On November 6, 1948, Louise Moore, a 40-year-old woman from Chester, Pennsylvania, tragically lost her life in a mass shooting incident. The perpetrator, Melvin Collins, also known as "Bad Boy," was a 38-year-old African American man from Exmore, Virginia. Collins had a history of violence and had been imprisoned twice for shootings.
The incident began when Collins barricaded himself in his boarding room at 233 Market Street in Chester.
He then leaned out the window and yelled to a group of men below to call the cops, dropping a dime down as a gesture. When one of the men picked up the dime and commented that it would get him a cup of coffee, Collins aimed his .22 caliber rifle out the window and began shooting. He killed 40-year-old Edward Boyer on the spot and fatally shot Detective Elery Purnsley who had rushed to the scene. Collins continued his rampage, killing Fred Casino, Peter Parker, and 7-year-old Samuel Hill, among others.
Louise Moore was standing in the window of a store across the street when Collins shot her. As police began arriving, Collins committed suicide by shooting himself through the roof of his mouth. The motive for the shooting remains unknown, although initial rumors suggested it might have been connected to an argument over a numbers racket, which police later rejected.
The tragic event left seven people dead and four injured, marking one of the earliest mass shootings in U.S. history. The community was left in shock, and the incident remains a somber chapter in Chester's history.
