I came across this 1946 clipping while sorting through The Intelligencer’s murder files. (Yes, we have a separate file drawer for them — stranger still, newspaper archive collections are commonly referred to as morgue files.)
This is one of our older clippings that isn’t on microfilm. Indeed, it’s not even an actual clipping, but rather what may possibly be some primitive predecessor to Xerox. Making it legible enough to transcribe took some mad Photoshop skills, I can tell you.
Everything about this article — especially the terminology, which you’ll read in a moment — smacks of another era. For better or worse.
JUNE 17, 1946There’s not much more I could find on the aftermath of the tragedy, except a couple clippings from 1968. By this time Aaron Shelton was 36 years old, having spent 22 years — more than half his life — in Graterford prison.
PROMINENT LANGHORNE WOMAN MURDERED, HOUSE FIRED IN EFFORT TO COVER CRIME; COLORED LAD OF FIFTEEN, EMPLOYED ON THE ESTATE, CONFESSES TAKING HER LIFE
Lifeless Body of Mrs. Walter A. Shetland Found Trussed at Bottom of Basement Stairs by Father of Aaron Shelton, Jr., Who Admits the Crime—Elder Shelton Endeavoring to Find Source of Blaze at Shetland Home When Gruesome Discovery is Made—Hearing Scheduled for This Afternoon—Private Service Arranged for Victim.
A lad of 15 is being held for the strangulation-murder of a white woman who was found dead by the boy’s father, when he saw the house of his employer afire.
The boy, Aaron Shelton, colored, 60 N. Peach street, Philadelphia, was with his father, Aaron Shelton, Sr. on the estate of Walter Arnold Shetland, Middletown Township, one mile west of Langhorne, when he was taken into custody Saturday afternoon.
The dead woman, Mrs. Gladys Shetland, 45, was found in a basement of the Shetland residence, with a piece of cord drawn tight around her neck, and her legs were bound.
The elder Shelton found the Shetland house afire when he came in from the field at the noon hours. He went to the basement from which smoke was pouring and it was then that he found the body of his employer’s wife. She was lying at the bottom of the steps leading to the basement from the outside. The house was also afire on the opposite side where flames had eaten into the dining room from the outside.
Firemen and State Police were called along with Chief Bucks County Detective Anthony Russo, District Attorney Edward J. Biester, Bucks County, was notified and assigned J. Willard Curtin, Assistant District Attorney, to the case. Mr. Biester later joined the group. Troopers Dane, Kutney and Carfagno, from the Langhorne barracks, joined in the investigation.
Shelton’s object in setting the house afire, say police, was to destroy evidence of an assault he allegedly made upon Mrs. Shetland. She resisted him and the two battled.
In his statement to the police, Shelton insisted, they say, that Saturday morning he went into the Shetland house to get fuel for a power mower which he was to operate on the lawn while his father was plowing in a nearby field. He went to the second floor and was seen by Mrs. Shetland as she opened the door of her room. She called to the boy and asked what he wanted, and was told in reply that the mower would not work. Mrs. Shetland told him to trim around the trees.
The lad left the house and later returned and this time found Mrs. Shetland sitting in a chair in the dining room. He then struck her with his fist, police claim the boy confessed, and she fell to the ground. He then trussed her with a piece of rope, assaulted her, and again went outside. Returning again he freed his victim and she grabbed a brass candlestick and fought back fiercely, striking at her assailant. She grabbed a poker from the fireplace and went after Shelton. He fled, with the woman in pursuit. He took the poker from her out on the lawn and struck her, is it alleged. She fell to the ground. Then he dragged her to the basement stairs, and when he had succeeded in getting her down into the basement he again bound her with a rope, went back into the yard, got a [unintelligible], returned to the basement and broke a jar containing kerosene. This he spilled about and then again went back onto the lawn. As he left the top of the steps he threw a lighted match down into the kerosene and then closed the basement door. It was then that he went around to the front of the house, stuffed rags into a window which he broke and ignited them, it is said the lad’s confession states.
Shelton then went into the field where his father was plowing and at noon he and his father returned to the house. The elder Shelton saw smoke coming our of the chimney, kicked in a basement window to see what was causing the fire and discovered the body of Mrs. Shetland. In the meantime he had told his son to run to a neighbor’s and get them to call the firemen. Langhorne and Parkland firemen responded.
Mrs. Shetland apparently put up a gallant fight. Her clothing was torn and she showed evidence of having been beaten on the back of the head.
Mrs. Shetland was a comely woman about five feet and three inches tall. She weighed approximately 135 pounds and when found wore a pinafore dress. Shelton is five feet, nine inches, and weights about 135 pounds.
The Shetland family has resided at Knollbrook, a secluded property just off Arbutus avenue, Langhorne Terrace, about eight years. The property consists of 11 acres. The house is an attractive gray clapboard type. It sits far back from the old Lincoln Highway and is well secluded from the highway by tall evergreens planed close together and tall trees. The lawn slopes from the house toward the roadway. The entrance is through a short lane. The Shetlands have two children, a son and a daughter.
Police, after questioning both the lad and his father, took the boy back to the Shetland residence and had the boy re-enact the tragedy.
Bu this time, in addition to State Police, Detective Russo and Assistant District Attorney Curtin, there had arrived Bucks County Coroner J. Alfred Rigby. Residents in the vicinity had also been attracted by the fire and they stood by spellbound as they saw Shelton lead police over the ground, re-enacting the crime step by step.
The elder Shelton resides in Philadelphia but comes to Langhorne to do odd jobs. Aaron, Jr. spent Friday night at the home of his grandmother, Matilda Griffins.
Mr. Shetland told the authorities that his wife called him at his Trenton office in the plant of the Essex Rubber Co., about 10:15 a.m. and told him of the occurrence of finding the boy upstairs. She also telephoned her daughter in Philadelphia. This was about 10:15 a.m.
Dr. George S. Weinstein, of Richardson avenue, Langhorne, was called to the scene and pronounced the woman dead. The body was removed to an undertaking establishment at Bellevue and Gillam avenues, Langhorne, where Coroner J. Alfred Rigby supervised an autopsy.
Shetland, summoned by his wife’s telephone call, arrived home after the fire had been extinguished. He is a former superintendent of the non-producing departments of SKF Industries, Inc., Philadelphia, and was employed by the Budd Co. before going into the rubber industry.
A son, Arnold E. Shetland, lives at 3225 Decatur Street, Mayfair, while a daughter, Mrs. Clarence Duffany, resides at 3502 Hartell street in the same section of Philadelphia. Four grandchildren also survive. Mrs. Shetland was a prominent member of Langhorne Sorosis, and during the recent war served as Langhorne air observation post.
There will be a private service at R. L. Horner’s funeral home this afternoon at two o’clock, the Rev. Herbet Satcher, Cheltenham P. E. Church, officiating. Burial in Somerton.
Shetland declared that he had known the suspect for several years.
“The boy has been well brought up,” he said. “and I had the deepest trust in him. I just can’t understand his doing this. I feel terribly sorry for his people.”
Police pointed out that the murderer was able to drag Mrs. Shetland all the way around the exterior of the house without being seen because the structure sets back nearly 100 yards from Old Lincoln Highway and is screened from the road by heavy foliage.
The suspect, they said, also was being questioned about a blaze that destroyed the Shetlands’ tool shed three weeks ago.
Shelton will probably be given a hearing this afternoon.
Shelton contended his confession of guilt was obtained through coercion and, not for the first time, it seems, sought a retrial. He claimed to have been "beaten, dragged around and threatened with being locking in the room with the body of the victim unless he signed the confession."
And that’s where our story ends. Does anyone what what happened next? I’m curious to hear the ending.
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