A Glenside resident recently shared to Facebook a high-profile criminal case in Abington Township from the mid-1990s: The execution-style murder of John Thurberg five months before his wedding to Patti Hemko.
According to several media accounts of the incident, Thurberg was an assistant manager at the old Houlihan’s restaurant at 817 Old York Road in the Jenkintown section of Abington when he was shot in the head during a botched robbery attempt on May 13, 1996. He was found in one of the bathroom stalls lying face down in a pool of blood.
Two other employees were present during the incident: Mark Griffin and Johnnie Blalock, the dishwasher. Griffin was shot in the hand and was rushed to the hospital. Blalock was mysteriously unharmed.
Authorities later learned that Blalock had a key to the restaurant and let would-be assailants David Travers and Samuel Ross into the restaurant that morning. The robbery didn’t go as planned, and the duo fled the area with $2. You can read a detailed summary of the incident here.
“It was just an outright inside job,” said former Montgomery County Chief Detective Oscar Vance.
PhillyVoice interviewed Hemko after the case was featured in 2018 during the premiere episode of “Homicide City,” an Investigation Discovery series about infamous Philadelphia murders.
“It’s still surreal after all these years,” she said. “Travers said he shot John because he was white. Ross begged me for forgiveness when he sat on the stand.”
“This is stuff you see on the news, not stuff that happens to you,” she continued. “When I saw the hearse the day of John’s funeral, I thought, ‘This isn’t supposed to be a black limo and a black dress. It’s supposed to be a white limo and a white dress.'”
According to the episode, Hall received a sentence of 60 years and today remains incarcerated at State Correctional Institution Somerset. Travers pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and Blalock pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison: Travers at State Correctional Institution Albion, Blalock at State Correctional Institution Mahanoy.
“When we come up with shows like this, it’s very interesting to look at communities like Abington and Malvern,” Geno McDermott, whose production company created the series, said. “On the surface, they’re these kind of rich suburbs, but then we find ourselves looking at the evil behind that facade. We were noticing in Philly, as in other cities, that crime transcends socioeconomic background when it comes to murder.”
You can watch the episode here. A preview can be found below:
A Chili’s later replaced Houlian’s, followed by a LongHorn Steakhouse.
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Photos: Cinemaholic.com