{"id":9809,"date":"2020-04-30T09:06:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T13:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=9809"},"modified":"2021-03-02T22:19:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T03:19:47","slug":"memories-of-a-strange-confinement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2020\/04\/30\/memories-of-a-strange-confinement\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of a strange confinement"},"content":{"rendered":"

One afternoon in mid-April, Marlene Vettorel drove her small white car down a narrow lane off of Route 50 in Washington County. \u201cRoad Closed, no outlet,\u201d a sign read.<\/span><\/p>\n

She navigated her vehicle around several massive potholes filled with rainwater and parked near a railroad trestle. From there she walked. A few hundred feet further down the lane, she found a footpath leading through a wooded area to her grandparents\u2019 home. She hadn\u2019t visited in years and was uncertain what she\u2019d find at the hill\u2019s crest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlene, 69, had been cooped up for weeks in accordance with the governor\u2019s stay-at-home order. During that time, she thought about the past and all of the things gone from her life. While picking up medication from a pharmacy near her Meadowlands home, she decided to revisit the place near Avella where she\u2019d spent so much of her childhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

She climbed the footpath until it leveled slightly. There, among a tangle of vines and thorny bushes, she found scattered piles of yellow bricks, a crumbling cinder block wall, concrete steps overgrown with moss. The house was gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlene wept at the memories. She recalled her family\u2019s corn roasts, fishing at nearby lakes, her grandparents\u2019 funky paisley linoleum floor, and stories about her first stay-at-home order.<\/span><\/p>\n

That strange confinement began Nov. 30, 1952. And r<\/span>ather than coming from a distant governor, the demand was issued by a group of escaped prisoners, one of whom was nicknamed \u201cThe Gouger\u201d because he\u2019d once liberated a victim\u2019s eyeballs from their sockets. The ordeal would for years haunt certain members of Marlene’s family, and at least one of the hostage-takers.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After an escape, trouble arrives<\/strong><\/h5>\n

On a cold Sunday morning, as Marlene\u2019s grandfather Emile Lerby and his son Bert were leaving for a days-long deer hunt, they watched an unfamiliar Plymouth pull off Route 50 and onto the lane leading to the Lerby home. Inside the car were several men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The Lerby house in 1952. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Today,
Today, little remains of the Lerby house. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Bert thought maybe the driver was having trouble navigating snowy Route 50. He suggested to his father that he turn around and make sure everything was OK. Emile demurred. There\u2019s no problem, he said, and the two continued on their way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ethel Lerby, Marlene\u2019s grandmother, was now alone. Around 10:30 a.m., she climbed the cellar steps and heard a knock at the front door. She answered to face a slim man with thick, dark eyebrows. \u201cWe have a sick man in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to call a doctor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The man brandished a .38 revolver. He and four other men quickly pushed past Ethel and entered the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

The men quickly searched each room while Ethel stood startled and afraid. The group seemed jumpy. One carried a long knife in his belt and another held a .22 rifle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll you can do is harm me,\u201d Ethel said. \u201cThere\u2019s nobody else here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be alright, just take it easy,\u201d said the man with the .38. He was Virgil Toney, 42, and until a few hours earlier, he\u2019d been serving a 75- to 120-year sentence at Western Penitentiary on Pittsburgh\u2019s North <\/span>Side.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nine
Nine prisoners climbed down a rope of sheets to escape Western Penitentiary. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A
A prison guard displays the homemade rope. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"To
To access the prison roof, escapees squeezed through a hole in the ceiling. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Police
Police set up a roadblock at the West End Bridge, not far from the prison. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Shortly after breakfast, Toney and nine other inmates took over a large cellblock, tied up an assistant warden and several guards, then slipped through a hole they\u2019d cut in the prison ceiling. The inmates escaped by making their way to the prison roof and then climbing down a homemade rope they tossed over the side of a 75-foot wall. The height was apparently too much for one, who stayed behind and was eventually captured.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four of the escapees went in different directions, but five stuck together. They hustled to a nearby J&L coal yard, where they overpowered a watchman and stole his car and firearms. Before police could establish effective roadblocks, the escapees drove 30 miles into Washington County, looking for a place to hide.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Virgil<\/a>
Virgil Toney in 1948. (Post-Gazette archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Lerby home, Toney did most of the speaking — it was clear to Ethel he was the group\u2019s leader. Newspapers described him as a \u201cdope addict\u201d and \u201cleader of the deadly Toney gang.\u201d His rap sheet included arrests for forging prescriptions, burglary, armed robbery and assault with intent to kill. While in prison, he stabbed a member of his own gang for \u201csquealing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Toney took Ethel\u2019s portable radio into a bedroom, where he and three of his cohorts listened to news of their escape. Reporters discussed the massive manhunt just getting underway. One of the escapees stayed in the living room to keep an eye on Ethel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Minutes passed. By nature, Ethel was calm and polite, relatives say. She fixed coffee and french-fried potatoes for her uninvited guests, who kept watch out a front window overlooking distant Route 50.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon the five men changed out of their prison clothes, helping themselves to Mr. Lerby\u2019s duds. They burned their prison money in the coal furnace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Derembeis, 41, took over coffee-making duties. Derembeis was a dark-skinned man who stood just over 5-foot-2. He entered Western Penitentiary in 1934 to serve a 38- to 97-year sentence for \u201cmayhem — robbery and escape,\u201d according to prison records. He and a companion had used a knife to pluck out the eyeballs of George Stratigos, owner of an Oakland bowling alley, during a $15 robbery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Derembeis chafed at the nickname he\u2019d earned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTell the public not to call me \u2018The Gouger,\u2019\u201d he told reporters. \u201cI\u2019m not serving time for gouging. I\u2019m serving on another charge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ethel called him Nick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Loveland, Milk, White and Derembeis in the Sun-Telegraph after the escape.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Early Sunday afternoon, the sharp ring of Ethel\u2019s telephone shattered the stillness that had settled over the Lerby house. Alarmed, the escapees jumped. Ethel answered. It was her daughter Mary Gagich, who lived with husband John Sr. and two young children in Rea, a few miles away. Mary wondered why Ethel hadn\u2019t arrived for a planned visit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ethel answered vaguely. This didn\u2019t sit right with Mary. After hanging up, she told John. Sr. they should check on her. They loaded their children, toddler Marlene and baby John Jr., in their 1948 Ford and headed west.<\/span><\/p>\n

John Sr. parked near the Lerby house and instructed Mary to take the children inside. He then walked a short distance to check on a few of his muskrat traps.<\/span><\/p>\n

With her kids in tow, Mary stepped through her mother\u2019s front door. The escapees suddenly had three more hostages, two of whom were in diapers. The men watched warily through a window as John Sr. checked his traps. When he returned to the house, he too became a captive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten people now crowded into the small abode. Toney kept the radio on for updates on the manhunt. The youngest hostage, sixth-month-old John Jr., began to cry. His mother feared he\u2019d caught a cold. Tension mounted. The men offered to take the baby to see a doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t necessary. The youngest escapee, James Milk, 25, stepped forward. He\u2019d been serving time for the brutal beating of an elderly couple during a holdup. Milk held John Jr. and paced the floor until the child calmed. Milk and fellow escapee Melvin Loveland, 31, a prolific burglar and habitual escapist, would spend much of their time in the Lerby house playing with John Jr. and Marlene, a 21-month-old with puffy cheeks and short, wavy hair.<\/span><\/p>\n

The men fell into a routine. They listened to news, drank coffee (five pounds total), smoked cigarettes and occasionally conferred quietly among themselves in one of the bedrooms. Milk took charge of the furnace and made sure it kept the house warm. The fifth escapee, convicted burglar Andrew White, 31, mostly kept to himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Evening settled in. The men clicked on the small boxy television set in the Lerby living room. They were fascinated by its fuzzy images and laughed when they saw pictures of themselves on news reports. The pictures, they said, looked nothing like them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The adults stayed up until 1:30 a.m. Monday, then Toney told everyone to go to bed. Ethel and the Gagich\u2019s gathered in one bed, but no one slept well. The escapees slept in other rooms in shifts, with one always keeping watch.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next morning, Ethel fixed breakfast — coffee and one piece of toast for each person. Food was running low. The kids needed milk. Toney convened another conference with his colleagues. He emerged to announce that Mary and Loveland would drive to a nearby A&P grocery store. The men had no money but Mary and Ethel each had $4.<\/span><\/p>\n

Loveland closely followed Mary through the store isles. He told her not to do anything foolish. He said he didn\u2019t have a gun but Mary thought that was a lie. People in the store knew Mary, knew she was married, and yet here she was with a strange man standing so close to her and no one took notice. She couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Loveland told Mary to drive to a state liquor store. He stayed in the car and sent her inside with instructions to buy wine. Now Mary was alone. She could have raised an alarm but didn\u2019t. She feared for her children.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, water in the house became scarce. The Lerby\u2019s well had dried up, so John Sr. carried an empty five-gallon milk container several hundred feet to a creek for a fresh supply. Two of the escapees accompanied him. John Sr. was slender but strong, relatives say. He considered wielding the metal container as a weapon and overtaking his two captors. But like his wife, he took no action, fearing the escapees would harm other members of his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Late Monday night, Toney told his hostages, \u201cWe want to thank you for all you\u2019ve done. We probably won\u2019t be here when you get up, but don\u2019t spread any alarm because we might be back. If we hit a roadblock, we will be back, and we wouldn\u2019t like anything to happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, Ethel, Mary and John Sr. slept fitfully. At 8:30, they rose to find the escapees had indeed fled. Gone were the Lerby\u2019s \u201849 Ford and Gagich\u2019s \u201848 Ford, as well as a shotgun and a rifle. The escapees left behind a sweater, a knife, a gun holster and empty coffee cups filled with cigarette butts.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019d also cut the wires to the Lerby telephone. John Sr. repaired the line, but, as instructed, he waited until 12:30 pm before calling authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police officers, reporters and photographers flooded the Lerby house. Marlene was photographed sitting on a couch and clutching a ceramic piggy bank that the escapees \u201crefused to raid,\u201d noted The Pittsburgh Press.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ethel
Ethel Lerby at the stove where she made coffee for the escapees. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mary
Mary Gagich with daughter Marlene and son John Jr. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"John
John Gagich Jr. shows the phone line he repaired. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mary
Mary Gagich and Ethel Lerby in the bedroom used by the escapees. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

By then, Emile and Bert Lerby were driving home from their hunting trip near Uniontown. As the two chatted, a news item on the car radio caught Bert\u2019s attention. \u201cShut up a minute,\u201d Bert told his father. Reports were a bit confusing and the announcer was mispronouncing names, but when Emile and Bert heard the names \u201cMarlene\u201d and \u201cJohn Jr.,\u201d they understood their family had been through an ordeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all shook up,\u201d said Bert, now 89. He and his father raced to the Avella home. Reporters were still on the scene when the two men arrived. Emile was speechless.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“He let out a loud squeal”<\/strong><\/p>\n

After leaving the Lerby house, the escapees split up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Milk reached Charleston, WV, by Tuesday afternoon. There, he telephoned family members in Pittsburgh and asked for a wire transfer of $50. Police intercepted the call and arrested Milk in a Western Union office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days later, on Thursday, Dec. 4, Loveland broke into a house in Morgantown, WV, and stole some watches. He then hopped in a taxi and tried to use the watches as fare. Exhausted, he fell asleep in the back seat. The suspicious cabbie drove him straight to a police station.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that evening, Toney and Derembeis hid quietly in a freight car at a Baltimore rail yard when the train jolted and a load of steel shifted, tumbling on Derembeis\u2019 leg. He \u201clet out a loud squeal,\u201d drawing the attention of railroad police, newspapers said. The two were arrested as hoboes, then identified from FBI posters.<\/span><\/p>\n

White was the last man captured. FBI agents caught up with him Friday night at his uncle’s house near Fredericksburg, VA. He offered no resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Melvin <\/a>
Melvin Loveland after his capture in West Virginia. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nick <\/a>
Nick Derembeis, left, and Virgil Toney in police custody after their capture in a Baltimore rail yard. (Post-Gazette archive) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
<\/h5>\n
“My nerves are trembling”<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Newspaper accounts portrayed the hostage ordeal as an upbeat affair that left everyone unharmed. Ethel told reporters the escapees were \u201creal nice boys\u201d and praised them for not swearing. Newspaper pictures show family members smiling, obviously relieved the affair ended without violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time revealed a darker truth. In April 1983, Mary Gagich acknowledged the ordeal\u2019s impact on her family in a letter she addressed to KDKA-TV, which had aired a story on a recent hostage situation at Western Penitentiary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary expressed relief that two hostages at the prison were released unharmed, then discussed the long-term effects of her family\u2019s confinement decades earlier. \u201cMy mother passed away in 1963 and she never got over this experience,\u201d Mary wrote. Her husband was on disability, she continued, \u201cand part of his problems date back to when we were held hostage. As I write this, my nerves are trembling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She never mailed the letter, which Marlene keeps in a box with newspaper clippings and photographs.<\/span><\/p>\n

As years passed, the ordeal took a toll on John Gagich Sr. \u201cHe had a nervous breakdown,\u201d Marlene said. \u201cHe was scared all the time. He was always thinking someone was after him. He had a hard time taking jokes, even if people were just teasing him. Nothing was a game to him. Everything was serious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

John Jr., 68, who now lives near Follansby, WV., believes his father was especially stressed when Loveland left the house with Mary to shop for groceries. \u201cHe probably was beside himself,\u201d John Jr. said. \u201cHe had no clue what they were doing. Loveland could have killed her and thrown her out. No doubt that affected him for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mary and John Gagich Sr. in later years. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His father, he said, continued to mull over one particular moment — the trip to the creek for water. \u201cHe said, \u2018Johnny, I had notions to take these guys on that day. I know I could have done it,\u2019\u201d John Jr. recalled. \u201cBut he was afraid for us. Think about that: You\u2019re\u2019 worried about your whole family, and you can\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

John Sr. died in 2016, Mary in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the escaped prisoners later expressed misgivings about his role in the takeover of the Lerby home. Melvin Loveland wrote a letter to Ethel Lerby, apologizing for any trauma he caused her family and indicating he was returning to prison with \u201ca better outlook on life.\u201d For this, he credits Marlene and John Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being with these children, I realize now that I\u2019m not a hardened criminal,\u201d Loveland wrote.\u00a0 \u201cI would gladly give up my life to protect these children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He ends the letter cheerfully.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys all say hello — and send their best regards — and we all think very highly of you and your family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Loveland eventually was released on parole, but newspaper clippings show he was charged in 1962 with robbing a Mellon Bank branch on East Ohio Street. He died in 1987, according to records on ancestry.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

For years after the hostage ordeal, however, Loveland maintained a colorful presence in the Lerby home. He became a jailhouse artist and sent a few pieces of his work to Ethel, who displayed them on a wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHe did a beautiful oil painting of a horse and another gorgeous one of Christ,” Marlene said. “But they weren\u2019t preserved and they pretty much, after all these years, just rotted away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n


\n— Steve Mellon<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A band of escaped prisoners, some with violent pasts, once descended on a Washington County family.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesMemories of a strange confinement<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1368],"tags":[961,1275,1025],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/20200429smGagich01-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1674&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2611,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/22\/bruce-springsteen-at-three-rivers-stadium\/","url_meta":{"origin":9809,"position":0},"title":"Bruce Springsteen at Three Rivers Stadium","date":"August 22, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The 64,000-plus fans combined for the biggest concert ever at Three 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