Polish Miner Brutally Slain

A Polish miner is found slain on the Lackawanna railroad tracks with egregious injuries including a fractured skull, bullet holes in his kidneys, and knife wounds on his face.

Peter Rodobskie, a Polish miner, living in a settlement of his countrymen in West Scranton, Pa., was found slain upon the tracks of the Lackawanna railroad by a trackwalker. Rodobskie left his home on Saturday evening after drawing his pay and was not seen again by his wife and family until the body was discovered. Rodobskie’s killing was a most brutal crime. His skull was fractured, he had two knife wounds on the right side of his face, and he was shot through his kidneys. A part of one of his suspenders was found twisted around his neck, so that strangulation would have resulted in a short time, while a beam of heavy oak was let fall in him from a height, the man’s breast being literally caved in. He had also a knife wound on the right hand. The county detective is of the opinion that the man was running away when the shot was fired, and that the other injuries were inflicted after he fell from the bullet wound.

“Polish Miner Brutally Slain,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed March 21, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1895.