Mother Confesses to Chief Desmond

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 as Chief of Detectives, Chief Desmond heard a most unusual confession.  In late February 1892, Chief Desmond’s men arrested Patrick McAndrews for burglarizing a house.

Chief Desmond was familiar with the McAndrews family.  He knew them to be hard-working parents with many children in worthwhile occupations.  However, Patrick had been arrested several times for theft.

When Mrs. McAndrews came to visit her son, Chief Desmond gave permission for her to speak with Patrick.  Mrs. McAndrews, well into middle age, spoke with her 20-something son for 30 minutes.  Mrs. McAndrews broke into tears several times during their conversation.

After she finished speaking with Patrick, Mrs. McAndrews stopped in Chief Desmond’s office to speak with him.  Chief Desmond wanted to comfort Mrs. McAndrews and told her that Patrick must have picked up bad habits by running with the wrong crowd.

Mrs. McAndrews told Chief Desmond, “No.  It wasn’t that.”  Mrs. McAndrews told Chief Desmond she had observed a propensity in Patrick to steal items at an early age.  She didn’t observe this proclivity in any of her other children.   For this trait, she completely blamed herself.

Mrs. McAndrews related that prior to her son’s birth, Mr. McAndrews had taken to drinking quite heavily.  His drinking led him to be loose with the family’s finances.  Mrs. McAndrews struggled to pay for groceries and other household needs.

To prevent her children from going hungry, Mrs. McAndrews began going through Mr. McAndrews pockets as he slept and taking as much money as she thought she could without Mr. McAndrews discovering what she was doing.

By removing some of his money before he could spend it on alcohol, Mrs. McAndrews was able to get her family through this time.  Mr. McAndrews quit drinking so heavily after a couple of months.

Mrs. McAndrews was pregnant with Patrick during this time.  He was born a month or two after his father returned to his hardworking and thrifty ways.  Mrs. McAndrews felt Patrick’s propensity to steal was because she took Mr. McAndrews’ money without his knowledge.

Chief Desmond didn’t try to convince Mrs. McAndrews taking money from her husband before he could spend it all and leave the family without food was not the same as burglarizing someone’s home for ill-gotten gain.   Chief Desmond knew family members often blame themselves, when a family member turns to crime.  Trying to convince them it wasn’t their fault often only increases their stress.

Chief Desmond thanked her for sharing her story with him and let her know that he was there to help her if he could.  They parted amicably.  I can’t find a record of Patrick McAndrews going to the Missouri Penitentiary, so hopefully he turned his life around after his arrest.

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Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 28, 1892 edition, p. 7

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