Willis Hall Gets 99 Years for Murder

En diciembre 15, 1903, about 2:00 o’clock in the morning, George Harding, the clerk of the Erie Hotel, was busy working in his office. Used to working alone, Harding had relaxed his vigil and didn’t notice three large, hard looking men enter the hotel at Fourth and Clark Streets.

His attention was arrested, when the first man entered his office with a drawn revolver. The robber told Harding to raise his hands. Harding was startled by the sudden appearance of the man but quickly raised his hands.

While Harding was held at gunpoint, the other two men began to rifle the safe. The gunmen signaled to his confederates that he heard someone coming down the hall. Victor Dawson, the Erie Hotel’s cook, and one of the few employees in the hotel was heading for the clerk’s office.

The robber attempting to break into the safe was using a sledge-hammer. He slid his frame behind the door to shield himself from Dawson’s view. As soon as Dawson entered the room, the desperado brought the sledge-hammer down on his head. Dawson dropped immediately, where his assailant struck him two or three more blows. Dawson died from his wounds.

As the men fled the building, they shot Harding. The owner estimated that $300 was taken from his safe. For several months, St. Louis Police had no leads.

Sin embargo, St. Louis Detectives Cremins and Finan got a tip that taxi driver Willis E. Hall, alias “Louis Heavy”, may have been involved in the robbery. Cremins and Finan began tailing Hall relentlessly.

In early April 1904, St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond advised his men to pick up Hall. They arrested him at 4301 Easton Avenida, his home residence, early in the morning on April 12, 1904. Hall was a tough customer but no match for Chief Desmond, who talked many criminals into confessions over the years.

Feeling “the third degree” didn’t reveal true information, Desmond used a clever way of questioning and interacting with the suspect to induce them to confess. He seldom failed in getting the guilty man to admit his crimes.

Hall quickly revealed that the robbery crew was Hall, James Duffy and Charles Stevens. They planned the robbery on December 14, 1903 in a saloon at the corner of Eighth and Walnut Streets. Hall didn’t admit shooting Harding but he was the only one with a firearm. Duffy was the assailant, who killed Dawson with the sledge-hammer.

Charles Stevens was already serving an eight-year sentence for another robbery in the Missouri Penitentiary. James Duffy was at-large. I can find no record of him ever being captured.

When Willis Hall came before Judge Turner, he decided to plead guilty rather than face trial and a possible death sentence. Judge Turner sentenced him to 99 years in prison. I couldn’t find a death record for Hall. He either died before 1910 or was paroled at some point and left the state.

Solving the Erie Hotel robbery was a feather in the cap for the St. Louis Police Department but nothing unusual in the storied career of Chief William Desmond.

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Sources: St. Louis República, Abril 13, 1904 edition, p. 7 y St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mayo 21, 1904 edition, p. 2

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