Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about police history with special emphasis on St. Louis police history.
After averaging 9 fights a year over the past 7 years, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley “The Michigan Assassin” Ketchel was exhausted. Ketchel took a vacation on the Missouri ranch of his friend Colonel R. P. Dickerson in an attempt to regain his strength and enthusiasm for fighting. Ketchel never returned from vacation as he was shot and killed at
On Thursday, January 23, 1902, St. Louis awakened to the news millionaire A. Deane Cooper was found murdered in the Vista Bathhouse at Franklin Avenue and North Grand Boulevard. Cooper, one of St. Louis’ wealthiest men, owned residential real estate and other assets valued at 2 million dollars. Cooper aspired to be the biggest property owner in St. Louis. He
21-year old Charles Merrell had already served a term in the Missouri Penitentiary for stealing a car in Scotland County, when he got the idea to hold up the Morris Packing Company on Saturday, April 22, 1922. Merrell could not pull the job by himself, so he recruited another ex-convict, 33-year-old Hugh Pinkley. Merrell was employed as a mechanic at
Before he was the “Sherlock Holmes of St. Louis”, St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond was Detective “Billy” Desmond. One of the most talented detectives in St. Louis Police history, Desmond met one of the most famous international criminals in history, Eddie Guerin, in the mid-1880s. Guerin robbed the American Express Office in Paris in the early 1900s. French
On the morning of Saturday, April 22, 1922, a green Paige automobile pulled up in front of the Morris Packing Company at 3000 S. Broadway. One man emerged, looked around and waived for his companion to exit the back seat. After hesitating for a few seconds, the other man exited as the automobile crawled down the busy street. The time
Buildings are just piles of boards and bricks without the stories that are attached to them. During November 1912, St. Louis Police Officer Arthur Huddleston was killed by paroled murderer Albert Whitefield. Whitefield had surprised his common-law wife, who was entertaining another gentleman caller. Whitefield attempted to kill her before two St. Louis Police Officers responded to her cries for
On Tuesday, November 5, 1901, St. Louis Police captured Ben Kilpatrick and Laura Bullion for their part in the Great Northern train robbery in Montana on July 2, 1901. Before the case was settled, Kilpatrick would serve 10 years and Laura Bullion would serve three and a half years in the Missouri Penitentiary but it would take several weeks for
In 1877, St. Louis was the largest city west of the Mississippi. St. Louis Police dealt with the typical problems of a major city. St. Louis Police Officers responded to reports of murder, rape and robbery. On the morning of December 12, 1877, St. Louis Police Officer Daily responded to the report of a bear on the Downtown St. Louis
Before reading Gangs of St. Louis: Men of Respect by Daniel Waugh, I knew and wrote about Robert Creed and his brother Thomas murdering St. Louis Police Officer George Geisler on Halloween Day 1920. What I didn’t know was Robert Creed was a member of the Cuckoo Gang, an ultra violent criminal organization in the 1920s. Robert Creed was the
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 association turned over the