Policeman Charles Henry Stockberger

Charles Henry Stockberger

Policeman Charles Stockberger was shot and killed during a wild gun battle with three robbers who took a $6,720 payroll from the Allied Kid Company’s Quaker City Division near 5th and Huntingdon streets. Policeman Stockberger was shot as he tried to stop the robbers, who made their escape along with their driver.

The four suspects were identified as members of the infamous Tri-state gang responsible for several murders and robberies in the northeast. On November 1, 1933, two of the suspects were found lying beside a road near Camden, New Jersey. Both had been shot. One was dead and the other survived to identify Anthony Cugino as one of the four and the one who shot them to avoid betrayal. On July 22, 1934, Cugino stabbed to death the third suspect in Chicago, Illinois. A month later the FBI declared Cugino public enemy number 1. On September 9, 1935, Cugino was captured in New York City and confessed that he killed Policeman Stockberger. That night he hanged himself in the city jail.

The suspect who survived the shooting was convicted of Policeman Stockberger's murder and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life and he was paroled in December of 1955. A year later he was arrested in Philadelphia after he robbed a used car dealer.

Anthony Cugino was the primary suspect in the murder of Policeman James Garvey of the New York City Police Department on April 21, 1934. Officials also suspected him as being the one who concealed two pistols inside a baked turkey that was sent to two prisoners in the Richmond, Virginia, city jail. The two, who had been sentenced to death for murder, shot and killed Patrolman William A. Toot, of the Richmond Police Department, on September 30, 1934, during an attempt to escape. Both were members of Cugino's gang

Policeman Stockberger had served with the agency for 22 years.