A Book of the Saint Paul Police 1838 - 1912 — 6

O’Connell had been relieved from duty and was walking along Third street when a young man rushed up to him and told him that two burglars had just escaped from his house. O’Connell gave chase and the young man was left behind. No one witnessed the noble fight which this hero undoubtedly made, and no one heard the shot which stretched him out cold in death, on the green grass of a lot near the corner of Summit avenue and Walnut street. But there was found the next morning in his blue coat and helmet, as truly a soldier as ever fell fighting for his country on a field of battle. The mayor, the chief of police, and the entire police department with the fire department and the city officials attended the funeral services of the brave policeman in the Cathedral.

Late in the fall the unrelenting search of the police officers for the murderers of their brave comrade was rewarded. George Washington and Al Underhill, two colored men, were arrested, tried for the murder of O’Connell, convicted and sent to Stillwater for life.

In 1882 John Clark, who for many years before had served as a member of the force, became Chief of Police. He is now Assistant Chief of Police, and with the exception of two terms in the 90’s has served continually on the police department. No more efficient member of the department ever donned a uniform. With the appointment of Chief Clark in 1882 may be said to have begun the organization of the present police department. The chief immediately introduced a number of innovations. He secured the purchase of a first class patrol wagon and Patrick Casey became the first driver of it. Casey was the wildest driver who ever piloted a police wagon in St. Paul until Little Jimmie Morrison became driver of the Central Patrol wagon some nine years ago. However, neither of them ever had any accident of consequence. Chief Clark added 15 new patrolmen to his force which now numbered 45 men. In 1883 Christopher D. O’Brien now one of the best known lawyers of St. Paul became mayor of the city after serving in the city council. He immediately inaugurated the policy of a closed town and Chief Clark had his hands full as soon as this theory was promulgated. Vice was continually cropping out where least expected. The city was growing with great leaps and bounds. In 1883 fifteen more men were added. In 1885 while Mr. O’Brien was still mayor, I. D. Morgan and Thos. Walsh were created lieutenants of police, a new office to which a $1,200 salary was attached. Fifteen men were added and two sergeants were put on the roll at a thousand dollars a year. Chief Clark was given $2,200 per year and John B. Bresette was appointed captain at $1,700 per year. John J. O’Connor was detective with a salary of $1,500 per year. From this time on began the rise of the St. Paul Police Department’s fame in detective service. Under Chief of Detectives O’Connor Thos. Kenaley and Daniel J. O’Connor served as plain clothes men. No sooner was Chief O’Connor placed at the head of this department than the fame not only of the department but of the chief himself became nation wide. It grew until John J. O’Connor went into the chair as Chief of Police in 1900, a position which he holds to this day, with a record of eleven years of service unparalleled in the history of any American or European police department. But of Chief O’Connor we shall speak later.

In 1885 Judge Henry W. Corey went on the Municipal Bench with a salary of $2,500 a year. The same year acting on the suggestion of Chief Clark, Mayor Edmund Rice, who had again been called upon to take the mayor’s chair appointed a mounted patrol of six men. This greatly aided the handling of the outlying districts. Chief Clark also had a signal system installed with 32 alarm boxes and telephone connection. E. B. Birge was the first superintendent and E. W. Hildebrand and Henry H. Flint were his first operators. Mayor Rice and Chief Clark urged upon the council the necessity of police sub-stations and in 1886 four were installed, one on Margaret street, near Hope, one on Prior avenue in the Merriam Park district, one on Winslow Avenue, now the corner of S. Robert and Ducas and one on Rondo near Western. These buildings cost $12,400. Having placed at the head of the Police Department the best chief that St. Paul had known up to that time, having brought the whole department to a state of efficiency never before dreamed of in St. Paul, Mayor Rice resigned in 1887 to enter Congress from the St. Paul district. He had a proud record to look back upon for his tenure of office. On March 1st, 1887 when Mayor Rice sent his resignation from Washington, Robert A. Smith, president of the Common Council was elected by that body as mayor of the city, and here entered for the first time upon the mayoralty chair the grand old man of St. Paul democracy. From 1887 until 1892 Mayor Smith sat in the mayor’s chair. In 1900 he was re-elected and remained mayor until 1908, leaving a record behind him seldom paralleled in local history. The only time Robert R. Smith was ever beaten for mayor of St. Paul was in 1892 by Mayor Wright. Twelve years later Mayor Wright was snowed under by Mayor Smith. In 1888 the revenue from saloons in the city of St. Paul jumped from $78,000 in 1887 to $255,000 in 1888 due to the fact that the license was raised from one hundred to one thousand dollars, while the number of actual saloons in existence was decreased. The four substations mentioned heretofore were opened for service in 1888., Capt. Lowell being assigned to Rondo, Capt. Hanft to Margaret, Capt. Walsh to Ducas and Lieut. Budy to Prior Avenue. On June 1st, 1888 the police department consisted of 160 men including the chief, senior captain, chief of detectives, three captains, five lieutenants, eight sergeants, four detectives, 121 patrolmen and a number of drivers, bailiffs and pound-masters. Early in the spring of that year Bertha Hegener, wife of a Minneapolis barber, was told by her husband who held a revolver to her head, that she must promise to kill one John Murphy who had intentionally slandered the Hegener woman for the purpose of alienating her husband’s affections. The Hegener woman true to her word armed herself with a revolver and coming to St. Paul met Murphy on the street at 3rd and Sibley street, demanded a refraction which he refused. Murphy tried to escape but she shot him through the head killing him instantly. Hegener and his wife were jointly indicted, and after one of the most sensational murder trials in the history of St. Paul for that time both were acquitted. On September 14th, 1888 Jacob Cohen who lived in a house on the Haxard Farm near Lake Como was murdered by Nicholas Kill. A boy passing the house on the day of the murder found Cohen dying from wounds inflicted evidently by a hatchet. Robbery was evidently the motive of the crime. Kill had been a workhouse inmate and upon his release was given shelter by Cohen and for several days before the murder Cohen and Kill had been seen working together husking corn in the field. A posse was formed with Patrolman Kline at its head and a few days after the murder Kill was found and taken to the Central station. Kill had Cohen’s boots on and carried Cohen’s watch at the time he was arrested. A lunacy commission found that Kill was insane and he was sent to the Rochester Insane Asylum. Two years later it was found that he was not insane and he was sent to Stillwater for life.

On August 3rd, 1888 came one of the two unsolved murder mysteries involving the death of a patrolman while on duty. Hans Hansen was the second victim of fidelity to duty among the officers of the St. Paul Police Department. Early in the evening a prominent Summit avenue family had telephoned to the Rondo police station that they had heard a shot near the corner of Summit and Virginia avenues. A patrolman on the next beat had also heard a shot and went in search of the trouble. Sergeant Henry Bahe and a squad from the Rondo station responded to the Summit avenue message. Officer Hansen had not pulled his box at the hour and it was expected that he had met with some trouble. When they arrived at Summit and Virginia Avenue they found Hansen lying dead face downward on the curb, a bullet hole through his eye. On the same evening two young men had rented a livery rig from a Selby Avenue stable. The men were never seen again but the next day the animal brought back a badly damaged rig to the stable. This is the only clew which could ever be found to the murder. Officer Hansen was one of the most reliable men on the force and his death was a great shock to the entire force. The only theory that the police could ever have concerning the death of Officer Hansen was that he had surprised a couple of burglars in the act of robbing the A. K. Barnum residence and had frightened the men away pursuing them he had been shot in front of the house, dropping in his tracks while pursuing his duties, the murderers making their escape good.