'Kill for Thrill' 40 years later: Requiem For A Cop

Editor’s note: The Tribune-Review wrote a series of articles 40 years ago about a murder spree in which four people were killed in eight days across Western Pennsylvania. This is one of the original articles, published on Sunday, Jan. 6, 1980.

Hundreds of mourners crowded into the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Apollo Sunday afternoon to pay their respects to 21-year-old borough Patrolman Leonard Clifford Miller, who was shot to death in the line of duty Thursday morning.

The service – attended by 247 policemen from western Pennsylvania and 450 friends and borough residents – culminated three days of shock, anger, and grief in this Armstrong County town of 2,300 over the death of the dedicated and popular young patrolman.

Miller, who was shot to death after pursuing a speeding car, was the borough’s first black patrolman and the youngest ever hired. Three persons have been charged with his slaying.

Miller, who became one of the borough’s two full-time police officers only a week ago, was eulogized as a young man who “loved life, loved people, and loved his work” by Apollo Mayor William Kerr.

“His education, training, and experience prepared him well for a full-time police officer,” Kerr said. “This passing is a tremendous loss to all of us. We loved him not only as a police officer but as a friend.”

One young woman, asked about the dozens of young people who attended the service, said Miller had “lots of friends.” Indeed, Mayor Kerr cited the patrolman for his “excellent rapport” with teenagers.

Police cordoned Apollo’s Pennsylvania Avenue where the church is located to accommodate the throngs of mourners. In his honor, flags were flown along First Street and Warren Avenue in Apollo – the route to Riverview Cemetery where the officer was buried.

Serving as pallbearers were Apollo Police Chief Richard Murphy and five borough patrolmen. The casket, draped with an American flag, was escorted from the funeral home through a block-long double line of policemen who stood in salute.

In the chilly afternoon wind, small, silent groups of mourners huddled around the church as bugler Kevin Gibbons of the Kiski Township Police Department sounded “Taps.”

In the packed church – still decorated with Christmas wreaths and two, towering Christmas trees – a five-member gospel choir from the Avonmore Baptist Church sang “Lord Reach Out and Touch Me” as they stood to one side of the flag-draped casket.

The Rev. Frederick B. Zikell, Miller’s pastor, told mourners that if the patrolman’s death moves just one of them to take up the high causes for which he lived, “he did not die in vain.”

As 2:50 p.m., with the sky overcast, a caravan of cars carrying mourners and policemen left the church site and traveled slowly up Pennsylvania Avenue and along First Street. Their route took them near the spot at Apollo Plaza where the young patrolman started his pursuit of the speeding sports car which ended in his death in Oklahoma Borough, Westmoreland County.

At a snow-covered Riverview Cemetery in Apollo, the 307th Army Reserve Military Police Company of New Kensington gave Miller a 21-gun salute. A state police helicopter flew above the fluttering canopy over the casket as family and friends bowed their heads in final prayers.

Gary Curran, the funeral director who handled the burial arrangments, said thousands came for viewing Friday night and all-day Saturday. He said the funeral was the largest ever conducted in Apollo in his memory.

Serving as pallbearers in addition to Police Chief Murphy were Apollo police officers Robin Davis, Thomas Coulter, James Clawson, Donald Mayhan and Charles Sharon.

Policemen came from cities, boroughs, and townships in Armstrong, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Indiana, and Clarion counties. They included state police from Kittaning, Kiski, and Butler, and dispatchers from the Loyalhanna Township-based SLYBAC emergency communciations system. Security police from the University of Pittsburgh also attended.

Miller was the only child of Frank and Evelyn Miller of Brownstown, Kiski Township. They are his sole survivors. He was a 1977 graduate of Apollo-Ridge High School and a 1979 graduate of the Municipal Police Academy of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

While Miller was a part-time Apollo police officer for three years, he had served as a full-time officer for only three days.