---
aliases:
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- State of Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania (state)
category: U.S. State
created: 2026-10-15
relations:
- end: 1987-01-20
  fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: Governor of Pennsylvania
  start: 1979-01-16
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Richard Thornburgh]]'
- fn: 2
  role: Philadelphia prosecution; open guilty plea, sentenced to 25 to 58 years
  start: 2008-08-29
  type: prosecuted
  with: '[[Michael Mastromarino]]'
- fn: 3
  role: Philadelphia prosecution; guilty plea to corrupt organizations and body-part
    counts
  start: 2008-09-02
  type: prosecuted
  with: '[[Louis Garzone]]'
- end: 2018-08-14
  fn: 4
  role: Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury (six other dioceses; Philadelphia
    was the subject of earlier grand juries)
  start: 2016-09-01
  type: investigated
  with: '[[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia]]'
summary: Pennsylvania appears through its Crime Commission reports, Three Mile Island,
  the Kecksburg FOIA suit, the NUMEC uranium inquiry and the 2018 grand jury.
tags:
- Place
- USState
- PennsylvaniaCrimeCommission
- OrganizedCrime
- PoliceCorruption
- BufalinoFamily
- Kecksburg
- UFO
- ThreeMileIsland
- NuclearProcurement
- NUMEC
- Holmesburg
- TissueTrafficking
- CatholicChurch
- GrandJury
- Zizians
updated: 2026-10-15
---

Pennsylvania is a state of the United States whose capital is Harrisburg and whose largest city, [Philadelphia](/places/philadelphia/), has its own page.[^5] The state bodies include the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, the state appellate courts, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, the statewide investigating grand juries and the governor's office, together with the federal courts in the state and the industrial and research sites of the western and central counties, among them the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, the uranium plant at Apollo and the village of Kecksburg in Westmoreland County.

### Courts and the Crime Commission

The [Superior Court](/organizations/superior-court-of-pennsylvania/), established in 1895 to hear appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas, and the Commonwealth Court are the two statewide intermediate appellate courts, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania sits above them.[^6] The Supreme Court's decisions and the Superior Court's rulings on the Philadelphia prosecutions recur in the record of the [Garzone Funeral Home](/organizations/garzone-funeral-home/) and the Garzone brothers.

The Pennsylvania Crime Commission was created as a fact-finding agency within the Pennsylvania Department of Justice. The Crime Commission Act was signed into law on July 31, 1968, the same day that an executive order made the Commission the state's criminal justice planning agency for federal block grants under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.[^7] The Commission issued two reports on police corruption and organized crime: the March 1974 report on the Philadelphia police and the 1990 report on organized crime, titled *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change*, which opens by quoting the 1967 federal task force recommendation that states with organized crime groups create investigation commissions with independent, permanent status, adequate investigators and subpoena powers.[^8]

### Police corruption in Philadelphia, 1974

The Commission's March 1974 report found that corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department was "ongoing, widespread, systematic, and occurring at all levels of the Police Department." Corrupt practices were uncovered "in every police district," and the report identified more than 400 individual officers, by first name, last initial and badge or payroll number, as having received improper payments in cash and merchandise from gamblers, racketeers, bar owners and after-hours club operators.[^9] Its Locust Street chapter records that the owner of the Why Not Lounge, Irvin Goltzer, was told by his manager, identified as Mr. LaRussa, to pay or "they will bust the joint," that payments went to the inspector of the Central Division, and that Goltzer made tape recordings of payoffs for the Commission.[^10][^11] The report's chapters also cover the After-Hours Clubs, the Road Drivers Association, the Liberty Clown Club, the Randolph Social Club and the Croatian Club.[^12] The bars, the manager [Salvatore La Russa](/people/salvatore-la-russa/) and the later history of the police inquiry are set out on the Philadelphia page.

### The Cosa Nostra families of the 1990 report

The Commission's 1990 report divides the state's [La Cosa Nostra](/organizations/la-cosa-nostra/) between three families: the Bruno/Scarfo family in the Philadelphia area, the [Bufalino Crime Family](/organizations/bufalino-crime-family/) in the northeast and the LaRocca/Genovese family in Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania.[^13] Its summary states that the Philadelphia family, "known for its reckless use of violence and powerful corruptive influence," had been seriously weakened by a cooperative law enforcement effort "unprecedented in the history of Pennsylvania"; that its leader, Nicodemo Scarfo, had been imprisoned for life; and that six members, including the underboss, had become protected government witnesses.[^14]

In the northeast the report places Russell Bufalino, "the aging boss of the Bufalino Family," in federal prison from 1981 to 1989 and states that the family "has become a second-rate operation" that would likely be merged with another family.[^14] The report traces the family's origin in Pittston through Stephen LaTorre, who came to the United States in the late 1800s and died in 1984; records that the Kefauver Committee's 1951 report focused on gambling in the Scranton area; names the family member John Parente as the dominant figure in illegal gambling in the Lehigh Valley until his death in 1978; and describes the Scranton video poker proprietor Elie "Al" Baldassari as a close friend of Russell Bufalino and records the July 1990 FBI extortion arrest of Elmo Baldassari.[^15] [Cheri Seymour](/people/cheri-seymour/) wrote that the family's name surfaced in FBI wiretaps of [Music Corporation of America](/organizations/music-corporation-of-america/) run by the Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force, in calls between [Robert Booth Nichols](/people/robert-booth-nichols/) and [Eugene Giaquinto](/people/eugene-giaquinto/).[^16][^17]

In the west the report states that with the death of John LaRocca in 1984 leadership passed to Michael Genovese, that Genovese's confidant Charles Porter was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 20 years, and that from the information available the organization "remains the most powerful Cosa Nostra Family in Pennsylvania today."[^14] The summary also states that the 1980s were marked by the use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which Pennsylvania had adopted in a version of its own.[^14] The Philadelphia family under Scarfo, the Third Circuit's account of the 1988 racketeering trial and the methamphetamine trade are set out on the Philadelphia page.

### The Garzone Funeral Home and the tissue trade

The Philadelphia cadaver case runs through the state courts. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recorded that the brothers Gerald and Louis Garzone, with James McCafferty, supplied at least 244 cadavers to [Michael Mastromarino](/people/michael-mastromarino/) of [Biomedical Tissue Services](/organizations/biomedical-tissue-services/) from early 2004 to September 2005 for over $245,000, and incinerated their records days before Food and Drug Administration investigators arrived.[^18] The Superior Court upheld Mastromarino's sentence of twenty-five to fifty-eight years in 2010; Louis Garzone pleaded guilty on September 2, 2008, the day his trial was to begin; and on April 13, 2010 the Superior Court vacated the salary portion of the costs of prosecution ordered against Gerald Garzone.[^2][^3][^19] The funeral home, the plea terms and the Brooklyn prosecution are set out on the Philadelphia page and on the Garzone Funeral Home page.

### Hoersch v. Froehlke and the National Guard

On October 11, 1974, the [United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania](/organizations/united-states-district-court-for-the-eastern-district-of-pennsylvania/) decided Hoersch v. Froehlke, a suit by Raymond C. Hoersch against the Secretary of the Army, Robert F. Froehlke. The opinion was written by Judge [John B. Hannum](/people/john-b-hannum/).[^20][^21] Hannum had sat on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania by appointment before President [Richard Nixon](/people/richard-nixon/) nominated him to the federal bench on March 24, 1969.[^21] The court recorded that Hoersch had enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1965, that he was taken off the rolls of the Guard in July 1970 by an order to active duty as an Army reservist, and that he was absent without leave from Fort Dix from July 19, 1970. He returned to military control there on April 5, 1972, and went absent again the next day.[^20]

Hoersch argued that the Guard had failed to consider his request to wear long hair "as required for his employment as a motion picture producer." The court held that the unit commander's discretion still controlled an individual's appearance, even where a reservist showed that long hair contributed to his livelihood.[^20] The court quoted the opinion in *Harris v. Kaine*, 352 F. Supp. 769 (S.D.N.Y. 1972), that as long as the reservist "presents a neat and soldierly appearance and can perform all the duties required of him, the Army has no authority to order his hair cut, absent a showing of need."[^20] The Philadelphia filmmaker Ray Hoersch, later known as [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), made the film [Black Mass](/misc/black-mass-1975-film/), which ran in the city in 1975.[^22] A Raymond C. Hoersch, an engineer, is named as the filmmaker's father, and the plaintiff shares his name with both.

### Holmesburg Prison and the Army's tests

Holmesburg Prison in northeast Philadelphia was the site of the experiments of Albert Kligman, a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist who began testing incarcerated men there in 1951 for companies and for the Army; the program ran 23 years and the city banned medical testing at Holmesburg in 1974.[^23] Allen M. Hornblum's history of the program is Acres of Skin.[^24] The Department of Defense general counsel, Deanne C. Siemer, told the Senate in 1977 of the Edgewood compound EA-3167: "In 1971, the Agency transferred some $37,000 to Edgewood to pursue testing of this compound, which was designated EA-3167," a project begun in 1971 and terminated in 1973.[^25] The Army's list of Edgewood drug-testing contracts printed in the 1975 Senate hearings records volunteer testing at Holmesburg.[^26]

### Three Mile Island

The Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg suffered a core accident on March 28, 1979. On March 30 the governor, [Richard Thornburgh](/people/richard-thornburgh/), "advised pregnant women and preschool aged children to leave the area within a 5-mile radius of TMI until further notice," according to the report of the President's Commission chaired by John G. Kemeny, which reported in October 1979 under the title *The Need for Change: The Legacy of TMI*.[^27][^28] Thornburgh, born in Pittsburgh, had been [United States Attorney](/organizations/united-states-attorney/) for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1975 and Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division from 1975 to 1977 before his election as governor in 1978.[^29]

The Kemeny report records an informal agreement between Thornburgh and the White House under which the release of information was centralized beginning on the third day of the accident, with Harold Denton of the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission](/organizations/nuclear-regulatory-commission/) issuing all statements from the site. It also records that on the Thursday afternoon the NRC's Charles Gallina told reporters that the danger was over for people off the island, and that Thornburgh distrusted the statement at the time.[^30] A report of the Senate Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation, issued in June 1980, lists Thornburgh among the persons involved and describes him as responsible for determining whether an evacuation was necessary; the subcommittee described its own inquiry as one that "was kept small in size and selective in scope, to avoid duplication" of the President's Commission and the NRC's Special Inquiry Group.[^31] The same report records that in April 1979 Thornburgh asked the Union of Concerned Scientists to review the NRC staff recommendations on venting krypton from the containment building.[^32] Thornburgh served as governor from January 1979 to January 1987 and later as Attorney General of the United States from 1988 to 1991. The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 INSLAW report names him with [Edwin Meese](/people/edwin-meese/) as having blocked congressional inquiries and refused an independent counsel.[^1][^33]

### Kecksburg

On December 9, 1965, an object that witnesses described as acorn-shaped came down in the woods near the village of Kecksburg, about seven miles southeast of Greensburg, at about 4:45 p.m.; the 1991 article gives 4:46 p.m.[^34][^35] Witnesses described a fireball moving at low speeds and altitudes across the southwestern Pennsylvania sky, and some said they saw a craft half buried in a gully. Others said they saw personnel from the [Air Force](/organizations/us-air-force/), the Army and [NASA](/organizations/nasa/) at the site that evening, and one account describes a Volkswagen-sized object removed under a tarpaulin on a military flatbed truck, taken, some said, to [Wright-Patterson Air Force Base](/places/wright-patterson-air-force-base/) in Dayton, Ohio.[^36] The military's public position, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette summarized it in 1998, was that the object was a meteorite that was never recovered.[^37]

The Tribune-Review's account of the 2003 Sci Fi Channel documentary lists the witnesses it presented. Robert Blystone described a "controlled fireball." Bill Weaver, then 19, saw a bluish light in the woods "like a welder's light." Don Sebastian of Johnstown described "probably 100 soldiers" and two "unearthly screams," and the Pittsburgh jazz musician Jerry Betters said he saw an "acorn-shaped object with hieroglyphics" hauled away on a flatbed truck. The article reports that onlookers were told a meteor had crashed and that persistent curiosity-seekers were turned away by police and military personnel, some, it says, at gunpoint.[^38] The documentary also presented John Murphy, a reporter for the Greensburg radio station WHJB who photographed the scene and interviewed witnesses that evening. The station's office manager, Mable Mazza, recalled that Murphy received several "unexpected visitors" at the station; the article states that he was later killed in a hit-and-run accident in California, that the driver was never found, and that his notebooks, tapes and photographs disappeared. His former wife, Bonnie Millslagle, was quoted as saying: "If someone did away with John, it was because he saw and knew too much."[^38] Two West Virginia University professors, J. Stephen Kite and Ray Hicks, took soil and tree core samples at the location witnesses Bill Bulebush and John Hays identified, and Hicks said the samples indicated a "traumatic event" at or near 1965.[^38]

The journalist David Templeton wrote about the case for the Pittsburgh Press in 1991. In that article James Oberg, a Houston space engineer and author who had written about Soviet spacecraft, gave the Soviet Venus probe Kosmos 96 as a candidate, said that a Venus probe was designed to withstand entry into Venus's atmosphere and could have landed on Earth intact, and argued that the United States and the Soviet Union had an oral agreement to return each other's spacecraft debris, so that secrecy would have been paramount if either power kept the other's recovered debris.[^35] After examining the tracking data Oberg concluded, "Cosmos 96 is not guilty."[^35] In a follow-up printed in 1998, Oberg's account of an interview with the cosmonaut Viktor Savinykh, then rector of the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, says that Savinykh "suggested rather emphatically, and with some laughter, that whatever plunged into Kecksburg surely was some faulty American technology."[^39] The 1998 Post-Gazette piece reported that the U.S. Space Command had said Kosmos 96 crash-landed in Canada shortly after 3 a.m. on December 9, more than 12 hours before the Kecksburg event.[^40] The Kecksburg researcher Stan Gordon, who had studied the case since the day it happened, told the paper: "It's been almost 33 years and we still don't have an answer."[^37]

### Kean v. NASA

In 2002 Larry Landsman of the Sci Fi Channel invited the journalist [Leslie Kean](/people/leslie-kean/) to lead a public effort on Kecksburg.[^41] In October 2003 the channel's counsel told the Tribune-Review that a suit against NASA was expected within the week, with action possible against the [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/) and the Army.[^38] On January 31, 2003, Kean had already submitted a [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/) request to NASA for documents relating to Kecksburg and the December 9, 1965 incident, the "Fragology Files" for 1962 to 1967, Richard M. Schulherr, Project Moon Dust and "Cosmos 96."[^42] The case was *Kean v. National Aeronautics and Space Administration*, Civil Action No. 03-2509 (EGS), in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.

The court's memorandum opinion of March 27, 2007 recites that NASA admitted its first two searches were inadequate. The first, by a FOIA specialist and a History Office archivist, found only published accounts of Cosmos 96 and produced a "no records" response dated April 11, 2003; the recommendation that the request go to the Goddard Space Flight Center was not carried out "for reasons that are not clear." NASA's associate deputy administrator granted Kean's appeal on June 18, 2003 and promised a search of all NASA centers, including the missing fragology files, which the opinion says was not acted on because of "poor tracking and the relocation of NASA's FOIA Office in August 2003." A third search was ordered on December 2, 2003. Nineteen boxes of archived records were sought from the Washington National Record Center on accession numbers Kean supplied; three were "reported as having been missing for quite some time," and when NASA's fourth search in July 2006 re-examined the other sixteen boxes, "responsive documents were found and disclosed to plaintiff." NASA withheld two emails between its FOIA officer and a NASA attorney under the deliberative process privilege, which the court upheld after in camera review. The court granted NASA's motion in part, denied it in part without prejudice on the adequacy of the searches, denied Kean's cross-motion without prejudice and directed the parties to propose search and documentation procedures by April 30, 2007.[^42]

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported in October 2007 that NASA had agreed to search its archives again as the result of Kean's four-year-old suit, and in December 2007 that a settlement required NASA to "meticulously comb its files for documents about what many residents of Kecksburg, Pa., believe was a UFO sighting 42-yers ago."[^43] The *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* reported on March 9, 2003 on the wish of Kecksburg residents to resolve what fell from the sky in 1965.[^44]

### Apollo and the NUMEC diversion inquiry

The [Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation](/organizations/nuclear-materials-and-equipment-corporation/) (NUMEC), a privately owned nuclear fuel plant at Apollo, about thirty miles northeast of Pittsburgh, was owned by [Zalman Mordecai Shapiro](/people/zalman-mordecai-shapiro/).[^45] A Washington Star report of August 19, 1977 stated that a CIA spokesman had told congressional investigators that a CIA probe led investigators to believe that bomb-grade nuclear material had been diverted from a U.S. facility and sent to Israel. According to three government sources familiar with the investigation, it started in Europe in the mid-1960s, when CIA operatives received information that Israel had obtained a sizable quantity of highly enriched uranium. The CIA investigation came to focus on the Apollo company, which produced highly enriched uranium submarine fuel for the U.S. Navy and had a subsidiary owned in partnership with the Israeli government.[^45] The same paper reported that the CIA's conclusion appeared to conflict with statements by officials of the Energy Research and Development Administration and the NRC that they had seen no evidence of significant diversion. The specifics had first been divulged to top NRC officials at a secret conference in early 1976, where the briefing was given by [Carl Duckett](/people/carl-e-duckett/), then the CIA's third-ranking official.[^46]

The Comptroller General's report to Congress of December 18, 1978, *Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.? 13 Years of Contradiction and Confusion*, was classified until its redacted release on May 6, 2010. It records that an inspection in April 1965, the sixth consecutive inspection to find fundamental problems with NUMEC's control of material, concluded that "safeguards control of [nuclear material] at NUMEC is inadequate," and that the Department of Energy's predecessor found about 206 pounds of uranium-235 could not be accounted for, an amount it estimated could make at least four or five nuclear weapons. A November 1965 investigation found a cumulative loss since the plant's start-up in 1957 of 178 kilograms (392 pounds); 186 pounds were traced to waste and gas filters, and the remaining 206 pounds were not accounted for.[^47] NUMEC's president contended that the material was "unavoidably lost" in the processing system; the investigators concluded that the agency "could not say, unequivocally, that the material was not stolen or diverted from the facility."[^47] In June 1965 the agency had asked the FBI whether NUMEC's president needed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, its concern stemming from his associations with Israeli officials and from his capacity as a sales agent for the Israeli Ministry of Defense; the FBI began that inquiry in August 1965 and reported in October 1966 that registration was not required.[^48]

The Comptroller General's report states that in February 1966 the agency asked the FBI to determine whether a theft or diversion had occurred and that its files contain a memorandum recording that the Bureau had decided not to investigate, though required to do so under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954; that the FBI "did not focus on the question of a possible nuclear diversion until May 1976 nearly 11 years later," after a request by President [Gerald Ford](/people/gerald-r-ford/) in April 1976; and that the investigations were "uncoordinated, limited in scope and timeliness, and, in GAO's opinion, less than adequate."[^49] It states that GAO was "continually denied" access to reports and documentation by the CIA and the FBI, that it "cannot say whether or not there was a diversion of material from the NUMEC facility," and that FBI agents told it that while "circumstantial information" exists which could lead an individual to conclude that a diversion occurred, there is no substantive proof.[^50] Seymour Hersh's account of the same period, attributed here to him, describes a meeting at the Pittsburgh airport between Shapiro and the Israeli scientific attaché [Jeruham Kafkafi](/people/jeruham-kafkafi/); the FBI reported that Kafkafi flew from Washington for the meeting and returned at once, and Hersh wrote that Shapiro later told congressional investigators that he had asked for the meeting because he had not been paid for antiterrorist equipment his company had shipped to Israel.[^51]

A Washington Star report of December 31, 1977 stated that the NRC had disclosed the existence of top-secret government files on a loss of highly enriched uranium discovered in 1965 at the Apollo plant; according to the documents, the files were jointly held by the [U.S. Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/), the CIA and the Atomic Energy Commission, and the NRC had initially been denied access to them.[^52] A Washington Post report of March 2, 1978 said a former CIA official stated that President [Lyndon B. Johnson](/people/lyndon-b-johnson/) had ordered CIA director [Richard Helms](/people/richard-helms/) to keep an Israeli weapons report from Secretary of State [Dean Rusk](/people/dean-rusk/) and Defense Secretary [Robert McNamara](/people/robert-s-mcnamara/), and noted that a 550-page NRC document released in response to a House committee inquiry stated that the NRC's Lee V. Gossick had "testified incorrectly" when he said the agency had no evidence that a significant amount of nuclear material had been stolen from the plant.[^53] A New York Times report by David Burnham of April 29, 1979 stated that the Energy Department's Inspector General had concluded that Robert W. Fri, formerly acting head of the Energy Research and Development Administration, may have made intentionally inaccurate statements to a House subcommittee about a U.S. intelligence agency's views on the diversion of special nuclear material from the NUMEC plant; the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges, citing "insufficient evidence."[^54]

A CIA memorandum of April 25, 1978 records that the CIA had delivered documents on NUMEC to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in response to a request of March 25, 1976 from Senator [Howard Baker](/people/howard-baker/), which had been narrowed to the documents discussed at the committee's briefing of February 19, 1976; the memorandum states that Chairman John Dingell's request for all documents on the subject had resulted in an additional package being compiled, that the additional documents "do not contain any significant information," and recommends offering the package to Baker's staff. The letter from Director [George H. W. Bush](/people/george-hw-bush/) to Baker that accompanies it reads in full: "I have been informed by my staff that copies of all documents originated or controlled by this Agency in the files identified in your letter of 25 March 1976 have been delivered to Mr. George Murphy, Jr., Executive Director, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. I am further advised that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has not authorized us to release their documents in those files but instead expects to deal directly with Mr. Murphy on this matter. Likewise, the FBI advised that it would be inappropriate for us to transmit an inventory listing of their documents."[^55]

### The Archdiocese and the 2018 grand jury

The [Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia](/organizations/roman-catholic-archdiocese-of-philadelphia/) is the see of the Catholic Church for southeastern Pennsylvania. Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Philadelphia on April 8, 1808, and the diocese became an archdiocese on February 12, 1875. The western part of the state was separated as the Diocese of Pittsburgh on August 8, 1843, and the Dioceses of Scranton and Harrisburg on March 3, 1868.[^56] In February 1975 the midnight showing of the film *Black Mass* at the Arcadia Theatre on Chestnut Street was cancelled, according to the *Philadelphia Inquirer*, after reported pressure from the Archdiocese, and the film was shown instead at the Bandbox Theater in Germantown.[^57]

Report I of the Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, released on August 14, 2018 by order of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of July 27, 2018, examined six dioceses (Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton), "every diocese in the state except Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown, which were the subject of previous grand juries." The jurors wrote that the six account for 54 of the state's 67 counties, that they heard dozens of witnesses and reviewed half a million pages of internal diocesan documents, and that those documents contained credible allegations against over three hundred priests and identified over one thousand child victims. The report states that almost every instance was too old to prosecute and that the grand jury issued presentments against a priest in the Greensburg diocese and a priest in the Erie diocese.[^4] It describes the diocesan records as including a "secret archive" that canon law requires and to which only the bishop holds the key, and states that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime reviewed a significant portion of the evidence and identified practices that recurred across the files, summarized by the jurors as "a playbook for concealing the truth," ending with the rule "don't tell the police."[^58] The Diocese of Allentown, the report notes, was created in 1961 from part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the report refers to an earlier Philadelphia archdiocese grand jury report of 2005.[^59] On the day of release the Pennsylvania Office of Victim Advocate, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the Archdiocese's Office for Child and Youth Protection issued a joint response that directed survivors and parishioners to counseling resources.[^60]

### Aircraft, Lakeland and the Mellon family

The Senate hearing record of [Gary Betzner](/people/gary-betzner/)'s testimony describes his aircraft business in Florida and an aircraft bought in Pennsylvania. In 1983 Betzner set up a business at Tamiami Airport that modified aircraft for smugglers, and he bought a twin Comanche from [Air America](/organizations/air-america/) in Pennsylvania, operating it from Lakeland, Florida.[^61]

The [Mellon family](/organizations/mellon-family/) of Pittsburgh includes [Christopher Mellon](/people/christopher-mellon/). In February 2003 *Roll Call* described him as a member of the Mellon family whose great-grandfather had started the Gulf Oil Company, and reported that Senator Jay Rockefeller had hired him as minority staff director of the [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence](/organizations/senate-select-committee-on-intelligence/).[^62] On October 30, 2021 he became a research affiliate of the [Galileo Project](/organizations/galileo-project/). On April 26, 2024 the project announced a grant of $575,000 from the Richard King Mellon Foundation for a third observatory station in Allegheny or Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.[^63] An Alabama corporation, [The Sol Foundation](/organizations/sol-foundation/), lists a director by the name "Cristopher Mellon" of Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, among its three initial directors in 2022.[^64]

### Congress and the Senate

Arlen Specter served as an assistant counsel to the [Warren Commission](/events/warren-commission/) in 1964. The commission's report lists him on the staff, and in the chapter on [Jack Ruby](/people/jack-ruby/) it records "Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter" discussing by telephone with defense counsel Joe H. Tonahill the question of a polygraph examination for Ruby.[^65] Specter later represented Pennsylvania in the [United States Senate](/organizations/united-states-senate/) from 1981 to 2011.[^66]

The Senate's resolution creating the standing Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed in May 1976. The Rules and Administration Committee reported it after a 5 to 4 vote on an amendment offered by its chairman, Howard Cannon, and the Senate's leaders, Mike Mansfield and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, endorsed the compromise version. The Senate agreed to S. Res. 400 on May 19, 1976, by 72 to 22.[^67]

### Delaware County and the Zizians

[Michelle Zajko](/people/michelle-zajko/) is a member of the [Zizian](/organizations/the-zizians/) group. Her parents, Richard Zajko and Rita Zajko, were found shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, in Delaware County, on the night of December 31, 2022. On June 24, 2026, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse charged her with her parents' killing, as the *[Philadelphia Inquirer](/organizations/the-philadelphia-inquirer/)* reported.[^68]

### Natives and academic links

The psychologist [Charles Tart](/people/charles-tart/) was born in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on April 29, 1937, according to an obituary written by [Stephan A. Schwartz](/people/stephan-schwartz/).[^69] The federal judge [Alison Nathan](/people/alison-nathan/) was born in Philadelphia in 1972, according to the Federal Judicial Center's biographical directory.[^70]

[^1]: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, "Richard Thornburgh," for the terms of 1979 to 1987.
[^2]: *Commonwealth v. Mastromarino*, 2 A.3d 581 (Pa. Super. 2010), as recited in *Commonwealth v. Garzone*, 34 A.3d 67 (Pa. 2012), and *Commonwealth v. Garzone* (Louis Garzone), 993 A.2d 1245 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 14, 2010). https://static.case.law/a3d/34/cases/0067-01.json.
[^3]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Louis Garzone), 993 A.2d 1245 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 14, 2010), No. 780 EDA 2009 (the September 2, 2008 plea and forfeitures).
[^4]: Report I of the Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, redacted by order of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of July 27, 2018, released August 14, 2018, Section I (Introduction), pp. 1 to 2. Archived copy of the Office of Attorney General posting: https://web.archive.org/web/20180815113910/https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/A-Report-of-the-Fortieth-Statewide-Investigating-Grand-Jury_Cleland-Redactions-8-12-08_Redacted.pdf.
[^5]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption and the Quality of Law Enforcement in Philadelphia* (Harrisburg, March 1974), title page. https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^6]: Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, "Superior Court." https://www.pacourts.us/courts/superior-court; "Pennsylvania Superior Court: Over 125 Years of Justice," Jenkins Law Library, December 1, 2023. https://www.jenkinslaw.org/blog/2023/12/01/pennsylvania-superior-court-over-125-years-justice.
[^7]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption* (1974), history of the Commission, describing the permanent Commission, the executive order of July 31, 1968 and the Crime Commission Act signed the same day, and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^8]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change, 1990 Report* (Conshohocken, 1991), NCJRS 133208, front matter quoting the 1967 Task Force Report: Organized Crime. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/133208NCJRS.pdf.
[^9]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption* (1974), summary of findings, "Police Corruption," and the summary paragraph on payments to officers by gamblers, racketeers, bar and after-hours club owners. https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^10]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption* (1974), Locust Street Strip chapter, account of the Why Not Lounge and the advice to pay "or 'they will bust the joint.'" https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^11]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption* (1974), Locust Street Strip chapter (payments to the inspector of the Central Division) and the summary account of informants, including Irvin Goltzer's tape recordings of payoffs. https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^12]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Report on Police Corruption* (1974), table of contents, chapters "After-Hours Clubs," "Road Drivers Association," "Liberty Clown Club," "Randolph Social Club," "Croatian Club" and "Societal Pressures: 'A Policeman's Lot.'" https://archive.org/details/reportonpoliceco00penn.
[^13]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change* (1990), chapter "La Cosa Nostra - The American Mafia," introduction (p. 97 ff.; chapters on the LaRocca/Genovese family p. 111, the Bufalino family p. 135, the Bruno/Scarfo family p. 149). https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/133208NCJRS.pdf.
[^14]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change* (1990), executive summary paragraphs on the Bruno/Scarfo, Bufalino and LaRocca/Genovese families and on RICO. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/133208NCJRS.pdf.
[^15]: Pennsylvania Crime Commission, *Organized Crime in Pennsylvania: A Decade of Change* (1990), La Cosa Nostra introduction (Stephen LaTorre of Pittston) and the gambling chapter (Scranton area and the Kefauver Report of 1951; John Parente and the Lehigh Valley; Baldassari family video poker proprietors of Scranton and the July 1990 FBI arrest of Elmo Baldassari). https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/133208NCJRS.pdf.
[^16]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
[^17]: Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates," paragraphs 5, 69 and 79. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf)
[^18]: *Commonwealth v. Garzone*, 34 A.3d 67 (Pa. 2012), decided January 19, 2012, opinion of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, describing the cadaver arrangement from early 2004 through September 2005, the at-least-244 cadavers, the payments of over $245,000, and the destruction of records days before FDA investigators arrived. https://static.case.law/a3d/34/cases/0067-01.json.
[^19]: *Commonwealth v. Garzone* (Gerald Garzone), 993 A.2d 306, 2010 PA Super 57 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 13, 2010).
[^20]: *Hoersch v. Froehlke*, 382 F. Supp. 1235 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 11, 1974), Civ. A. No. 72-1759 (Hannum, J.), including the discharge order of July 1970, the AWOL dates at Fort Dix, the April 5, 1972 return to military control, and the long-hair passage. https://static.case.law/f-supp/382/cases/1235-01.json.
[^21]: Federal Judicial Center, "Hannum, John Berne," Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/hannum-john-berne; Downey, Sally A., "John B. Hannum, 92, judge," *Philadelphia Inquirer*, April 25, 2007. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20070425_John_B__Hannum__92__judge.html.
[^22]: *Philadelphia Inquirer*, society column, February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/.
[^23]: Lynette Hazelton, "A brief history of the Holmesburg Prison experiments," *Philadelphia Inquirer*, October 22, 2024, https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/holmesburg-prison-experiments-timeline-20241022.html.
[^24]: Allen M. Hornblum, *Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison* (New York: Routledge, 1998).
[^25]: Statement of Deanne C. Siemer, General Counsel, Department of Defense, *Human Drug Testing by the CIA, 1977*, hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, 95th Cong., 1st sess., September 20, 1977, testimony of Deanne C. Siemer on EA-3167. https://archive.org/details/human-drug-testing-by-the-cia-1977.
[^26]: *Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1975*, joint hearings before the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 94th Cong., 1st sess., September 10, 12 and November 7, 1975, testimony of Lt. Gen. R. R. Taylor and the Army list of "Research Contracts from Edgewood Arsenal Involving Drug Testing Volunteers, 1965-75,".
[^27]: *Report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island* (Washington, October 1979), chronology, paragraph 17 (advice to pregnant women and preschool aged children to leave within a 5-mile radius, March 30, 1979). https://archive.org/details/needforchangeleg00unitrich.
[^28]: *The Need for Change: The Legacy of TMI*, report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, John G. Kemeny, Chairman (October 1979), Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-25694. https://archive.org/details/needforchangeleg00unitrich.
[^29]: Office of the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, "Richard Lewis Thornburgh," *Attorneys General of the United States* (service as United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1969 to 1975, and as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, 1975 to 1977).
[^30]: Kemeny Commission, chronology, paragraphs 6 and the Thursday press conference account (informal agreement between Governor Thornburgh and the White House; Harold Denton's role; Charles Gallina's statement and Thornburgh's distrust). https://archive.org/details/needforchangeleg00unitrich.
[^31]: *Nuclear Accident and Recovery at Three Mile Island: A Report*, prepared by the Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation for the Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate, Committee Print, Serial No. 96-14 (June 1980), appendix of persons involved (Thornburgh, "Responsible for determining whether an evacuation was necessary"). https://archive.org/details/nuclearaccidentr00unitrich.
[^32]: *Nuclear Accident and Recovery at Three Mile Island* (Senate Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation, June 1980), account of the April krypton venting recommendation and Governor Thornburgh's request to the Union of Concerned Scientists. https://archive.org/details/nuclearaccidentr00unitrich.
[^33]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report*, House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
[^34]: David Templeton, Westmoreland County article, *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*, September 9, 1998, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (1998), description of the 4:45 p.m. landing and the village location. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1998_10_no_351.
[^35]: Templeton, *Pittsburgh Press*, May 19, 1991, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 263 (1991), passages on James Oberg, Kosmos 96, the Venus probe and the debris-return agreement. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1991_06_no_263.
[^36]: David Templeton, "Something Dropped in on Kecksburg Unexpectedly 25 Years Ago," *Pittsburgh Press*, May 19, 1991, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 263 (1991), witness accounts of the fireball, the acorn-shaped craft, the Air Force, Army and NASA personnel, and the flatbed truck. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1991_06_no_263.
[^37]: David Templeton, *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*, September 9, 1998, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (1998), including the military's meteorite statement and the Gordon quotation. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1998_10_no_351.
[^38]: Ann Saul Dudurich, "Sci Fi special puts Kecksburg mystery under a microscope," *Tribune-Review* (Greensburg), October 24, 2003, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 412 (2003). https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_2003_11_no_412.
[^39]: David Templeton, *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*, September 9, 1998, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (1998), account of Oberg's interview with Savinykh. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1998_10_no_351.
[^40]: Templeton, *Post-Gazette*, September 9, 1998, reprinted in UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (1998), account of the U.S. Space Command report on Kosmos 96 crashing in Canada after 3 a.m. https://archive.org/details/UFO_Newsclipping_Service_1998_10_no_351.
[^41]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously." *The New Yorker*, May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously (Sci Fi Channel invitation of 2002 through its director of projects, Larry Landsman).
[^42]: *Kean v. National Aeronautics and Space Administration*, Civil Action No. 03-2509 (EGS) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion, Document 45, filed March 27, 2007 (Sullivan, J.), pp. 1 to 10 and 19 to 21. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.106063/gov.uscourts.dcd.106063.45.0.pdf.
[^43]: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "Was It a UFO? NASA Agrees to Search Its Files on 1965 Incident Again," October 29, 2007, https://www.rcfp.org/was-it-ufo-nasa-agrees-search-its-files-1965-incident-again/; "NASA Ordered to Review Its Records for Data on 'UFO' Sighting," December 10, 2007, https://www.rcfp.org/nasa-ordered-review-its-records-data-ufo-sighting/.
[^44]: Gibb, Tom. "Reality 'X-file': People in Kecksburg want to resolve what fell from the sky in 1965." *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*, March 9, 2003, p. 21.
[^45]: Washington Star, August 19, 1977, "CIA Thinks Israel Got Uranium Diverted," CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060029-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400060029-4.
[^46]: Washington Star, August 19, 1977, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060029-4, the account of the February 1976 NRC briefing given by Carl Duckett. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400060029-4.
[^47]: Comptroller General of the United States, *Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.? 13 Years of Contradiction and Confusion*, report EMD-79-8 (December 18, 1978), redacted release of May 6, 2010, Introduction and the account of the April 1965 inspection and the November 1965 investigation. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3149993/38-Nuclear-Diversion-in-the-U-S-13-Years-of.pdf.
[^48]: Comptroller General, *Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.?* (1978), account of the FBI briefings of October 1977 on the Foreign Agent Registration Act inquiry opened August 1965 and reported October 1966. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3149993/38-Nuclear-Diversion-in-the-U-S-13-Years-of.pdf.
[^49]: Comptroller General, *Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.?* (1978), digest and chapter on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (February 1966 request; investigation of diversion not focused until May 1976; request by President Ford of April 1976). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3149993/38-Nuclear-Diversion-in-the-U-S-13-Years-of.pdf.
[^50]: Comptroller General, *Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.?* (1978), digest and chapter on the FBI, quoting the agents' statement that circumstantial information exists but there is no substantive proof; Federation of American Scientists, "GAO Report on the 1965 NUMEC Affair Declassified," May 13, 2010, quoting the report's statement on denied access. https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2010/05/gao_numec.
[^51]: Hersh, Seymour M., *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (Random House, 1991), chapter 18.
[^52]: Washington Star, December 31, 1977, "Top-Secret Government File on Missing Uranium Revealed," CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060014-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400060014-0.
[^53]: *Washington Post*, March 2, 1978, article on the former CIA official's account of the 1976 NRC briefing, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060010-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400060010-4.
[^54]: David Burnham, *New York Times*, April 29, 1979, article on the Inspector General's report of April 27, 1979, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060002-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000400060002-3.
[^55]: Memorandum, "Material for Senator Howard Baker," April 25, 1978, and letter of George Bush, Director of Central Intelligence, to Senator Howard Baker, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, April 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R000700010020-2. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP81M00980R000700010020-2.
[^56]: Loughlin, James. "Archdiocese of Philadelphia," *The Catholic Encyclopedia*, vol. 11, New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11793b.htm.
[^57]: *Philadelphia Inquirer*, society and nightlife column, February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/.
[^58]: Report I of the Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury (2018), Section I, pp. 2 to 3, on the secret archive and the practices identified by the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.
[^59]: Report I of the Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury (2018), Section II, Diocese of Allentown history, and the reference to the 2005 Philadelphia archdiocese grand jury report.
[^60]: "Joint Response to Release of Grand Jury Report," Pennsylvania Office of Victim Advocate, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office for Child and Youth Protection, press release, August 14, 2018. https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/ova/documents/resources/documents/press-releases/rls%20-%20Joint%20Response%20to%20Grand%20Jury%20Report%2008142018%20FINAL.pdf.
[^61]: S. Hrg. 100-773, Part 3, pp. 254 to 255 (the Tamiami business, the twin Comanche bought from Air America, Lakeland operations).
[^62]: Henry, Ed. "Unholy Alliance?" *Roll Call*, February 12, 2003. https://rollcall.com/2003/02/12/unholy-alliance/.
[^63]: "Richard King Mellon Foundation awards $575,000 to Galileo Project," The Galileo Project, Harvard University, April 26, 2024.
[^64]: Alabama Secretary of State, entity 001-041-463, The Sol Foundation: Certificate of Formation (filed September 23, 2022) and board consent (August 31, 2022).
[^65]: *Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy* (Washington, 1964), staff list and the chapter on Jack Ruby (telephone discussion of the polygraph examination between Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter and Defense Counsel Joe H. Tonahill). https://archive.org/details/warrenreportrepo00unit.
[^66]: Britannica, "Arlen Specter," entry on Specter's Senate service, 1981 to 2011. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arlen-Specter.
[^67]: Kaiser, Frederick M., *Legislative History of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence* (Congressional Research Service, 1978), part III (Government Operations Committee vote of February 24, 1976; Rules and Administration Committee report of April 29, 1976; compromise endorsed by Majority Leader Mansfield and Minority Leader Scott; S. Res. 400 agreed May 19, 1976). https://sgp.fas.org/crs/intel/leghist.pdf.
[^68]: Vinny Vella, "A former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group has been charged with her parents' killing," *Philadelphia Inquirer*, June 24, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/michelle-zajko-zizians-group-parents-murder-charges-chester-heights-20260624.html
[^69]: Stephan A. Schwartz, "Charles T. Tart Obituary, 29 April 1937 - 5 March 2025," Institut Metapsychique International, April 2025. https://www.metapsychique.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Tart-VO.pdf.
[^70]: Federal Judicial Center, "Nathan, Alison Julie," Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/nathan-alison-julie.


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