"Bourbon," the man replied.

"It doesn't read bourbon here," said Mathews, momentarily turning his flashlight into the vehicle for a better look at the contents.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, the suspicious driver bolted across Leopard Road and onto the spacious lawn of the three-story Hauptfuhrer Estate.

"Halt," Officer Mathews yelled, and fired several warning shots with his .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. The officers chased the man past the expansive home and into the thick woods behind the estate. Officer Mathews yelled to his partner to return to the patrol car and summon more help. In 1949, officers had no walkie-talkies.

 

 

 

From the case file, a map of the area around the crime scene

 

 

 

 

Hurrying back to Car #4, Officer Cutting radioed for assistance to Sgt. Robert Murray, who was manning the Abington Police base station. Cutting described the suspect, as well as the truck. Sgt. Murray dispatched all available cars to assist. Cutting then headed to the suspect's truck and removed the rotor from the distributor to ensure that the suspect wouldn't be able to start the vehicle, should he double back. Anxious to locate his partner, Officer Cutting jumped into his squad car in an attempt to cut off the fleeing suspect. He drove to Leopard and Panther, where he turned off the motor and listened. Hearing nothing, he called out to Officer Mathews, but received no answer. The worried officer then drove west on Panther to Washington Lane, where he was met by Abington Car #6, occupied by Officer Herb Mooney. Cutting directed Mooney to check the area near a long driveway that ran onto Washington Lane, and drove back to the Hauptfuhrer Estate. There he was joined by Officer Bilger of the neighboring Lower Moreland Police Department.

Growing more concerned by the minute, the two officers searched the woods where Officer Mathews was last seen, but found nothing. Soon, every officer working in Abington was involved in the desperate search. Floodlights brought to the scene by the Abington Fire Company soon provided the officers with an important clue. Helped by the added visibility, searchers located a handkerchief on a fence near Leopard Road. Did Officer Mathews leave it there as a marker?

 

 

A shocked community:
The Times-Chronicle,
June 30, 1949

 

 

The officers climbed the fence and followed a trail of broken branches and trampled underbrush leading up an embankment. There they made the kind of discovery that every police officer dreads - the lifeless body of Officer Tom Mathews, partially hidden under a bush on an estate property belonging to Mr. Paul Gipson. The officer lay on his back, hat nearby on the ground. Officer Mathews' handcuffs were still clutched in his right hand, and his revolver still snapped in its holster. Investigators at the scene determined that the policeman had chased the suspect a little more than one hundred paces before being felled. At 3:00 A.M. Doctor Randall Clark of Abington Memorial Hospital arrived and officially pronounced the officer dead.

Continued