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Officer William A. Lackman, 34, was shot during the morning of October 17, 1968, in a gun battle between officers and three men in a botched robbery at the home of Dr. Frank Anthony Washick, 65, southwest corner, Welsh and Verree roads.
Commissioner Rizzo said at least one of the gunmen had ordered Washick into the house as the doctor was about to get into his car in front of the two and one-half story stone structure.
At approximately 9:00 a.m., three hold-up men; including John Seeley and Adolph Schwartz, entered the Washick residence and announced, "This is a hold up" to Dr. Washick and his wife Anna. The Washicks along with their daughter, Mary Ann Washick, were at home.
"Are you kidding?" the doctor asked.
"No, we're not kidding This is a stick up. Get them up" said the gunmen.
Police said Doctor Washick grappled with one man and in the confusion his wife called the police. Dr. Washick was pistol-whipped and was later treated for injuries. The intruders then proceeded to ransack the home looking for coins and jewelry.
Officer Lackman was one of the first officers to respond to the call for help from Mrs. Washick.
The Commonwealth, in 1973, described the events as follows, "During the robbery Anna Washick was able to call the police from the den-library in the home without being detected. While the robbery was still in progress, two police cars pulled into the driveway of the Washick residence. The concern and movements of the robbers in the residence after seeing the cars in the driveway gave the Washicks the opportunity to go into the laundry room of the home and admit two of the arriving police officers. The other officers remained outside the home. One of the officers who had entered the home went through the door connecting the laundry room to the kitchen; the other officer remained in the laundry room with the Washick family. Immediately, two shots were heard and the officer who had gone into the kitchen crawled back into the laundry room area. His wounds were fatal. Approximately forty-five seconds later, additional shots were fired by officers who were outside the home. They were shooting at one of the robbers attempting to escape through the front door. This robber, John Seeley, was shot and killed by the police. Additional officers who had arrived in a third car after the original shooting, fired at one of the robbers who was seen looking out of the second-floor window."
Police said ballistic tests indicated the bullet that killed Lackman was one of two fired by John Seeley, 31. Lackman was shot in the neck in the dining room moments after he entered the house through the back door.
Seeley was shot to death by Sergeant Charles Miller who followed Lackman to the scene and arrived only seconds after Lackman. Miller shot Seeley as he attempted to flee out the front door.
Patrolman William Lackman, 34, died in Nazareth Hospital at 11 a.m. where he had been rushed by fellow officers as Seeley lay sprawled dead in a pile of leaves on the lawn outside the combination home and office of Dr. Washick.
Lackman's wife, Pauline, 24, who was expecting their second child, was at their Lawndale home when a police officer knocked on her door and said there had been "an accident."
Lackman, father of a 6-year old girl and an 11-year veteran of the force, died approximately 90 minutes after the shooting and despite efforts by doctors and fellow officers to save him.
Police Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo was at the hospital and told his wife Pauline, 24, the news. She was placed under sedation. An angered Rizzo said Seeley, "probably has been given chance after chance, and look what we have now, a dead policeman."
As doctors at the hospital fought unsuccessfully to save Lackman and 300 of his fellow officers answered an emergency appeal for blood, hundreds of other police and detectives rushed into the area in a search for other suspects in the robbery attempt. Special teams of riflemen, members of the K-9 Corps and detectives continued a search for other suspects.
At one point, police surrounded the Washick combination residence and home and fired tear gas into it, believing that one or more of the would-be robbers were still in the house. Police found Adolph Schwartz, 22, hiding in a second-floor closet in the Washick home.
Based on Schwartz questioning, police then went to the home of John J. McIntyre, 24 and arrested him. He confessed to being the getaway driver.
Philadelphia District Attorney Arlen Specter sought the death penalty for the robber-killers, stating, "As long as I'm district attorney, I'm going to demand the death penalty for anybody convicted in a case where a police officer was killed in the course of the crime."
Further investigation led to the arrest warrant for Michael J. Borschell, 24, who turned himself into homicide detectives five days after the homicide. Borschell both planned the crime and provided a white 1965 Buick automobile for use as the getaway vehicle. Borschell, himself, was not present at the Washick residence.
During Borschell's trial, he implicated yet another suspect, William Russell, 24, of Camden who he identified as the "mastermind" of the robbery scheme.
William Russell was subsequently arrested and tried for the murder as well. During Russell's trial, Borschell changed his story because of a $250 murder contract that Russell put out on him at Holmesburg Prison.
The surviving robbers received life sentences. Schwartz was sentenced on July 31, 1969. McIntyre, who received life on Feb. 27, 1970, had his request for retrial rejected in 1971.
Borschell was convicted in March 1970 during which Assistant Attorney Edmund Levine labeled him a "classic evil man." He escaped prison and on the night of May 19, 1982 the FBI recaptured him in Limon, Colorado about 90 miles east of Denver where he had been living.
Russell did not accept his fate when he was sentenced to life at the conclusion of a second trial on November 19, 1974. He protested, "Unfair! I do not acknowledge the verdict." He was sent off to Graterford. Russell continued his appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court whom granted a new trial on March 23, 1978.
Court records show that another male, Joseph Grissell, testified for the Commonwealth that he was supposed to act as a lookout for the perpetrators, but backed out.
Seeley had been hired by the other robbers because he was a known cop killer, having murdered "off-duty" patrolman Herman J. Dietrich, 40, on Aug. 6, 1967 as he slept in the bedroom of the apartment of his estranged wife.
Seeley was an ex-convict with a history of 12 arrests, free on $15,000 bail from the 1967 murder. While under the murder indictment, he was arrested for aggravated assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, later to be released on payment of a $10 fine.
Seeley previously received a 5 to 10 year sentence for robbery. Seeley was arrested numerous times since dropping out of school in 1953, including a 1958 charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a girl in an auto accident. He received prison sentences twice.
Seeley went to Washick's home six days before his trial on the Dietrich murder.
Dr. Washick; an ear, nose and throat physician, had retired from his medical practice in 1965 and was working at Philadelphia State Hospital when the robbery occurred. In 1977, Dr. Washick and his wife moved to Greenville, South Carolina. He died in 1988 and she died in 2005.
Officer Lackman was assigned to the 7th District, located at Bustleton Avenue and Bowler Street. He was survived by his wife, Pauline, his daughter, Mary and a son, William Jr. (Affectionately referred to as "Bill").
On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 11:00AM, at the former home of Dr. Washick, a Hero Plaque was unveiled honoring Philadelphia Police Officer William Lackman #2762.
Philadelphia Police files from 1968 listed the location of occurrance as 9158 Verree Rd. Back then, the house stood alone at the SW corner of Welsh and Verree. The property included vacant ground around it. It was a remote, country setting. Since then, houses have been built on both sides of Dr. Washick's home.
Bob Ballantine of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 recently interviewed the few remaining neighbors from the area and determined the correct location of occurrance.
Today, the home is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, St. Mary of Potchaev. Its present address is 9230 Verree Road. After the plaque ceremony, Father Michael Tsyuman showed me inside the home where the events of 1968 occurred. Today it is a beautiful place of worship.
The Evening Bulletin – Philadelphia; Sunday morning, October 20, 1968, Section 3 Page 15:
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