Look Back: Victim of 1931 murder lived in Carlisle Street ‘house of horrors’

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A baker who was fatally stabbed with an ice pick by a co-worker in 1931 resided at the same Carlisle Street, Wilkes-Barre, residence dubbed ‘house of horrors.’

George H. Bellas, 24, had a two-block walk from his home at 142 Carlisle St. to the bakery of American Stores Company on Race Street in Wilkes-Barre while another baker, George Eddy, 25, had a further commute from his father’s home at 247 Lynwood Ave. in Hanover Township.

During a dispute about working conditions on May 6, 1931, Eddy picked up an ice pick and stabbed Bellas twice in the abdomen.

Bellas was taken to Mercy Hospital in Wilkes-Barre where he gave the name of his slayer before he died, the Times Leader Evening News reported the same day.

“Screams of Bellas attracted the attention of fellow workmen who rushed to his assistance. Eddy ran out of the place to his home, where he was found a short time later by city Detective George Mushaway, John Williams and Motorcycle Patrolman William Lindner,” the Times Leader Evening News reported May 6, 1931.

When Eddy was apprehended, he was in the process of changing clothes and packing a suitcase with intent to flee, the newspaper reported.

The argument between the two men began when Eddy refused to fill a dough mixer.

Eddy’s jury trial before Luzerne County judges Benjamin Jones and W. Alfred Valentine began June 9, 1931. Jones presided over jury selection while Valentine presided over the trial and jury deliberations.

“When defendant Eddy was called for trial on the charge of murder, Assistant District Attorneys Roscoe B. Smith and James P. Harris agreed that the killing was done in the heat of passion, without deliberation and that the Commonwealth would not press for a verdict greater than second degree murder,” the Times Leader Evening News reported June 9, 1931.

Bellas’ statement he gave to a Mercy Hospital nurse before he died was read to the jury.

“I asked George Eddy to do his own work. He refused and I did it myself. Then George Eddy said he would beat me up. I said that if he put the ice pick down, I would fight him. Then he took the ice pick and stabbed me,” the newspaper reported of Bellas’ statement to the nurse before death.

Eddy, represented by attorneys Leon Schwartz and Frank P. Slattery Jr., put on a self-defense claim that Bellas charged at him and ran into the ice pick, resulting in Bellas stabbing himself.

“Eddy testified he arrived at the bakery a few minutes before 6 a.m. and George Bellas was already there. When Eddy said he began his work duties, Bellas called him vile names as he was chipping ice. Eddy said he went to Bellas and asked to retract or apologize for his vile remarks, Bellas picked up a knife three feet long used in the dough mixer and said, ‘I’ll stick this in you,’” the Times Leader Evening News reported June 10, 1931.

After five hours of deliberating, the jury found Eddy not guilty of second-degree murder in a verdict that angered Judge Valentine.

“Verdict of acquittal returned yesterday afternoon by the jury in the murder trial of George Eddy of Lynwood, Hanover Township, was characterized as a miscarriage of justice by Judge W. A. Valentine, who in his severe criticism of the jurors held that verdicts similar to the one they had reached make law enforcement impossible in Luzerne County. He then discharged the jurors from further service at this court,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported June 11, 1931.

For Eddy’s attorneys, Schwartz and Slattery, it was their first time defending a murder suspect.

The Carlisle Street residence where Bellas lived in 1931 is the same house where a woman was allegedly killed and buried in the basement in April 2023, and where a man claimed he was beaten in July 2023, according to recent reports.