Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
On Wednesday, January 10, 1900, St. Louis Police Officer Paul Girard was standing at the corner of S. Taylor and Lindell Boulevard, when he saw a man jump from the second floor of 4511 Lindell Boulevard. Aware of recent burglaries in the wealthy Central West End neighborhood, Girard approached the man. When the limping man saw Girard, he ran towards S.
Polish wrestler and strongman Stanislaus Zbyszko first came to the United States in 1909 to campaign for a shot at World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. He received and lost the match in a legitimate contest during 1910. Zbyszko continued wrestling for a few more years and actually won the World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1914 from hated rival
Over his 17 year career, St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond dealt with many criminal’s family members. Some family members were as bad or worse than the criminal Chief Desmond and his men had locked up. However, many family members were honest, hard-working people, who struggled to understand what went wrong with their loved one. Early in his career
On the morning of Wednesday, July 8, 1885, the Coroner’s Clerk Jimmy Spaulding rushed into the Police Court at the Four Courts building. Spaulding announced one of the jail inmates waiting in the holding pen had just escaped. While most of the members of court sat stunned, Detective Billy Desmond jumped to his feet and rushed out of the courtroom.
Roland V. West bought the rights and directed The Bat (1926), one of the first “old dark house” mysteries for United Artist in 1926. Arthur Edeson was the cinematographer for both this film and The Old Dark House (1932), which share similar Expressionist elements. Both films are set in large mansions, which have seen better days. The key to the
The Tuesday Evening, February 18, 1919, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed the arrest of two men and two women for the theft of numerous luxury items. Aware that a shoplifting ring was working a couple of the local jewelry stores, the St. Louis Police Department assigned several undercover police women to follow the suspects. Their work resulted in the
On Friday, June 10, 1910, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley Ketchel fought his last fight against unheralded Jim Smith. Ketchel has cleared out the middleweight division, so boxing promoters struggled to find suitable competition for Ketchel. At only 24 years old, Ketchel lived hard and fought constantly causing an early breakdown of his body. After fighting Smith, Ketchel intended to
St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond was known for his ability to gain confessions from criminals. Unlike other detectives, who would sometimes use physical intimidation, Desmond eschewed the “third degree”. Chief Desmond believed information obtained by beating suspects was completely unreliable. Desmond would start a discussion with the suspect. After putting him or her at ease, Desmond would let
On Saturday, May 5, 1900 at 11:30 p.m., the explosion of the Suburban Line at the Wabash and Sarah Street railroad crossing marked the beginning of the St. Louis Street Car Strike of 1900. Before the strike was over in September 1900, the streets of St. Louis would be a battle ground between rich and poor with the St. Louis
Frederick William Johannpeter (1839 – 1915) was my second great grandfather on my mother’s side. He died 4 months before the birth of his grandson, Gilbert P. Ellis, who was my grandfather. Since he died before my grandfather was born, I had very limited information on him, when I started researching the family history. Grandpa didn’t have any verbal history