Deer Hunter Shot to Death
Posted: Saturday, January 01, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
I’ve always said that if I had a chance to decide how I was to die, I would choose being shot through the chest with a high powered rifle. That might seem odd to many people (painlessly, while sleeping, seems to be the most popular answer), but I’ve been a hunter all of my life. I’ve killed scores of big game animals, the majority of them by shooting them through the chest with a high powered rifle. It only seems fair that I die that way, too. It would give me a few moments to appreciate the experience myself. That’s how one of my neighbors, Barry Groh, bought it a couple of weeks ago. He got shot through the chest with a .30-06 while dragging his big buck whitetail out of the woods. I’m not sure that’s how he wanted it to happen, though. He was only 52.
There are well over a million hunters in the Pennsylvania woods on the first day of deer season, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Each year there is always a few hunting related deaths-heart attacks, falls, and rarely, a shooting accident. There are much fewer of them, per capita, than non hunting accidental shootings in any given city in any given ‘season’. A hunter gunned down by another hunter is always big news, though. It’s much more interesting, and serves the purpose of the anti-hunting crowd more than a teenager in Pittsburgh being accidentally shot to death by his brother with his father’s unsecured, loaded pistol, or the woman bystander being hit by a stray drug war bullet in Philly. Those type of ‘accidents’ are to be expected, I guess.
The story of Barry Groh’s shooting played out like this: a landowner called 911 to report that he and his uncle had found a dead hunter on his property. The hunter, found lying partially in a creek, had been in the process of dragging out a nice buck he’d shot. The preliminary investigation indicated that he had been killed by a high powered rifle. In the Special Regulation Area of suburban Philadelphia counties where the incident occurred, high powered rifles are not legal for hunting. It’s restricted to shotguns and muzzle loading rifles. Groh had apparently taken off his orange vest (required safety gear)-at least he was not wearing it when the police found the body.
The authorities were skeptical of the stories they were told by, David Manilla, the well-connected attorney/landowner and his uncle, Michael Marino, a former County District Attorney and County Commissioner. Police pursued all angles but kept a close eye on the two men. Manilla had been involved in another accidental shooting in the past; and, when he sold seven lots he owned to his mother for $1 each, and the property on which the hunter was found to a power company for $1.4 million in the days following the incident, their suspicions were increased. Perhaps the whole truth was not yet exposed.
Over the next couple of weeks the two men’s stories changed and a clearer picture of the incident emerged. Manilla and Marino were driving along a trail on an all-terrain-vehicle (hunting from vehicles is illegal in Pennsylvania). Manilla, carrying an illegal firearm, saw something moving along the creek bed through the brush. He hopped off the ATV and shot. When he ran over to check, he found Groh, dead or dying. He hollered back to Marino, “Man down! Man down!” The two relatives then discussed the situation and how to respond to it. About 45 minutes later they called 911. Manilla’s admission slowly came out, but only after he’d made arraignments so Groh’s family would not have access to his properties if they sued him. It wasn’t until 10 days later that Marino, a former top prosecutor, a man once responsible for law enforcement for an entire county, told what he knew about the killing.
Manilla was finally arraigned 18 days later. He was freed on $2 million bail. It has been declared a reckless but unintentional killing. He is charged with manslaughter and weapons offences. Marino is facing no charges. The story has outraged the local population-including hunters, who do not appreciate the assaults inspired against their sport. Manilla’s deceptive actions, Marino’s silence and coyness are what have raised the most public outcry. “Everything I read about this jerk tells me that he is nothing but a loose cannon and should be put away for a very long time,” is a representative email to the newspaper. We’ll see what happens at the January 31st, preliminary hearing.
Barry Groh’s family had a different holiday season than they had expected. Fortunately, so did David Manilla and Michael Marino and their families. Deer hunting got another black eye because of a one-in-over-a-million incident, as the story persists in the media and is rated as one of the top local news stories of the year.
I heard on the radio this morning that a woman was killed and several people injured by stray shots across the state last night as “loose canons” celebrated the New Year, but I doubt there will be much of an uproar. I still would choose to be shot through the chest with a high powered rifle if given the option, but I’d like to figure out how to have it done by a whitetail deer. I owe them the opportunity.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I, surely one of those whom you callously dismiss as a "shrill, arrogant, Bambi lover and eco-Nazi" would most gladly acquiesce; tell where and when.
Worry not; as a fitting epitaph to sporting animal cruelty and murder, I shall proudly have your head mounted on my basement wall .You may have your way but deny me mine? That's the problem
Jack, I love your writing and am a fan.
"Your way" is morally wrong.
Hunters can't accept that these animals are violently deprived of the pleasures of life, ( food, play, sunshine, sex and loving their offspring) and violently deprived of the gift, of life, itself.
Hunting contributes nothing to deer population control, populations that self balanced eons, long before men with hunting rifles .
Hunters criticize the hypocrisy of anti-hunting people who eat meat, wear leather ; that's a lousy poor defense of blood sport deer hunting.
These animals, as we are also animals, have divine souls; it is morally and spiritually wrong to blood sport hunt and especially to ignore and to deny the cruelty and suffering other animals from us go through.They brag about their one shot kills like a golfer does a hole-in- one
When hounds are used in many places, a hunted animal undergoes mental and physical suffering when hunted. Hunters deny this, but Zoologists agree that, like us, other animals feel emotional and physical pain.
This hunter mentality is somewhat discussed within: "Wildlife Protection - The Case for the Abolition of Hunting and Snaring", available by mail order from the League Against Cruel Sports.
Killing animals is wrong
"So you don't believe in personal freedom?", blood sport hunters counter.
Hunters want to run the fox ragged until it dies from exhaustion or is ripped to shreds by the dogs;
who would say we have the freedom to take the lives of other humans,
or the personal freedom to mutilate a pet dog?
All animals should be regarded as sensitive living beings who deserve respect and consideration.
Paul
thanks for reading and commenting. You are as welcome to express your opinion as I am. Though I could debate some of your "facts", I chose not to. I find too often that a person with a liberal point of view is not tolerant of a different point of view. I participate in the sport of skiing also. They ruin the forest and hill side to build the resort.Hillsides don't suffer while they breathe their last or have undying souls; nobody gloats in savage sadism by mounting a stuffed boulder on their wall.
Where is there remotely a comparison?
I am not a liberal nor do I have a liberal point of view; I conservatively believe that all who have murderous intent and become deer hunters should be shot.
PaulYou're quite tolerant and peacefulWhenever you again feel the murderous inner need to kill another innocent animal surrender yourself to moral questioning such as this.Gees, I took the dogs duck and squirrel hunting today! We had great fun.All animals should be regarded as sensitive living beings who deserve respect and consideration.
I say this fully knowing, I assure you, that we are NOT the 'top' of the food chain......I'm a sensitive living being who deserves respect and consideration (if I agree with you or not). You might notice that I have not once suggested that your point of view is wrong or needs to be modified-that would be disrespectful-treat me the same- move on to another essay.
{did you ever have fresh deer heart? Boil it whole then slice or chunk it and serve it with onions and horseradish sauce-yum!}
Hi Jack- Good to see you back- How have you been? well, I hope.
As for your article- I've never liked or advocated the sport of hunting, although I've lived around it all my life- it was always just naturally abhorant to me- I taught both my sons NOT to be hunters- against their father's wishes, there were a lot of arguments between us over that particular subject, but I was adamantly against it, and determined that my boys would not participate in that particular sport....and they never did. I do admire your writing in the article though- it is provocative and skillfully well done. You're an excellent writer- hope you're back for awhile to write many more such compelling stories for us here on SW. The theme and ending of your story was thought provoking.............I'm still thinking about it- you would probably be surprised at what my thoughts are running to...the psychological reasons to which I attribute your last statement..... Always- EllaThanks for reading and commenting. Your point of view is yours and I have no desire to try to modify it.
Tragic in the land where most hunters are law abiding and trying to put meat in the freezer. I didn't get my big buck this year but we sure had a great time trying. My blood pressure went high and we had to come home 3 days early....Mick got his buck last year though!I have seen what happens to animal populations where they are not hunted (like mountain lions in CA - very hard on the animals and the human population) Hunting done right is more humane than the killing of cattle in stock yards etc.
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