'Kill for Thrill' 40 years later: The Senselessness Of It All

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 Saturday, Jan. 5, 1980.

Those who knew 31-year-old Tollin William Nicholls, whose body was found in an Indiana County lake yesterday morning, describe him as a quiet, somewhat shy many who displayed “genius” musical talents.

Nicholls, a 1966 graduate of Greensburg Central Catholic High School and former resident of Irwin, was the musical director and organist for St. Anne Church and School in Castle Shannon for the past two years.

The pastor of the 2,000-family suburban parish, Msgr. Charles Owen Rich, said Nicholls had had tremendous ambitions in music for the parish and had developed an extraordinary music program there.

“He was a genius,” Rice said. “He had great prospects.”

Interest in Nicholls was sparked Thursday when state police reported that a sports car in which gunmen had ridden when slaying Apollo Patrolman Leonard Clifford Miller was registered to him. Nicholls’ wallet was found in the sports car, but police said he was never a suspect in Miller’s slaying.

Three persons were arrested in Pittsburgh Friday and charged in patrolman’s death and with the recent slayings of 26-year-old Marlene Sue Newcomer of Fayette County and of 49-year-old Peter Levato of the Northside, Pittsburgh.

Charges are pending against the three suspects and a fourth man in the death of Nicholls, whose body, bound and weighted down with rocks, was found by state police divers in a lake at Blue Spruce County Park in Rayne Township, about six miles northwest of the borough of Indiana. He had been shot once in the arm.

He was last seen alive Wednesday afternoon when he went to pick up a new car at a Dormont auto dealership.

The son of Albert and Dolores Nicholls of 1923 Highlands Ave., Irwin, Nicholls attended Saint Vincent College, Latrobe. The registrar’s office said he majored in English. Nicholls graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon.

Monsignor Rice said Nicholls also had studied at the Hebrew Institute in Jerusalem, Israel, and at Kent State and Duquesne universities.

Rice said Nicholls was dedicated to church music. He initiated the church’s five piece brass consort and its 14-piece string ensemble. When Nicholls was not teaching or directing the choirs, he practiced the organ, Rice said.

“He was an extraordinarily good organist and a great conductor,” Rice said. “He was very intense and determined about what he wanted to do.”

Prior to joining St. Anne, Nicholls was the organist and choir director for St. William in East Pittsburgh. Pastor Russell Maurer said Nicholls had organized the church’s children’s choir.

The Reverend Maurer said Nicholls sang as a soloist at St. William, but he did not stress his own voice because he preferred to direct others.

Maurer said Nicholls had been a noviate with the Benedictine Order of monks at St. Vincent. The pastor quoted Nicholls as once saying he could not become a priest because he was “not worthy.”

Frank Reno, coordinator of development for Greensburg Diocese schools, was Nicholls’ English teacher at Greensburg Central Catholic High School. He remembers his former student as “very intelligent” and “a good student.” The 1966 high school yearbook lists Nicholls as a member of the glee club.

Nicholls’ late address was at 724 Shady Drive East in Mt. Lebanon, where he had been renting a duplex for the past 2 1/2 years. Mr. joseph G. Petti, the wife of Nicholls’ landlord, said their tenant was a tall, slender man who had a full beard.

“He was quiet — you’d have to pry information from him,” she said. “He wouldn’t discuss his work. He might mention Father Rice (at St. Anne) but wouldn’t mention his personal associations.”

Mrs. Petti said a neighbor of Nicholls said he often gave cook-out parties for friends. She said she believed Nicholls had been married but she said for the past year and a half he had been living alone.

Mrs. Petti said Nicholls had mentioned to her husband at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday that he was going to West Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh to pickup a new car.

That was the last time they saw him.