PA PA - Alfred Barnes, 40, Chestnuthill, 19 Oct 1968

A Texas man accused of killing a Bethlehem Steel Corp. employee in 1968 told police he shot the other man during a struggle for the gun inside a car in a remote Monroe County field, court records say.

Police solved the 45-year-old killing of Alfred Louis Barnes, 40, of Market Street in Bethlehem, after they tracked down Richard Franklin Keiper, 67, of Boyd, Texas.

Keiper allegedly confessed to Texas Rangers, who interviewed him Sept. 24. Authorities announced the arrest today, a day before the 45th anniversary of the homicide.

Click to expand...

According to Keiper, he was walking home from a car show in Allentown, where he was living at the time, when Barnes, a stranger he’s never seen before, drove up to him twice and offered him a ride. Keiper accepted Barnes’ third offer, having no car of his own and thinking it would be nice to ride around in a brand new one, and the two drove around for awhile, eventually arriving at what would become the death scene.

Keiper said Barnes pulled a gun on him and that he grabbed the gun in self-defense when it went off three times during a struggle in the car. Keiper said he then ran about 100 to 150 yards from the car, realized he still had the gun in his hand and then threw it away, though police later found no gun in that area.

Click to expand...

Keiper acted alone, the prosecution said in its closing argument. Though Keiper denied any homosexual activity between him and Barnes, the prosecution said he knew Barnes was trying to pick him up for a homosexual tryst and knew society’s stigma against homosexuals at the time made Barnes a vulnerable robbery target.

Click to expand...

Richard F. Keiper will spend life in prison without chance of parole for the 1968 killing of a Bethlehem Steel employee in a remote field in western Monroe County.

Thursday's sentencing capped a cold case that state police Trooper Donald Marsh took on two years ago while assigned to a criminal investigations unit with the Hazleton barracks.

Click to expand...

When I first learned that there was a faceless monster, who had admitted to mercilessly murdering my dearly beloved Uncle Alfred Barnes 47 long years ago, in northeastern Pennsylvania; time stood still. My heart stopped for a moment, but the pain of it all anguishes still. Mr. Richard Keiper was apprehended at last in Boyd, Texas by the Pennsylvania State Police and Texas Rangers. They are to be thanked for his long-awaited arrest. Our long-overdue prayers were finally answered, when this faceless monster was finally discovered and victoriously uncovered.

Click to expand...

A 70-year-old Texas man convicted in one of the United States' oldest cold-case trials should remain in prison for life, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Monday.

Keiper appealed his sentence to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Repeating claims made in a motion for mistrial last year in Monroe County Court, Keiper argued the prosecution improperly raised the testimony of Quaquo Kelly. It was Kelly's 1971 statements to police that led to Keiper's arrest.

When the time came for trial last year, Kelly was deemed in too poor health to testify — but only after the Monroe County District Attorney's Office introduced Kelly's claims in opening statements at Keiper's trial.

The county court ruled against a mistrial, as did the Superior Court, having determined the prosecution's reference to Kelly's claims did not unduly prejudice the jury, according to Monday's ruling.

"The trial court concluded that the combination of mentioning Kelly in the opening statement and then not calling him as a witness did not render the jury incapable of returning a true and just verdict," reads the Superior Court's ruling, in concurrence with the county court.

Click to expand...