Murder, Manslaughter, Accident? Frank Sabo and Steve Oswald

 

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Both Frank Sabo and Steve Oswald were born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States, Sabo in 1907 and Oswald in 1912. Both lived in Ohio and Michigan at various times and had met each other, but around 1942, they reestablished their acquaintance in Defiance County, Ohio.

Frank Sabo, 67 and divorced, was born in 1875 in Hungary. He was enumerated in the Defiance County census in 1940 where he was renting a house and farming, as well as doing some cattle buying. Living with him was Joseph Molnar, 52, also born in Hungary; Sabo had hired him as a farm hand. The census stated that Sabo was at the same home in 1935.

Newspaper articles revealed that Steve Oswald, 66, was born in a small community near Budapest. His father died when he was three and his mother when he was twenty-one. His father had owned a small vineyard - one acre - and he supplied wine to the local village tavern. His mother kept the small farm going until her death. Oswald served in the Hungarian Army for five years, "breaking horses for officers." In 1912, at the age of 36, he came to Illinois in the United States where he joined a small Hungarian community.

Later, the two men met in Detroit, Michigan, where they worked together. Oswald went to South Bend to work at Studebaker and then became a seasonal farm laborer and other times collected ashes and rubbish. In September 1941, he came to the William Forder home near Hicksville where he was hired as a farm hand. In that winter, he renewed his acquaintance with Sabo, as they met at a stock sale in Hicksville.

It was reported that Oswald, at least, could not read and barely could write his name. He spoke broken English, even though in the United States for thirty years.

Now, for the story...in the Defiance Crescent-News on November 21, 1942:

"GUN OWNER SOUGHT AFTER MAN

FOUND SLAIN"

That was the headline that faced the citizens of Defiance County on Saturday, November 21, 1942. The victim was a local man, Frank Sabo, 67, local farmer and cattle buyer, found lying on the Washington-Delaware County Road near his home. A shotgun was found in a ditch near the body. Who would do this? The hunt had begun before the readers had even had their breakfasts.

"FRANK SABO KILLED ON TOWNSHIP ROAD NORTH OF SHERWOOD

Acquaintance Who Discovers Body Quizzed, Distance from Weapon Rules Out Suicide.

"...Steve Oswald, 66 year old farm laborer of route 3, Hicksville, was held after questioning while officers checked his story. Oswald discovered the body about 12:10 p.m. Friday when he went to the home of 'my friend' Sabo to invite him to go hunting, he told authorities.

Oswald was taken into custody after Deputy Sheriff Alner D. Ryan found a shotgun and a box of shells, with five cartridges missing, in the car in which Oswald had driven from his beet wagon home, one mile southwest of Hicksville, on the Williams-Forder farm, to the Sabo place three miles north and one half mile west of Sherwood."

When he was questioned, Oswald said that he had taken five shells from the box last week to shoot at woodchuck. Officers were going to his home to check out the story that Oswald had swabbed out the gun he had borrowed from a friend, Lewis Tote, Hicksville - the 12-gauge shotgun found in Oswald's car. That story was true, but there was a second shotgun also, which was found 3 hours after finding the body, and that gun had been fired recently - also a 12-gauge. A hunting party found it tossed behind some bushes at the bottom of the ditch.

"Hollis Breininger, 35, route 1, Ney and Donald Fix, 26, Ney, who were driving west along the township line road to go hunting, discovered Sabo's body just a few minutes after Oswald had made his discover. They informed officers...

Officer Crawford took Oswald back to the scene...(where) he denied ownership of the shells found near the body. Officers said he claimed he did not notice the cartridges in the pool of blood until the second trip back to the body."

"We are certain," Sheriff Bridenbaugh declared early today, "that because of the nature of Sabo's wound he must have fallen almost on the spot where he was killed...There is no doubt that someone shot Sabo at close range and from behind." Suicide was ruled out early on.

A full investigation ensued, first with ballistics experts who recovered pellets from Sabo and took fingerprints from the gun. Acquaintances informed police that Sabo often carried large sums of money; could that be a motive? No, only $5 was found in his pockets. Friends said he hardly ever hunted and had no hunting license.

Not Oswald

Oswald's story, at that time, was "that he arrived at the Sabo place about 11 a.m. He said he found the door open and called for Sabo and got no answer. He said he then went back outside and called for him, thinking he might be in a field husking corn. When he got no answer, he said he walked over to a small orchard of Sabo's place east of the house and it was then he first saw the body in the road.

He said he walked up to it, leaned over and shook the body by the shoulder and called to Sabo to arouse him. He said he then saw blood and realized he was dead.

 Oswald said he was very excited as he ran back to the Sabo place for his car and on arrival at the Crawford farm had considerable difficulty getting people there to understand what he wanted them to do."

He entered a "NOT GUILTY" plea to manslaughter.

The Defiance Crescent published this on December 14, 1942, on the front page:

"OSWALD ENTERS NOT GUILTY PLEA

Steve Oswald, 66 -year old Hicksville farm hand pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter when arraigned today before Common Pleas Judge C. W. Palmer. He was bound over to the grand jury under $5,000 bond and returned to the county jail. The jury will convene Jan. 4.

The charge was brought by Prosecutor Erwin L. Clemens in connection with the shotgun slaying Nov. 2 of Frank Sabo, 67, Washington Twp stock buyer. Oswald had contended he shot Sabo accidentally when he stumbled in a ditch and his gun discharged as they were walking along the road near Sabo's home."

It took a second lie detector test in Toledo to verify the story that Oswald told on his first test. This time a Hungarian priest also talked to Oswald to be sure he understood the proceedings. 

The jury absolved Oswald of blame in the shooting, believing that it happened accidentally. He said he slipped and fell in the ditch, his finger on the trigger, and his gun accidentally discharged. A day and a half was spent examining evidence at the trial, and Oswald did not take the stand in his own defense.

The jurors: Ruby Hall, Dorothy Lavan, Beatrice Haller, Clifford English, Julie Ann Ryan, Helen Seither, Adam Riger, J. Ray Schlib, Clayton Dunmire, Maria Monroe, Mary Ames, Estella Singer, Ralph Richardson, Henry Blunk

The Verdict: NOT GUILTY