It was a couple of paragraphs on page 8 in The Bradford Era on June 29, 1976. The headline read, “Man Missing.” The article stated, “36-year-old Francis Reed from Ridgway was reported missing after failing to return from a fishing trip at Allegheny Reservior. He had left on the 18th and was to return on the 20th. He was driving a maroon pickup truck.”
On July 9, two men fishing at the reservoir saw a truck underneath the water’s surface. When the Pennsylvania State Police pulled the vehicle from the water, the body of Francis Reed was inside. He had been killed with a shot to the head and the chest.
A few days later, Robert Evan III and Michael Hollenbeck went to the police with a story. They were out at the Willow Bay Recreational Area in the early morning hours of June 19, 1976, when Francis was killed. There were three other men out there that night: Harry “Hap” Anderson, Charles Whelan, and William Schattenberg.
Hap Anderson and Charles Whelan were arrested on July 14 for the murder of Francis Reed. A warrant was out for William Shattenberg, but he had fled the area.
Now, that is all we know for sure because this story has multiple twists.
Evan testified at the preliminary hearing that all the men had been drinking at the local bars that night. Afterward, they went to Anderson’s house and continued partying. Around 3:00 AM, the men decided to leave and headed out to Willow Bay. Schattenberg and Hollenbeck rode with Reed in his truck. They were followed by Evan, Anderson, and Whelan in Evan’s car.
The truck stopped along the way. Hollenbeck went and got in Evan’s car. Schattenberg and Reed were arguing about Reed’s drunk driving. They both returned to the truck; this time, Schattenberg was driving.
When he arrived at the scene, Evan stated that someone had already hit Reed, and he was lying on the ground. Evan went over to help him up and overheard Anderson and Schattenberg arguing. Schattenberg pulled out a gun and pointed it at Anderson. Eventually, things quieted down between the two men, and Schattenberg handed the weapon to Anderson.
Once Evan saw that, he told Reed to jump in the water and try to escape, but he didn’t. Anderson was yelling at Reed, saying that he would never be able to rip anybody off again, referring to an incident that had taken place at Brother’s Inn in St. Marys.
Reed was intoxicated, and he begged for his life. Anderson walked up to Reed, put his arm around Reed’s neck, and shot him in the head. He then handed the gun to Whelan, who shot Reed in the chest. Schattenberg was the last to shoot Reed, who was lying on the ground by then.
Schattenberg then tried to force Evan and Hollenbeck to shoot Reed, but they refused, and eventually, he backed off.
They loaded Reed into the passenger side of his truck and rolled it into the bay. Evan looked down, saw the gun on the ground, and kicked it into the water. The men left the bay and drove to Anderson’s house, where he changed out of his blood-splattered shirt. They grabbed more beer and picked up Anderson’s cousin, Dennis “Turk” Anderson. They returned to the bay, found the gun, drove to Cornplanter’s Cemetery, and threw it into the water there.
The trial against Anderson and Whelan began in September, with Evan giving the same testimony. At this point, Schattenberg was still the subject of a nationwide manhunt.
One key piece of testimony about the event surrounding those early hours of June 19 was a seemingly unrelated incident on South Center Street when shots were fired into an apartment. However, ballistics matched the bullets found at the scene as being fired from the same gun that killed Reed. During the trial, it was uncovered that Schattenberg had fired those shots. A person inside that apartment was preparing to testify against Hollenbeck on another matter, and this was a warning.
A mistrial was declared on November 13 when, under cross-examination, Evan admitted to the defense that he had taken a polygraph. While being inadmissible in court, any reference to a lie-detector test can influence a jury.
Two weeks later, on November 30, William Schattenberg was arrested in a bar in Corpus Christi, Texas, and brought back to McKean County. He made a deal with the prosecution that he would plead guilty to third-degree murder in return for his testimony against Anderson and Whelan. He was sentenced to 10-20 years in prison.
A new trial for Whelan and Anderson began on February 28, 1977.
And this is where everything you thought you knew went out the window.
First, Schattenberg stated that Anderson was offered $10,000 ($50,000 today) to kill Reed; however, that has never been confirmed by any other source.
Hollenbeck testified that Anderson and Schattenberg were arguing over the gun, and he heard Schattenberg yell, “Don’t Hap, don’t!”
But the defense was ready.
Anderson and Whelan both stated from the witness stand that Schattenberg fired all three shots.
Next, Neal Schlopy and Robert Wenzel, who were in jail with Schattenberg, claimed that Schattenberg said that he, alone, killed Reed and didn’t know why Anderson and Whelan were on trial.
For the record, Schattenberg denied everything.
The jury went into deliberations, but the surprises weren’t over.
Before the jury could return a verdict, Whelan pled guilty to being an accessory to murder and was sentenced to 10-20 years.
When the jury came back, they acquitted Anderson of all charges. He was a free man.
Whelan and Schattenberg tried to appeal their sentences but to no avail. They both served ten years of their sentence before being paroled.
So, the question remains – who really shot Francis Reed on June 19, 1976?
Was William Schattenberg the only shooter? Or, were there, as Evan testified, three individual shooters? If so, did Harry “Hap” Anderson get away with murder?
There is a good chance we will never have the true answer.
Whelan, Anderson, Schattenberg, and Evan have all passed away.
Hollenbeck? He’s also dead.
How? That’s for the next article.