Albert Mohr is shot

On Saturday, June 4, 1927, Leta's second husband Albert Mohr was shot while talking to his neighbor. According to news reports, Albert was on the front porch of his and Leta’s home when Fred Valentine walked up to the porch and shot him twice at point blank range. One bullet entered under his arm, and the other passed through his neck, severing the jugular vein.

After the shooting, Valentine ran down the nearest alley, but was pursued by Leta’s nine-year-old son Dale, who was either playing on the front porch or yard at the time. “You shot Daddy!” Dale cried as he made pursuit.

Charles Halterman, an off-duty police patrolman who was with his wife in his own nearby garage, heard the shots and Dale’s cry. He pursued Valentine, ordered the assailant to throw down his weapon and stop running. Valentine complied and was immediately arrested.

During his interrogation, Valentine confessed that he had been nurturing a grudge against Albert for 20 years. Valentine stated that Albert and another man had assaulted him. From that time forward, Valentine told police that he had done nothing for twenty years except “drink coffee, eat doughnuts and plan to get even with Mohr.”

A short time before the shooting, Valentine had seen Albert near the glass factory where the latter was working, followed him home and planned his revenge, which he executed a short time later. According to the news reports, Valentine stuck with his story until appearing before a judge on Monday. At that time, he stated that he had not meant to shoot Albert, but only to “scare Mohr away.” Valentine also noted that he had been threatened by Albert and was afraid of him.

Leta & Albert wedding picture

Albert died en route to the hospital. He was 43 years old, and he and Leta had been married four and a half years. (They married on November 22, 1922, about a month after her divorce from Ralph Chetister, her first husband and the father of her two children.) The news reports do not share where Leta or her daughter Vivian were at the time, but interestingly, the photo story that first appeared in The Toledo Blade on June 6, 1927 featured photographs of Albert (of course) and Leta’s children. None of Leta.

So far, I have not learned whether Valentine was convicted or even tried. These matters can take a long time, and frankly, I wasn’t about to read through weeks of newspapers on microfilm to find out. However, I do have an affiliate with the Toledo Police Department researching the story, and to find out if there is some other information.

While Valentine’s contention may be accurate, the family rumor was that Albert and Leta were bootleggers, they made whiskey, and Albert’s murder was related.