Robbery, murder, lust and revenge in a bucolic setting
West of Philadelphia, Chester County is a rural paradise of well-tended farms, fox hunters galloping to hounds, and Amish families traveling by carriage to hamlets dating from colonial times. It is horse country—Thoroughbreds, trotters and steeplechasers—a quiet haven for the landed gentry. But in the back country along the Maryland and Delaware borders, Chester County is also home to a band of outlaws that has preyed for years on affluent neighbors.
The gang's members have pulled off hundreds of robberies, stealing cash from store safes, jewelry, antiques and cars from country estates, and tractors from farmers. Federal and state investigators say they can directly tie the gang to more than $1 million in stolen loot but believe the total take is much higher.
The leader of the gang is politely spoken but hard-eyed Bruce Johnston, 39, and his top lieutenants are his brothers David, 30, and Norman, 28. The three have all served time in jail and in 1976 were convicted of stealing tractors and trucks in Lancaster County. But generally the Johnstons and their dozen or so confederates have escaped convictions, despite dozens of arrests, several indictments and trials. One reason is sloppy police work: most cases against them collapsed because of technical errors or tainted evidence. Another is the closemouthed ways of the people in southern Chester County, who mistrust outsiders, especially police. Says Chester County District Attorney William Lamb: "When they have a problem, they prefer to settle it themselves."
Neighbors call Bruce, David and Norman the "bad Johnston brothers" to differentiate them from three other brothers known as the "good Johnstons." Says a Chadds Ford garage owner of the bad Johnstons: "We all know them—good-lookin' boys, but they always had them $100 bills and them fancy cars even though they never was too healthy for work." Says a family friend: "Bruce is a moral man who doesn't hold with drinking and swearing. His word is his bond. But he won't be doublecrossed."
Early last month a Johnston confederate, Leslie Dale, led the police to the body of an informer, Gary Wayne Crouch, in a shallow grave in dense woods near West Chester. A few weeks later, in the woods near Chadds Ford—a locale made famous by Artist Andrew Wyeth—state police unearthed the bodies of three gang associates: Wayne Sampson, 20, Duane Lincoln, 17, and James Johnston, 18. The three had disappeared in August, along with Sampson's brother James, 24.
James Johnston was Bruce's son, and he vanished soon after rumors began circulating that he, like his brother Bruce Jr., 20, known to the family as "Little Bruce," had turned on his father. The boys had been raised by Grandmother Harriet Steffy and Great-Aunt Sarah Martin. "They didn't start hanging around with their father until a couple of years ago," recalled the grandmother. "I prayed for them, but I guess they just liked having money in their pockets."