William Weathers, a 30-year-old White/Caucasian male, was a railroad police detective for the Lehigh Valley Railroad when he was killed on October 28, 1910, in the East Towanda/Jenkins Township area of Pennsylvania. At the time, railroad police had been watching the rail line because someone had been interfering with electrical signal equipment, creating a dangerous situation for trains along the route. Weathers and Rail Police Chief M.J. Booth were posted near the tracks in a wooded area known as the mountain cut-off, close to the Fernwood colliery, where thick brush and trees limited visibility.
As Weathers stood near the railroad, he heard dogs barking and saw an armed man moving through the area with a rifle or shotgun, apparently hunting illegally. Weathers called out for the man to halt. Booth, separated from Weathers by the underbrush, heard the command and then a gunshot. When Booth rushed toward the sound, he saw a man running away with two dogs following behind him. Weathers had been struck and was killed almost instantly. His body was carried through the woods to the Fernwood colliery and placed in one of the buildings while authorities were notified.
The search began quickly. State police and Pennsylvania Coal Company workers combed the woods, but the gunman escaped. Investigators believed the shooter might try to flee the region, so officers watched train stations. In the early hours of November 3, 1910, an Italian immigrant traveling with his wife and three daughters was detained at the Lehigh Valley station in Wilkes-Barre while preparing to leave for New York and then Italy. He and his family were released within hours, and that lead did not result in charges.
The case later turned on an unusual clue: a white and yellow hunting dog. Several weeks after Weathers was killed, Booth saw a dog on Main Street in Pittston that resembled one of the dogs he had seen running from the scene. He followed it to a residence where Tony Diotto and Benjamin Rossi were living. Inside, authorities found a shotgun containing a red shell, and investigators noted that a red shell had also been found near the place where Weathers was shot. Diotto and Rossi were arrested and jailed in Luzerne County, and the dog became a central piece of circumstantial evidence tying them to the killing.
During a December 1910 court proceeding, Booth testified about what he had seen that day, including the fleeing man and the white and yellow dog. Prosecutors treated the dog as the link that had led officers to the suspects, and Diotto and Rossi were held for trial. Their murder trial was expected to take place in January 1911, but the district attorney sought a continuance because a witness was seriously ill.
The case ultimately collapsed before trial. On February 13, 1911, the district attorney did not oppose releasing Diotto and Rossi on bail, and the murder charges were later withdrawn because prosecutors lacked enough evidence to continue. No conviction or sentence followed. Despite the arrests and the suspicion surrounding the hunting dog, the shotgun, and the shell, Weathers’ killing remained officially unsolved.
