Dec 15, 2019 3 min read

The killing of Jock Yoblonski, his wife and daughter in Clarksville on Dec. 31, 1969, was an important national news story, given the reach of the United Mine Workers of America in those days and the fraud-tainted election to the UMWA presidency that preceded it.

But it was also a local news story of immense significance. And it became a crucial matter for local law enforcement as the 1970s were getting underway.

Yablonski had recruited Farrell Jackson of Marianna, a fellow coal miner and UMWA member, to run for Washington County coroner in 1969. Not surprisingly, with the backing of a politically powerful union official, Jackson won, and, along with a phalanx of fellow Democrats, he took the oath of office in a ceremony on the first Monday in January inside the courthouse, all of whom promptly gathered at a celebratory luncheon at the George Washington Hotel.

Decades later, Jackson would tell visitors to the coroner’s office he held for 20 years that his first day in office turned out to be a baptism of fire.

A whispered message sent him to Clarksville to pronounce three members of the Yablonski family dead.

Jackson died in the 1990s, but a survivor of Washington County’s rough-and-tumble politics also recalls Jan. 5, 1970.

“Richard DiSalle was sworn in that day as a Washington County judge,” said Paul Petro, now 86, of Donora, who had begun working for the Washington County district attorney’s office in September 1968.

Clues leading to the triggermen developed relatively quickly, and, within three days, Paul Gilly, Aubran Martin and Claude Vealey were arrested.

Petro, who was an assistant district attorney, said of his boss, the late Jess Costa, “Jess realized the Yablonski case, with its national importance, was going to require the time and effort of a special prosecutor.

“Several local attorneys who thought of themselves as Perry Masons wanted Jess to appoint them special prosecutor. He talked with LeRoy Zimmerman (who in the 1980s became state attorney general). He recommended Richard Sprague of Philadelphia, which paid his expenses, not Washington County. It saved Washington County a ton of money. That turned out to be wonderful. Jess Costa really had good judgment.

“Sprague, as long as he was on the staff of the Philadelphia district attorney, never charged Washington County, but Costa picking Sprague did not help him with local politicians.”

One day, Petro had gone to the second floor of the Washington County Courthouse and saw someone sitting by himself outside of Courtroom No. 1. “He looked so young. I thought he was there for a juvenile proceeding,” Petro said of the “lad.”

The assistant district attorney went to President Judge Charles Sweet’s reception room to ask if the judge was handling juvenile court that day.

The “juvenile” turned out to be none other than Martin.

“Judge Sweet sentenced Martin to death even though he knew the death penalty was going to be abrogated. Martin died in prison after exhibiting his artwork,” Petro recalled in an interview this past summer.

Petro worked for Costa until 1983, and returned to the Washington County DA’s office from 1988 to 2007. Sprague was on the staff of Philadelphia District Attorney Arlen Specter, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980.

Now in his 90s, Sprague still practices law in the Philadelphia area. In 2016, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “He’s a born competitor. He probably competed the first day he was born and he’ll probably be competing his last day on earth.”