Murderer on Death Row Says He's in "Don't Worry Club"

Pennsylvania, 1920

COLLINS NOT WORRYING

Clarence R. Collins, confessed murderer of Geo. Bushman, of Gettysburg, and sentenced to die on the electric chair, occupies his mind with art and music in his cell in the Adams county jail, where he has been confined for 16 long months. He is an able decorator. The youth told a "Times" reporter that he takes things as they come and concentrates his mind to keep from worrying. Collins remains well physically and mentally, and keeps his appearance tidy. He has drawn artistic pictures on the cell walls and has attractively arranged various ornaments. Collins is learning to play the violin and mandolin. "Does it become monotonous to you," the reporter asked, "to stay in this one place all the time?" "Some days it is and some days it isn't," he replied. "When I first came in here I walked the floor every night and worried all the time. Then all of sudden I joined the 'Don't worry club' and since then I have been getting along fine. The only thing to do is to take things as they come."

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, Pennsylvania, Feb. 19, 1920, p. 9.


MURDERERS EXECUTED

Adams County's youthful murderers, Clarence R. Collins, a native of Mt. Joy township, and Charles C. Reinecker, a native of Highland township, went calmly, without a trace of fear, to their death on the electric chair in the Western Penitentiary near Bellefonte, Monday morning. Collins was the first to die, the current being turned on at 7:06 a. m. and being declared dead at 7:13 o'clock. Reinecker's body received the shock at 7:20 and he was dead at 7:25.

When, after the hard fight, they were informed that the electric chair was inevitable, the boys prepared for the end by singing hymns and writing letters to friends and relatives. They were taken to Rockview on Friday from Gettysburg by Detective Chas. Wilson, Sheriff Hartman and Horace E. Smiley. Neither Collins nor Reinecker showed the slightest trace of emotion. Only once Reinecker remarked. "Well, it has to be. We have to pay the penalty for our crime."

The surprising fact that both Collins and Reinecker were able to go through that terrible ordeal without once breaking down was due to a large measure to the efforts of Dr. J. B. Baker and Dr. Harry Daniels, their spiritual advisers. For many weeks these two pastors labored for hours in the cells of the condemned murderers persuading them to think of the world beyond and to forget the stern realities before them. Dr. Baker talked and prayed with the doomed murderers during their last few hours on earth.

The only official Adams county representative in the death room Monday morning was Arthur C. Sentz, constable of Mr. Joy township. He requested to be assigned the duty and was chosen by Sheriff Hartman. Clarence Bushman, sergeant in the Marine Corps, a son of the murdered man, had expressed a desire to see the execution but he wasn't permitted to do so.

Collins was buried in St. Mark's cemetery near his former home, and Reinecker was buried in the family plot in Evergreen cemetery, Gettysburg on Tuesday. The funeral service in each instance consisted only of a short commitment at the grave. John C. Shealer, of Gettysburg, went to Rock View Monday for the bodies. The two boys, so far as is known were the youngest pair to be electrocuted in the history of Pennsylvania. Collins was 19 years old and Reinecker only 17 years when the crime was committed.

At Rockview, an execution is an every day duty and little attention is paid to the feelings of prisoners. When Collins and Reinecker were being turned over to the warden Friday evening, the latter said to Detective Charles Wilson:

"Have you sent up the caskets from Gettysburg?" In answer to a reply from Detective Wilson that he was not familiar with the funeral arrangements, the warden stated:

"Well I hope the caskets arrive soon. We usually ship out the bodies the same day."

This conversation took place in the presence of both Collins and Reinecker. The tragic ending to the lives of the most cold blooded murder in the history of Adams county. On the night of October 16, 1918, the pair of Gettysburg youths hired George Bushman, local automobile driver, to take them to Carlisle. Near the boundary line between Adams and Cumberland counties, Reinecker drew a revolver and shot Bushman in the back of the head. Collins then drove the machine through Carlisle to the river road in Harrisburg where the pair dumped the body along the bank of the Susquehanna. Robbery was their motive, but only a small sum was secured. On October 24, Collins was arrested in Waynesboro by Detective Charles Wilson on the charge of automobile larceny. The next day the prisoner broke down and confessed that he and Reinecker had not only stolen the machine, but had murdered its driver. Wilson immediately arrested Reineekcr in front of Reichle's meat market. Reinecker also confessed his part in the crime.

During the January term of court in 1919 Collins was convicted of murder in the first degree. On February 9th the jury returned a similar verdict against Reinecker. Then started a long series of proceedings which lasted over a period of more than two years.

—New Oxford Item, April 28, 1921, p. 1.

Note: Bushman's wife, Mary L. Bushman, 73, died Sept. 19, 1933 near Gettysburg. Mrs. Bushman was buried at Evergreen cemetery.