Cue the Crocodile Tears

It was August 8, 1939 and the newspaper photographers were waiting for Reverend Walter Dworecki to emerge from the Camden, NJ morgue. He'd been called there to identify a body. Police thought it might be his missing 18-year-old daughter Wanda. They were correct and Walter didn't disappoint his audience.

International News photo

This heart-wrenching image would come to symbolize every parent's nightmare .... until the truth was known.


Walter Dworecki was actually covering up his tears of joy. He'd been trying to have his daughter killed for months now and after one flat refusal and one botched attempt he'd finally managed it. And it only cost him 50 cents.

Wanda had become a liability to her father's reputation and position within the community. He was a minister at Camden's Polish Baptist Church and she was a bit of wild girl. She'd dropped out of school while still in the 5th grade. Wanda's desire for excitement threatened Walter's job. How would it look if the Reverend couldn't control his own daughter? The Church secretary called for Walter's resignation in light of rumors swirling around Wanda. Walter responded by calling the police on his daughter and asking them to intervene.

Soon Walter realized Wanda, his oldest of three children, was worth more dead than alive. So he took out several life insurance policies and shopped around for someone to commit the murder.

John Popolo, one of Walter's friends, would later testify against him court. Popolo claimed he'd been shown an insurance policy with a $2,000 payout. Walter offered John half of that if he'd kill Wanda. John Popolo refused. Or did he?

On April 3, 1939, two men abducted and severely beat Wanda before throwing her from a moving car then leaving her to die 25 miles outside of town. They'd clearly underestimated her will to live. When she regained consciousness Wanda managed to stagger to a farmhouse and was later transported to a hospital. She had a fractured skull and couldn't identify her attackers but author Jay Robert Nash, in his book "World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Crime," points the finger of guilt at both John Popolo and another area local, Alexander Franklin. According to Nash, Walter Dworecki paid the two men $50 in advance.

There were a total of five insurance policies on Wanda's life. The second one was taken out by her father on March 9, 1939 - only three weeks before this incident.

Wanda hadn't gone willingly with those two men. She'd learned her lesson the last time. On February 14, 1938 Wanda and younger gal pal had accepted a ride from a man who offered to give them a lift to the movies but instead drove them to a secluded spot and tried to force himself on Wanda's friend. Wanda put a stop to it and they were both unceremoniously tossed from the car. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the first attempt on Wanda's life? Make it look like she'd made another bad judgment call and gotten into a stranger's car.

But it wasn't a stranger who eventually took Wanda's life. Reverend Dworecki, or "Iron Mike" as he was known, had found the perfect dupe in Chester, PA's Peter Shewchuk.

Peter was 21-years-old, a bit simple and strong. At Peter's trial, it was shown that he had the intellect of a 12-year-old. Peter spent 5 semesters in the second grade before finally being placed in a class for "backward" children. Peter got into some trouble as a youth, thrice arrested for petty larceny, but once he was of age he drifted around and worked as a carnival roustabout before settling down in Camden, NJ. He'd been invited by Walter Dworecki to board at their house. Peter was the family's handyman and worked as a waiter. Peter was sweet on Wanda. He later claimed he felt sorry for Wanda because her family "treated her like a black dog." It was Peter who helped nurse Wanda back to health after the attack in April of 1939. The two had been intimate at some point and Walter was able to use that fact to his advantage.

Walter badgered and cajoled Peter for weeks. He bought the boy drinks at taprooms, offered him $50 if he'd kill Wanda then upped it to $100. Eventually, Walter fabricated a lie about Wanda being pregnant, telling Peter he was the father and claiming that this illegitimate birth would be a ruinous scandal. That was the tipping point. Peter finally agreed to kill Wanda.

On August 7, 1939, Peter took Wanda out on a date and used the 50 cents Walter had given him for expenses. The Reverend's instructions were firmly in Peter's mind throughout the evening. "Peter, when you do it this time, make sure it's done right. Choke her, hit her with a rock. Twist her neck, then listen to her heart to see if it is beating. Make sure she's done, because if she isn't, it will be just too bad. I had a hard enough time to keep her from talking the last time."

Peter bought Wanda a soda then walked with her to a Lovers' Lane behind the Camden High School athletic fields where he choked her until she stopped squirming and then bashed her head with a rock.

Failing to get any additional funds from Walter when he returned to the Dworecki home, Peter went on the run and became the subject of a multi-state manhunt.

While Peter was trying to avoid the police, Walter had been hard at work establishing an alibi for himself and aiding in the investigation.

On the night of the murder, Walter was out administering to an ailing parishioner and when he returned home around 10:30 PM he called police to report Wanda was missing. He said hadn't seen her since she'd gone to the drug store earlier in the day to buy "some ice cream and stockings."

The following morning, on August 8th, the missing person case became a homicide investigation when Fred Cimato found Wanda's body.

Actual Detective Stories magazine, Jan 1940 issue

Police located witnesses and tracked Wanda's final hours as best they could. She had been spotted around town, leaning against a wall and seemed to be waiting for someone. There was a corsage of red and white roses pinned to her coat that had not been there when she left the house and she had been seen in a the company of a young man matching Shewchuk's description. Police quickly considered him a person of interest.

Walter made a point of reminding police of the earlier attacks. He also claimed the family had been receiving threatening phone calls advising Wanda to "keep her mouth shut or somebody is gonna get bumped off." Walter handed over to police love letters found in Wanda's room and he sullied Wanda's reputation by telling police he'd heard his daughter was "an easy conquest."

Walter didn't try to hide the insurance policies from police. He readily produced them. The total payout would be $2,695. This doesn't include the one policy that paid $10,000 for an accidental death.

It wasn't just Wanda's reputation that was a source of concern but Walter's own checkered past. Maybe that's something he should have considered before placing all the blame on his daughter. At the time of Wanda's murder, Walter was on bail in connection to a recent charge of arson perpetrated in Chester, PA and on probation for passing a counterfeit $5 bill back in 1935. That same year (1935) a church member accused Walter of pocketed $90 of the $100 that had been donated to the church. In 1932, Walter had been charged with assaulting a boy and breaking a his nose with a broomstick. Once police started taking an in-depth look at Walter's past they discovered there was a good chance he wasn't even a legitimate man of the cloth. Newspapers put forth the theory that perhaps Wanda's murder was connected to a counterfeiting ring.

 On August 26, 1939, 18 days after killing Wanda, Peter Shewchuk surrendered himself to the police at the urging of his father. Peter didn't see Walter Dworecki again until they were both under arrest and he never received more than 50 cents to kill someone he claimed to have affection for - "I loved her like a sister."

Once in custody, Peter was relieved to be able to get this terrible burden off his own shoulders and on to Walter's. Peter was the chief witness against Walter Dworecki at his trial. Nearly 100 other witnesses were called to the stand during the 10 day trial. Some testified that they too had been approached by Walter with offers of cash to kill Wanda. Another testified that Wanda knew her father to be behind the near fatal kidnapping and assault but Wanda felt the police wouldn't believe her and she'd be institutionalized.

Philadelphia Inquirer photo, Sept 29, 1939

With Walter now suspected of arranging the death of his daughter some people thought Mrs. Dworecki's death should be looked at again but the police felt that decision was in the hands of the insurance company who had paid off on the policy. Theresa Dworecki died suddenly at the breakfast table one morning in July 1938 but it didn't seem overly suspicious at the time. Walter had collected $2,500 in insurance money. {Theresa's cause of death was listed as lobar pneumonia but a Feb 18, 1990 NY Daily News article recalling the crime hinted that it might have been arsenic poisoning.}

Walter Dworecki maintained his innocence before, during and after the trial despite numerous confessions that he later recanted claiming the police beat those out of him. Walter Dworecki was found guilty of first degree murder on October 6, 1939. He was put to death in the electric chair on March 28, 1940.

Peter Shewchuk was tried separately and lastly. On May 2, 1940, Peter was also found guilty of first degree murder but received a sentence of life in prison. His diminished intelligence influenced the jury and they asked that Peter not be put to death. Peter told the press "I got a big break and I'm damned glad of it." In 1951, Peter was nearly killed in a prison "scuffle" when another inmate crushed Shewchuk's skull with a wrench. After nearly 18 years in prison, Peter was paroled on March 10, 1958.