George W. Clauser Jr.

When I heard that George Clauser, Jr. had been killed; I could not believe it. Normally I immediately share information on TUNNY’s Homepage, but because of the grievousness of this matter – I wanted to be careful. At the time only scattered facts were available to me. Not knowing where or how to start looking, I honestly hoped what I had heard wasn’t true.

Eventually an article surfaced on the internet about George’s death – as an unsolved crime. The article is old, but it provided his hometown’s name. I spoke to folks at the local paper, and they knew the case by heart. They sent along a few articles, outlining what occurred. These are copied below.

Obituary in hand, I discovered his family’s residence. I called his dad (George Clauser, Sr.) requesting a photo. Here I am at a loss for words. Luckily, Mr. Clauser understood my intent – to remember George on the TUNNY Homepage, and he sent me a photo.

A few TUNNY sailors have since written in, describing moments when we knew George Clauser, Jr. None have contacted me that knew him well – certainly this will occur in time, as people visit the TUNNY Homepage and read what happened. But everyone who was onboard TUNNY with George recalls the same impression. Although the few years George spent on TUNNY were only one part of his life – the impressions are clear and consistent…

I personally remember George Clauser Jr as a friendly, good man. When I needed something from George he was there, and it was done. And when he knew the rules about ship’s records and personnel matters (and sometimes I didn’t) – he wasn’t insulting in any way. George was always dependable. He was easy to like, and he seemed happy, despite the demands onboard TUNNY. Certainly that submarine was a better place because he was there.

That is the memory I have of George Clauser, Jr. His family knew him better. Some TUNNY sailors worked with him more closely – some knew him more personally. But all recall him as a friend.

The unbelievable idea of George’s passing is true. For the moment, I wanted to inform TUNNY sailors of the facts, even though the facts are incomprehensibly bad.

I would also like to tell George’s family that we share their loss. I don’t know how to do this suitably, only that it should be done. 

Man shot in failed robbery try

By Jason A. Kahl and Kori Walter

Eagle/Times

A Reading pizza shop owner was murdered Tuesday night in an apparent robbery attempt as he prepared to close the business for Christmas, police said.

George W. Clauser Jr., 29, was standing behind the counter at Effie’s Pizza Villa, 555 N. 10th St., at the corner of 10th and Greenwich streets, about 7:30 when two men armed with handguns walked in the shop and shot him in the back, witnesses said.

One of the men pointed a gun at a customer approaching the counter before turning and firing at Clauser, witnesses said.

“He was cleaning the grill, getting ready to close down for two days for the holidays,” said Rodney A. Delp, a stunned patron who was walking to the counter with a drink right before one of the men opened fire. “The guy pointed a gun and told me to sit down.”

Delp said the men did not say anything to Clauser before shooting him. They then tried frantically to open the cash register, knocking over a counter display, before fleeing on foot in an unknown direction.

Clauser was shot in the lower back and fell into the grill, burning his arm, before collapsing on the floor face up, witnesses said. Delp went behind the counter and tried to lift Clauser so he could get more air. Clauser told Delp he couldn’t move as an ambulance pulled up outside, Delp said.

Clauser was flown by medical helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital, near Allentown, where he was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors at 8:38 p.m., according to Lehigh County Coroner Scott M. Grim.

Grim said the apparent cause of death was a gunshot wound, and an autopsy will be performed today in Lehigh Valley Hospital.

It was the second murder in Reading in three days. Clauser was the 19th person murdered in Berks County in 1997. Sixteen of the murders have been in the city.

“We were cleaning up because we’re closed tomorrow (today),” said Geri E. Stubblebine, an employee who choked back tears and said the corner shop closes at 9 p.m. ¬He was taking up the trays and I went out back with the garbage when I heard this `pop.’

“I came inside and saw the back of a guy running out the door and George laying on the floor. His eyes were closed and he was not moving and I just quick called 9-1-1.”

The men who shot Clauser ran out of the store without opening the register when they heard police sirens approaching, witnesses said. Neighbors who gathered outside the brightly lighted store cried and hugged each other as police dusted the register for fingerprints and collected evidence.

“He was one of the nicest men I ever met,” said one enraged neighbor who did not want to give his name. “He would do anything for you, even if you were a little short on money for the bill. And he was always smiling.”

Other neighbors said there have been a lot of problems on the block with crack cocaine dealers and drug users.

Witnesses said the gunman was wearing a blue, hooded sweatshirt, white pants and a dark-colored mask that covered the lower part of his face. The other man was wearing a purple, hooded sweatshirt and a mask. Witnesses said both men appeared to be Latino.

Stubblebine said the pizza shop was robbed Dec. 12 and also about a year ago.

Police had no suspects or motive for the shooting, according to Sgt. Joseph Elia of the criminal investigations division.

The pizza shop has been owned for seven years by Clauser’s wife, Efstratia ¬Effie” Clauser, who was at home when the shooting occurred. Efstratia went to the hospital when she learned about the shooting and could not be reached for comment. The couple, who live about a block from the shop, married three years ago and have run the shop together since, relatives said.

Clauser grew up in Amity Township, graduated from Daniel Boone High School and served in the Navy. It was the second murder in Reading since Sunday morning, when 18-year-old city resident Malik Molina was shot in the head while baby-sitting at 239 S. Eighth St.

Police have not made any arrests in the Molina murder and said they have no suspects in that case either.

12/24/97 – obituary

George W. Clauser Jr.

George W. Clauser Jr., 29, of 555 n. 10th st., formerly of 160 Hill Road, Douglassville, was shot and killed Tuesday night in Effie’s Pizza Villa, which he was co-owner at his residence for the past three years.

He was the husband of Efstratia “Effie” (Yannakos) Clauser.

Born in Pottstown, he was a son of George W. Clauser Sr., and Nancy (Krebs) Clauser, both of Douglassville.

Clauser was previously employed for four years by Michael’s Restaurant, Douglassville.

He was a Navy veteran.

Clauser is also survived by a son, Peter, and a daughter, Maria Clauser, both at home.

Other survivors include three sisters: Lynn, wife of Thomas Schiel, Midland, Mich.; Jean, wife of Patrick

Farrell, St. Lawrence; and Joan Johnson, Flying Hills.

There are also a half sister, Tammy Yednock, Douglassville; a half brother, James Reed, Pottstown; and his paternal grandparents, George and Elsie Clauser, Pottstown.

Services will be Tuesday at 11 a.m. in St. Matthew’s Greek Orthodox Church, Reading. Burial will be in Charles Evans Cemetery. The Auman Funeral Home, Reading, is in charge of arrangements.

5/29/99

City man convicted in pizza shop killing

Widow weeps

Defendant shows to reaction to verdict

By Dan Kelly

Eagle/Times

Melvin Ortiz was convicted Friday in Berks County Court of second-degree murder in the Dec. 23, 1997,

slaying of Reading pizza shop owner George W. Clauser Jr.

Ortiz, who showed no emotion throughout the four-day trial, stared blankly at the jury – which had deliberated less than three hours – as the verdict was read. The conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.

Clauser’s widow, Efstratia ¬Effie” Clauser, who was surrounded by more than a dozen supporters throughout the proceedings, wept as the verdict was read.

Ortiz, 20, of the 400 block of North 11th Street shot Clauser once in the back at about 7:30 p.m. during a botched robbery attempt in the shop at 10th and Greenwich streets. An accomplice in the robbery never has been arrested.

Clauser, 29, lived with his wife and their two children in an apartment above their pizzeria and sandwich shop called Effie’s Pizza Villa, 555 N. 10th St.

Clauser died of a single gunshot wound to the back, officials said.

District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin said he thought the jury’s verdict was reassurance to city business owners and a warning to would-be robbers.

“By their verdict, the jury is saying if you try to rob a store and someone gets killed, that’s second-degree murder and a life sentence,” Baldwin said.

In his closing argument, Baldwin, who with Reading Criminal Investigator Warren H. Graul oversaw the investigation of the case from the beginning, told the jury Ortiz was the killer. Baldwin said his final rebuttal witness Friday morning, Cynthia Jacques, should have convinced the jury of Ortiz’s guilt.

During the trial, defense attorney William C. Bispels Jr. presented four alibi witnesses who testified Ortiz was at a party in the Jamestown Village Apartments, 300 Lackawanna St., from about 6 to 9:30 p.m., during the time the shooting occurred.

“Cindy Jacques blew his alibi to hell,” Baldwin declared.

A reluctant witness, Jacques failed to appear to testify Thursday. Investigators were dispatched to find her and assure her appearance in court Friday morning.

Jacques told the jury Ortiz called her at about 8 p.m. and asked if he could come to her house in the 500 block of North 11th Street, one block from the pizzeria. Ortiz got there minutes later, she said.

Jacques testified Ortiz was wearing tan khaki pants and a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, the same outfit a witness said she saw on a man running from the store minutes after the shooting.

In his closing argument, Bispels attacked Baldwin’s key witnesses: John Caltagirone and his girlfriend, Tina Valentine, and admitted career criminal Calixto Melendez, who said Ortiz confessed to killing Clauser during a botched robbery.

Both Caltagirone and Valentine testified Ortiz asked Caltagirone to help him rob the local pizza shop. They both said Ortiz later told them he had accidentally killed Clauser.

Jacques testified Friday that Caltagirone later told her Ortiz did not kill Clauser, but that Caltagirone had made up the story to collect a $10,000 reward offered by the victim’s family.

“John and Tina, how do you describe these two?” Bispels asked the jury. ¬Bonnie and Clyde comes to mind.” Caltagirone is the son of state Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat. After the verdict, Effie Clauser said she was too filled with emotion to comment, and was guided from the courtroom by the friends and family members who had sat with her throughout the trial.

Clauser’s father, George W. Sr., said the family expected the verdict. “It was good,” Clauser said. ¬I have no doubt left from evidence I heard.” Clauser also commended Baldwin, who had no physical evidence and only circumstantial evidence with which to convict Ortiz.

Graul said it was one of the toughest cases he ever has investigated. “The thing that made it so difficult was that all of our evidence came from friends of Melvin,” Graul said. “They’d tell us one thing, and then a few weeks later they didn’t want to testify.”

“But, I’d like to thank those witnesses because every one of them came to court and testified for us,” Graul said. As he was being led to a sheriff’s car for the ride back to the county prison, Ortiz shrugged when asked his reaction to the verdict.

At Baldwin’s request, Senior Judge Forrest G. Schaeffer Jr. ordered Ortiz’s $200,000 bail revoked because of the mandatory life sentence.

Effie and George’s kids – August 2022.