Karen Mauk was just 6 years old and came from a loving home. She had just celebrated her sixth birthday and was excited to get started on Halloween fun, so she coaxed her mother into letting her do some early trick-or-treating a few days before Halloween. When Karen Mauk’s mother left to go to a PTA meeting, that was the last time she would ever see her little girl alive.
Most sources for this story are old newspapers from 1954.
Karen Mauk
- Karen Diane Mauk
- Daughter of a steelworker at Bethlehem Steel Corp.
- Blond, curly hair
- First grader at Conemaugh public school
- 4 brothers, 1 or 2 sisters
- Turned 6 just three days before murder
- Pallbearers were firemen who found her
Harry Gossard
- 39 years old
- Former merchant seaman with a record of sex crimes
- Admitted to killing Karen
- Lived with mother
- Divorced twice
- Worked on an Atlantic Oil Refining Company tanker
- Lived 150 feet from where Karen’s hat was found
- Served a 90-day morals offense in 1936
- Federal prison for stealing mail
- 24-hour interrogation led to confession
- Car’s tire treads matched plaster casts of tire tracks at scene
- Threats made by local residents
Conemaugh area
- 8,000 residents
- Mostly steelworkers
Sources
1954_10_29_The_Pittsburgh_Press_Girl slain front page
1954_10_30_The_Patriot_News_Angry city
1954_10_29_Wilkes_Barre_Times_Leader_the_Evening_News_Sex fiends rounded up
1954_11_02_Lebanon_Daily_News_huge headline
1954_11_03_Pittsburgh_Post_Gazette_Killing confessed at scene 1
1955_04_21_The_Nanty_Glo_Journal_Gossard sentenced to death
1954_11_04_The_Daily_Herald_Luring with money 1
1955_01_06_The_Nanty_Glo_Journal_Gossard pleads guilty
1955_03_05_The_Daily_American_Gossard testifies
1956_01_24_The_Daily_Notes_Plea denied.jpg
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