Pierce Rehrig of Lehighton died - some say was murdered - on June 7th, 1941. He was found face down at his bungalow in a 22-inch deep slack water dam in the Big Creek Valley.

He was a successful silk mill operator, starting out in one of William B. Lovatt's mills. Lovatt was the son of the "Read and Lovatt Mills" of Weatherly and Palmerton. Rehrig, with his father Dennis and Lovatt, earned patent # 953,914 in 1910 for a quilling machine used for bobbing silk. He was certainly on his way.Then he met Miss Evelyn D. Christman. She started out as a neighbor and then his secretary. By 1917, they created a corporation with shares of stock. The R and C Knitting Mills were born.The same year Rehrig purchased the fateful side-by-side bungalows in the Big Creek Valley: one for him, and one for Miss Christman. It was a home away from home for both of them, even though he was married to Emma and had a 10-year-old daughter Mildred at home.Fred Komatowski was the son of West Prussia German immigrants. His father and older brothers poured cast iron at the Lehighton Stove Works. But Fred went to work as a refuel clerk at the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Lehighton. He was also a "handyman" for Rehrig and Christman.Many knew him as the other man in Christman's life. He moved in with her at her 728 Mahoning Street home in 1931. By that time Rehrig was suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease.Within two days of Rehrig's death, Chief of Police Harry T. Yenser thought he had his man. District Attorney Albert H. Heimbach told the press that they were "turning up the heat" with "third degree tactics" on their yet-to-be-named key suspect.After a 20-hour marathon interrogation in 2-hour relays, including brutal punches to the face and kicks in the ribs, the police arrived at a confession from Komatowski. In it he admitted being "tired of playing second fiddle to Pierce Rehrig." He also admitted to carrying him the 30 paces cabin to dam.The night before Rehrig's funeral on June 10, a tired and beaten Komatowski was arraigned by Justice of the Peace F. A. Seip of Palmerton. He was released but then rearrested on June 24 because of inconsistent testimony at the coroner's inquest before a county grand jury. After his habeas corpus hearing on July 11, 1941, he was released until his January 1942 trial.At the time of his death, Rehrig's mobility was greatly restricted with shuffling feet and shaking hands. The prosecution and his family believed someone had to have thrown him into the water. They would need to convince the jury he could not have walked, unassisted, the thirty paces necessary to end his own life.They called Rehrig's wife, daughter and his personal attendant James Auge to the stand and all testified that Rehrig was too incapacitated. They even bused the jury out to Big Creek to see the "lay of the land" and stroll around the cottages.The defense claimed Rehrig had thrown himself into the water. They called witnesses, including Komatowski and Christman, who emphatically stated he could indeed have done so. They also had testimony from Ralph Beltz who was Rehrig's attendant prior to Auge. He agreed with the defense, however he hadn't worked with Rehrig in over 17 months.On the stand for two days, Komatowski claimed to have known nothing of Rehrig's disappearance until James Auge called him Sunday June 8. He admitted to getting into a shouting match with Auge earlier in the day at the cottage. He also admitted coming back later toward evening, after drinking all day with friend James "Jimmy" Pennell.Auge admitted being terrified of Komatowski and left with Rehrig's car, leaving Rehrig alone with Komatowski and Pennell. The two got quarts of "Old Reading" beer from the Christman cabin and drank them at the steps leading into the water. According to Komatowski, he went back over by himself to "check on Rehrig," as he was in a nervous, shaking condition.At which point, Rehrig allegedly pleaded with him to end his sufferings by taking him to the water. In his contested confession, he admitted to placing him at the water and leaving, later to change his account three times before trial.On the night he found Rehrig, he asked his neighbor Lewis Hall to go to a train refueling at the Lehighton station at 7:53 p.m. and he agreed. Once there, he suggested they ride out to the bungalow to "feed the squirrels."They arrived there around 8:15. With his 2-cell flashlight, he could see Rehrig's body by his white shirt in the 22-inches of water and "suddenly realized what had happened." Hall agreed they needed to contact the police.They drove back into Lehighton and went into the Elk's Club looking for Chief Yenser. Mr. Spiker the bartender hadn't seen him and suggested trying the Hotel Lehighton (present-day site of the Lehighton Elderly Hi-Rise.) Patrolman Anthony was there and Komatowski gave his account to him on the corner.During the trial, the prosecution showed a $1 transaction between Rehrig and Christman from one year before his death. It said that in the event of his death all his holdings in the R & C Corporation would go to Christman, rather than to his family. This, in addition to Komatowski being the last person to see him alive and his "hazy" memory, played into the prosecution's favor.Closing arguments were finished by 6 p.m. and the jury deliberated until 10 p.m. They restarted the next day at 9 a.m., reaching a verdict by two that afternoon: "Guilty of murder in the 3rd degree."Komatowski's lawyer Ben Branch immediately declared a mistrial and secured Komatowski's release on $7,500 bail.A year and a half later, the state Supreme Court ruled in Komatowski's favor. In a scathing denouncement, Chief Justice George W. Maxey ruled the charges had no foundation or precedent."Every member of this court is surprised that the trial judge and the Commonwealth's Special Prosecutor apathetically stood by hearing this ridiculous and meaningless sentence repeated 13 times," he stated.After Pierce's death, his widow and daughter lived a humble life above the former R and C Mill at South Second Street in Lehighton. They were left with nothing much, despite a civil suit that alleged Christman obtained her wealth from Rehrig through "fraud, coercion, and deceit."Christman and Komatowski moved from Mahoning Street to above the R and C Mill she continued to run in Packerton Hollow. She had amassed a sizable estate of various rental properties, a winter home in Florida as well as R and C Stocks and other investments.Komatowski died in 1965. He had a handwritten will, witnessed by R and C managers Stanley Koch and James Wagner of Lehighton. He left everything to Christman except "the pennies in my top dresser drawer" were to go to his sister Freida if "she is still here" and money for his burial.In perhaps one final act of defiance, he instructed Christman to bury him with his family in the lower section of the Gnaden Huetten Cemetery. The family site is just 30 paces from Pierce Rehrig's, the same number of steps Rehrig allegedly walked to his doom. Christman is buried on the hillside above, with her parents on the lower edge of the Lehighton Cemetery, overlooking them both.Christman died in 1973 knowing all the secrets were forever buried. When the Beltzville Dam project was completed in 1972, it put the two side-by-side bungalows of the Big Creek Valley below 60 feet of water.(An unabridged version of this story can be seen at

culturedcarboncounty.blogspot.com.)