Robber Kills Another Policeman in 1920

On December 10, 1920, an eighth St. Louis Police Officer would lose his life, the most officers to die in the line of duty in the history of the St. Louis Police Department.  Four of the officers’ murders in 1920 would never be solved.  This last murder would be one of the four murders never to be solved.

Charles M. Daly became the eighth St. Louis Police Officer to lose his life, when a robber attempted to hold him up in front of his home at 4021 Forest Park Boulevard.  The robber shot Daly in the course of the holdup.  His actions would lead to Officer Daly’s death.  Daly had recently been assigned as a Special Police Officer at the Magnolia Police Station due to his fine record as a patrol officer at Grand Boulevard and Easton Avenue.

Special Officer Daly was returning to his home after his shift at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7, 1920.  As he turned up his sidewalk, a man approached him and told him to “stick ’em up”.  Officer Daly was carrying his service revolver in his right coat pocket.

Daly pulled out his revolver but the robber shot him first.  The shots struck Daly in the abdomen twice.  Officer Daly told his wife Josephine later that he also observed another man across the street hiding in the bushes during the robbery.  Officer Daly fired three shots at both men before collapsing to the sidewalk.  His wife found him, when she heard the shooting in the front yard.

According to the Wednesday, December 8, 1920 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his doctor’s said he had a “fighting chance”.  The paper also noted Officer Daly was the son of the late Dan Daly, a local prize-fighter of note.  The police arrested several suspects but Daly said he never got a good look at the robber in the dark and did not believe he could identify him if he was brought to him.

Oddly, Officer Daly had been attacked by a gang of men a few weeks before the fatal attack.  The men followed him after he got off the Sarah Street street car. They jumped him in front of his home but his wife grabbed his service revolver and scared them away.

She said many of the criminal element in the neighborhood he patrolled held a grudge against him because of his diligence in executing his duty.  However, authorities were never able to connect the two attacks nor did they believe this incident was anything more than a robbery.

On Friday, December 10, 1920 at 06:20 p.m., Daly succumbed to his injuries.  Daly, who was born on January 15, 1890 in St. Louis, was 30 years old.  The St. Louis Police Department lost another brave officer.

The house at 4021 Forest Park Boulevard, which no longer exists, had a bloody history.  According to John Auble’s book A History of St. Louis Gangsters, May Traynor, a local madam was shot by two men there on September 20, 1961.  Before she died, Traynor blamed Joe Costello, a local gangster.    She died on September 22, 1961 at 71 years of age.

1920 was an anomaly in the history of the St. Louis Police Department.  Never did so many officers lose their lives in the line of duty.  Fortunately, it has never been repeated.

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