In Pennsylvania, life means life. If you're convicted of first-degree murder, the crime carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. That explains why about half of the state's oldest inmates remain in Pennsylvania State Prisons. The state has an inmate locator that allows members of the public to search inmates by age, so lehighvalleylive.com used that tool to discover who are the oldest inmates in Pennsylvania and where they're housed.

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Pennsylvania's newest state prison, State Correctional Institution Phoenix, opened in 2018 | AP Photo

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The crimes

We then cross-referenced those inmate names with the state's Unified Judicial System Web portal to find out what crimes they committed, when they were convicted and how long they were ordered to serve. Many of the oldest inmates are killers, but the oldest one isn't. What did he do? When was he convicted? The answers are below.

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Public access to court cases

We relied on the state online databases for all the information below. In some cases, the Unified Judicial System portal had no record of inmates listed in the inmate locator. A spokeswoman from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said she couldn't provide clarity on why some inmates weren't listed in the portal. With that sidenote, the following are the 20 oldest inmates in Pennsylvania.

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Inmate: Donald B. Hofler

Age: 84

Crime: He pleaded guilty in 2005 to two counts of third-degree murder. The English professor at Loyola University Maryland killed his wife after she left him and killed her teenage son, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Sentence: 40 to 80 years

Committing County: York

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Paul Gilly

Age: 85

Crime: He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1972. He killed United Mine Workers union reformer Joseph "Jock" Yablonski, his wife and daughter in 1969, according to a triblive.com report.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Washington

Current location: SCI Albion

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Inmate: Shields Frye

Age: 85

Crime: He was convicted of robbery and murder in 1983.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Philadelphia

Current location: SCI Dallas

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Inmate: Ronald Crist Fahlfelder

Age: 85

Crime: No record

Sentence: No record

Committing County: Union

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Louis Dottle Jr.

Age: 85

Crime: He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1991. He killed his wife, his appeal paperwork says.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Lawrence

Current location: SCI Greene

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Inmate: Cornwallis Littles

Age: 86

Crime: He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1964.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Philadelphia

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Thomas Holliday

Age: 86

Crime: He pleaded guilty to more than 200 sex offenses in 2014. He repeatedly sexually abused a girl and filmed it, according to CBS Philadelphia.

Sentence: 935 to 1,800 years

Committing County: Bucks

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Sherman F. Gravitt

Age: 86

Crime: He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Philadelphia

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Francis Richard Ferri

Age: 86

Crime: He was charged in 1983 and convicted of first-degree murder in 1987. He killed a partner in a drug distribution ring, his appeal says.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Allegheny

Current location: SCI Dallas

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Inmate: Ralph N. Sharp

Age: 87

Crime: No record

Sentence: No record

Committing County: Philadelphia

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Byron G. Hathaway

Age: 87

Crime: He was convicted of murder in 1981. The victim was his wife, Bernadette, an appeal says.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Delaware

Current location: SCI Dallas

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Inmate: George Verle Conard

Age: 87

Crime: He was convicted of first-degree murder in 1982.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Perry

Current location: SCI Huntingdon

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Inmate: Joseph Busija

Age: 87

Crime: He pleaded guilty to seven sex offenses, including four felonies, in 2007. He was a carnival worker who molested two children, according to a triblive.com report.

Sentence: 15 to 30 years

Committing County: Westmoreland

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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Inmate: Alfred J. Stoudt

Age: 88

Crime: He pleaded guilty in 2015 to stalking and indecent assault. His victim was an autistic teen, according to a report in the Reading Eagle.

Sentence: He was paroled, found to be a violator and sentenced in 2017 to one to three years.

Committing County: Berks

Current location: SCI Waymart

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Inmate: Alice Green

Age: 88

Crime: She was convicted at trial of first-degree murder in 1978. A court appeal says she stabbed Horace Alexander for "cheating" on her.

Sentence: Life

Committing County: Philadelphia

Current location: SCI Muncy

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Inmate: Daniel Derence

Age: 88

Crime: He pleaded guilty to three counts of rape in 1996, was paroled and pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in 2014.

Sentence: Five to 10 years on the first conviction and 9 to 18 months on the second conviction. It's unclear from public records why he's an inmate even though his maximum sentence in both crimes has expired.

Committing County: Allegheny

Current location: SCI Albion

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Inmate: George Rogers

Age: 90

Crime: No record

Sentence: No record

Committing County: Crawford

Current location: SCI Huntingdon

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Inmate: Ralph M. Duncan

Age: 90

Crime: He sexually assaulted a teenage girl and intimidated two witnesses, according to a report on triblive.com. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault and intimidating a witness in 2013.

Sentence: 8.5 to 30 years

Committing County: Indiana

Current location: SCI Houtzdale

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Inmate: Joseph Budick

Age: 91

Crime: He sexually abused a girl between the years of 2005 and 2008, according to the Times Herald of Norristown, Pa. He pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in 2014.

Sentence: Four to 10 years

Committing County: Montgomery

Current location: SCI Mahanoy

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Inmate: Byron B. Chadderdon

Age: 92

Crime: He took more than $670,000 from his sister's trust fund, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He pleaded no contest to five counts of theft and single counts of receiving stolen property and misapplication of funds in 2014.

Sentence: Three to seven years

Committing County: Allegheny

Current location: SCI Laurel Highlands

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READ MORE

How bizarre: The most unusual crimes in the Lehigh Valley in 2018

The number of violent crimes in each Lehigh Valley town

Recent crime news in the Lehigh Valley

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.