{"id":4972,"date":"2015-02-11T04:00:55","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=4972"},"modified":"2015-02-12T14:09:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:09:52","slug":"4972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/02\/11\/4972\/","title":{"rendered":"Love and a killing at the Lang Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lang <\/a>
Crowd gathers at the Lang Hotel after the murder. (Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Russell <\/a>
Russell Winterbottom and Lorraine Rodgers in happy times. (Credit unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Walter <\/a>
Walter Henry’s body is removed from the scene. (Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Walter <\/a>
Walter Henry was shot trying to stop Winterbottom from abducting Rodgers. (Credit unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Elizabeth <\/a>
Elizabeth Moser caught the fatally wounded Henry as he was falling. (Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Winterbottom <\/a>
Winterbottom and Rodgers at the inquest. (Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"William <\/a>
William Stanton, who handed the murder weapon to his pal, and Winterbottom. Winterbottom was sentenced to six to 12 years in a penitentiary. (Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Details <\/a>
Details of Walter Henry’s death are found at the University of Pittsburgh’s Archive Service Center. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Details <\/a>
Details of Walter Henry’s death are found at the University of Pittsburgh’s Archive Service Center. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The final act of a disturbing and tragic love story began on a chilly February morning in 1955, when a two-tone Oldsmobile with whitewall tires pulled to the curb near the Lang Hotel on Frankstown Avenue.<\/p>\n

Two men exited the vehicle. One was Russell Winterbottom: 32, tall and slender, with a long face and sad eyes. The other, his friend William Stanton, carried a .32 caliber pistol.<\/p>\n

The two men entered the hotel, once a grand Victorian house but now just a bunch of shabby apartments. They marched up a set of stairs to the second floor. There, they pounded on an apartment door.<\/p>\n

The two women living in the apartment were alarmed. They knew who was knocking. \u201cGo away,\u201d they called out.<\/p>\n

One of the women was Lorraine Rodgers, 20. News pictures show her as a blonde with high cheekbones. Her lower eyelids have the puffy darkness of someone who\u2019s endured too many sleepless nights. For 18 months, she and Winterbottom had lived together, but the relationship had recently come to a bad end.<\/p>\n

Frightened, Rodgers darted to the bathroom.<\/p>\n

Winterbottom forced his way into the apartment. At this point, Stanton handed the pistol to his pal, then left the scene.<\/p>\n

Within seconds Winterbottom found his former girlfriend. He grabbed her by the wrist, dragged her into the kitchen and threw her to the floor.<\/p>\n

Then he brandished the pistol and pointed it at his head. \u201cI\u2019ll kill myself if you don\u2019t take me back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Screams on the second floor attracted the attention of two\u00a0downstairs tenants, Elizabeth Moser and Walter Henry.<\/p>\n

Henry, 49, was an unemployed iron worker and World War II veteran who\u2019d split with his wife a few years earlier. He rushed up the stairs, taking two at a time. His neighbor Moser followed more slowly.<\/p>\n

As she reached the second floor, Moser heard two gunshots.<\/p>\n

Then she saw Henry stagger out of the apartment. His face, she said, was an \u201ciron color\u201d and his eyes were closed. Henry started to fall. Moser caught him, then laid him on the floor. \u201cI was holding him, trying to help,\u201d Moser said. \u201cBut he was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, Winterbottom was dragging Rodgers down a back stairway and through an alley, where Stanton waited in the Oldsmobile. Rodgers was pushed into the vehicle; Winterbottom climbed in beside her and the Oldsmobile took off, toward Braddock Avenue.<\/p>\n

I killed a man, <\/i>Winterbottom said to Stanton.<\/p>\n

This news took Stanton by surprise. He seemed upset and said he had to go to work. He pulled over near a drug store and got out. Winterbottom took the wheel. Now it was just he and Rodgers.<\/p>\n

With the gun in his pocket, Winterbottom drove north out of the city and onto country roads. Mostly, he was quiet.<\/p>\n

Rodgers was uncertain where they were driving, though she thought at one point they were were near Zelienople. She was concerned about the gun. Finally, Winterbottom pulled over to the side of a dirt road. In the distance, Rodgers could see farm houses.<\/p>\n

I have to think for a while<\/i>, Winterbottom said. He sat with his hand on the pistol. After a while, he asked Rodgers, What\u2019s the right thing to do?<\/i><\/p>\n

You need to give yourself up,<\/i> she replied. Winterbottom, she said, seemed to agree.<\/p>\n

She pleaded with him to put the pistol in the glove compartment. He complied.<\/p>\n

On the drive back to Pittsburgh, Winterbottom meandered on back roads and claimed he was confused. \u201cI killed an innocent man,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to kill him, but I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a coroner\u2019s inquest a month later, Winterbottom briefly sat next to his former girlfriend. In a news photograph of the encounter, Winterbottom appears calm and has slipped his arm around Rodgers, who cradles a cigarette between two fingers. After a day of testimony, Winterbottom was held on a charge of murder in the death of Walter Henry.<\/p>\n

The trial was front-page news in Pittsburgh. Winterbottom was described as \u201clove crazed and psychotic\u201d after the breakup with Rodgers. His mother said he spent his days moping at the family\u2019s\u2019 Turtle Creek house and wouldn\u2019t eat. He often woke in the middle of the night and paced the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost the only girl I ever loved,\u201d Winterbottom said on the stand.<\/p>\n

His estranged wife Florence, sitting in the first row of spectators, lowered her eyes and twisted a handkerchief.<\/p>\n

Winterbottom testified he killed Henry by accident during a struggle for the gun. That was bunk, said Rodgers. She testified that Henry was killed while trying to intervene as Winterbottom dragged her out of the apartment. Winterbottom fired two shots — one missed, the second went into Henry\u2019s chest.<\/p>\n

A jury of eight women and four men found Winterbottom guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He sobbed as the verdict was read. Rodgers was not in the courtroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Violent attempt to repair a broken relationship ends in the death of a would-be peacemaker.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesLove and a killing at the Lang Hotel<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[947],"tags":[961,1018,1244,1048],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/digs.winterbottom03.jpg?fit=1008%2C809&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/06\/30\/the-hotel-that-transformed-the-point\/","url_meta":{"origin":4972,"position":0},"title":"The hotel that transformed the Point","date":"June 30, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"More than half a century ago, the hotel was known as the 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