Suspect 1:
Jonathan Moyer
Jonathan Moyer was born in 1849, making him 28 years old at the time of the murders. He was a miller, continuing the family business. He lived on the site of his mill, about two miles southeast of the Kintzler cabin. It was known around Troxelville that Moyer was in debt. He owed $420 to the Home Building Association in Lewisburg. His knowledge of the money supposedly held in the Kintzlers’ cabin made him an suspect.
The image is the court’s docket entry for the legal wrangling over Jonathan Moyer’s status in December 1878. (Click to see the full-size image.) A few highlights:
- At the top, you’ll see the phrase “a true bill.” This means that the grand jury has already indicted Moyer for the murder of Jonathan Kintzler. The hearing represented by this entry followed the indictment by several months.
- In the second section of the page, you’ll see that on this date, December 13, the district attorney moved “to enter a nolle prosequi” on this case, which, as the Legal Information Institute explains, was an an admission that the charges could not be proven. The prosecution didn’t have enough to bring Moyer to trial (at least, not yet).
- Finally, note that Moyer’s attorney immediately objected to the DA’s motion, arguing that his client should either be prosecuted or fully cleared of the charges. The judge overruled this motion, allowing the authorities to reset and collect more evidence against Moyer.
Suspect 2:
Uriah Moyer
Uriah Moyer was married to Ellen (“Ell”) Moyer and had three children in 1877. They lived just to the south of his brother, Jonathan. Uriah spoke little English, which was not a liability for residents of the central part of the state. He spoke “Pennsylvania Dutch,” as did many people in the area. Others spoke more mainstream German, which allowed for daily exchanges. Moyer, who was in his late thirties at the time of the murders, was in debt. He owed money on a note in the Mifflinburg bank, and Jacob Moyer would later testify in court that Uriah asked him to help him kill the Kintzlers and take their money.
In the docket entry, note that the DA believed he DID have enough evidence to prosecute Uriah, unlike Jonathan. Uriah pleaded “not guilty”, and when asked how he wished to be tried (with or without a jury), he responded with “by God and my country.” The jury was selected right then and there.
Suspect 3:
Emanuel Ettinger
Ettinger’s father died shortly before the murders; Mary Hartley testified that she had seen Emanuel go through Troxelville. The Snyder County lawyer William Miller, who was a child when the trials took place, described Ettinger in the 1910s as a “short, well built man, a veritable criminal with the retreating forehead.” He seems to have been living with and working for Jonathan Moyer in the months before the murders.
Like the other men, Ettinger was first arrested one month after the murders, in January 1878. He was released with the rest of them for lack of evidence. The indictments that came down seven months later were based on new information. But, as the docket entry from December 1878 shows, Ettinger was released again. As in the case of Jonathan Moyer, the District Attorney entered a nolle prosequi. This was not an acquittal, meaning that it did not prohibit the Commonwealth from bringing charges again.
Suspect 4:
Israel Erb
Israel Erb, 59 years old, had his enemies in the Troxelville area. Marks Hufnagle stated that when Israel and his wife, Sarah, saw the Kintzler house burning before dawn on December 8, he said that he would not go over to investigate. If he was associated with the scene, Israel said, there were “some bad people in the neighborhood” who would blame him. Sarah denied in court that Israel had ever said such a thing.
Erb was a farmer and a shoemaker, and he was one of the closest neighbors to the Kintzlers. His shoemaking trade would become a central part of the story that unfolded about the night of the murders. In the docket entry, note that it reads very similar to Uriah Moyer’s. The prosecution had enough evidence, they believed, to take Uriah and Israel to trial immediately. Jonathan and Emanuel would have to wait.