Change, Lucian: 1930
Lucian Change, age 22, was shot and killed by Helen Waite Strawmyer on October 29, 1930. In some newspaper accounts, his first name is listed as Luchen. The crime took place at a party Lucian was having at his apartment at the Brunswick Hotel, at 1001 8th Avenue. Strawmyer was charged with second degree murder, and as of January 1, 1931, was waiting for the grand jury to hear her case.
Strawmyer lived at 3213 Spruce Avenue, Altoona. She was described as a comely young grass widow, aged 24, who had left school 15 to help out her family. She was married by the age of twenty, and her husband was sickly. They separated, and she got a job working a restaurant near the Pennsylvania Railroad depot. The term ‘grass widow’ can refer to a woman whose husband is not actually dead, but rather, is away on business. Lucian Change, a cabdriver, delivered lunches to her place of employment for about two weeks before he asked her for a date. Mr. Change was married, but claimed to be estranged from his wife. Strawmyer accepted the offer. According to Social Security records, she was actually about 31 years old, not the 24 she claimed.
The night of October 29, Mr. Change brought a friend along with him, Charles C. Straver, to Strawmyer’s home. She got in the car, and they picked up her friend, Catherine Vaughn, and her friend, Al C. Mulhollen. Another young female was picked up to even out the couples; her name was Viola Shiffler. Change invited them all back to his apartment for a party. They took two pints of liquor. Mulhollen also brought a handgun. The six of them drank and became rowdy.
At some point in the evening, one of the women noticed Mulhollen’s gun. She suggested that it be put away, as some jealousies were developing between the couples. Mulhollen unloaded five rounds from the gun; he put four in his pocket, and a fifth fell on the floor. The gun was put in a bureau drawer.
When the liquor was gone, the men left to get more. Once they were gone, the women became worried about the possible return of Mrs. Change. It had become clearer during the evening’s party that Mr. and Mrs. Change were not estranged, and she was just thirty or so miles away, in Everett. They retrieved the gun from the bureau. It is not clear who had possession of it, or when the missing round was picked up from the floor and put in the gun. The men returned, and the party resumed.
Before long, Vaughn and Mulhollen were arguing in a room apart from the other couples. There was a barbeque party being held nearby, but Vaughn did not want to go, and Mulhollen would not leave the apartment without his gun. Strawmyer had placed it in her coat pocket. She told Mulhollen that he could not have his gun unless he was leaving the apartment. Mulhollen came into the kitchen and demanded the gun; Strawmyer removed it from her pocket. When she did, the gun fired, and the bullet stuck Mr. Change in the chest, piercing his heart.
The events of the next few moments were curious, and are what lead us to include this case in the book. The two surviving men took Mr. Change “out.” Strawmyer and her roommate, Ms Shiffler went home and went to bed.
Strawmyer denied any intention of killing the victim. At her trial, she was represented by attorney Samuel Jubilerer. The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for three hours before convicting her of voluntary manslaughter. Mulhollen was later convicted and sentenced for 6 months for carrying a concealed weapon.
Strawmyer was sentenced on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1931. Her request for a new trial was refused. She was sentenced to serve 2 to 4 years. The judge explained that the sentence was harsher than it would have been had she not ‘slinked off to bed.”
Helen Strawmyer never remarried. She died in Altoona in January of 1975.
