105 Years Ago, 1921, transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator:

“Robbers kill man in bed, son may die of beating. Victims attacked as they lie sleeping. House in Simon St. held up at early hour Thursday morning – crooks make escape after one of the most frightful crimes in city’s history. Woman faced revolver. Place is ransacked and bandits secure but $20 – thought victim had a large sum of money on him, is theory of the police – search for clues.”

“Another murder is marked on the criminal annals of Youngstown, the third in three weeks, the victim being Isadore Waknac, a roomer at 1021 Simon Street. Robbery was evidently the motive. The man was beaten over the head with a piece of galvanized pipe inflicting injuries which caused death about three hours after he was admitted to city hospital. Waknac was assaulted in bed and never had a chance to plead for his life or defend himself. His son, Frank, was also brutally beaten and is in the hospital in a precarious condition.

“According to Mrs. Alvina Lysikowski, at whose home the dead man and his son Frank roomed, as told to Capt. Bremer and Officers Maggianetti and Manning, three men came to the house about 3 am and broke a window. One of the men then entered through the window and opened a rear door from the inside to allow his companions to enter. Two of the men then went upstairs to the room occupied by the Waknacs, while the third placed a revolver at her breast and commanded her to lie still in bed. She alleges she heard sounds of a struggle but was afraid to make an outcry for fear she would be killed.

“The woman thought the men were merely bent on robbery, as the man who held guard over her had demanded money. He kept his face averted, she said, so she was unable to give any description of him and only saw the outlines of the others.

“A piece of gas pipe and a heavy ball-bearing weighing about five pounds sewed in canvas were found in the room. Both are covered with blood. This weapon is said to have been the property of the dead man. Waknac was Polish and employed in the mill as a laborer. He was 55 years of age.

“His son, Frank Waknac, aged 25, was badly beaten by the bandits and may forfeit his life also. Both were alive when the patrol wagon with Capt. Charles Bremer and Officers Maggianetti and Manning arrived, and were rushed to City hospital, where it was immediately found that the elder man had a slight chance to recover, his skull being fractured in several places. He died at 5:45am.

“At Kubina’s morgue this morning it was found that Waknac had also been shot….

“The house where the murder was committed is a five room frame structure and the Waknacs occupied one room on the second floor, Mrs. Lysikowski residing on the lower floor. Everything in the Waknac apartment had been ransacked, but so far as known the robbers secured but $20, which was in the trousers pocket of the younger Waknac.

“The dead man and his son had resided at this address but three weeks, and had been out of work during that period.”

• Compiled by Dante Bernard, museum educator at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society