‘Thrill to Kill’ Survivor Remembers Robbery At Gunpoint; Thanks God and Two Customers

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published September 19, 2017 4:50 am
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SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. (EYT) — When Shippenville resident Mary Campbell was robbed at gunpoint in the early morning of December 9, 1979, while she worked at the Delmont Stop N Go, she was terrified, and that terror followed her throughout her life.

Mary was one of the lucky ones in the path of “Thrill to Kill” murderers Michael J. Travaglia and John C. Lesko who went on an eight-day spree that left four victims dead, including an Apollo police officer.

Mary was the only survivor.

The death by natural causes of Travaglia on September 4 in a state prison offered some respite for Mary Campbell’s fear. Lesko remains on death row in a state prison in Graterford in Montgomery County.

Mary recalls the incident that changed her life.

“I had only been there a couple of months,” said Mary. “I started working there around Labor Day, and I was just doing it to get some extra money together for Christmas for us.  After the Christmas season was over, I had no intention of working there any further.  I just wanted to see that my kids had a half decent Christmas.”

Her brief career as an overnight clerk in a convenience store was over after the robbery.

“These two men (Travaglia and Lesko) had been in the store several times. They came in at about 12 minutes after five on a Sunday morning, and I thought it was odd they were there that late, and I was used to them coming in at 2:30 or 3. I said hello, and they went through their regular motions, and the next thing you know Travaglia was standing in front of me pointing a gun at me.  Lesko had come around the counter and began chopping at a small “dumping” safe they used in those days that was bolted to the counter.”

Mary said she was in shock, and she kept saying “please don’t hurt me, I have two children.”  Her children were 10 and 11 at that time.

Travaglia and Lesko said they weren’t going to hurt her.

“Lesko managed to get the safe out of there, and he told me to lay down on the floor, and he was trying to tie me up,” said Mary. “I don’t know why, but he was unable to do it.  His hands were shaking.  At that point, I looked up at Travaglia, and he had the gun pointed down at me.  I knew that that was probably the end of my life. He kept telling Lesko to hurry up.  In the meantime, there were two customers headed across the parking lot, and Travaglia said they’ve got to go, there’s someone coming. They grabbed a brown paper bag, and Lesko put the safe in there and started leaving as these two new customers were coming in the door.”

The two customers — Richard Stevenson, of Greensburg, and Larry Clawson, of Delmont — were headed for work, but they were also regulars at the store.

“I waited until they were completely in the store, and the doors closed behind them, and I finally shouted, ‘Go over there and lock the door – two men just robbed me.’ I told them I was on the floor behind the counter. I couldn’t even get up. By this time, I’m just terrified.  One of them came back behind the counter, and he helped me get up, and I said I need to call the police.  They said they would stay with me until the police got there and saw that I was safe.  In the meantime, my manager was already on her way in. Travaglia and Lesko had that timed right down to the minute.  The newspaperman had already left his delivery, and the next thing that was going to happen was that the manager was going to come in for her shift.  They knew what time to be there.”

She called the police and provided details about the robbery.  It turned out that the two thieves only got $800.00. 

Mary told her manager she wasn’t going to be able to work there any longer.

She still thanks God every day that she wakes and the two customers who came when they did.

“Afterwards, I would not leave the house, and I was afraid to stay there.  My husband worked, and my two kids went to school.  We lived in Slickville.  I was afraid either way, and I was that way until we moved to Texas in 1981.  These men had already been convicted, but it might have been an unreasonable fear that someday they were going to somehow get out of jail either by some good-hearted, goody two shoes who doesn’t understand what it’s like to have a gun on them much less ‘you’re going to die lady’ or that they would escape.”

The family moved to Texas because her husband Earl lost a good job as a contract employee with Bell Telephone, and that was also the time the steel industry was collapsing in Pittsburgh.

“Still, that fear never left me. It was years before I could go into a gas station and go inside to pay for it.  During those days, I didn’t have a credit card and had to pay by cash.  I always had to have one of my kids with me, and they would go in and pay for the gas.”

Earl had a massive stroke back in 2005, and in 2008, they made the decision to come home and lived in Penn Hills for a year and then decided to move to Shippenville because they liked the area. The couple still lives in their home in Pine Terrace Estates.

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