Bed The sixth victim was Floyd Quiggle, 27, Held’s Loganton neighbor, who was slain in bed. The police said Held apparently drove directly from the airport to Mr. Quiggle’s home, forced his way in and shot Mr. Quiggle dead and wounded his wife as they lay asleep. An investigation by Capt. John Grey of the state police indicated that Held stayed a while at the Quiggle home, taking weapons and ammunition from Mr. Quiggle’s gun case. Then he ran outside, behind his own house and into a field to avoid a police posse waiting for him. Scores of shots were fired as Held engaged a dozen officers in a gun battle. He was hit again and again by the circling police. Then he sank to the ground but kept firing. Harold M. Brungard, chief executive officer at the Loganton National Bank and Held’s brother-in-law, shouted as he crouched behind police men: "Please, Leo, give yourself up. Drop the gun. Give yourself up" Finally Held crumpled, wounded in the hands, leg and forehead. It was all over at 9:25 A.M. "I can’t believe this has happened." Mr. Brungard said. Wife Collapses Held’s wife, Alta, 36, collapsed at her job at the Plastic-Vac Corporation, in nearby Jersey Shore. She had gone to work after sending her three young children, Court, Gerald and Barbara, off to the Sugar Valley School. The oldest son, Larry, is a student at Pennsylvania State University. District Attorney Allan Lugg of Clinton County told a news conference that Held would be charged with murdering "the various victims involved." Mr. Lugg said Held had had neither a mental problem nor a police record and was regarded as "a respected citizen." The District Attorney said the arresting police "didn’t want to kill him" and wounded him in the hads and then in the leg and head. Though Held’s condition was critical, a doctor said, "I think he’ll make it." Held and the other wounded are in Lock Haven Hospital. Portrait of a killer October 24, 1967 LOCK HAVEN, Pa., – Leo Held, who inflicted a 90-minute reign of terror on this region yesterday, suffered some of the classic symptoms of a persecution complex, his neighbors said today. Held, a chunky, baldish, 39-year-old laboratory technician in a paper mill, killed six persons and wounded six others before he was trapped and disarmed in his backyard in nearby Loganton. Loganton is a neat, tiny village of 400, lost in a fold of Appalachians and reached by a winding mountain road. No one there professed to know the grievance, real or imagined, that sent Held on his shooting rampage. Most of the people there said that, until yesterday, Leo seemed to be a quiet, peaceful citizen, devoted to his wife and four children, a member of the Sugar Valley School Board, a director of the Loganton Boy Scout troop, and an ardent deer hunter and woodsmen. Still, there were other things. They said Leo was gnawed by suspicions that someone was out to get his job, and that he felt he had been passed over for promotion. They said he thought his telephone was being tapped, and that he feuded with a neighbor over an inconsequential strip of boundary land. They said he thought neighbors burned leaves just to spite him, knowing he hated the smoke, and that some of them unfairly criticized his driving. Nonetheless, Sugar Valley residents had not thought much of their quiet neighbor’s peculiarities. Then they heard the broadcast. Leo, a .45-caliber automatic pistol in one hand and a .38-caliber Magnum revolver in the other, had stalked into the Hammermill Paper Company, coldly and methodically wiped out four of his fellow employees, and was now speeding toward Loganton. The Sugar Valley School, where three of the four Held children are enrolled, was put under a state of siege. The acting principal, William Harbach, a math teacher who used to hunt groundhogs with Held, ran home to fetch a revolver. Harry Mark, the janitor, and some of the male teachers rushed to their homes for rifles. Children are Separated Shades were drawn on the ground-level classrooms and children were evacuated from the aisles nearest windows. They were told that they would have to remain indoors, perhaps even during luncheon recess. They were not told why. Then the armed teachers deployed near the school entrances and waited for Held. The Held children, Barbara, 12, Gerald, 13, and Curt, 5, were separated from their classmates and taken to an interior hall. They were told there later that their father had been involved in some shooting. Uptown, the Rev. Stephen McKittrick of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, heard the news on his car radio. He ran into his house and armed himself with a recent birthday present from his wife, and over-and-under shotgun that he hoped to use during the wild turkey season. A police car from Lock Haven had just arrived and men were beginning to surround Held’s home, a new story-and-a-half brick house, where he was believed to be hiding. They had arrived too late, however, to prevent the slaying of Held’s sixth and last victim. Avoiding state police roadblocks by taking a back road over Pine Mountain, Held had reached Loganton and broken into the home of his neighbors, the Floyd D. Quiggles. One he had protested to them about leaf burning. Mr. Quiggle, a self-employed truck driver, and his wife, were upstairs in bed. They were sleeping late because Mr. Quiggle had no trip scheduled. Held strode into the bedroom and opened fire, killing Mr. Quiggle instantly and critically wounding Mrs. Quiggle in the face and neck. Then he walked downstairs and helped himself to several rifles from a gun cabinet before crossing the road to his own home. He brushed past the Quiggle’s 4½-year-old daughter, Jody Lynn, whom a neighbor later found crying into the downstairs telephone. "Just as clear as though she was reciting a lesson in classroom," the neighbor said, Jody Lynn was saying: "Help me, mommy and daddy have been shot." Held got inside his front door just as the police arrived. Lock Haven’s assistant police chief, William B. Ryan, walked up and knocked on the door. Held parted the curtains on the door window, stared at Ryan, and then vanished into the interior of the house. A moment later he came out the back door and started running across the lawn. He had his pistol and revolver and according to Chief of Police Domer G. Orndorf, he fired. Assistant Chief Ryan, who had ducked around the side of the house, returned the fire, dropping Held with a bullet that shattered his right thigh. The police called on Held to surrender. Spread-eagle on the grass, but snarling defiance, Held replied: "Come and get me. I’ve had enough." When Mr. McKittrick reached the scene, Held was firing at the police, who now were reinforced by state troopers. Held’s brother-in-law, Harold M. Brungard, a cashier at the Loganton National Bank, walked to the edge of the yard, starkly exposed to the slayer’s guns, and pleaded with Leo to give up. Held stared at him, but said nothing. Then the shooting resumed. "There was a dream-like quality about the whole thing," Mr. McKittrick recalled. "Fear didn’t come in until later. Leo already had been shot and disabled and I could feel only pity for him." Held was now caught in a cross-fire. The police, taking pains not to kill him, they said, aimed for his hands. Their bullets finally shattered both wrists and knocked the guns away. Muttering incoherently and under deep sedation, Held remained in critical condition today in Lock Haven Hospital. Not only his wrists and right thigh had been shattered, he also had been hit in the left shoulder. The police were unable to question him. The police are unable to find any convincing reason why Held selected some of his victims. His last act before leaving Lock Haven yesterday was to drive from the paper mill to the local airport, where he shot and seriously wounded Mrs. Geraldine Ramm, an employee of the Piper Aircraft Company. Mrs. Ramm, wife of a Loganton undertaker, belonged to a car pool with Held and other Sugar Valley residents, and there is a report that Held had been "blackballed" by members of the pool for fast driving. The police have found that Mrs. Ramm had criticized Held’s driving, but they do not think this pressing enough for Held to kill her. Besides, he has not used the car pool for several weeks, they said. Among those shot and killed by Held were supervisors whose advancement he might have resented. But reports that Held was fearful of retaining his own job are discounted by company officials. There had been talk of layoffs at the plant, but Held, because of seniority, was not likely to lose his job, employees there said. Still, to his neighbors, Held had seemed edgy, and occasionally he had showed a spark of truculence. W. Edwards Meyer, president of the Loganton National Bank, recalled: "He was not a good mixer; he was retiring almost to the point of being shy. But on the school board he’d take a firm stand and be obstinate and inflexible." Mr. Meyer said Held would "pick up an argument" with neighbors, once complaining that a neighbor was encroaching on his property line, another time saying that smoke from neighbor’s fires was drifting onto his lawn. Many Sugar Valley residents worried today lest the mass slayings encourage a state crackdown on firearms. Virtually everyone in the valley seems to have a rifle. This is fine deer country; even bear are still taken in numbers in the central Pennsylvania wilderness. The population of Sugar Valley is long settled, white, Protestant, and largely of German origin. In about a month many kitchens in the valley will be smelling of roast venison, red cabbage and homemade sauerkraut. Pennsylvania: The Revolt of Leo Held Time.com Friday, Nov. 03, 1967 There was almost nothing in Leo Held's life that could have presaged the end of it. Held, 40, a burly (6 ft., 200 lbs.), balding lab technician at a Lock Haven, Pa., paper mill, had been a school-board member, Boy Scout leader, secretary of a fire brigade, churchgoer and affectionate father. Certainly he bickered occasionally with his neighbors, drove too aggressively over the hilly highways between his Loganton home and the mill, and sometimes fretted about the job that he held for 19 years. But to most of his neighbors and coworkers, he was a paragon of the responsible, respectable citizen. That image was shattered in a well-planned hour of bloodshed last week when Held decided to mount a one-man revolt against the world he feared and resented. After seeing his wife off to work and their children to school, Held, a proficient marksman, pocketed two pistols—a .45 automatic and a Smith & Wesson .38—and drove his station wagon to the mill. Parking carefully, he gripped a gun in each fist and stalked into the plant. Then he started shooting with a calculated frenzy that filled his fellow-worker victims with two and three bullets apiece, at least 30 shots in all. One bullet shattered a transformer, adding darkness to the sudden panic; yet throughout his ten-minute rampage, Held displayed the calm proficiency of a man who has mapped his assault in advance. Shot dead were Supervisors Carmen H. Edwards and Richard Davenport, Lab Technicians Allen R. Barrett and Elmer E. Weaver, and Superintendent Donald V. Walden. Picking his targets with care as he strode through the mill, Held also wounded James Allen, a superintendent; Richard Carter, a lab technician; David Overdorf, a machine operator, and a manager, Woodrow Stultz. No More Bull. Stopping for a few casual words with incoming workers as he left the mill, Held next drove to the Lock Haven airport, where he shot at Switchboard Operator Gerry Ramm four times, wounding her twice. Thinking it was a prank, the airport manager hustled Held outside without a protest. Then Held's obsession sent him to the Sugar Valley School, where three of his own children and some 500 others had been locked inside after police had notified the principal of Held's rampage. After circling the school, Held drove home and invaded the house of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Quiggle across the street. The Quiggles were still asleep in bed. Held's shots killed Quiggle instantly and critically wounded Mrs. Quiggle while their four-year-old daughter cowered under her own bed in fright. Helping himself to more ammunition and a rifle, Held went home. A hastily formed posse found him in his doorway, armed and snarling defiance: "Come and get me. I'm not taking any more of their bull." Although Held's brother-in-law pleaded with him to surrender and bullets shattered his shoulder, leg and right wrist, Held switched the .38 to his left hand, firing until it, too, was smashed. Taken to a guarded hospital bed, he never regained full consciousness, dying later from the complications of his many wounds. He left behind a trail of six people wounded, six others dead. One to Go. As news of Held's bloody rampage reverberated across central Pennsylvania, puzzled officials discovered a tenuous chain of logic behind his actions. Mrs. Ramm had quit a car pool, complaining of Held's driving. Many victims at the paper plant either were in authority over him or had been promoted while he had not. Held and Quiggle had feuded over smoke from burning leaves, and probers soon found that Held's stolid surface had masked truculence, resentment and rage. His doctor, noting that Held had shown paranoid tendencies a year ago, said: "He felt the people at the plant were talking about him." Another neighbor, Mrs. Ella Knisely, told of a spat over a fallen tree limb that so enraged Held he beat the 71-year-old widow with the branch. She took him to court on assault and battery charges, but the magistrate threw out her case and Held's cross complaint. If the jurist "had thought a little more carefully," said Mrs. Knisely, and seen that "here was a man who was sick and sent him to a psychiatrist, this thing could have been prevented." Mrs. Knisely added that she wished Held had slain her instead of young Quiggle. Indeed, he may well have intended to include her with the rest. As he lay dying, doctors said, Held thanked a nurse for a glass of water, asked about his oldest son, and murmured, "I had one more to go." Leo HELD A 39-year-old Lab Technician, Leo Held was not really thought of a possible murderer. He was married, had four kids, was a scout leader (it's always the scout leaders), school board member, churchgoer and volunteer firefighter. But behind this life he hid his true feelings. he hated his neighbors, well he hated everyone. They were all out to get him, so he thought, but it was his next door neighbors who really pissed him off. They burned leaves in their yard and this was done purely to spite him. And the cunts at work all got promotions ahead of him. Well Leo wasn't going to take their shit anymore. And on October 24, 1967, he decided to take revenge on all those who were plotting against him. So, he left the house on his way to work. Once there, well you could say he made a grand entrance. He strode into the building and quicker than you could say "Holy Fuck" he had started picking the back stabbing bastards off. He had a .38 revolver in one hand and a .44 magnum in the other and was putting them to good use. He got three of his bastard supervisors and two of his lab technician work mates. He walked through the place at a slow pace picking them off apparently at random. Once done at the mill he moved on to Lock Haven Airport where his slut neighbor, Geraldine Ramm, worked as a switchboard operator. He stopped off here only long enough to put four bullets in the scheming bitch, wounding her seriously. From here he went back home to Loganton where he paid a visit to his leave burning neighbors, the Quiggles. They were still asleep at this time so he had to brake in to the house. Once inside he headed upstairs to the master bedroom where he filled Floyd Quiggle's head with his bullets. He also put a couple of bullets into his wife, wounding her. He then went downstairs and stole a few rifles and some ammo from the Quiggles stash. He then pushed their 4-year-old daughter out of the way as he left through the front door, where he was greeted by a shitload of police. He came out all guns blazing, firing off at anything, but hitting nothing. Then his leg was smashed by a police bullet, and he went down. The police called for him to surrender, but Leo answered this with more bullets and a "Come and get me", followed by more bullets. This continued until he was finally hit in the head. He stopped firing then. He died later in the Lock Haven Hospital unable to answer any of the questions that police had. home last updates contact
Date of birth: 1928
Age at first offence: 39
Characteristics: shooting spree
Victim profile: Allen Barrett Jr., 45 / Richard Davenport, 32 / Donald V. Walden, 31 / Carmen H. Edwards, 62 / Elmer Weaver, 37 / Floyd Quiggle, 27
Method of murder: Shooting (two pistols: a .45 automatic and a Smith & Wesson .38)
Date(s) of murder: October 23, 1967
Years active: 1967
Date of arrest: —
Status: Died in custody
Died at Lockhaven Hospital, Pennsylvania, after being felled by police bullets

Case Summary

Case record: Leo Held

Background

Leo Held was a 39-year-old laboratory technician who was described as a quiet, peaceful man devoted to his family until a rampage of gunfire in Pennsylvania. He was a father of four. Neighbors described him as a churchgoer and as a member of the Sugar Valley School Board, a director of the Loganton Boy Scout troop, and an ardent deer hunter and woodsmen. He was also described as a member of a fire brigade and a volunteer firefighter. Other residents said he felt his job was being held against him, that he was suspicious someone was out to get his job, and that he felt he had been passed over for promotion. Neighbors said he thought his telephone was being tapped and that he feuded with a neighbor over a strip of boundary land. They said neighbors burned leaves just to spite him because he hated the smoke, and that some unfairly criticized his driving.

At the Hammermill Paper Company, Held had been a 21-year employee of the plant. Company officials regarded him as a respected citizen and said he had had neither a mental problem nor a police record. District Attorney Allan Lugg of Clinton County said Held would be charged with murdering the various victims involved. The district attorney said the arresting police did not want to kill Held and wounded him in the hands, then in the leg and head. Held remained in critical condition in Lock Haven Hospital.

The offence

Held carried two handguns into the Hammermill Paper Company plant. Police said he used a .38-caliber revolver and a .44-caliber Magnum. The police said the shootings began shortly after 8 A.M. and lasted just a few minutes.

Police said Held shot and killed five people and wounded four others in the plant. A news narrative described that he shot dead supervisors Carmen H. Edwards and Richard Davenport and lab technicians Allen R. Barrett Jr. and Elmer E. Weaver, and superintendent Donald V. Walden. The narrative also described that he wounded James Allen (superintendent), Richard Carter (lab technician), David Overdorf (machine operator), and manager Woodrow Stultz. Police described the trail of gunfire as taking him to his home in Loganton.

Among the victims at the paper mill, police said at least two were not in the car pool or even close friends, according to victims’ relatives. The narrative and police account named the five slain at the plant as:

Allen Barrett Jr., 45, laboratory employee from Lock Haven
Richard Davenport, 32, quality control supervisor from Woolrich
Donald V. Walden, 31, paper manufacturing superintendent
Carmen H. Edwards, 62, superintendent of wastes and bacteriological control
Elmer Weaver, 37, laboratory employee from Lock Haven

The sixth victim was Floyd Quiggle, 27, Held’s Loganton neighbor, who was slain in bed. Police said Held drove directly from the airport to Mr. Quiggle’s home, forced his way in, and shot Mr. Quiggle dead and wounded his wife as they lay asleep. The narrative described that their four-year-old daughter cowered nearby in fright.

Held also shot and seriously wounded Mrs. Geraldine Ramm at Lock Haven Airport. Police described her as a neighbor in Loganton who operated a switchboard for Piper Aircraft Corporation. The airport manager managed to hustle Held outside without protest.

Police also described that a state of siege was put into effect at the Sugar Valley School. The acting principal, William Harbach, a math teacher who used to hunt groundhogs with Held, ran home to fetch a revolver. Harry Mark, the janitor, and some male teachers rushed to their homes for rifles. Children were evacuated from aisles nearest windows, told to remain indoors, and armed teachers deployed near school entrances to wait for Held. Held’s children were named as Barbara (12), Gerald (13), and Curt (5), who were separated from classmates and taken to an interior hall. They were told later that their father had been involved in some shooting.

Investigation and motive context

Police, family, and friends were described as at a loss to explain what made Held go berserk. Police said the police are unable to find any convincing reason why Held selected some of his victims. The narrative described that officials discovered a tenuous chain of logic behind his actions.

Police and the narrative mentioned several potential grievances:

Mrs. Geraldine Ramm belonged to a car pool that had blackballed Held about three months ago because of his reckless driving. Schuyler Ramm told a newsman that his wife was the driver today in a car pool that had blackballed Held about three months ago because of his reckless driving. Another narrative described Mrs. Ramm had quit a car pool complaining of Held’s driving.
Police said they had found that Mrs. Ramm had criticized Held’s driving but did not think this pressing enough for Held to kill her. Police also said Held had not used the car pool for several weeks.
Police said the police found that some victims at the paper mill were supervisors whose advancement he might have resented, but company officials discounted reports that Held was fearful of retaining his own job. Employees said Held because of seniority was not likely to lose his job.
Neighbors said Held had suspicions someone was out to get his job and thought he had been passed over for promotion.
Neighbors said he had feuded with a neighbor over smoke from neighbor’s fires and that he had argued about boundary land.
One narrative described a dispute involving leaf burning and said Held’s stolid surface had masked truculence, resentment, and rage.
Another narrative said a neighbor, Mrs. Ella Knisely, told of a spat over a fallen tree limb that enraged Held and that he beat the 71-year-old widow with the branch. The narrative said she took him to court on assault and battery charges, but the magistrate threw out her case and Held’s cross complaint. The narrative included Mrs. Knisely’s statement about sending Held to a psychiatrist.

Verbatim quotations included in the case record

Harold M. Brungard, chief executive officer at the Loganton National Bank and Held’s brother-in-law, shouted as Held crouched behind police men: “Please, Leo, give yourself up. Drop the gun. Give yourself up”
Mr. Brungard said: “I can’t believe this has happened.”
District Attorney Allan Lugg told a news conference that Held would be charged with murdering “the various victims involved.”
Held, when the police called on him to surrender, replied: “Come and get me. I’ve had enough.”
The narrative included Held’s mutter under deep sedation, describing him as incoherent and sedated.
When held was asked to surrender, the narrative reported: “Come and get me. I’m not taking any more of their bull.”
The narrative included an account of an utterance by a neighbor at a school: The neighbor said Jody Lynn was saying, “Help me, mommy and daddy have been shot.”

Victims

Held killed six people and injured six others.

The six slain were named as:

Allen Barrett Jr., 45, Lock Haven
Richard Davenport, 32, Woolrich
Donald V. Walden, 31, Lock Haven
Carmen H. Edwards, 62, Mill Hall
Elmer Weaver, 37, Lock Haven
Floyd Quiggle, 27, Loganton neighbor

Mrs. Geraldine Ramm was wounded seriously. Mrs. Quiggle was wounded critically. Held’s wife and other wounded were described as in Lock Haven Hospital.

At the paper mill, the narrative named wounded individuals as:

James Allen, superintendent
Richard Carter, lab technician
David Overdorf, machine operator
Woodrow Stultz, manager

Arrest and death

Police described that Held walked out of the main door leaving employees crouching behind machinery and desks in fear. He later went to Lock Haven Airport and then to his home in Loganton.

Police said that after taking weapons and ammunition from Mr. Quiggle’s gun case, Held ran outside behind his own house and into a field to avoid a police posse waiting for him. A dozen officers engaged Held in a gun battle and shots were fired. Police said Held sank to the ground but kept firing. He was hit again and again by circling police.

When police reinforced by state troopers surrounded Held near his home, the police aimed to avoid killing him and their bullets shattered both wrists and knocked the guns away. Police described that bullets shattered his right thigh. Another account described that assistant chief Ryan returned the fire and dropped Held with a bullet that shattered his right thigh. Police called on Held to surrender.

Held was spread-eagle on the grass but snarling defiance. The record described him as firing at the police again and being struck in the hands, leg, and head, leaving him in critical condition. Police were unable to question him.

Held died later from complications of his wounds. A narrative described him dying yesterday at Lockhaven Hospital, Pennsylvania.

Sentencing

No sentencing outcome appeared in the case record.

Appeals

No appeals appeared in the case record.

Aftermath

The Sugar Valley School remained under a state of siege until Held was trapped and disarmed. Children were separated from classmates and taken to an interior hall. The record described that they were told later that their father had been involved in some shooting.

Held’s wife, Alta, 36, collapsed at her job at the Plastic-Vac Corporation in nearby Jersey Shore after sending her three young children, Court, Gerald, and Barbara, off to the Sugar Valley School. The oldest son, Larry, was described as a student at Pennsylvania State University.

There were concerns among Sugar Valley residents that mass slayings could encourage a state crackdown on firearms, and that virtually everyone in the valley seemed to have a rifle.

At the time of the critical condition, a doctor said: “I think he’ll make it.”

A narrative described that as Held lay dying, doctors said he thanked a nurse for a glass of water, asked about his oldest son, and murmured, “I had one more to go.”

Other details

Loganton was described as a neat, tiny village of 400 reached by a winding mountain road.

The narrative described that police officials discovered Held had been concerned that his job was being discussed and that he had paranoid tendencies about a year earlier, with his doctor noting that he felt people at the plant were talking about him.

The narrative described that the jury or legal process discussed in the account included the magistrate throwing out assault and battery charges and Held’s cross complaint as part of the Knisely dispute. It also described a struggle involving accusations and counterclaims related to a boundary land dispute and leaf burning.

In the hospital narrative, Held and the other wounded were described as in Lock Haven Hospital, and police were described as unable to question him due to his condition. The record also included that he was struck in the left shoulder in addition to right thigh and wrists.

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