Posts about police history with special emphasis on St. Louis police history.
On Monday, December 15, 1902, St. Louis Police Assistant Chief of Detectives James H. Smith retired from the police department to take a position in the coal industry. Chief of Detectives William Desmond attempted to convince Smith to stay but he decided to retire from the force as his fortieth birthday approached. Smith compiled a commendable record as Desmond’s Assistant. […]
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For the October 5, 1861 edition of the Cincinnati Daily Press, editors pulled a story off the wire service from the Spirit of the Times. The wire story reported on a fight between former English prizefighting champion Tom Sayers and current English champion Jem Mace. Both Sayers and Mace were touring with English circuses, when they stopped in at a […]
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During April 1885, St. Louis experienced one of its most sensational murders. Two English travelers had checked into the Southern Hotel in early April 1885. C. Arthur Preller and H. M. Brooks, who was going by the alias of Dr. Maxwell, appeared to be very friendly. Although they had separate rooms, they often stayed in the same room together. At […]
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On Saturday, March 12, 1904, St. Louis Detective James J. Moran led a team of detectives to a room in a row house at 634 South Broadway on St. Louis’ Near South Side. Frank Ward, a suspected safe cracker, rented a room in the row house. Besides Ward, the detectives arrested Edward Seely and John Shumway. Moran and the detectives […]
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H. H. Holmes was America’s first known serial killer in the modern definition of the word. Holmes operated “the Murder Castle”, a Chicago hotel during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Holmes would eventually be convicted of sixteen murders but may have murdered more than 100 people during his operation of the hotel. What is less well known is that St. […]
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Sunday morning, August 12, 1900, St. Louis Police arrested four former Transit Line streetcar workers for blowing up the Olive Street line on Maryland Avenue between N. Taylor and N. Euclid Avenues on the previous night at 11:00 p.m. Police arrested Maurice Brennan, Fred E. Northway, James Schwartz and James Finnesey. Police found 30 pounds of dynamite and 30 feet […]
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In one of those strange coincidences of history, the Streetcar Union President Sherman C. Patterson was stabbed by a union machinist named Edward Canty after a saloon disagreement. At a time when several of his opponents in the 1900 St. Louis Streetcar Strike would love to have seen him sent on a train out of town, Patterson is stabbed by […]
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The picture of Cornelius O’Keefe in the book, In The Line of Duty: St. Louis Police Officers Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice by Barbara Miksicek, David McElreath, and Major Stephen Pollihan, struck me the first time I saw it. With his hair parted down the middle and a big mustache, I could see him walking the streets of Downtown St. Louis […]
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William T. “Willie” Egan took over “Egan’s Rats” on the death of his older brother Tom in 1919. Thomas “Snake” Kinney and his childhood friend and brother-in-law Tom Egan formed St. Louis’ criminal organization in the late 1800s. Both Kinney and Tom Egan were saloon keepers and Democratic politicians. They employed “the Rats” for political slugging and other criminal activities. […]
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On July 26, 1854, the bare knuckle champion John Morrissey met occasional bare knuckle fighter William Poole in a no rules street brawl. What followed would be the worst five minutes of John Morrissey’s life. On October 23, 1853, the 22-year-old Morrissey beat Yankee Sullivan for the world bare knuckle championship in a disputed decision. Sullivan actually knocked Morrissey out […]
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