Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about St. Louis,Missouri and miscellaneous history until 1930 .
After Theodore Roosevelt won reelection in his own right during November 1904, TR impetuously announced he would not run for another term. His inner circle, particularly his wife Edith, would think the decision a mistake. However, once Theodore Roosevelt made a pronouncement, he intended to keep his word. Roosevelt picked his Secretary of War and former Governor of the Phillipines
General William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame had deep roots in St. Louis stretching back to 1843. As a soldier, he was assigned to Jefferson Barracks. He was also involved in St. Louis businesses as the St. Louis Street Railroad Company President until he left St. Louis for the Civil War in 1861. After the war, St. Louis’ citizens
On April 5, 1920, Frederick Charles Smith, also known as “The Red-Headed Bandit”, walked into the Easton-Taylor Trust Company at 4474 Easton Avenue. Smith had a revolver in each hand and demanded money from the cashier. Fearing for his life, the clerk promptly dropped $15,309 in a sack. John Lanigan, the bank’s president, sat in his office off the lobby
I previously wrote about an incident in which a Detective Sergeant for the St. Louis Police was shot during a robbery attempt. Unlike a number of other incidents in Gilded Age St. Louis history, Detective Sergeant James Martin King’s home in January 1920 still exists. The home is still in excellent condition. 4973 Lotus Avenue was the home of Sgt. King in
On a cold January night in 1920, the deadliest year for St. Louis Police, kicked off violently. Two not so-bright robbers attempted to rob one of the largest and bravest officers on the St. Louis Police Department. St. Louis Police Detective Sergeant James Martin King was walking to his home at 4973 Lotus Avenue via N. Kingshighway Boulevard, when two
On Thursday, June 12, 1919, Earl Hunter and Charles Bergman, a parolee and ex-convict, held up the Meramec Trust Company shortly after it opened at 07:00 a.m. The robbery was not well planned and even more poorly executed. The corner of Virginia Avenue and Meramec Street was one of the busiest street car blocks in the city. The robbers had
William Dillon was responding to reports about the murder of Officer McKenna by the Lewis Brothers. Dillon believed that the Lewis Brothers, who were auto and wire thieves, were responsible for McKenna’s death. Dillon proceeded to the DeMorris home at 4232 Athlone Avenue. He observed two of the Lewis brothers enter the garage in the Ford. Dillon entered the garage
Before Friday, April 7, 1916 was over, the Lewis brothers would kill two St. Louis Police Officers, John McKenna and William Dillon. McKenna was the first to fall, when he interrupted the brothers attempts to steal wire, a valuable commodity during World War I. Dillon would be killed investigating McKenna’s murder. McKenna was assigned to look for the wire thieves,
The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history was not a shootout, natural disaster or act of terrorism. The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history occurred on the night of Monday, September 3, 1900. Electricity was the assailant as a power line with 3300 volts of electricity fell onto the telephone lines, at Eight Street and Carr Avenue. The
On Friday, April 24, 1953, three men and a getaway driver attempted to rob the Southwest Bank on the corner of Southwest Avenue and S. Kingshighway Boulevard in St. Louis, MO. The St. Louis Police foiled the robbery, which became the focus of a 1959 movie, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. The film is now in the public domain. Fred W. Bowerman,