Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about St. Louis,Missouri and miscellaneous history until 1930 .
On Saturday, April 9, 2022, the Franklin County Missouri Historical Society invited me to give a PowerPoint presentation on the Union Missouri Bank Robbery of 1902. The book covers the robbery, the investigation, two nationwide hunts for the fugitive and a daring break from the St. Louis City Jail. Two daring robbers, not yet 23 years of age, pulled off
Tom Allen was born in Birmingham, England on April 23, 1840 but he became famous as a heavyweight bare knuckle prizefighter in America. Settling in St. Louis around 1867, Allen won the American Heavyweight Championship in 1873 and held the title until 1876. He returned to England for a year before returning to St. Louis for good in 1878. Back
On Tuesday, July 4, 1916, former St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond passed away after an illness of two years. Desmond was in Alexian Brothers Hospital from October 1915 until his death on Independence Day 1916. The 59-year-old Desmond left a 12-year-old son, William Desmond, Jr. Chief Desmond’s wife died several years before him. For 17 years from 1890
St. Louis Police Officer Cornelius O’Keefe performed countless acts of bravery over his career. On May 26, 1901, O’Keefe proved his toughness and quick thinking again by saving a fellow officer from an excited horse and shed fire. St. Louis Police Officer Joseph A. Gerk patrolled his beat on Eighteenth Street during the morning of May 26, 1901, when he
On December 15, 1903, three men entered the Erie House at Fourth Street and Clark Avenue. The men beat up cook Victor Dauson before shooting hotel clerk Charles Harding. Dauson died from his injuries but Charles Harding recovered. The men took $300 from the safe and fled the hotel. The men entered the hotel at 2:00 a.m. and surprised Harding,
On August 11, 1896, a train arrived in St. Louis, Missouri around 7:30 a.m. Three figures exited the train. Two healthy looking police officers were escorting John D. “Jack” Shea, who killed St. Louis Police Officer Patrick Doran on November 7, 1881. The gaunt and sickly Shea was no longer the young thug, who executed Doran during a chase after
On a chilly night, January 9, 1915, Sgt. Michael Gibbons stepped off the westbound Delmar owl streetcar about 3:00 a.m. Sgt. Gibbons walked towards the Wabash Railroad’s Delmar Station, which was in complete darkness. Gibbons kneeled and wrapped his nightstick on the platform to signal any nearby beat officers to report to him. Patrolman Arthur J. Saxy heard the night
“For the good of the department”. With those 6 words, the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners removed St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond from the position he held for 17 years. They replaced him with Desmond’s ex-assistant James Smith, who was dismissed by the previous board. How did one of the greatest, if not the greatest, detectives in
Cornelius O’Keefe earned a reputation as a tough police officer during his career with the St. Louis Police Department. He would need all that toughness on the morning of January 6, 1911, when a burglar entered the boarding house, where O’Keefe lived and tried to steal several items including O’Keefe’s pants. O’Keefe had just woken up and was getting ready
When William Rudolph broke out of the St. Louis Jail on Independence Day 1903, the newspapers called it an act of unprecedented daring. However, twenty-two years earlier, Frank Fone and John D. Shea broke out of the St. Louis Jail the same way. Fone and Shea were local criminals, who frequented the Downtown area. Shea was violent, while Fone was