On the road

On the road

Thursday, May 23, 2013

June 2013 Dallas Police Shield magazine


 

I was stumbling through several articles from 1930 that apparently were never used so here we go. On January 1, 1930 it was reported that Dallas, not known then or now for emotional outbursts of any kind, except the debacle of the 1993 Cowboy parade, brought in the New Year with what was reported to be a “mild outburst” of revelry. Ho-hum as usual in Big-D, like the subsequent 1994 Cowboy parade.

The bad guys were working however. An H.R.McBride, 18 who was a butcher’s deliveryman, was held up in the early morning hours of the New Year and robbed of $26.00. He was kidnapped and tied up. The next thing he knew some caddies from the Parkdale Golf Course at Scyene and Buckner ( on the outskirts of Dallas!) and found him lying in some bushes, none the worse for wear, physically at least. The hijackers got away.

About this same time, a trolley driver, H.D.Crisp, just had let off two passengers at Beeman and Culver streets when two youths strode up. The first paid his fare, the second pulled a gun. The driver was bound by his wrists to a bar in the cab of the trolley. The youths ran off with some trolley fare but luckily, according to Crisp, they did not take his new watch.

It was also reported that a Captain Dean S. Arnold was retiring after 43 years with the Dallas Police Department. He had started when the department was made up of 20 officers and when the jail was a wooden structure that stood where the Adolphus Hotel was (and is now) located in 1930.He had been a Captain for twenty years and had commanded the jail, mounted officers, the stockroom, motorcycle officers, the corporation court, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Fast forward to May 1930 and we find another Captain, J.F.Kelsey patrolling (?) on Phelps Street in North Dallas around 2:20am. We know that in those days North Dallas was around the Hall and Thomas area. This could have been a writers mistake because Phelps Street is off Haymarket Road. Maybe it was Philips Street the writer was talking about. Anyway our captain had pulled up behind a “small coupe.” Suddenly 2 shots rang out in the direction of the captain’s patrol car. The suspects then drove off leaving the captain sitting in his car wondering “What the hell just happened?”  This is the kind of story that makes one wonder if there was more to it than was reported.

On May 9, 1930 the DMN came out with a piece that supported the current DPD Chief Claude Trammell. Apparently he did not get along with Police Commissioner W.C.Graves.  Dallas Mayor J.Waddy Tate reported two days later that he would reappoint Chief Trammel and if the City Council did not vote to retain him that he would keep Trammel on as a holdover appointee. The mayor also said that he might transfer the police department under direct jurisdiction of the Mayor and give the chief free reign to enforce the law. Maybe this was the incident that did away with a police commissioner in Dallas. Maybe not.

On May 13, 1930 a 70 year old man was disarmed by Plain Clothes Policeman (actually how the writer wrote this title) C.M. Burruss as the suspect was fumbling with the safety of his automatic pistol. Burruss and his partner Sgt. C.M. Fotaker had just finished raiding an Elm Street rooming house and had seized a small quantity of illegal whisky. The 70 year old bootlegging suspect was arrested in connection with the seizure and the alleged attack on Burruss’ life.    

On May 14 it was reported that a veteran Dallas police captain with 32 year’s service had died and that this officer wore badge number 1. Of course DPD history tells us that after World War II, Chief Carl Hansson instituted the numbering badge system where (of course) the Chief was issued number 1.  An officer hiring on would then keep his or her badge number throughout their career even when promoted. The badge numbers are now up to the hundreds of thousands I believe now but it all started (officially) with Chief Hansson.

This DMN article states that Captain J.T. Lynch had left the department several times during his career, but always came back. Lynch hired on in the year 1898 when E.G.Cornwall was chief. He was promoted to Night Captain in 1906 and apparently stayed in that position for most of his career. He was especially known for “walking the beat” at the Interurban Station for over a year and a half.

The article doesn’t say why Lynch wore badge number 1 but before World War II it was a pretty informal process in dishing out badge numbers. I can see an officer hiring on and a clerk going through a box o’badges and pulling out a shiny silver badge and exclaiming “Hey you got #1!” When that officer quit or retired that same clerk would through it back in the box and the process would start over. It also doesn’t say if it was a Captain’s badge that had #1 engraved on it, or an officer’s badge.  Since Lynch had been a captain for so long it’s possible this was the case.

Anyway Captain Lynch was apparently well thought of and was buried in Mesquite.  

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