The true crime story that made Lebanon famous around the world: The Blue-Eyed Six, plotters of a murder 140 years ago

The Lebanon Daily News was less than ten years old when Lebanon found itself amid the true crime story of the century, such a media sensation that it even inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to set a Sherlock Holmes story in Lebanon, PA.

Initial report

Let’s rewind the tape to December 8, 1878. If you were reading the Philadelphia Inquirer that week, here’s what you’d have seen in a small blurb on the first page:

Union Township, while laboring under an attack of vertigo last evening, fell into Indiantown river and was drowned.

At the time, the Dauphin & Susquehanna Railroad ran through Union Township, so it’s possible the source of the Inquirer’s bulletin had bypassed Lebanon altogether, as the Lebanon Daily News was already reporting hints that something more nefarious had happened.

Lebanon Daily News, December 9, 1878
Drowning of Joseph Raber
Yesterday morning about two o’clock Israel Brandt arrived in town from Indiantown Gap in search of the Coroner, stating that a man named Joseph Raber had fallen into Indiantown creek and was drowned. This neighborhood not being celebrated for the moral character of its inhabitants or its acts of charity caused a great deal of comment when it was understood that Raber was heavily insured, and the chief amounts held on his policies were residents of the neighborhood. (article continues)

The footpath over Indiantown creek can be seen in the forground of this engraving. Brandt’s Tavern is in the center.

When the coroner got to Indiantown Gap, he convened a jury who examined the body and found no bruising or marks on the body. Charles Drews testified that he had seen Raber fall on the bridge and that the old man was dead by the time he arrived. The Daily News reported that several other witness corroborated Drews’ account and that life insurance coverage of $10,000 was held on Raber at the time of his death.

Speculation about insurance fraud

In the next few days, newspapers across the region would report about this supposed accidental death, and bring up the obvious mysteries regarding the insurance payments of Joseph Raber, aged sixty, a man living in a mountain hut without any means to cover his own premiums.

Brandt’s Tavern is in the center of the picture.

On December 10, the Cincinantti Star had this brief:

Joseph Raber, aged sixty, was found drowned near Lebanon, Penn. His life was insured for $10,000 for the benefit of other parties, and his death is regarded as a mystery.

And the Reading Times had this one:

Peculiar Drowning Case in Lebanon Co
At the Coroner's inquest on the body of Joseph Raber, found drowned in Indiantown Creek, Lebanon county, it was ascertained that one man saw Raber fall in but did not go to his assistance, nor was an effort made by any one to resuscitate. The people in the neighborhood refused to allow the body to be brought into any of their houses and the Coroner held his investigation in a barn. The verdict was that "Raber fell from a plank while crossing Indiantown Creek and was overcome by an attack of vertigo." Raber was a temparate man and there is no reason why his remains should not have been treated with respect. He was buried from one of the churches in Union township.

Peculiar interest attaches to this case because a number of neighbors had Raber's life insured for $10,000, of which $2,000 was in an Allentown company; $1,000 in the Mutual of Reading, $1,000 in the Home of Lebanon, and the balance in Connecticut and Philadelphia companies. The insurance on Raber's life at one time amounted to $30,000, but $20,000 was dropped.

The other shoe dropped on February 4 when insurance company investigations began to comb through witnesses in Lebanon County. A man from West Hanover township, Joseph F. Peters, charged six men with conspiring to kill Raber: Frank Stichler, Charles Drew, Israel Brandt, Henry Wise, Josiah Hummel, and George Zechman. The men were all in custody by that afternoon. A little more than a year later, all but one of them would be dead.

The men were held in the Lebanon County’s first jail at 8th and Walton Streets

The Lebanon County Jail stood on the site of today’s Farmers Market building, built in 1892 after a fire destroyed the jail.

The real story

At that time, it wasn’t illegal to take out insurance on another person. So the setup to the murder seems more conspicuous to modern readers than it would have at the time. The insurance on Joseph Raber had been arranged by Brandt through George W. Schweinhard who had offices near the train station on 8th Street in Lebanon. The four men who were beneficiaries (Wise, Hummel, Brandt, and Zechman) got antsy for Raber’s time to come and ultimately settled on Drews as an agent to carry out their dead, for $1,200 total. Drews enlisted Stichler to help. They explored a boating accident and poison by chloroform before settling on their ultimate plan to drown him in Indiantown creek.

Joseph Peters, who first turned on the men, would also testify at their trail that he had seen Raber, Stichler, and Drews walk to the creek together, and then witnessed the latter two men drowning the former in the shallow water next to the footbridge. Peters also testified that Drews intimidated residents of the area to stay silent or pay the cost.

The trial was opened on April 18, 1879 in the Lebanon County Courthouse. None of the six men testified in the trial which was documented by a court stenographer and followed by news outlets around the world. Witnesses would testify that they had seen the men meeting on multiple occasions at Brandt’s Tavern conspiring about the plan. The jury deliberated for five hours the evening of April 24, 1879 before coming back with a guilty verdict. Wise, Drews, Stichler, Brandt, and Hummel all ended up confessing to the murder, but Zechman was granted a retrial and was found not guilty, convincing the court that he had simply been an investor (for example, he held an insurance policy on his own mother).

All but one of the six were hanged

Charles Drews and Frank Stichler were the first two hanged on Friday November 14, 1879.

Israel Brandt, Josiah Hummel, and Henry F. Wise weren’t hung until May 13, 1880. Brandt and Hummel even tried to escape and had somehow obtained ether to assist in the task. On the gallows, Wise was allowed to address the assembly before Brandt and Hummel were led out, and he declared that all six of them were in fact guilty. In fact, Hummel and Brandt had made secret confessions that weren’t to be released until a year after their death.

George Zechman would go on to develop coughing seizures that were said to be very painful, causing some to speculate if that was his punishment. Zechman died at 39 years old of natural causes.

Hauntings

Rumors of hauntings likely began when an apparent relic-seeker defiled the grave of Henry F. Wise and removed the skull from the body, and didn’t even attempt to cover their tracks. News coverage noted that Zechman had died from consumption, as had Joseph Peters, who had given the initial fraudulent report to authorities about having witnessed Raber walking (and stumbling) by himself. Joseph Peters claimed to be haunted by the ghosts of the five corpses and thought himself bewitched by the departed.

To this day, Moonshine Church is said to be haunted by some, and you’ll find plenty of thrillseekers who have posted footage to YouTube.

The most common description of the paranormal activity is blue floating lights, said to be like the eyes of the dead. Others say that the paranormal activity is actually linked to an older Native American poltergeist called The Red Devil.

The Farmers Market has been examined for paranormal activity, as it is not just built on the site but actually rests on the foundations of the old jail.

The Quest Paranormal Society, of Reading, has determined through intense study of the building that it is haunted. In one of its findings, a response from Henry F. Wise, one of the Blue-Eyed Six who was hanged on the property, stated, “I am dead.”

December 7 of this year will mark the 140th anniversary of the event. I certainly wouldn’t want to be out in the Indiantown Gap woods that night!

Here’s a little bit more about the men involved.

Biographical sketches

Israel Brandt

Birth: May 27, 1834 in North Lebanon Township
Death: May 13, 1880 – Hanged in Lebanon
Buried: Mount Lebanon Cemetery
Occupations: Tailor, farmer, tavern/hotel manager (he operated the hotel at Cold Spring)

Franklin Stichler

Birth: October 16, 1859 in Union Township
Death: November 14, 1879 – Hanged in Lebanon
Buried: Along present day McLean Road
Occupations: Laborer

Josiah Hummel

Birth: March 18, 1849 in Union Township
Death: May 13, 1880 – Hanged in Lebanon
Buried: Sattazahn Lutheran Cemetery
Occupation: Laborer

Henry F. Wise

Birth: June 4, 1845 in Monroe Valley
Death: May 13, 1880 – Hanged in Lebanon,
Buried: Green Point Meeting House
Occupation: Miner

Charles Drews

Birth: July 9, 1820 in Holstein, Germany
Death: November 14, 1879 – Hanged in Lebanon
Buried: Mount Lebanon Cemetery
Occupations: Butcher, carpenter, mason, iron worker

Joseph Raber

Birth: January 14, 1819
Death: December 7, 1878
Buried: Moonshine Cemetery
Occupation: Laborer
No illustrations or photographs are known to exist

George Zechman

Birth: August 15, 1849 in Berks County
Death: March 19, 1887 in Union Township
Buried: Sattazahn Lutheran Cemetery