State Police Murder Sadly, Conshohocken Was The Second

State Police Murder
Sadly, Conshohocken Was The Second
By Jack Coll

(Writer’s Note)
I’m about to write, and you’re about to read, about the murder of Pennsylvania State Police Officer Cpl. Bryon Dickson. I refuse to mention the name of the shooter in my article, he doesn’t deserve to get his name mentioned, in my world, and in my columns he’ll be referred to as the “Coward,” excuse the expression, “Piece of crap,” let’s just bunch them up, “low life, scumbag, waste, the devil” and a few others.

Cpl. Bryon Dickson, along with a number of other State Police Officers was standing in the parking lot of the State Police Barracks in Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania, located near Lake Wallenpawpack on September 12, 2014, as a shift change was in progress. Gun shots were heard coming from a nearby wooded area, Cpl. Bryon Dickson was struck and killed, and State Police Officer Alex Douglass was wounded. The policemen were ambushed by a coward hiding in the woods.

Over the past two weeks, (as of the time of this article being written) more than 400 law-enforcement officers have been involved in hunting for this piece of crap.

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The Pennsylvania State Police Force was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop workers strikes. The private police forces were known as “The Coal and Iron Police” created due to the inability or refusal of local police or Sheriff’s Officers to enforce the law. As of 2012, more than 4, 700 State Troopers are employed by the state of Pennsylvania to patrol our state highways and rural areas of the state.

Cpl. Bryon Dickson was the 98th Pennsylvania State Trooper killed in the line of duty, over the departments 109 year history, Francis Zehringer, a Conshohocken resident was the second Pennsylvania State Trooper killed in the line of duty back in 1906.

(Following is an excerpt taken from the book
“Tales Of Conshohocken and Beyond”
Written by Jack and Brian Coll)

Francis A. Zehringer, a Conshohocken resident who was a member of the Pennsylvania State Police, was killed in the line of duty on September 2, 1906. Zehringer was born in Conshohocken on February 18, 1872. At the age of 26 he enlisted with Troop D, 4th US Cavalry, and served from August 7, 1898 to February 22, 1903. Within six weeks, Zehringer joined the 60th Company, US Coast Artillery, on April 6, 1903 and was honorably discharged on April 7, 1905. He was commended for bravery by his post commandant.
Zehringer was enlisted into the State Police force by Captain Joseph Robinson, Troop D, Punxsutawney, on December 15, 1905. Nine months later, on the night of September 2, 1906, Zehringer was called to assist in the arrest of heavily armed Black Hand Society fugitives. When the first group of troopers responded to a call for help, Private John Henry was mortally wounded, and Privates Homer Chambers and William Mullen were seriously wounded attempting to rescue Henry. Private Zehringer was among the second group of troopers to arrive at the scene at 6:30 P.M.
A home in Florence, Jefferson County, was barricaded by fugitives wanted for murder. As in a scene from the movies, Troopers Zehringer, Robert Cummings, and August Grosser rushed the house covered by heavy gunfire from dozens of other troopers. The trio rushing the house smashed in the side door and entered the dwelling. Guns were drawn and shots fired. The fugitives returned fire from a stairway and Francis Zehringer was shot and killed. Cummings and Grosser retreated with Zehringer’s body.
The Troopers realized that men were being sacrificed uselessly, so under the cover of darkness and a rain storm, the troopers planted dynamite at the base of the house on all four sides. At daybreak, just as the sun was coming up, the Troopers detonated the dynamite, destroying the house and killing all of the fugitives inside.
At the age of 34, having served nine months on the force, Zehringer’s body was returned from Punxsutawney to Conshohocken by train. He lived at 120 West Sixth Avenue with his father. Private Zehringer was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Norristown. Records show that John Henry was the very first Pennsylvania State Trooper killed in the line of duty. On that same day in 1906, Francis Zehringer became the State Troopers second casualty in the line of duty.
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The shooters on that September night 108 years ago were cowards, hiding behind the walls of a cabin like the rats they were, and a little dynamite for breakfast was a brilliant move by the Troopers.
So here we are on a beautiful September day more than a century later, a coward hides in the woods with a gun pointed at Corporal Bryon Keith Dickson, and a gunshot cuts through the September air.

Officer Dickson was a seven year veteran of the force having transferred recently to the Poconos from Philadelphia. Officer Dickson was the 98th State Trooper killed in the line of duty in the State Police 109 year history, that’s about 98 to many. He was the 32nd Officer to die from gunfire, the biggest cause of deaths to State Troopers followed by 19 being killed by automobile accidents, a tragedy that could be avoided was the 12 Troopers that were killed by being struck by a vehicle, and the seven officers that died because of vehicular assault.
The 98 Pennsylvania State Troopers that have died in the line of duty have all been males, wouldn’t it be nice if another century goes by before we reach 99 officers killed in the line of duty.
God Bless the family of Bryon Dickson, God Bless the family of Francis Zehringer more than 100 years ago, and God Bless the 96 families in between.
Someday we’ll have the technology to put an end to the killing of cops, someday. Someday I won’t have to turn on the eleven o’clock news and see another report of cops being shot at, or cops being shot, or cops being involved in a shootout, someday.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the more than 400 law enforcement men and women that are out hunting for this piece of crap.