KELLER, Robert
Source: Kingman Star Friday, May 13, 1949
Tokyo—Maj. Gen. Earle E. Partridge, Fifth Air Force Commander, Tuesday approved the death sentences of two airmen convicted of murdering a post exchange clerk in a burglary.
The cases of Pvt. James H. Burks, 20, of Cullman, Ala., and Pvt. Robert E. Keller, 20, of Covington, Ind., must be reviewed by the U. S. judge advocate general and President Truman before they may be hanged. The killing occurred the night of Dec. 31, last year at Jama Air Force base. – thanks to S&E – this is so sad
Source: Kingman Star Friday, May 27, 1949
Covington, Ind.—Mr. and Mrs. Marion Keller were expected to return to their home here today from Washington where they appealed to army officers for commutation of the death sentence imposed on their solider son.
The son, Pvt. Robert H. Keller, was convicted in Japan last January in the killing of an army guard in the robbery of a post exchange.
In Washington, the Kellers, accompanied by Rep. Cecil M. Harden, sixth Indiana district representative in Congress called at the Judge Advocate’s office and asked that the son’s sentence be reduced to life imprisonment.
They were told that their plea would be placed before the Army Board of Review.
Source: Kingman Star Friday, May 13, 1949
Covington, May 10—The parents of Pvt. Keller, Mr. and Mrs. Marion Keller, had received no word Tuesday relative to Major Gen. Earle E. Partridge’s approval of the death sentence for their son.
Pvt. Keller was convicted along with Pvt. Burks and a third soldier, Robert Baugham, of Connellsville, Pa., for the murder of Sgt. Paul T. Wilburn, of Columbus, Ohio, and the robbery of the post exchange.
An army public information officer in Tokyo said evidence introduced at the Covington youth’s court martial disclosed that Keller and Burks slashed Wilburn’s throat while the bookkeeper was asleep in the Jama airbase post exchange. They then robbed the exchange of goods valued at $810, he said.
Pvt. Keller was not very well known in Covington. He attended grade school in Illinois but did not attend high school. Before enlisting in the Air Corps, he helped his father here part time in his work at the Coffing Brothers Orchard, south of Covington where the father is employed. The son enlisted in the Air Corps in July 1946 when 17 years of age. He had been stationed in Japan for more than two years.
In addition to his parents in Covington, Pvt. Keller has a sister in Covington, Mrs. Kathryn Yuochunas, living near the home of his parents. – thanks to S&E