Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Theodore Roosevelt made a fateful decision on Election Day 1904. He announced after being elected to the Presidency in his own right after ascending to the office upon the assassination of William McKinley that he would not run for another term in 1908. Roosevelt had served almost a full term before his election as McKinley was assassinated in September 1901.
On Friday, October 21, 1904, one of the greatest tragedies in St. Louis Police history occurred when two train robbers and three St. Louis Police detectives died in a shootout. The gunfight occurred in a small hotel room on Pine Street. Two days later on Sunday, October 23, 1904, a burglar attempted to gain entry to a realty office at
An age old question in combat sports is “Who will win between a boxer and a wrestler?” The speculation around this question led to several boxer versus wrestler matches through out history, most notably the disaster between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. The matches are mostly no-win affairs except at the box office, which is why both promoters
During April 1885, St. Louis experienced one of its most sensational murders. Two English travelers had checked into the Southern Hotel in early April 1885. C. Arthur Preller and H. M. Brooks, who was going by the alias of Dr. Maxwell, appeared to be very friendly. Although they had separate rooms, they often stayed in the same room together. At
On Monday, March 5, 1900, St. Louis Police Officers Thomas Meagher and Thomas Degnan apprehended men who robbed an East St. Louis Officer of his gun. Ed Sullivan, a 22 year-old transient, robbed an East St. Louis Police Officer of his gun, jewelry and possessions in late February 1900. Officer Thomas Meagher observed Sullivan and Harry Davis walking near Olive
John Camel Heenan was known to 19th Century bare knuckle prizefighting fans as “the Benicia Boy”. Despite an 0-1-1 record as a professional fighter, Heenan claimed the World Prizefighting Championship based on a draw with Tom Sayer in an 1860 English prize-fight. Heenan’s first professional fight had been with the reigning World Heavyweight Prizefighting Champion John Morrissey’s last professional fight
Frank Gotch took the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Tom Jenkins in December 1903. Gotch intended on following up this triumph with a match for World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from George Hackenschmidt. Gotch wanted to meet “Hack” in St. Louis during the 1904 World’s Fair. Unfortunately for Gotch and St. Louis, the match would not occur until 1908 in Chicago,
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) is the third Twentieth-Century Fox film starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan. Inspector Chan and Jimmy Chan, played by Victor Sen Yung, are flying to the San Francisco World Exposition in 1939 as the film opens. The bumpy ride is making Jimmy very nervous. Also on the flight is Charlie’s friend Paul Essex, played
On Saturday, March 12, 1904, St. Louis Detective James J. Moran led a team of detectives to a room in a row house at 634 South Broadway on St. Louis’ Near South Side. Frank Ward, a suspected safe cracker, rented a room in the row house. Besides Ward, the detectives arrested Edward Seely and John Shumway. Moran and the detectives
H. H. Holmes was America’s first known serial killer in the modern definition of the word. Holmes operated “the Murder Castle”, a Chicago hotel during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Holmes would eventually be convicted of sixteen murders but may have murdered more than 100 people during his operation of the hotel. What is less well known is that St.