In the Beginning...

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Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio History

The Doodlebug Disaster

The Mountain Line Accident

1853 Murder

Horse Overboard

Kidnapping of Mary Campbell

Falls Fires

The Wright-Parker Shooting

Miscellaneous 

• Cuyahoga Falls, O., April 27, 1946 (AP)-- James W. Bickett, 43, was charged with first degree murder in the pistol slaying of his 19 year old stepdaughter, Mary Bickett, in a crowded grocery market today, Police Chief Menzo Preston reported. The stepdaughter, a clerk at the market, was killed when struck by five bullets fired from a revolver in what Chief Preston termed a "family quarrel."

• Cuyahoga Falls, O., Sept. 5, 1961 [Special]--Police thruout Ohio hunted today for a high school youth suspected of  killing of an attractive and popular co-ed lured to his home on the pretext of a class reunion.

  • A state-wide alert was broadcast for Richard Stewart, 17, who apparently fled in the family car from Cuyahoga Falls, a suburb of Akron. A .22 caliber riffle also was missing from the home. The body of Judy Sooy, 18, a former schoolmate of Richard, was found last night in the basement of the Stewart home. She had been strangled with a clothesline, still wrapped around her neck, and apparently beaten with a hammer found bloodstained nearby. Coroner W. J. Pittenger ruled that she died of strangulation although her head also had been crushed under heavy blows. Police said she apparently lived for some time after the beating and crawled behind a furnace, where she died, several feet from the beating scene. There was no evidence of rape. The body of the girl, who had been missing since Sunday night, was found last night by Stewart's stepfather and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Hathaway, when they returned home from a holiday week-end visit with friends in southern Ohio. The blonde victim had been attending Kent State university at nearby Kent since her graduation a year ago from Cuyahoga Falls High school, where she was a member of the National Honor society, the glee club, the year book staff, and other school organizations. Stewart had been scheduled to enter the senior high school class upon the opening of school here tomorrow. Judy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Sooy, said she received a telephone call Sunday morning from a boy who invited her to a party that was to be held that evening at the home of a former classmate. Mrs. Sooy said the caller named several persons who were to attend. He said he couldn't pick up Judy at her home because he was picking up several other persons along the way. He asked her to meet him about 9:30 p.m. near a neighborhood store. Judy told her parents and three sisters about the party and said, as she left: "Goodby, I'll try to be early." That was the last time her family saw her.  Police said young Stewart had known Judy in high school, in which she was two years ahead of him, but hadn't dated her. The two families live about a mile apart. Judy's father is an auditor here for the United States agriculture department and Stewart's stepfather is an office worker for the Ohio Edison company.

• The Summit County Coroner's Office has identified a body found Monday night in the Cuyahoga River under the High Level Bridge as that of Mark Baldwin, 31, of Broad Boulevard, Cuyahoga Falls. Authorities say they do not suspect foul play. Coroner's investigators said Baldwin died from a fall from the 240-foot-high bridge. Police said two teen-agers found the body and contacted a Cuyahoga Falls police officer shortly before 7 p.m. Baldwin was pronounced dead at St. Thomas Medical Center. May 4, 1988

Other Area Accidents involving Cuyahoga Falls Residents

• Huntington, W.Va., Nov. 15, 1970 - Al Saylor, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 37 yrs old. Died Nov. 15, 1970 -- Southern Airways DC-9 that crashed in Huntington, W.Va.

•  Syracuse, N. Y., Jan. 24, 1950 (AP) --A giant tractor-trailer plunged into the Seneca river today at Belgium, 12 miles north of here, carrying its driver to his death. State police said Ralph Snyder, 33, of Akron, O., apparently was pinned in the cab of the truck and drowned. W. M. Phillips, 34, of Cuyahoga Falls, O., relief driver, escaped.  Chicago Tribune (IL) - 1950 01, 25

• Akron, O., Sept. 19, 1948 (AP)--Lightning struck and killed two golfers today on the Firestone Country club course. Their wives were knocked to the ground 10 feet away but were unhurt. The victims were Harold Denny, 25, of suburban Cuyahoga Falls, and William Davis, 32, of New Castle, Pa., Denny's guest. Chicago Tribune (IL) - 1948 09, 20

• Mariana, Fla., March 31, 1943 (AP). -- Aviation Cadet Richard J. O'Connor, 22 years old, of the Marianna army air base was killed Monday night when his plane fell near Georgiana, Ala., the base public relations office reported today. O'Connor is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph V. O'Connor, Cuyahoga Falls, O.

• WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 7,1918 -- Army casualties reported by the commander of the American expeditionary forces issued today are as follows: John M. Murray, Cuyahoga Falls, O.

• Reading, Mass., July 18, 1942 (AP). -- Seven airmen were killed today when an army plane crashed in woods on the fringe of this suburban Boston town. Five Missing on Plane.

  New Orleans, La., July 18, 1942 (AP). -- The army reported today that two officers and three enlisted men had been missing aboard an army plane from the air base on the lakefront here since Tuesday and that the search was abandoned today. Those missing were listed as First Lieut. Rondel L. Cox, Cuyahoga Falls, O.; Second Lieut. Joe P. Stanford, Cuthbert, Ga.; Staff Sergeant Eual K. Martin, route 2, Mantee, Miss.; Technical Sergt. Guy C. Payne, New Orleans, and Sergt. Albert Albers, Dayton, O.

• Cuyahoga Falls, O., Nov. 13, 1960 (UPI) -- Two small children died today and a third was critically injured in a fire that swept their home here. The parents escaped. Alvin Boltz, 3, and his sister, Christine, 14 months, were killed. Fireman rescued Carol Lynn Boltz, 3 months, but she was reported near death at Children's hospital in Akron. According to fire officials, Alvin ran into his parents' bedroom this morning and awakened them to tell them of the fire. The parents fled from the house.