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Two days after a 13-year-old boy found the body of Myrtle Fields while hiking near the Ashley Planes, state policemen arrested four men on murder charges Sept. 16, 1941.
				Edward McGee, 30, of Charles Street, Luzerne, James Lehman, 29, and John Malia, 29, both of Gilligan Street, Wilkes-Barre, and Andrew Tomko, 22, of Charles Street, Wilkes-Barre Township, were arrested for killing Fields.
				&ldquo;The prisoners, none of whom has previous police records, who are being detained at Wyoming barracks, where they were fingerprinted and their pictures taken following their alleged confessions,&rdquo; reported the Times Leader the same day.
				Fields, 47, of Division Street, Kingston, was found by the teenage boy on an unused logging road near the Pennsylvania Power & Light substation in Hanover Township, near the Ashley Boulevard.
				&ldquo;When the body was found, police said, her clothing was still neat and there was no evidence that she had struggled or had been hit by an automobile,&rdquo; the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Sept. 15, 1941.
				Policemen got a break early in the investigation when they learned Fields patronized Findora&rsquo;s Cafe on East Market Street in Wilkes-Barre. When the tavern closed at 12 a.m., Fields was seen talking to three men on the sidewalk.
				&ldquo;This clue presented itself yesterday morning and led to the arrest of McGee at 12:30 this morning on a central city street,&rdquo; reported the Times Leader Sept. 16, 1941.
				McGee confessed to the murder and named Lehman, Malia and Tomko as conspirators. Lehman, Malia and Tomko were arrested later the same day.
				According to McGee&rsquo;s confession published in the Times Leader, McGee was with Fields for most of the night patronizing taverns at the Rex Hotel, Bennett&rsquo;s Cafe and Findora&rsquo;s Cafe, all on East Market Street, Wilkes-Barre, before they joined Lehman and Tomko.
				&ldquo;McGee said the woman and Tomko got into Lehman&rsquo;s automobile with the intention of going to Fernbrook but they decided to purchase more liquor and drove to an unnamed establishment on Parrish Street where they procured a bottle of liquor and picked up Malia,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported.
				The four then drove to a secluded spot on Ashley Mountain overlooking Ashley where they attempted to criminally assault Fields.
				Fields fought the attackers when policemen said she was struck her in the head with a rock.
				&ldquo;The speed with which the accused were rounded up and confessions secured was a fine piece of police work as has ever been accomplished in the annals of the county&rsquo;s criminal case,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported.
				A Luzerne County grand jury indicted the four men on murder charges Oct. 29, 1941.
				Separate trials were scheduled for the four defendants at the Luzerne County Courthouse, with Lehman&rsquo;s trial being the first to begin Feb. 2, 1942, before Judge J. Harold Flannery.
				Testifying in his own defense Feb. 5, 1942, Lehman told jurors he was with McGee, Malia, Tomko and Fields but denied he assaulted the woman after a night of drinking.
				&ldquo;Lehman then told how they got out of the car at the end of Cook Street in Ashley, and the bottle of whiskey was passed around again, each person having two drinks,&rdquo; according to Lehman&rsquo;s testimony published in the Times Leader Feb. 5, 1942.
				Lehman testified he had too much to drink, had trouble walking and started to walk toward his automobile when he heard a thud.
				Dr. William Layyen, a pathologist at General Hospital, testified on behalf of Lehman telling jurors Fields died from heart trouble.
				After several hours of deliberations, the jury on Feb. 7, 1942, found Lehman not guilty of murder.
				Lehman&rsquo;s troubles were not over.
				After Lehman was acquitted, District Attorney Leon Schwartz withdrew the murder charges against McGee, Malia and Tomko and presented the case again to a grand jury, which recommended the four men be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
				On March 9, 1942, Schwartz announced the four men were charged with involuntary manslaughter while Lehman was also charged with sodomy and attempted sodomy.
				&ldquo;James Lehman, Edward McGee, Andrew Tomko and John Malia pleaded guilty today to involuntary manslaughter for the death of Mrs. Myrtle fields on the night of Sept. 16, 1941,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported April 1, 1942.
				Judge W. Alfred Valentine sentenced the four men to serve three years at the Luzerne County Jail and each pay a fine of $2,000.
				Lehman also paid a $25 fine on a morals charge alleging he was with a single woman while being a married man with two children.

Look Back: Four men charged with killing woman in 1941