The 50-Year-Old Unsolved Murder of Cyrena Jane Manning, Part Two

| October 24, 2022

FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – The day was January 23, 1973, and Frank Howard Sydlowski was standing in a Franklin courtroom being arraigned for the 1972 murder of Cyrena Jane Manning.

This is Part Two in a three-part series about the 1972 stabbing murder of Cyrena Jane “Janie” Manning. Read Part One here.

By this point, Frank had been through the wringer already. But, the case against him was just getting started. At his side were three lawyers led by Joseph Valentino of Sharon, Ohio. Valentino was 31 years old and had only been out of law school for four years, but he was prepared for the challenge.

Over the next two months, Valentino endeavored to get his client a reduced bail and then went to work suppressing evidence the prosecution had against him.

In 1966, the Supreme Court decided in Miranda v. Arizona that the Fifth Amendment requires that law enforcement officials advise suspects of their right to remain silent and to obtain an attorney during interrogations while in police custody. Franklin Police hadn’t followed that ruling when they interviewed their suspect, and Valentino was going to make sure they didn’t get away with it.

Cyrena Jane “Janie” Manning in 1972.

The evidence against Frank Sydlowski was monumental. They had witnesses that placed him at the scene during the time Janie Manning was killed. They found Janie’s body lying in the kitchen in a pool of blood. There were seven wounds to her body that at first looked like she’d been shot.

There was a pair of kitchen scissors that were kept on the window sill above the sink that was missing. At autopsy, pathologist Dr. Howard Griffen determined she’d been stabbed, but the wounds were irregularly-shaped. He testified in a hearing early in the case that he thought the wounds were caused by scissors.

In the kitchen, there was a pot on the stove with tea in it. Janie was drinking coffee the morning she was killed, so having tea on the stove indicates that she was expecting somebody else that morning.

There were items that were on a round table in the front room of Janie’s house that police collected. First was Janie’s Bible, which was opened to a chapter of Deuteronomy that said something about “crimes against marriage.” There was a dictionary next to the Bible. There was a coffee cup with a small amount of coffee in it. And, there was a handwritten note that said, “Golden rule — stab in the back.” We know from Janie’s daughter’s testimony that the note wasn’t written in Janie’s handwriting.

Frank Howard Sydlowski’s booking photo, November 23, 1972.

Neighbors saw a blue Chevy with a black top parked on the street. They saw Frank get into the car and drive away. Though Frank didn’t own a car by that description, investigators found the car at a body shop in Ohio after interviewing him. They questioned the body shop owner and found out that Frank had rented the car the morning of Janie’s murder and had returned it that afternoon.

Valentino was largely successful in his efforts to suppress the evidence against his client, though not enough to keep Frank’s case from being presented to a grand jury. When they saw the mountain of evidence against the defendant, evidence that Valentino argued should never have been presented because it was all the poisoned fruits of an illegal interrogation, they indicted his client on April 11, 1973.

This set into motion a series of hearings over several months. Ultimately, Valentino won most of those arguments, including a motion for a change of venue. After four months of waiting (because the Venango County District Attorney, Miles R. Lynn, had misfiled the paperwork), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the trial would be moved to Clearfield County. It was to be argued in front of Senior Judge John A. Cherry.

Valentino continued to file motion after motion with Judge Cherry. Most of his arguments focused on the further suppression of evidence. But, Judge Cherry made quick work of the hearings and cleared the way for a trial by the end of October 1974.

By that time, it was a month before the second anniversary of Janie Manning’s murder. Before the anniversary came, Frank’s verdict would be read by a jury of eight women and four men. But, what would their verdict be?

Read the original news articles, police files, and court documents upon which this series is based.

RELATED:

The 50-Year-Old Unsolved Murder of Cyrena Jane Manning, Part One


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Category: Local News, News, Venango County Cold Case

Gavin Fish is a reporter for EYT Media Group and YouTuber based in Venango County. In addition to his YouTube Channel, he has contributed to investigations and reports for ABC News, Investigation Discovery, and Fox Nation, and has collaborated on projects developed for Netflix, Oxygen, Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.
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