In the industrial heart of Akron, Ohio, Coburn Von Gunten was building a life for his family. At 40 years old, the married father was an executive at the McNeil Machine & Engineering Company, a prominent local firm. He and his wife, Portia, were raising their sons in the bustling city, which was then known as the "Rubber Capital of the World." Mr. Von Gunten was a man with a future, respected in his professional life and cherished in his home.
That future was stolen from him on the night before Thanksgiving in 1956.
On Wednesday, November 21, Mr. Von Gunten had attended an office party. As he headed home that evening, his path fatefully crossed with three men who were cruising the streets for a getaway car to use in a series of planned robberies. One of those men was Leroy Keith, a dangerous criminal with a long and violent history. Known as "Cut," "Frisco," or "New York," Keith had been convicted of a 1934 murder and sentenced to death, only to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. In a decision that would prove fatal for Mr. Von Gunten, Keith was granted parole in March 1956.
Alongside his accomplices, 27-year-old ex-convict Louis Johnson and 16-year-old Joseph Reinthaler, Keith targeted Coburn Von Gunten. When they tried to take his car, Mr. Von Gunten bravely resisted. In the struggle, Keith shot him twice. Despite his grave injuries, the determined executive managed to get his car started, desperately trying to escape his assailants. Before he could get away, Keith fired a third time. The attack was interrupted by a passing police cruiser, which immediately gave chase.
While Keith and Johnson managed to escape into the night, officers apprehended the teenager, Joseph Reinthaler. Under questioning, he identified his partners in the brutal crime. Meanwhile, Coburn Von Gunten was rushed to Summa St. Thomas Hospital. Doctors fought to save his life, but his wounds were too severe. He died an hour and a half after being admitted, leaving his family to face a holiday forever marred by tragedy.
The manhunt for Leroy Keith intensified. His accomplice, Louis Johnson, turned himself in to police the next day. Keith, however, fled Ohio and made his way to New York City. Less than a month after murdering Mr. Von Gunten, he struck again, killing a taxi driver named David Suro during another robbery. His violent spree finally ended in a dramatic shootout with New York police on crowded city streets. Wounded and cornered, Keith was taken into custody.
For the murder of Coburn Von Gunten, Louis Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder, but a jury’s recommendation for mercy spared him from the death penalty. Joseph Reinthaler, tried as a juvenile, was sentenced to an indeterminate term in the Ohio Reform School. The primary perpetrator, Leroy Keith, faced justice in New York for the murder of David Suro. In January 1958, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death.
After his appeals were exhausted, Leroy Keith was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing prison on July 23, 1959. His final words were reportedly, "Sooner or later, we all come to justice." For the family of Coburn Von Gunten, that justice came at the devastating cost of a husband and father whose courage in his final moments was a testament to the man he was. His life was cut short in a senseless act of violence, but his memory lived on through the family he left behind.
