Introduction
Philip Litwin, 1941.
Isadore & Reba Litwin appear in the 1930 Census in Philadelphia PA, then residing at 2510 South 9th Street with their three children: Edward, Philip, and Sylvia. Isadore Litwin had emigrated from Russia prior to World War I. By the time the census was taken he already owned his own grocery store. By 1941 the Litwin family had relocated to North Camden, and Isadore Litwin had opened a grocery at 547 North 8th Street. Philip Litwin was driving a truck for the family business in 1941. He enlisted in the Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor, reporting for duty on January 4, 1942. After the war, the two Litwin sons married and lived nearby in North Camden. The 1947 Camden City Directory reveals that Edward Litwin had established a wholesale produce business, and that Philip Litwin was living in the 700 block of Cedar Street, a short walk from the store.
By 1959 the Litwins had moved their homes from North Camden, and the business to the opposite corner, 801 Elm Street. Isadore Litwin then lived in Parkside on Belleview Avenue, Phil Litwin moved to 3000 Stevens Street in East Camden, and Ed Litwin had moved to Pennsauken. It appears that at this time the brothers had both returned to their father’s business. Times became hard in North Camden, and by the middle 1970s there were only two groceries of any size in North Camden, the Chek-In Market at 548 State Street, and the Litwin Brothers. When the Chek-In closed its doors in the early 1980s, only Litwin’s remained.
The Litwin Brothers provided a check cashing service at their store, as the residents of North Camden had no bank branch to serve them. This practice was stopped in the wake of a July 1, 1974 robbery attempt which left one person dead and seven wounded, Phil Litwin and one of the robbers being among the wounded.
In 2004 the Litwin Market still is in business at 8th and Elm Street, and the Litwin Brothers Check Cashing business also serves North Camden, providing a service not available in that neighborhood, as no commercial bank has done business in North Camden in over 50 years.
Store Photos — 1970–1971
Litwin Brothers Market, circa 1970–1971. Photos courtesy of Earl Crim.
Top: Phil Litwin. Middle: Ed Litwin & Robert Pratt; Phil Litwin & Robert Pratt. Bottom: Dave Litwin & Earl Crim; Earl Crim.
“…late 1970 or early 71 I remember that Ed Litwin made a deal at Cherry Hill Dodge on three 1970 Dodge Swingers… I got one, Dave Litwin got one, and Eddie bought one for his daughter Eileen.” —Earl Crim, 2004
A Neighbor Remembers
“My fondest memory of the Litwin store was of Easter time. Isadore would sell baby chicks. We raised them to small chickens and then gave them away.”
—Mike Larson, May 2012
Shootout in Litwin Store Is Violent Incident of Year
Camden Courier-Post —
By Robert Marek, Courier-Post Staff
The most savage crime in Camden County during the past year was committed July 1, 1974, when three gunmen entered a North Camden grocery store and killed a teenage boy and wounded five others, including a 3-year-old girl.
At 11:55 a.m. the gunmen entered the Litwin Brothers’ Superette, 801 Elm St., and became involved in a shootout with Philip Litwin, 53, of Pennsauken, a co-owner of the establishment.
According to investigators, Litwin went for his gun upon realizing that his brother, Edwin, 59, also of Pennsauken, was being held up.
The robbers, armed with pistols and a shotgun, began returning the fire.
During the exchange, Ralph Gordon, 13, of Cedar Street, who was in the store at the time, was struck in the head by a bullet. He was rushed to Cooper Hospital for emergency surgery, but died one hour later.
As the gunfire continued, Edwin Litwin was struck in the neck; Marie Mercado, 3, of North 8th Street was shot in the stomach; Fred Radler, 73, of Haddon Township, was shot in the head; Reinaldo Neco, 8, of North 9th Street, was shot in the left ankle and Austin O’Toole, a butcher in the store, was grazed in the head by a bullet.
The only man ever brought to trial in connection with the case, Steven L. Thomas, 24, of the 1700 block of S. 9th St., testified he and two other suspects, Robert G. Davis, 29, and William Sterling, 34, both of Camden, and both of whom still are at large, entered the store while a fourth suspect, Hiram Johnson, 27, of Palmyra, waited outside in a car. Thomas is serving a long prison term.
Thomas testified during his trial he pushed Edwin Litwin to the floor and stood guard at the door while his accomplices went for the money which was being used to cash customers’ welfare checks.
As Deery went to the trunk of his car to get a shotgun the robbers’ getaway car was struck by another vehicle but managed to continue and was found by police about one hour later at East State Street Village, one mile from the store.
During the escape one of the thieves dropped his gun, a .357 Magnum which had been stolen June 13 from during the armed robbery of the Leslie Edelman Inc. sporting goods store, Route 130, Pennsauken.
After abandoning the getaway car, which had been stolen the day before in Philadelphia, Thomas said he borrowed a car and drove Sterling to New York City for medical attention and then flew to the Virgin Islands where he was arrested about five weeks later.
Thomas was sentenced to 38 to 40 years in prison for his part in the robbery by Camden County District Court Judge I.V. DiMartino after changing his plea from innocent to no defense to the charge of murder.
Litwin, at the same trial, testified he was standing at the front of the store when one of the robbers entered and told him to “hit the floor.”
“I didn’t get down fast enough and he hit me in the temple with a gun and kicked me in the side,” Litwin said.
Litwin said he sounded an alarm and then heard two shots ring out from the rear of the store and someone saying “Kill ‘em, kill ‘em.”
Litwin said he was shot as he attempted to run to the back of the store to see if any of his employes had been injured but instead ran outside where he ran into Sgt. Thomas M. Deery of the city police who was responding to an alarm at the store.
Deery, who saw one of the robbers fleeing, fired several shots at him. He said he hit the man, identified as Sterling, once in the stomach.
The money the robbers tried to steal was recovered. It was found outside the store, where it was dropped when Sterling was shot by Deery.
Apparently the robbers believed the store would have been easy pickings.
Edward Litwin later explained the large amount of cash was on hand in the store because he and his brother wanted their business to be community based and cashing welfare checks was one way to accomplish that end.
The volume became so big that the cashing of nearly $20,000 worth of welfare checks on the first day of each month had become common place.
After the robbery the practice was stopped.
Fugitive Gets 20 Years for 1997 Slaying
Camden Courier-Post —
By Renee Winkler, Courier-Post Staff
A Vietnamese immigrant who was a fugitive for nine years was sentenced Friday to 20 years in state prison for killing another Vietnamese man who had attempted to act as a peacemaker.
Hieu Thach, 29, was arrested in August in Florida in connection with the murder of Nhut Thach, 47, who was not a relative.
Nhut Thach had worked as a butcher at the Littman Grocery Store in North Camden and was a respected presence in Camden’s Vietnamese community. He and his family had provided support for other new immigrants after they arrived in South Jersey in 1987.
An investigation showed the defendant had warned the victim’s son that he was coming to their house in the 3400 block of Westfield Avenue in East Camden on the night of March 24, 1997, to resolve an ongoing dispute.
He believed Thach’s son Hung Thach had made telephone threats. The two men had quarreled previously at a bowling alley in Pennsauken, according to investigative reports of the killing.
Nhut Thach went out to the street to attempt to resolve differences between the two young men but Hieu Thach pulled a handgun and began to fire.
One bullet hit Nhut Thach in the head, killing him. A second shot wounded the intended victim, then 19, who was pushing his younger brother into the house for safety.
John Thach, now 20 and a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, told Superior Court Judge Samuel Natal he “was 10 when my father was taken away. Watching his body lying there I felt that all my dreams were shattered.”
“My brother tried his best to guide me, but sometimes I just felt like I was lost,” John Thach said.
His sister, Trang Thach, 32, described her father as “the best dad in the world. He worked seven days a week for his family. He never spent even $100 on himself.”
She said her father pushed his children to do well in school, “but we were lost. We didn’t know what we were doing.”
Referring to Hieu Thach, she said, “he doesn’t treasure human life.”
A second man charged in connection with the fatal shooting, Sica Lam, was convicted of reckless manslaughter for driving the killer to the Thach home. He was paroled in 2001.