Published in the Lititz (PA) Record - Express, Thursday, 7 Sep 1939.

11 Jul 2013 - Lititz Record Express, Lititz Pennsylvania. contributed by Dana Dancy (#46998072)

11 Jul 2013 - Lititz Record Express -
"1963: Convicted murderer involved in hit and run -
Under photograph is the following - SILK STOCKING MURDER - In 1963, parolee Earl Steely (left) was involved in a hit and run accident.  Steely was responsible for the Aug. 30, 1939 murder of Lucille Smith (right).  The "Silk Stocking Murder" was one of the most dramatic murder cases to strike Lititz.  Steely, in a fit of drunken rage, strangled Smith, with her own silk stalking along Segloch Road near Hopeland.  Smith's partially decomposed body was found along the Horseshoe Trail on Labor Day by Paul Nessinger who was training his hunting dogs.  Steely, a 24-year-old man who lived and worked at Ralph Binkley's quarry outside of town had been having an affair with his best friend's wife for some time.  The two left in Steely's car and drove to the Segloch when the murder took place.  Lititz Police Chief Clarence Kreider discovered Steely hiding in a loft at his shack near the quarry with a can of "condensed gas" sitting by his side.  Steely reportedly threatened to commit suicide earlier when he stole sticks of dynamite from the quarry.  Steely admitted to the murder while being questioned by Kreider, and he went to serve a life sentence in the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.  He was on parole when the 1963 incident took place." 

"50 Years Ago - Thursday's Record Express, 10 Jul 1963 - Earl Steely:  Convicted Murderer - A local murder parolee found himself in trouble yesterday as a result of a hit and run accident.    Earl Eugene Steely, 25 N. Broad St., was accompanying Harold Eckert, Lititz R4, in the latter's car at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when Eckert struck a car owned by Geraldine Foltz, 71 E. Main St., parked in front of his home.    Later in the morning, Chief of Police George C. Hicks arrested Steely for violation of parole, charging him with drinking.  Steely was lodged in the Lititz jail.    Steely was convicted in 1939 of the first degree murder of a Lititz woman and sentenced to life imprisonment.  In 1957 he was paroled, according to Chief Hicks.  In 1959 he was arrested as a parole violator and was recommitted.  In 1962 he was again paroled and went to live in Philadelphia.  In 1963 his parole was transferred to Lititz."
Dana Dancy (#46998072)


Also, this article contributed by Dana Dancy
News article in the Lititz (PA) Record Express, pgs. 1 & 4, Thursday, 7 Sep 1939.

"Speedy Trial Slated For Earl Steely - To Go Before Grand Jury Monday, District Attorney Eaby Says -
Speedy Justice will be meted out to Earl Steely, brutal silk-stocking slayer of Mrs. Lucille Smith, twenty-seven-year-old mother of two children, with sentence likely to be pronounced within a week of the discovery of the crime, District Attorney Charles W. Eaby indicted today.
Steely who pleaded guilty and declared he was "glad to get it off my chest" when arraigned before Justice of the Peace J. B. Herr, will be taken before the Grand Jury among the first cases of next week's Criminal Court session, the district attorney's office announced.
With Steely placing himself on the mercy of the court, a second degree murder verdict is expected to be sought with the result that, although escaping the electric chair, Steely would spend many long years behind prison bars.
With the crime described by local officials as one of drunken passion, the likelihood of establishing the crime as a premeditated murder of first degree was considered somewhat remote.
Mrs. Smith met her death when choked with one of her own silk stockings in Steely's automobile parked along an isolated rural road. Both were friends of long acquaintance and the two families had on several occasions visited back and forth.
Local officials described the crime as the aftermath of an "affair" which sprang up during the evening hours when her husband was working.
At private funeral services held Monday afternoon only a small cluster of her closest relatives gathered about the closed and sealed casket although many friends had gone to the home to express their condolences to members of the family.
Steely, a quarry worker, married and the father of one child, made a full confession to the slaying, according to the police.
Mrs. Smith's body, clad only in a silk flowered dress and slippers, was discovered Monday a few feet from the picturesque Horseshoe trail along the Seglock road near Hopeland. Dr. M. H. Yoder, deputy coroner, Lititz, found death due to strangulation and said it was evident that the body had been brought to the scene in an automobile.
His Advances Spurned - Steely, in his confession to Criminal Investigator Thomas Lowson, of the State Motor Police, was quoted as saying he strangled Mrs. Smith because she had spurned his advances while parked in his car on the Seglock road. Police quoted Steely as saying he had been drinking at the time and only realized what had happened when he sobered up Thursday morning.
"We had parked about an hour before the first argument started," Steely said, according to Lowson. "Then she got out of the car and started down the road. I got out and started to chase her. I talked to her and she finally came back to the car.
"Then we had another argument. I was drinking, but I remember grabbing a silk stocking off her right leg. I wrapped the stocking around Lucille's neck and started choking her. Then I threw her out of the car and threw her coat into the bushes. I backed the car down the road and drove about a quarter mile away, where I parked off the road and slept."
Planned Suicide -
Steely, employed by Binkley Brothers and Ober, told police he had planned to commit suicide after he realized he had killed the woman. He said he returned to the quarry near Rome, stole several sticks of dynamite and a battery to set off the explosive.
"But I lost my nerve and I returned the dynamite the next day," Steely told Trooper Lowson.
Taken before Justice of the Peace Joseph Herr, Lititz, Steely was formally charged with murder by Lowson and given an immediate hearing Monday morning. He was held without bail for court. Before being committed to the county prison, Steely was taken before District Attorney Eaby to make a formal statement which was reduced in writing.
Steely who had been sought for questioning in connection with the disappearance of Mrs. Smith since Saturday, was captured in a shed near his home at 3:30 A. M. Tuesday after an all-night vigil.
Police said they had suspected Steely when they received reports that he had disappeared at about the same time Mrs. Smith was reported missing. With the finding of the body Monday, police renewed their search for the missing quarry worker.
Go To Man's Home -
Troopers Lowson and Roy Radcliffe, Chief of police C. R. Kreider and Burgess Victor Wagner, of Lititz, kept watch on the quarry since 10 o'clock Monday night. At 3:30 A. M. after waiting through the storms with no success, the party decided to go to Steely's home.
They found Steely's car in the garage. They then concentrated on a two-story frame shed in the rear of the home and found Steely sleeping on a bed on the second floor. He offered no resistance, police said."

Elizabethtown Chronicle (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania)
31 Dec 1968, Tue
Page 3