Mt. Pleasant Township man proposes memorial for officer killed in 1929
Photo courtesy of Bill Warnock
A memorial to Brady Paul along Old Butler Road
Courtesy of Bill Warnock
Brady Paul
Photo courtesy of Bill Warnock
Brady Paul on his motorcycle
Courtesy of Bill Warnock
The funeral of Brady Paul
Almost a century ago, Pennsylvania State Highway Patrol officer Cpl. Brady Paul was shot and killed during a roadblock on the Butler Highway. Now, a Mt. Pleasant Township man is trying to get a memorial for him.
Bill Warnock, 81, proposed the memorial to the Mt. Pleasant Township Board of Supervisors in April.
“It’s a part of history, it should be remembered,” Warnock said. “I think it’s sad, he was born and raised here and was killed too young.”
On Dec. 27, 1929, Paul and Patrolman Ernest Moore were alerted by state police of a robbery. They created the roadblock to stop a Chevrolet sedan, whose drivers were on a crime spree throughout six states over the course of several months: Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
That crime spree started in August 1929. Irene Crawford Shrader – who began using the surname Schroeder – of Benwood, W.Va., her 4-year-old son, Donnie, and Schroeder’s boyfriend, Walter “Glenn” Dague of Sand Hill, W.Va., decided to travel through different states to find work. After not having any luck, Schroeder and Dague bought several revolvers from pawn shops in Pittsburgh. They began robbing gas stations and small businesses, until retreating to West Virginia to go into hiding.
They decided to rob the grocery store P. H. Butler Co. in Butler on Dec. 27. Schroeder and Dague entered the store, tied up and gagged the manager and emptied the cash register.
While they were trying to flee, around 11:30 a.m., Paul and Moore set up the roadblock along Butler Road, west of the intersection of Baldwin Road, to stop them. Dague was driving when they were pulled over a the roadblock. Paul asked Dague for identification, while Moore walked around the vehicle.
Dague pulled his revolver out, while Paul tried to scramble away. Paul was shot three times, one in the arm, leg and the fatal shot in his abdomen. He died at 12:55 p.m. at Jameson Memorial Hospital at New Castle. Crawford sat in the back seat and shot Moore through the back window, hitting Moore across the nose and a second time in the head. Moore survived his wounds.
The suspects and the child sped away in their car. Schroeder and Dague were apprehended in Arizona 19 days later.
They were extradited to Pennsylvania to face murder charges, of which both were found guilty, and died in the electric chair at Rockview Penitentiary on Feb. 23, 1931. Schroeder was the first female to be executed in Pennsylvania.
Warnock’s father, Theodore Warnock, was on the jury that convicted Schroeder. Warnock said he was a young boy when his father was on the jury.
“It’s a very interesting story,” Warnock said. “I learned a lot about it from a young age.”
Paul was buried in Mt. Prospect Cemetery in Hickory. There is a memorial stone in New Castle near where Paul and Moore were shot.
Members of the Mt. Pleasant Board of Supervisors did not respond to the Observer-Reporter in time for this publication.