Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

My grandmother passed away in 2005. One of the stories she told me over the years was how her father( my greatgrandfather) was a police chief in a small town and how he was murdered. She went to her grave with bitterness the way he was treated after he was murdered, the finiancial hardships she as a young daughter without a father had to endure.

She told me he was on patrol one night when he stopped 3 people in a car. The 3 people (who she said were mob members) started a fight and he likely suffered serious internal injuries. About a month later he suddenly died. So my grandmother considered her father the police chief was murdered in the line of duty.

The bitterness was twofold. Back in those times in 1936 people who worked often got paid two weeks in advance. (unlike today when you work, then get paid 1 or 2 weeks later) . My grandmother told me when her father died he was one week into a two week work period. She said there was a knock on the door one week after her father died and the town wanted the second week's pay returned. Later on when her mother and her (she was a young daughter without a father) sought financial help from the town, the town said her father the police officer died a month after the beating ,therefore he did not die because of the traffic stop. Financial assistance denied.

It has been over 75 years and i do not think her story was ever told in print like i did now.

My grandmother passed away in 2005. One of the stories she told me over the years was how her father( my greatgrandfather) was a police chief in a small town and how he was murdered. She went to her grave with bitterness the way he was treated after he was murdered, the finiancial hardships she as a young daughter without a father had to endure.

She told me he was on patrol one night when he stopped 3 people in a car. The 3 people (who she said were mob members) started a fight and he likely suffered serious internal injuries. About a month later he suddenly died. So my grandmother considered her father the police chief was murdered in the line of duty.

The bitterness was twofold. Back in those times in 1936 people who worked often got paid two weeks in advance. (unlike today when you work, then get paid 1 or 2 weeks later) . My grandmother told me when her father died he was one week into a two week work period. She said there was a knock on the door one week after her father died and the town wanted the second week's pay returned. Later on when her mother and her (she was a young daughter without a father) sought financial help from the town, the town said her father the police officer died a month after the beating ,therefore he did not die because of it. Financial assistance denied.

It has been over 75 years and i do not think her story was ever told in print like i did now.

A few thoughts:
1. A big posthumous thank you to your great-grandfather for his service and sacrifice!
2. IMO, a month is quite a long time. What was the offical cause of death? When I think of "serious internal injuries", the ones likely to cause death, I'm thinking about internal bleeding that could lead to death in a matter of minutes to a few hours. Was he hospitalized? Was he hospitalized for that month before he passed away? If he was apparently "back to normal" after the incident and prior to his passing, it would be very difficult to prove that the assault by the mobsters was the cause of his death.
3. 4 generations is a long time to remain bitter. IMO, healthier to let bygones from about 75 years ago be bygones.

1936 was a rough time for everyone. My dept didn't have any kind of retirement back then. We had lots of cops who were in their 70's and 80's still working. Most people felt lucky to have a job. We didn't get a retirement more than token until 1948.

About that time, my Dad was working for the state of Oklahoma loading dump trucks with gravel with a shovel for $1.25 a day. There was no workman's comp, no unemployment, no nothing to protect workers anywhere.

Maybe i should not have used bitterness because it was different time and age in 1936. Naw, i still feel bitter

Also i should have added he was just not right physically after the traffic stop injury.

If you have the time, start doing some reaearch on your own. Go to the local library and pull up newspaper articles. Also, get a copy of his death certificate and see if anyone in your family has any other documents. Unless he had some other kind of condition, it would be pretty hard to explain why he died suddenly without any other explanation.

Make sure his information is submitted onto the Officer Down Memorial Page website. You should also see if you can have his name etched onto the wall at the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC. You may also want to contact someone at the local PD and tell them the story, along with showing them all of your research. They may be able to help as well. I know that I would if I worked there, only because I am a fan of history.

You can't change the past but you can certainly correct the future.

Today, they would have done an autopsy. I don't know about back then. But the death certificate is a good idea, it might reveal something.

Our fatal accident law is the person must die within 60 days of the crash for it to be considered a fatal crash. After that , it may be complications from the crash but not directly from the crash.

It would seem that kind of logic would be carried over into other situations like this that occurred today. But in 1936.....times were different.

I have my great-great-great-grandfather's death benefits certificate, which was paid to my great-great-great-grandmother when he died in 1896. It was a donation of $5 from every Philadelphia police officer active at the time. He had no state retirement or anything.