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| Observer-Reporter, Washington, PA, April 28, 1978 |
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| The Morning Herald, Uniontown, PA, Nov. 16, 1949 |
Melvin Pike of Uniontown met his match at the end of a shot gun while his 11-year-old daughter looked on in a Canton Township gymnastics studio. When names like Snooky, Codfish, and No Legs surfaced 13 years later, it was clear that the case had all the markings of a mob hit.
On April 19, 1978, a hooded assailant walked into a gymnastics studio on Jefferson Avenue and fired three shotgun blasts of double-ought buckshot at Pike, a long-reputed mobster from Uniontown, Fayette County. Pike’s young daughter watched as her gravely injured father was transported to Washington Hospital, where he died several hours later. It was reported at the time that Pike adored his daughter and drove her to Washington a few times a week for private gymnastic lessons.
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| Melvin Pike being escorted to a court hearing. The Evening Herald, Uniontown, PA, Dec. 17, 1949 |
Although I was a state trooper in 1978, I didn’t get
involved with the Pike case until 1991, while serving as the troop’s criminal
and unsolved homicide investigator.
In Pennsylvania, the state police never close an unsolved
murder or “cold case” as they are called today. The state police policy is to
have a fresh set of eyes look at the evidence after a certain period of time. Although
forensic techniques have always been an important tool to solve cases, I always
found it helpful to develop a network of informants to help me gather new
information or clues. That’s what helped me shed some light on the Pike case.
This meant I would have to interview informants with
connections to the organized crime, because at the time of Pike’s death,
Washington County was a hotbed of illegal activity controlled by criminal
forces in Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Uniontown. The kingpins from these towns
controlled the illegal gambling, drugs, and prostitution that plagued our
community.
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| Gerald "Snooky" Walls, Indiana Gazette, Indiana, PA Feb. 13, 1997 |
I decide to start by reinterviewing Gerald “Snooky”
Walls, a mob informant from Uniontown. Snooky was a likable and personal
individual, whose demeanor defied the two murder convictions in his long
criminal record. You would have never guessed that in 1967 he had killed a
young Marine on a street corner in Uniontown, was convicted of 2nd
degree murder, and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. Or that in 1995, he punched
a Fayette County man in the face, causing him to fall to the ground, where he struck
his head on the pavement. The man died in the Brownsville Hospital and Walls
fled to Florida to escape arrest. He was apprehended nearly a year later and
pleaded no contest to an involuntary manslaughter charge.
For some reason, Snooky was always willing to talk
and provide information on cold cases. As we sat down for a long interview, I
had to keep in mind that while a character like Snooky can be reliable, his
interview needed to be kept in the proper perspective.
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| Paul "No Legs" Hankish, Instagram, Criminal Underworld Compilation, January 17, 2025 |
During this interview, Snooky claimed that Robert
“Codfish” Bricker of Pittsburgh was the shooter in the Pike slaying. His exact
words were, and I quote, “Pike was whacked on orders from Wheeling, West
Virginia” by mob kingpin Paul “No Legs” Hankish. The mobster, who earned his
nickname when he lost his legs in a car bombing, allegedly ordered the hit on
Pike because he suspected he was encroaching on his Fayette County drug
operations.
Once I had information from Snooky, I turned my attention to Codfish himself, who was being held at the State Correctional Institution in Somerset County, where he was serving several life sentences for other murder convictions. Codfish, a good-looking and well-groomed man with neatly trimmed hair had striking, cold grey eyes that appeared to be sizing up the situation when he entered the room. I had a notebook in hand, because although his attorney didn’t approve of any recordings of the conversation, I was permitted to take notes.
I believe Codfish was honest in his answers and gave
an accurate description of what occurred. He described how he had “worked for
various people in the Pittsburgh and Wheeling area” and that the orders to “take
care of Melvin Pike from Uniontown who was sticking his nose where it shouldn’t
be” came from Wheeling.
Codfish followed Pike for several weeks, learning
about his habits and the places he frequented. This is how he knew that Pike
would be taking his daughter to gymnastics class in Washington. So, on
Wednesday, April 19, 1978, he parked his car at a nearby dairy bar on Jefferson
Avenue and waited.
After Pike and his young daughter walked into the
gym, Codfish, who was wearing a mask and a long coat, said he walked into the
gym carrying a 12-gage shot gun and fired three times into the body of Pike.
The fact that the killing occurred in the presence
of Pike’s daughter was hard to fathom, so I asked if it concerned him that children
and other bystanders could have been injured.
“I made sure they were out of the way when I shot
him, besides I was close enough, I couldn’t miss,” Codfish said, adding that
after he shot Pike he calmly walked back to his car and threw the mask and
shotgun in the trunk. He bought an ice cream cone at the dairy bar and walked
back to the gym to check things out. When the first wave of police and first
responders arrived to secure the scene, there was enough activity that he went
unnoticed. Eventually, he slowly walked back to his car and left the area.
He assured me that he wasn’t concerned about being
seen or identified, because no one was around at the time of the shooting, and
he had parked in a location that was hidden from view. He made sure to leave
before the State Police investigators arrived at the scene.
Codfish, who seemed rather calm and cool when
discussing the murder, did not know Pike well and didn’t show any remorse for
his actions. I attempted to interview other convicted associates of Bricker’s,
but the requests were denied. It was around 1995 when I discussed the case with
the Washington County Attorney’s office. Because Bricker was already serving
several life sentences, and had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, it was
decided that a prosecution would not be made. Codfish died of cancer on June
24, 2000, in Pittsburgh and Snooky subsequently died in a car accident on September
9, 2013, near Centerville.
The story of Bricker’s death that ran in the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentioned that he was allegedly involved with five
murders with in an 18-month period. The first was the murder of Pike. The same
article states that Snooky testified at Bricker’s racketeering trial that he
(Bricker) was paid to kill Pike. Bricker was never charged.
Cases like this marked the end of the organized
crime era we knew, a narrative glorified by mob movies such as The Godfather and
Goodfellas. The bosses of these groups were no longer grooming people to take
over and it appeared their grip was fading. Most of the bosses were dying in
prison and there was no one to fill their shoes. Although we still have
organized crime, it’s headed by different types of organizations and locally
there are outlaw motorcycle groups that have filled some of the criminal void.
On a larger scale, the technology used by organizations worldwide has had an
impact on the way crimes are now committed, with the focus on computer scams,
bitcoin payments, and on-line extortion. Last year I witnessed this firsthand as
a Washington County Commissioner when the county’s computer system was taken
over by a criminal element.
Today, law enforcement still deals with organized
crime, but like the element they are fighting, their tools have become more
sophisticated and are geared toward a national and worldwide arena.
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| Trooper Larry Maggi |
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