Historian and Writer
Posts about St. Louis police history.
On September 15, 1887, a muscular man stood in the First District Police Court listening to Judge Cady. As he looked out between eyes almost swollen shut and a busted lip, he waited to see if justice would be done. It was as Judge Cady told the beaten man, “$10 fine for disturbing the peace. $100 for resisting
On the morning of Wednesday, July 8, 1885, the Coroner’s Clerk Jimmy Spaulding rushed into the Police Court at the Four Courts building. Spaulding announced one of the jail inmates waiting in the holding pen had just escaped. While most of the members of court sat stunned, Detective Billy Desmond jumped to his feet and rushed out of
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
On October 31, 1912, George Wiggins attended his trial for the murder of St. Louis Police Officer Louis Schnarr in June 1912. Nonchalantly chewing gum, 21-year-old Wiggins appeared totally oblivious to the seriousness of the trial. Wiggins plead guilty to the murder with the hope of receiving 25 years in prison. However, Judge Withrow was considering the death
On August 11, 1896, a train arrived in St. Louis, Missouri around 7:30 am. Three figures exited the train. Two healthy looking policeman 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
On February 22, 1924, unknown suspects took $20,000.00 in American Express Company money orders from the Mercantile Trust Company in Downtown St. Louis. Initially, the American Bankers Association hired private detectives. After the detectives were unable to discover any serious leads, the association turned the case over to the St. Louis Police Department. When the bank
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 thugs, who frequented the Downtown area. Shea was
Sgt. Peletiah M. Jenks served the St. Louis Police Department as one of its original members, when the department was reorganized in 1861. By the early 1880s, Jenks was a sergeant at the busy Carr Street Station in Downtown St. Louis. In this capacity, he was responsible for the capture of a St. Louis youth with a
William “Skippy” Rohan would prove time and again he was one of the toughest kids ever to come out of the Kerry Patch, St. Louis’ tough Irish-American neighborhood. Home to St. Louis’ most famous gang, “Egan’s Rats”, the Kerry Patch produced the toughest St. Louis gangsters of Irish descent. Born on July 5, 1874, “Skippy”
On Thursday, September 9, 1875, George “Mitchell” Gassert and William Salisbury went to Fred Fisher’s Saloon at the corner of N. Jefferson and Morgan (Delmar today). After ordering drinks, the two young men of unsavory reputation refused to pay for their drinks. After several attempts to illicit payment, Fisher summoned St. Louis Police Officer John Cummings.