‘Right in front of this church’: Richland group hosts historian’s talk on ‘Mrs. Soffel’ jailbreak, escape

A 1902 Pittsburgh jailbreak that inspired songs, books, stage plays and feature films took the escapees through the heart of Richland.

“They’re going to go right in front of this church,” Butler historian Bill May said. “And the folks from Bakerstown are going to come out the next morning, and they’re to have a cool time seeing the Biddle boys’ sleigh marks in the snow.”

The Biddles were Jack and Ed, brothers who had been convicted of murders they probably didn’t commit. Their accomplice, and Ed’s paramour, was Kate Soffel, wife of the Allegheny County Jail warden.

May told their story April 6 at the First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown for a Richland History Group program, taking a deep dive into the basis for a 1984 movie starring none other than Mel Gibson as Ed and an Academy Award-winning Best Actress as the title character, albeit in a rather fanciful casting selection.

“If you’ve seen the movie ‘Mrs. Soffel,’ she is not nearly as attractive as Diane Keaton,” May said, although the younger Biddle brother may have been a match for Gibson: “Ed Biddle is a very handsome guy, black hair and dark blue eyes. And he claimed that no woman could resist him.”

That piqued May’s curiosity.

“I wondered why Ed Biddle, who was considered by most women the handsomest man they had ever seen: How did he end up where he was to hang from the gallows and would end up in the Butler jail?” he said. “That set me on this journey, starting with their early life in Canada.”

May’s presentation took members of a room-filling audience from the Biddles’ less-than-ideal childhood to reaching their goal of cheating the hangman, dying from injuries they suffered in a police shootout.

Bad beginnings

Their father, George, set a precedent of sorts: When he deserted during the Civil War, a capital offense, he fled to the neighboring country to the north. Among his children were Jack, born in 1874, and Ed, 1877.

Mrs. Biddle died before Ed turned 3. George remarried and headed for New York, and Ed eventually lived on a farm, receiving ill treatment. In fact, he embarked on a life of crime by stealing food because he was so hungry.

Most of his other brothers followed similar paths, and Ed teamed up for a felonious spree in Cleveland with Jack and another unsavory individual.

“If you saw the movie ‘Mrs. Soffel’ or if you’ve ever read on this story, you probably never heard about Walter Dorman,” May said. “He is the brains of the outfit.”

The Chloroform Gang, so called because the miscreants used the liquid to knock out victims, moved their activities to Pittsburgh. Their final burglary attempt was on April 12, 1901, at a Mt. Washington grocery store on Albert Street owned by Thomas Kahney.

During the early morning break-in, Dorman fatally shot Kahney, according to what his wife initially told law enforcement.

“She’ll later change her story and claim it was Jack Biddle,” May reported.

Acting on tips, Pittsburgh police apprehended Dorman about 11 a.m. at his Hill District boarding house, and then headed across the river to Allegheny West to nab the Biddles.

Detective Patrick Fitzgerald and Inspector Robert Gray managed to arrest Jack on the spot as they entered that boarding house. Ed tried to flee out of a second-floor window and then attempted suicide with his pistol before Fitzgerald head-butted him.

“The two start wrestling. Now, shots are fired, but Ed Biddle’s gun had only one bullet missing from the chamber, and that was in his mouth,” May said, but the detective was killed by a projectile. “They’re going to blame Biddle for this, but in my mind — and you’ll see, in Mrs. Fitzgerald’s mind — I believe Robert Gray shot Paddy Fitzgerald.”

Fateful affair

During the ensuing trial, Dorman turned state’s evidence. Jack was convicted of killing Kahney, and Ed took the rap for Fitzgerald, despite his wife’s belief he didn’t do it.

And despite Mrs. Fitzgerald’s claim that her husband didn’t believe in the death penalty, the Biddles were sentenced to hang. They were incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail, where Peter Soffel was warden.

His wife was asked by a priest to provide some “motherly care” for the condemned men, and Kate started visiting the Biddles.

“She’s almost 35 years old. Ed Biddle’s 24. So keep that in mind as this ‘romance’ takes place,” May said. “She’d spend five minutes with Jack, and three hours and 55 minutes with Ed.”

Kate spent part of the time concealing Ed’s sawing through the bars with tools she’d provided, and by Jan. 30, 1902, the brothers were ready to make their move.

Given her attraction to Ed — she’d been spotted flashing him from her bedroom in the warden’s quarters — Mrs. Soffel wanted to accompany the Biddles. Their preference was to stay put.

“They originally told her, ‘Look, we’ll go ourselves. I will leave a message for you at the post office under an assumed name to tell you where we are in Canada. You go there. If the police are on our trail, we’ll leave another anonymous letter for you at their post office to tell you where we are next,’” May said, and they gave her morphine so that she could kill herself if caught.

But when the brothers broke out, Kate went with them.

“They have a very bad plan: They have no plan,” May reported. “They have no winter clothes. And the only money they have is that Mrs. Soffel has $26.”

‘Never killed anyone’

The trio headed north, passing through West View before holing up in the one-room Perrysville schoolhouse, next to Hiland Presbyterian Church in Ross, to warm up by a stove.

“The next morning, when the kids showed up, there was tobacco juice spit all around that pot-bellied stove, which the Biddles didn’t bother to clean up,” May said. “And the kids were made to clean it up when they came in that day.”

At a McCandless farm, the fugitives stole a sleigh and horse named Flora, and then headed through Hampton and Richland, eventually crossing the Butler County line. With newspapers prominently featuring their story, including a likeness of Mrs. Soffel, they drew recognition at places they stopped, including the Stevenson Hotel on Butler Plank Road in Franklin Township.

From there, Kate and the Biddles took the sleigh west toward Prospect, with Jack stealing a shotgun along the way. Police caught up with them on a farm owned by a family named Graham.

“The police claim that Ed Biddle or Jack, one of them, took that shotgun and fired at them first,” May said. “But that was an impossibility, because they had no ammunition in that shotgun.”

At the Butler jail that evening, Feb. 1, Ed died of his wounds first, and Jack a few hours later. A Father Walsh from St. Paul’s Catholic Church had taken their confessions.

“Father Walsh would not divulge exactly what they had said,” May reported. “But what he did say was that the Biddles said they had never killed anyone. They admitted to doing many, many bad things, but they said they had never killed anyone, meaning the grocer Kahne or Patrick Fitzgerald.”

Catherine “Kate” Dietrich Soffel was convicted and imprisoned, divorced by her husband, became a seamstress, changed her name and died Aug 30, 1909, at age 42.

Bill May, a retired teacher, presents live history talks, walking history tours and Butler Ghost Walks in the city each October. Visit www.facebook.com/p/Bill-May-History-Events-100057683310259.

For more information about the Richland History Group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/670182167304798.