Chief of Police Wilson H. Lewars

Wilson H. Lewars

Chief Wilson Lewars was shot and killed as he and his patrolman interrupted five men looting the Paterson Silk Plant. The patrolman was hit with two pellets of buckshot in his leg and face but recovered.

Pennsylvania State Police later apprehended four of the suspects. All four were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life on June 13, 1929. One died at Eastern Penitentiary on September 9, 1934. One was pardoned on September 24, 1943, and another was released on March 24, 1945. The fourth had his sentence reduced in 1944. On December 1, 1939, his brother and the fifth suspect were apprehended in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was charged with complicity in Chief Lewars' murder.

Chief Lewars was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the Spanish American War and a Pennsylvania National Guard veteran who had served with the Hamburg Borough Police Department for five years. He was survived by his wife.