FALLEN OFFICERS
RICHARD ALLEN MAY, JR.
Officer, East Palo Alto Police Department
Date of Birth: May 9, 1967
End of Watch: January 7, 2006
Personal Information
Officer Richard May Jr. was born on May 9, 1967. His parents, Richard and Clarice were married on August 29, 1964. Richard grew up in San Luis Obispo and attended San Luis Obispo High School. He graduated in 1985.
Two days after graduation, he joined the United State Marine Corps and served six years. On January 14, 1991, he was activated during the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm). Richard was sent to Camp Lejune, North Carolina. He was in Norway when the war came to an end.
It was during his time in the Marine Corps that Richard decided he wanted to become a police officer. He told his mother that he wanted to “be a cop” and that he was “going to cop school.” With financial support from his grandmother, Richard attended Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. He earned an Associate Degree in Administration of Justice and completed the police academy. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Chapman University.
In 1993, Richard met Diana Cofield while he applied for an auto loan. They were married in June 1995. Richard was devoted to his two daughters and step daughter.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1989, Richard joined the Lompoc Police Department as a community service officer and worked his way up to police officer. During his tenure with Lompoc, Officer May devoted much of his time to juvenile issues. He involved himself in the D.A.R.E program and founded the Lompoc Valley Police Activities League. He started the Regional Occupational Program law enforcement class at the Lompoc Unified High School District and worked in a program that tracks habitual juvenile offenders.
In 1994, Officer Officer May received the H. Thomas Guerry award for helping to resuscitate a citizen suffering from cardiac arrest. In 1997, he was honored with the Distinguish Service Award from the Santa Barbara Probation Department for his work on juvenile related cases.
On April 2, 2004, Officer May was hired by the East Palo Alto Police Department. He wanted to bring that same enthusiasm for helping juveniles to East Palo Alto. He was with the East Palo Alto Police Department for 20 months.
End of Watch
On Saturday, January 7, 2006, May was on general patrol in East Palo Alto. In the patrol car with Officer May was a police department explorer cadet by the name of Marco Marquez. The cadet was conducting a ride-along with May.
At 4:30 p.m., May received an emergency dispatch of a violent fight at a tacqueria on Cooley Avenue. The officer was just seconds away and quickly responded to the area. He saw a young man walking from the tacqueria wearing similar clothing to the suspect description. The individual appeared very nervous and kept looking at the patrol car as he turned and walked briskly away. As the officer stopped his car and started to get out, the individual suddenly took off running the opposite direction towards Weeks Street. May turned his patrol car around and followed after the suspect.
May drove the patrol car onto Weeks Street and stopped right in the area where the defendant was trying to get through a locked apartment gate. May stepped out of the patrol car as the defendant started to run across Weeks Street and stated in a loud, authoritative voice “I’d stop if I were you.” The suspect did not obey the command to stop and kept running. May started to run after the suspect, but took the time to direct Explorer Marco Marquez to stay at the car.
May chased the suspect across the street to the front of the residence at 579 Weeks Street. The officer caught up to the suspect and was able to strike him twice with his police baton in the armpit area. The suspect ran into the driveway toward the garage door. May ran after him and stood in the driveway near the street behind two parked cars.
At this point, the suspect reached into his bulky jacket and removed a handgun. He fired several shots at May who was struck twice in his protective vest and once in the shoulder. As he was falling to the ground, May was able to get off one shot that struck the suspect in the leg. With May laying stunned on the ground, the suspect could have simply fled the area. Instead he decided to execute the fallen officer. He walked up to the prone Officer May and fired a single shot at point blank range straight into his face, instantly killing the officer.
Explorer Marquez saw the killer limp back across the street and into the apartment complex area. The explorer saw the Officer May had been shot and immediately grabbed the patrol car communications microphone and screamed that there was an officer down. Emergency assistance arrived within minutes, but to no avail.
The killer was able to escape from the immediate vicinity and avoided apprehension for over eight hours. He was finally apprehended hiding in the back of a car driven by a friend trying to drive out of East Palo Alto. He was arrested and found to have a single gunshot injury to his leg.
The murder prosecution proceeded to jury trial in August 2009. The defense claimed that defendant had acted in self-defense. After a five-month trial, the jury rejected the defense and found the defendant guilty of first degree murder of Officer May. He was sentenced to death.
May’s funeral procession started in Menlo Park. More than a hundred police motorcycles escorted the motorcade to the HP Pavilion in San Jose. The motorcade stretched four miles. Along the way, overpasses were lined with fire trucks and saluting firefighters. The police officers assigned to traffic control on the freeway on-ramps saluted as the motorcade passed. When the procession arrived at the HP Pavilion, about 6,000 stood in salute as the casket was brought into the arena. After the ceremony, Officer May was taken to Santa Maria for his final resting place.
In 2015, a soccer/rugby field was dedicated in the memory of Officer Richard May. The Rich May Memorial Field is located at 1425 Bay Road in East Palo Alto.
DAVID JOHN CHETCUTI
Officer, Millbrae Police Department
Date of Birth: March 5, 1955
End of Watch: April 25, 1998
Personal Information
David Chetcuti was born in San Francisco on March 5, 1955 to John and Lily Chetcuti. Married in 1936, his parents were both born in Malta. While hiding in a bomb shelter during World War II, John and Lily lost a child and an unborn child. After the war, they decided to leave Malta and seek a better life in the United States. John and Lily left Malta with their six children and arrived in New York on November 21, 1950. Their youngest child, David, was the first Chetcuti born in the United States.
David grew up in Millbrae. He attended Capuchino High School in San Bruno. After high school, he worked at a variety of jobs, among them gardener, floor refinisher and warehouseman.
In 1979, David met Gail Bacigalupi. They married in 1979 and had three sons. David often took his sons fishing, hunting and boating.
Law Enforcement Career
As the years went by, Chetcuti became intrigued with law enforcement. With his wife’s support, he applied for and was accepted as a reserve police officer for the City of Millbrae in 1983. He found the reserves so enjoyable that he decided to make law enforcement his career.
In 1987, Chetcuti was hired as a full-time deputy sheriff for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. He graduated from the academy in July. In December, the Millbrae Police Department contacted Chetcuti and offered him a full-time position. He accepted the offer and was sworn in on December 16, 1987.
Over his eleven-year career, Chetcuti’s assignments included Patrol Officer and Field Training Officer. His last assignment was as Traffic Officer. In 1992, Chetcuti was the first officer from the Millbrae Police Department to receive recognition for the highest number of drunk driving arrests during the "Avoid the 23" campaign. In 1995, he received the department's Lifesaving Award for initiating CPR on a heart attack victim. Over the years, Chetcuti received more than 33 written commendations. One of Chetcuti’s legacies was his sense of humor that brought levity to the stresses and strains of being a police officer. He also had a reputation for being the first to respond to a scene.
End of Watch
On Saturday, April 25, 1998, at approximately 9:45 a.m., a San Bruno police officer saw a 1978 blue Chevrolet Impala at a gas station on San Bruno Avenue. The driver left the station and drove southbound onto Highway 101. The officer followed the automobile which had a single male occupant. Just before the Millbrae exit off the freeway, the officer made a traffic stop for vehicle code violations and radioed in the traffic detention.
At that time, the suspect driver came out of his vehicle carrying a fully loaded M-15 .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle. The San Bruno police officer immediately ran to a nearby drainage ditch and waded through the water looking for a position of safety in the nearby marsh area. He attempted to call into dispatch his report of the man with a firearm, but unknown to him, the water rendered his police radio useless. The suspect walked up to the drainage area and drew a bead on the San Bruno Officer with his rifle, but did not fire for reasons never known.
Meanwhile, Millbrae Police Department Officer Chetcuti heard the initial traffic detention call. He immediately responded to the scene on his police motorcycle to provide back up to the San Bruno officer. As Chetcuti arrived at the scene, he saw the parked Chevrolet with the police vehicle right behind it. He did not see the San Bruno officer, but he saw the suspect at a distance near the drainage ditch area. The suspect started walking back towards his car with his rifle still in his hand. Chetcuti gave repeated orders to the suspect to drop the rifle. The suspect just kept walking back to the two parked cars.
A gun battle erupted with the suspect firing his rifle at the officer and Chetcuti returning fire with his police .45 caliber handgun. Traffic on Highway 101 had slowed to a crawl and stunned motorists watched the exchange of gunfire between the officer and the suspect. At one point during the gun fight, the officer was taking cover at the front of the Chevrolet Impala while the suspect was firing from the back end of the police patrol car. Chetcuti was able to hit the suspect with one shot, causing a slight injury to the right side of the assailant. The suspect had superior firepower with his M-15 rifle. Chetcuti was struck in the chest and face, causing him to fall backwards to the ground and land on his back. The suspect then walked up the prone officer and, in full view of horrified citizens in cars slowed on the freeway, repeatedly shot Chetcuti in the face and chest. Officer Chetcuti died of multiple gunshot wounds at the Millbrae Avenue scene.
The killer then left the body of the slain officer and calmly walked back to his blue car and drove off southbound on Highway 101. He continued down to Highway 92 and eastbound across the San Mateo Bridge with police vehicles in pursuit. He yielded to the emergency vehicles as he reached the parking lot of the toll plaza at the east end of the bridge. The killer got out of his vehicle with his semi-automatic rifle in his hands. When ordered by the Highway Patrol officers to put the weapon down, he silently complied and was taken into custody. Police found that the suspect had multiple weapons and several homemade bombs underneath his coat.
Investigation established that the 43-year-old suspect had schizophrenia. He had not seen his counselor nor had his psychiatric medications for a year. He had been hospitalized twice before for psychiatric breakdowns. The suspect was completely delusional when interviewed by the police. The suspect was found not competent to stand trial and was sent to a locked state mental hospital for the rest of his life.
The funeral Mass for David Chetcuti was held at St. Dunstan Church in Millbrae. Archbishop William Levada presided over the service. It was attended by thousands of peace officers from around the country. The procession stretched more than six miles from the front door of St. Dunstan Church in to Officer Chetcuti’s final resting place at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. More than 1,300 police cars, 200 police motorcycles, 15 fire trucks and hundreds of civilian cars joined the procession, including patrol cars from Sparks, Nevada.
The Millbrae Police Department was formed on October 1, 1948. Officer Chetcuti was the first police officer in the history of the Millbrae Police Department to die in the line of duty. On June 17, 1998, the California State Senate adopted a resolution designating a portion of Highway 101 from the San Francisco International Airport to, and including the Broadway-Burlingame exit, as the Officer David J. Chetcuti Memorial Highway.
Date of Birth: April 8, 1954
End of Watch: September 2, 1989
Personal Information
Hugo Olazar was born on April 8, 1954 in Cordoba, Argentina. His parents, Jose and Carmen Olazar, were married on August 3, 1950, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was the third of five siblings. In 1959, Jose and Carmen decided to immigrate to the United States, seeking better opportunities. Jose’s brother, who was already living in San Francisco, sponsored the family.
Hugo attended Westmoor High School in Daly City. He was an excellent athlete and played football and soccer. Hugo excelled in soccer and was awarded a blanket, which recognizes an athlete for outstanding performance.
After Hugo graduated in 1971, his parents decided to move back to Argentina. Hugo and his older brother, Rick, did not like living in Argentina and told their father that they were moving back to the United States. Jose said that if they were going back to the United States, the entire family will go with them. In 1972, the Olazars returned to this country. Upon returning to the United States, Hugo enrolled in Skyline College and held a variety of jobs including working as a clerk and serving as a golf caddy at the Olympic Club. In 1977, he became a United States citizen. Hugo married Denise Kent in October 1983. Their daughter Ashley was born on February 14, 1989.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1979, Olazar began his career in law enforcement with the City of Pacifica. Olazar worked as a patrol officer and met his future wife, Denise, who was a dispatcher. During his tenure with the Pacifica Police Department, Olazar was recognized and presented with a departmental award for risking his life by entering a burning building and saving a man’s life.
In 1982, Olazar joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP). He wanted to work with traffic enforcement investigation, and the CHP had a reputation of being a professional organization. After graduating from the CHP academy, he was assigned to the San Francisco office. He spent nearly six years with that division before being transferred to the Redwood City office. While in the Redwood City Office, Officer Olazar faced a life-threatening situation. He and his partner, Officer Kurt Johnson, were arresting a suspect on suspicion of drunk driving, when his female companion became angry and pointed a loaded .22 caliber revolver at Olazar. The two officers were compelled to respond with deadly force. In August 1989, Olazar was transferred back to the San Francisco office.
End of Watch
On September 2, 1989, Officer Olazar was working graveyard with his partner, Javier Rocha. They responded to a single car accident on northbound Interstate 280 south of the San Jose Avenue overcrossing. While sitting in their patrol car waiting for a tow truck to arrive, they were struck from behind by a Toyota pickup traveling at approximately 70 mph. On impact, the patrol car burst into flames and the doors jammed shut on the officers.
After unsuccessfully attempting to kick out his window several times, Rocha shot out the passenger window with his pistol and escaped the burning car by climbing over Olazar, who was unconscious. Rocha attempted to pull Olazar from the fiery car, but the flames became too intense.
The driver of the Toyota pickup truck was charged with vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license. He was prosecuted and sentenced to ten years in state prison.
The funeral service was held at the Church of the Epiphany in San Francisco. Six hundred police officers from across the state gathered for Officer Olazar’s funeral. A motorcade of more than 120 police motorcycles and 100 police vehicles accompanied the funeral procession to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.
The sad irony is that Olazar, who was known to be tough on drunk drivers, lost his life at the hands of a drunk driver. He was survived by his wife, his seven-month-old daughter, his parents, two brothers and a sister.
Officer Olazar was the 173rd California Highway Patrol officer to die in the line of duty since its creation on August 14, 1929. On September 21, 1999, Officer Olazar was honored by the state senate when they dedicated the portion of northbound Interstate 280 from the San Jose/Sickles Avenue onramp to the San Jose Avenue overcrossing in his memory. That portion of the freeway is now named the CHP Officer Hugo Olazar Memorial Highway.
Officer, California Highway Patrol
JOEL MICHAEL DAVIS
Officer, East Palo Alto Police Department
Date of Birth: October 3, 1961
End of Watch: June 22, 1988
Personal Information
Joel Davis was born on October 3, 1961, in Mountain View, California. His parents, Joel and Beth, were married in Princeton, Texas, on February 22, 1956. He grew up with an older sister, Michele. In 1957, Joel and Beth moved to Palo Alto where her family lived. Joel was hired as a machinist and later ran his own shop in Mountain View named Torque-A-Matic.
As a young boy, Joel would paint his Matchbox cars black and white. He was always walking around with a toy gun attached to his hip. At 14 years old, he became a police scout with the Los Altos Police Department. He attended Palo Alto High School and graduated in 1979. He enrolled at both DeAnza College and Foothill College where he took criminal justice courses to obtain the requirements to join the police reserves. At the same time, he worked as a security guard at Stanford Hospital. In 1983, Hewlett Packard hired him to handle requisitions.
At the time of his death, Joel was working on his San Jose home that he purchased in 1986.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1983, Davis became a police reserve with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. In 1986, he became a police reserve with the East Palo Alto Police Department.
On January 5, 1988, Davis embarked on his life-long dream of becoming a full-time police officer when he began the basic police academy in San Jose. He graduated from the academy and began his career as a law enforcement officer with the East Palo Alto Police Department when he was sworn in on May 15, 1988.
End of Watch
Officer Davis was on the force for six weeks when on Wednesday, June 22, 1988, shortly before 1:00 a.m., a radio dispatch to East Palo Alto police officers advised of a report of a man in a white station wagon brandishing a handgun in the parking lot in front of Mickey’s Liquor Store on Bay Road in East Palo Alto. The parking lot was renowned for drug sales and acts of violence. Officers Washington and Clark responded to the parking lot and saw the white station wagon idling at the east end of the lot. The two officers stopped, got out of their patrol car and approached the vehicle which was occupied by two men and a woman. Ordered to turn the engine off, the driver instead started driving out of the parking lot.
At that time, a second police patrol car entered the parking lot and attempted to cut off the white station wagon. This police vehicle was driven by East Palo Sergeant Gregory Eatmon. His passenger was Officer Joel Davis. Having completed his shift, Davis was filling out paperwork at the police station when the dispatch of a man with a gun was issued. Although off duty and out of uniform, Davis jumped in the car with Eatmon so he could provide assistance.
Eatmon activated the emergency lights on the patrol vehicle as he tried to stop the fleeing white station wagon. The driver of the white vehicle failed to stop and wildly drove around the patrol car, left the parking lot and drove southbound on Bay Road. Eatmon and Davis followed the station wagon with lights and siren activated and at speeds up to 50 mph. The white station wagon turned onto Fordham Street and veered onto the wrong side of the road. The officers continued the pursuit and observed the white station wagon suddenly swerve to the right and skid to a stop in front of the northeast corner of Jack Farrell Park. The suspect driver jumped out of the car and ran into the park which was without lights. Eatmon pulled his patrol car alongside the white station wagon with the other man and the woman still inside. Davis got out of the patrol car and sprinted into Jack Farrell Park to pursue the driver of the car.
Eatmon accelerated down the street and around the corner to try to cut the suspect off as he exited onto Gonzaga Street on the other side of the park. At the same time, Officers Washington and Clark arrived and drove into the park attempting to illuminate it. They followed the path of the suspect driver and Davis. The fleeing suspect and Davis disappeared out of their view onto Gonzaga Street. Eatmon drove around the corner to Gonzaga Street, but did not see the suspect or Davis.
Davis chased the suspect through the darkness in Jack Farrell Park and onto Gonzaga Street through an opening on the other side of the park. The suspect ran into the front yard of the residence 2577 Gonzaga Street with Davis right behind him. Adjacent to the side of the house was a fence with a gate leading to the back yard. The gate was closed and the suspect jumped up and put one leg over the top of the gate as he tried to get into the backyard. Davis was able to grab his other leg and pull him hard into the top of the gate in an effort to drag the suspect down. The angered suspect then pulled out a handgun. He shot Officer Davis twice, once in the face and once in the shoulder. Davis fell to the ground. The suspect continued over the gate and ran through multiple back yards and jumped numerous fences in his successful effort to escape.
East Palo Alto officers heard the two gunshots and then started a frantic search for both Officer Davis and the suspect. Officers from other agencies arrived and joined in the search. Two Palo Alto Police officers found Officer Joel Davis laying in a pool of blood in the driveway near the gate at the home on Gonzaga Street.
Emergency vehicles arrived and Davis was rushed to Stanford Hospital. Seven hours later Davis died of his gunshot injuries. A massive search for the suspect was conducted, but he eluded law enforcement for several days. Investigation established the suspect’s identity. He was finally arrested by Redwood City Police Department officers three days later at the Capri Motel in Redwood City.
The murder case proceeded to jury trial in April 1991. After a five-month trial, the jury found the killer guilty of the first-degree murder of Officer Joel Davis. As to punishment, the jury deadlocked at 9-3 in favor of the death penalty and the murderer was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Officer Davis’ funeral was held at Forest Amphitheater on the campus of Stanford University on June 27, 1988. Of the 2,000 mourners who attended, 1,500 were from law enforcement agencies from as far north as Yolo County to as far south as San Diego County. After the service, an escort of 200 motorcycles, their emergency lights flashing, led the mile long procession to the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos. This was not Officer Davis’ final resting place. On August 3, six weeks later, a small, private ceremony was held and Officer Davis was laid to rest at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto.
East Palo Alto was incorporated in 1983. Officer Joel Davis was the first East Palo Alto police officer to die in the line of duty. Although Officer Davis’ life and career were tragically cut short, his memory will live on in perpetuity. On August 3, 2002, 14 years after he was laid to rest, the City of East Palo Alto dedicated the Joel Davis Park, located at 2277 University Avenue, in his memory.
Sergeant, Redwood City Police Department
Date of Birth: July 2, 1941
End of Watch: May 8, 1981
Personal Information
George Leon Garrett, Jr. was born July 2, 1941, in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents were George Leon Garrett, Sr. and Mary A. Boldin Garrett. He had one sister. George attended Grand Valley High School in Orland, Ohio, where he participated in a wide variety of activities including basketball, baseball and track, the Future Teachers of America, the Dramatics Club, the Chorus, and a play cast.
Shortly after high school graduation in 1959, Garrett joined the United States Air Force. Part of his service included being stationed in Korea and working as an aircraft mechanic.
On November 26, 1976, George married Kathleen Ann Coughlin.
Law Enforcement Career
Garrett began his career as a police officer with the Redwood City Police Department in 1973. He did extensive work with community youth, often giving narcotics presentations on his own time.
End of Watch
On Friday, May 8, 1981, at 12:04 pm, Redwood City Dispatch received a phone call advising of a possible bomb threat inside Bank of America located at 110 California Street. The call was followed by a silent alarm activated two minutes later.
Four plain clothes officers from the Vice/Intelligence/Narcotics Unit responded. Sergeant Garrett arrived first and entered the bank. Detective Dale Switzer arrived in another car with Detective Ron Brooks and Detective Robert Peele.
Business appeared to be normal with the bank crowded with customers. Sergeant Garrett walked toward the branch manager where she was seated with a man. Garrett put his hand on the man’s shoulder and asked how he was doing. The suspect immediately pulled a gun from his waistband. While reaching for his own gun, Garrett pushed the bank manager out of the line of fire.
The man shot Sergeant Garrett once between the eyes and once in the chest. As the killer started to walk away, Detectives Switzer and Brooks opened fire, with Detective Switzer killing him. Detective Peele was also shot twice in the arm during the shooting.
The suspect, age 36, was an ex-convict released in a Mexican prisoner exchange program. He was later connected to two other bank robberies.
The funeral for Sergeant Garrett was attended by 1,400 guests, most of whom were police officers in full dress uniform. He was buried at Skylawn Memorial Park. Garrett was portrayed as a hero and praised for his extensive work with the community’s youth.
Thirty nine years old, Garrett was survived by his wife, who was eight months pregnant with their first child. Nineteen days after his murder, his daughter Nicole was born.
In July 1981, city officials dedicated George L. Garret Junior Memorial Park in his honor.
Garrett’s end of watch is excerpted from the Redwood City Police Department Memorial.
Watch a video of Detective Brooks describing Sergeant Garrett’s death.
Personal Information
Patricia “Patty” Marie Scully was born April 8, 1951, in Sacramento, California, to Patrick Scully and Eileen Kathleen Foley Scully. She was one of six siblings.
Patty was working on Master’s Degree in anthropology and environmental sciences. Off-duty, she worked on an historical survey of the flora and fauna of Año Nuevo State Beach. There is a bench dedicated in her honor in the park overlooking the beach.
At the time of her death, Patty was engaged to be married.
Law Enforcement Career
Scully became a state park ranger in 1974. She had a passion for the outdoors and a joy in teaching people about the world’s natural beauty. Her greatest love on the job was being interpreter, gaining rapport with young people and giving them a broadened awareness of life in the world around them.
Scully was one of the first females to complete Peace Officers Training School in Asilomar. She graduated in December 1974. She kept the weapon she was required to carry in her backpack.
Scully had been assigned to the San Mateo County beaches in September 1975.
End of Watch
On Thursday afternoon, May 6, 1976, Scully was patrolling the state beaches along State Highway One in southern San Mateo County when a drunk driver hit her state truck killing her instantly. She was the first woman state park ranger killed in the line of duty.
The drunk driver was trying to see how fast his newly acquired Corvair would go when he lost control in a curve and went airborne in the process of turning over. The Corvair skidded some 119 feet down the highway. It crossed over the center line, went airborne and smashed into the state truck. The truck was knocked down the embankment on the side of the highway.
The defendant was sentenced to one year in the county jail and his driver’s license was suspended for three years.
Scully is buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Sacramento, California.
A perpetual scholarship with the National Audubon Society was established by Scully’s family and friends. The Pat Scully Memorial Fund has provided scholarships "to send people working in the environmental field to Audubon Workshop training sessions.” It has helped hundreds of park rangers and others enhance their knowledge of the natural world over the past 40 years.
On June 1, 2013, a 4.5 mile stretch of Highway One just north of San Gregorio Beach, containing the accident site was dedicated to her memory. It is the first memorial highway section ever dedicated to a California State Park Ranger. At the dedication ceremony, a female park ranger who had received a scholarship from the Memorial Fund presented Scully’s mother with an illustrated book telling the story of how these funds benefited her.
Officer, California Highway Patrol
Date of Birth: March 16, 1930
End of Watch: June 3, 1974
Personal Information
Ralph Percival was born March 16, 1930, in San Francisco to Orville Percival and Emma Margaret Honfeldt Percival. He had two older brothers, Robert and George. Ralph was a longtime resident of the Peninsula having grown up in what was Bayshore City and attending Jefferson High School in Daly City.
Ralph served in the United States Navy as a radar man third class aboard the light aircraft carrier, USS Saipan. In San Mateo County, he was a volunteer with the Bayshore City Fire Department before joining the California Highway Patrol.
Ralph married Gloria Bacigalupo on September 21, 1957. They had four children. The family lived in Daly City until they moved to Santa Clara.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1957, Percival attended the California Highway Patrol (CHP) academy. After graduation, he was assigned to motorcycle duty in Los Angeles for two years until he was able to get an assignment in northern California.
Percival was a member of the CHP for seventeen years, mostly in the Redwood City area office. He was considered one of the best liked officers in that office. At the time of his death, he was the senior motorcycle officer in Redwood City. Less than a month before his death, Percival received an award from the CHP for “outstanding performance for riding a motorcycle for over 14 years and approximately 340,000 miles without being involved in a preventable accident of any type.” The citation went on: “You have developed good riding techniques by always being alert, driving defensively and always looking for the unexpected.”
End of Watch
Percival’s outstanding driving skills were not enough to save him from a drunk driver on June 3, 1974. Percival was standing by his motorcycle on Highway 280 having just given a citation to a speeder, when a drunk driver swerved over two lanes of traffic and hit him. Percival and his motorcycle were dragged along the shoulder. He died minutes later at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City.
The drunk driver, a commercial artist and German National, had been out drinking with some friends. An acknowledged problem drinker, the driver was charged with felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter. He plead to the manslaughter charge. After Percival’s widow wrote a letter to the judge asking that the drunk driver not be sentenced to prison, he received a year in the county jail.
A requiem funeral mass was said at St. Lawrence Church in Santa Clara where Percival had been an active member in many church activities. He is buried in Gate of Heaven cemetery. On Highway 280, near where he was killed just north of the Edgewood Road ramp, there is the Ralph Percival Memorial Vista Point in his honor.
Sergeant, San Mateo Police Department
Date of Birth: July 30, 1933
End of Watch: May 23, 1968
Personal Information
Gordon “Gordie” Joinville was born July 30, 1933, in San Francisco, California, to Adolph R. Schaefer and Rose Hirsch Belshe Schaefer. He had two younger sisters, Joyce and Shirley. His father was a truck driver for an ice company. The family moved to San Bruno in the late 1930s. In 1945, Gordon’s mother Rose married George Lawrence Joinville. Gordon and his sisters adopted the Joinville name.
Gordon was a Korean War veteran.
On October 14, 1961, Gordon married Clara Margaret Fleming. They had two children, Gordon Lawrence and Sandra.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1956, Joinville joined the San Mateo Police Department. In the 1960s, he was appointed the department’s Juvenile Officer. He was widely known and beloved for his work with young people who knew him as “Gordie.” He was also involved with narcotics investigations, but young people regarded him more favorably than most “narcs.”
End of Watch
On May 23, 1968, Detective Sergeant Joinville was following a suspect who was believed to be involved in the manufacture and sale of illegal drugs. Earlier in the day, the suspect purchased 100 pounds of starch used in the manufacture of LSD. Joinville was following him in an unmarked car in hope of learning the location of the drug lab.
Joinville stopped the suspect’s car near Fifth Avenue and Claremont Street in San Mateo and radioed San Mateo PD dispatch at 5:06 p.m. Witnesses saw Joinville and the suspect apparently conversing out of their cars. Somehow, the suspect got into the back seat of Joinville’s car, pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and shot Joinville once in the back penetrating his heart and once in the back of the head at close range.
Two boys riding their bikes after school, came upon the undercover car with its door open and found Detective Sergeant Joinville dead with the microphone still in his hand. Joinville had a piece of paper on his clipboard with a name and license plate number on it. This led to the suspect.
The suspect was heavily involved in narcotics, burglaries, armed robberies, and kidnappings and had bragged that he would kill any officer who tried to arrest him. An exhaustive manhunt led to the suspect’s capture four days later near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The gun which had killed Joinville was still in his possession.
The suspect pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, but was found guilty, sane and given the death penalty by the jury. In 1972, the California Supreme Court overturned the use of the death penalty in California and the suspect’s sentence, along with many others, was commuted to life in prison. He was considered for parole in the late 1970s, but the California Adult Authority overturned the Parole Board’s decision and the suspect eventually died in prison at age 70.
Hundreds of uniformed officers and others attended the Joinville’s funeral and burial at Skylawn Cemetery. His tombstone contains the embodiment of the man in the immortal words “Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for others.”
Gordon Joinville was 34 years old at the time of his death. He left his wife and two small children. The family received a recently enacted death benefit of $525 per month based on 70 percent of the officer’s salary in his three highest paid years. There were other small compensations paid, including $6,000 from the Peninsula Peace Officers’ Association. A fund for the family was set up at a local bank to which members of the community generously contributed.
The community swimming pool in San Mateo was renamed the Gordon Joinville Pool in the officer’s honor.
Date of Birth: September 9, 1940
End of Watch: June 9, 1966
Officer, Daly City Police Department
Personal Information
Richard “Rich” Klass was born September 9, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were John Klass and Elma Judith Lara Klass. In 1940, his father was an office manager in Chicago. The family soon moved to Napa, California, where his parents operated a dry cleaner and, later, a bath boutique. Rich graduated from Napa Junior College. He was a member of the local Presbyterian Church.
Rich was planning to marry a teacher in the East Bay in June 1966, the month he died.
End of Watch
Klass joined the Daly City Police Department in 1963. On May 7, 1966, he was working on patrol in the vicinity of the old city hall, police department and courthouse on Wellington Avenue at the top of the hill in Daly City.
Klass’ killer had been arrested the day before for indecent exposure near his home in Daly City and had been jailed in one of the two cells in the basement of the city hall/police department building. The squad room with the facilities for booking those who had been arrested was also in the basement. Just adjacent to this area was an unlocked door which led outside.
Unknown to the officers, the suspect had a long history of severe mental health issues, including repeated violence. While being fingerprinted during booking, he assaulted the booking officer and fled out the unlocked door to Mission Street. The booking officer caught him in the alley, but the suspect was able to wriggle free. He ran down Mission Street toward San Francisco.
Officer Klass heard the radio broadcast and spotted the suspect running down the street. He left his patrol car and tackled the suspect one block over the San Francisco city limit. In the violent struggle which ensued, the suspect was able to get Klass’ gun and shot him once in the small of the back. The suspect was preparing to shoot Klass in the face when other officers arrived on the scene. The booking officer was able to divert the gun while almost getting shot himself.
Doctors operated on Klass removing his spleen, pancreas and kidney. They saved his life for the time being, but Klass was paralyzed.
Klass remained in the hospital in fair condition. His favorite comedian at the time, Bill Cosby, was playing at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos and was persuaded by some of Klass’ fellow officers to come to the hospital to pay a visit. Cosby agreed to do it, but only if there was no publicity about the visit. Cosby ended up doing his whole routine for Klass. He was delighted and his spirits lifted.
A little more than a month after the shooting, x-rays revealed the bullet had damaged the spinal cord and was lodged there. The doctors decided to do exploratory surgery to see if they could improve Klass’ condition. As he was being prepared for surgery, Klass’ heart failed. He died on the operating table on June 9, 1966. The killer was charged with murder with a death penalty allegation. He was found incompetent to stand trial and spent the next three years at Atascadero State Hospital. He was restored to competence and in 1970 tried for the murder. He was convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder, but the jury chose not to give him the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison.
The murder conviction was reversed in 1974 by the California Supreme Court. The court found that the jury had erroneously been given a jury instruction which prevented it from considering one of his major defenses---diminished capacity. It was the defense contention that his diminished mental capacity, due to schizophrenia, paranoia and delusions, made him unable to form the malice required for first degree murder. Eventually, because of greatly differing psychiatric opinions, the killer was allowed to plead to second degree murder and sentenced once again to state prison for five years to life. He was paroled and lived the remainder of his life in San Francisco and San Mateo County.
Klass was remembered by his colleagues as a very nice, quiet man. He was survived by his father, mother, sister Martha, and his fiancée. Services were held at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Klass was buried at Napa Memorial Park. In 1970, several Daly City officers paid out of their own pockets for a memorial plaque to Officer Klass which hangs in the lobby of the police department. His badge and number have been permanently retired.
Officer, Broadmoor Police Department
Date of Birth: November 22, 1935
End of Watch: January 6, 1964
Personal Information
Charles Manning was born July 8, 1920, in San Francisco to Charles Arthur Manning and Marguerite Collison Manning. His grandparents on his father’s side were from Ireland and on his mother’s side from Scotland. His father, a teamster, had been married previously and was a widower with two children, Anna and Thomas.
Charles went to school in San Francisco and completed his sophomore year of high school before he went to work as a laborer. He also played semi-pro baseball.
Charles enlisted in the California National Guard on March 3, 1941. After World War II began, his company became part of the 169th Infantry which fought the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands. While 600 American soldiers died in the Aleutian Islands, 2,351 Japanese were killed and 28 were taken prisoner. Charles was part of the 106th battalion which entered Germany on April 25, 1945. In May 1945, Sgt. Manning was ordered back to the United States to attend a course on Explosives, Mines and Booby Traps, probably in preparation for the anticipated invasion of Japan. He successfully completed that course on June 10, 1945 and returned to his battalion in Europe. The war ended in August 1945. On November 4, 1945, his California National Guard unit was deactivated.
In 1953, Charles married his wife, Lillian. They had one daughter, Lisa.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1955, Charles Manning became a patrolman for the Broadmoor Police Protection District. He worked as a patrolman for nine years.
End of Watch
Shortly before midnight on January 6, 1964, Officer Manning was investigating a burglary of the New Mission Heating and Plumbing Company located at 1111 Hillside Boulevard in Colma. Investigators believed that Manning had surprised the defendant while he was siphoning gasoline from a truck. The defendant opened fire hitting Manning once in the chest and five times in the back at close range. Mortally wounded, Manning managed to crawl back to his patrol car and called the dispatcher saying “Oh my God. I’ve been shot. Send help.”
Police and fire departments from eight surrounding jurisdictions responded. The defendant ran back into the building, climbed through a skylight and jumped to the roof of an adjoining home. He dropped the gun through a vent which fell into the house. He was captured on the roof.
Manning was found dead in his patrol car by responding officers. He died of massive internal bleeding. His wife and daughter were sleeping in the family home just a few blocks away. A private funeral service was held at Lasswell Funeral Home in Daly City. It was followed by a public service which more than 500 law enforcement officers attended. The funeral procession of 98 cars was led by three dozen officers on motorcycles to Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno where a graveside full military service was performed.
The defendant was indicted by the Grand Jury. He had previously assaulted a California Highway Patrol officer in September 1963 and was the prime suspect in the attempted murder of a Fresno County deputy sheriff. He was also the prime suspect in the robbery and shooting of a grocer in San Francisco, five armed robberies, and a carjacking all between October 19, and December 21, 1963.
After his indictment by the Grand Jury, the defendant was found incompetent to stand trial and was sent to Atascadero State Hospital. He returned after ten months to Redwood City for trial. By newspaper descriptions at the time, he went “berserk” in the courtroom. He was again found incompetent to stand trial and returned to Atascadero. His diagnosis was schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type. Doctors examining him for competency said that at times the defendant believed he was Robin Hood, Superman or Jesus Christ. He stuck twists of paper in his ears to serve as antennae over which he believed he received messages from the stars. On his second return from Atascadero, District Attorney Keith Sorenson allowed him to change his plea from not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty of second degree murder. Sorenson allowed the lesser plea based on the examinations of doctors and conflicting testimony about the defendant’s mental condition at the time of the shooting. Sorenson said it was feared that taking the case to trial would have resulted in a hospital commitment and the defendant’s earlier return to society. The defendant was sentenced to from five years to life in state prison. On December 10, 1965, a Recognition Center erected at the San Mateo County Boy Scout Camp Ed Barrer in the high Sierra was dedicated to the memory of Officer Manning. On April 4, 1966, Manning’s widow received a posthumous service award honoring her husband by the San Mateo Committee to Support your Local Police. In 1974, ten years after his murder, a plaque honoring Officer Manning was placed at the Broadmoor Property Owners Association at 87th and Washington Streets in Colma. Manning was survived by his wife, Lillian, and nine-year-old daughter, Lisa. The community raised almost $5,000 in a fund for his wife and daughter.
Officer, California Highway Patrol
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Personal Information
Dale Krings was born March 22, 1928, in Marshfield, Wisconsin, to Conrad J. Krings and Emma Louise Ross Krings. Both his parents were of German heritage, their ancestors having migrated to Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century. Dale had four brothers and a sister. They grew up in Auburndale, a small town of about seven hundred people in Central Wisconsin.
According to the town newspaper, Dale was one of four members of the graduating class at Auburndale Graded School in 1941. It reported that Dale spent three weeks in the hospital in September 1941 for a broken arm, shortly after having been confirmed in his faith at St. John’s Lutheran Church. Dale was a member of the Future Farmers of America at Auburndale High School where he learned to be a poultry culler.
Dale served in the United States Naval Reserve from 1945 to 1949. He was on active duty during the Korean War at which time he achieved the rank of Machinery Repairman Petty Officer 2nd class.
Dale married Marjorie M. Modenessi on June 2, 1956. They had two children.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1956, Krings joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP). He served six years with the CHP, the first two in west Los Angeles and the last four in San Mateo County.
End of Watch
On May 22, 1962, Officer Krings was finishing his overnight shift with his partner Officer Vincent Bianchini at about 5:30 a.m. They stopped for breakfast at the coffee shop in the former Hyatt House Hotel in Burlingame. Officer Bianchini remembered later that the killer glared at them when they entered the coffee shop, but they didn’t find it particularly unusual.
The killer got up, left the coffee shop and then came back in armed with a hunting rifle. Standing about fifteen feet away from the patrolmen, he said “Okay gentlemen” and started to fire from the .270 rifle at his hip. Bianchini dove to the floor, but Krings stood up and shot the gunman in the forehead between the eyes. The man was killed instantly, but not before he had managed to get off several shots, one of which careened off a counter wounding a waitress slightly. Another shot hit Krings in the right shoulder, carried down into his lung and severed his spine. This caused internal bleeding which resulted in his death an hour later. Newspapers all over the country carried the story of a “duel” in the coffee shop of a “plush” hotel just south of San Francisco Airport.
The killer was a strange man who had once been his class president at a San Mateo High School. He was given a draft deferral during World War II because of hypothyroidism. He went to Hollywood to become an actor and began a descent into alcoholism and mental illness. He attempted suicide at one point, but was saved by a police officer in Los Angeles. He was committed to Camarillo State Hospital but discharged after nineteen months as cured. The killer was a regular at the coffee shop at the Hyatt House. Waitresses heard him say on more than one occasion, “I hate cops.”
Two memorial funds were set up in Krings’ honor for his family, one by the Hyatt House and one by local law enforcement. The law enforcement fund raised about $5,000 which included a $1,000 contribution from the killer’s mother.
Krings’ funeral included a Masonic service at White Oaks Chapel in San Carlos attended by approximately 500 law enforcement officers. An Honor Guard of CHP and other officers escorted the body to Golden Gate National Cemetery where graveside military services were held.
Krings was survived by his widow Marjorie and a four-year-old son, Michael, and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Katherine.
Date of Birth: March 22, 1928
End of Watch: May 21, 1962
Officer, Menlo Park Police Department
Date of Birth: July 4, 1931
End of Watch: September 22, 1960
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Personal Information
John “Jack” Lyle was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1931, to John Ninian Lyle and Jean Stafford Chapman Lyle. Jack’s father, a native of Paisley, Scotland, was the manager of an apartment hotel in an area of Chicago known as the Gold Coast, and the family lived in the building. Sometime after 1940, the family immigrated to California and Jack graduated from San Mateo High School.
After high school, Jack served in the Air Force and worked in a service station. He married Norma Ida Wright in about 1949. They had four children Karen, Susan, John, Jr. and Donna.
Law Enforcement Career
Lyle became a Menlo Park police officer. At first a reserve officer, he was hired full-time after about six years.
In 1960, Officer Lyle was called to a domestic dispute in Belle Haven in which he was forced to shoot and kill a knife-wielding suspect. The incident had a devastating effect on him.
End of Watch
On September 22, 1960, Officer Lyle stopped a stolen car in the Draeger’s grocery store parking lot. Later it was learned from the co-defendant that the driver of the car and the co-defendant had planned to rob Draeger’s when Lyle interrupted their plan by stopping the stolen car in the parking lot. The driver of the car came out shooting six times with a .45 caliber pistol and hit Lyle once. Lyle, described as a “crack shot,” wounded the driver in both legs. The driver then pulled a second handgun, .38, and shot Lyle three more times including an “execution” shot in the back of the head. The driver attempt
ed to escape but was apprehended a short distance away by another Menlo Park officer.
The driver, though only 22 years old, was already a career criminal with an extensive juvenile record. During one of his offenses, assembling a homemade bomb, the bomb exploded taking his left eye and left arm in the process. He was known as “The Hook” for his claw like hand to his fellow inmates at the Youth Authority’s Preston School for Boys.
The driver was tried and eventually received the death penalty with execution in the gas chamber at San Quentin in 1962. The driver was quoted as having said “I got him and I’m glad I got him.” During the penalty phase of the trial, District Attorney Keith Sorensen, elicited testimony from the head of the Department of Corrections on cross examination that most first degree murderers were paroled in less than ten years, and that of those paroled, 32 percent committed another homicide. This helped the jury deliver a relatively quick death verdict in just over three hours. This death sentence was only the second in San Mateo County in over 60 years.
When the driver’s lawyer asked Governor Pat Brown for clemency for the condemned man, Brown replied, “If this isn’t a death penalty case, will you please tell me one that is?”
The community raised over $27,000 to aid the family. Perhaps more importantly, this sad crime drew attention to the plight of surviving family members of slain law enforcement officers who received only a $4,000 life insurance policy from the state retirement fund and $200 a month until the youngest child was 18. The deaths of Lyle and Hillsborough officer Gene Doran the year before prompted the Sheriff to propose a plan to the Board of Supervisors which included having the family continue to receive a sum equivalent to the officer’s salary and his retirement benefits at the time of his normal retirement. Though not enacted, the Sheriff’s plan spurred members of the Board of Supervisors to lobby the legislature to enact increased benefits. This ultimately led to substantial increases in those benefits for the families.
Lyle was only 29 years old when he died. He was survived by his wife, four young children ages two to ten and his father. More than 200 uniformed officers attended the funeral services at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. Interment was at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto.
Officer, California Highway Patrol
Date of Birth: July 29, 1931
End of Watch: November 4, 1960
Personal Information
William Pitois was born in San Francisco on July 29, 1931. He was the son of Earl E. Pitois, a railroad engineer, and Mary Jane Casey Pitois. He had a brother, Robert. The Pitois family had come to the United States from France and settled in Amador County in the late 1800s.
After graduating from high school, William enlisted in the Navy on July 7, 1949. He served in the Navy during the Korean War and achieved the rank of Aviation Storekeeper Airman (AKAN). When he returned from the Navy with an honorable discharge on April 6, 1953, he became a locomotive fireman for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
William married Charlotte Joan Lynch. They had two children, William Douglas and Michelle.
Law Enforcement Career
On March 6, 1956, Pitois joined the San Mateo Police Department with four other recruits, one of whom was Gordon Joinville, who would also die in the line of duty. After two and a half years, he left the San Mateo Police Department to join the California Highway Patrol (CHP). At the time he said he was leaving San Mateo with great reluctance but that joining the CHP would eventually allow him to relocate with his family. At the time he left San Mateo Police Department, Pitois was a senior at San Francisco State College majoring in Public Relations.
In September 1958, Pitois graduated from the twelve-week Highway Patrol Academy and was assigned to the Newhall area in southern California. Then, he became a motorcycle officer and was assigned to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
End of Watch
On November 4, 1960, Pitois was pursuing a speeder when he came upon two slow moving cars. As he was braking to go between two cars, his motorcycle skidded and struck the back end of one of the cars. Pitois suffered fatal injuries. He was 29 years old. He had served two years with the CHP.
Pitois was survived by his wife and two children, his parents and his brother. A requiem mass was heard at St. Gregory’s Church in San Mateo which was attended by hundreds of officers from all over the Bay Area. He was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery.
Officer, Hillsborough Police Department
Date of Birth: August 10, 1922
End of Watch: August 5, 1959
Personal Information
Eugene “Gene” Doran was born August 10, 1922, in Superior, Wisconsin, to Eugene Doran, Sr. and Helen M. Bassello Doran. He had a younger brother Donald. Gene’s father was a heating engineer in the construction industry until the Great Depression when he became a bartender to support the family.
Gene graduated from high school in Wisconsin and worked as a pinsetter in a bowling alley. According to Army records, he worked as a semi-skilled chauffeur and driver of buses, taxis, trucks and tractors after moving to California. He enlisted in the Army on September 22, 1943. He served as a private at the 766th Technical School Squad of the Army Air Corps at Buckley Field, Colorado, until January 13, 1944.
At the time of his enlistment, Gene was married to Alice. They had three sons.
End of Watch
Doran joined the Hillsborough Police Department in 1956.
On August 5, 1959, Doran was on patrol in the vicinity of Black Mountain and Skyline Boulevard in Hillsborough. At 4:01 a.m. he radioed for a time check from his dispatcher. At 4:07 he asked for a “hot car” check from the dispatcher who cleared it through the Sheriff’s Office. The San Bruno Police dispatcher who monitored the call reported to the Hillsborough dispatcher than the license plate had been reported stolen in San Bruno the previous Friday. The dispatcher tried to relay the information to Officer Doran, but investigators later believed that Doran was already dead. Hillsborough requested assistance from other agencies in locating Doran and he was found by a Belmont officer, George Stephenson, about 40 minutes after the shooting, lying dead by his patrol car on Bunker Hill Drive just off Skyline Boulevard. Doran had been shot six times with a .32 caliber revolver and his own gun had been taken.
Investigators found a blood-stained receipt for a driver’s license application under Doran’s body. The name on the receipt turned out to be fictitious and the address to be “phony.” A Department of Motor Vehicles’ inspector said that a man came in to apply for a replacement license and paid the three dollar fee. When it came time for photographing and fingerprinting, the man left.
At the scene, investigators found fingerprints on the hood of the patrol car which were apparently made when Doran had the suspect place his hands there for a search. Investigators believe that the suspect brought his arms around quickly from that position, knocking Officer Doran to the ground, and then pumped six bullets into him. The fingerprints found on the hood of the car were developed with the chemical ninhydrin which had recently been found to be very useful in the development of fingerprints on paper. Some excellent prints were developed including a clear thumbprint of the murderer.
After an intense investigation, the murderer was found hiding in a motel in Salt Lake City. He had attempted to dye his hair red using peroxide and ammonia. In the motel room, the Salt Lake officers found a fancy pearl-handled .32 caliber pistol which had been stolen in an earlier burglary. The six bullets recovered from Doran’s body matched the gun. The murderer was convicted of Doran’s killing and executed on April 26, 1961.
Thirty-six years old, Doran was survived by his wife Alice, who was pregnant at the time, and his two sons, Gene Jr. and Patrick. Gary Doran was born on November 27, 1959, just 24 hours after his father’s killer was found guilty. Funds poured in for the family. Over $27,000 was raised which was more than three times the annual salary of the patrolman.
More than 300 officers from throughout the Peninsula attended the funeral with an additional 300 people from the community. The procession to Golden Gate National Cemetery was estimated at a mile and half long. At the cemetery, military services were conducted and Doran was interred. Later his son, Patrick, would be buried in the same grave and his name engraved on the back side of Gene’s gravestone.
In 1963, world renowned architect Mario Ciampo was to design a bridge on the I-280 freeway. The bridge, which soars 270 feet above San Mateo Creek, was completed in 1967 and named for Officer Doran in 1969. In 2004, the legislature voted to add the name of Doran’s son to the bridge. Patrick was a Marine Lance Corporal killed in Vietnam in 1967. It is now called the Hillsborough Officer Eugene Doran and USMC LCPL Patrick Doran Memorial Bridge. On May 13, 2019, the 100 Club of San Mateo County dedicated a historical marker on Skyline Boulevard near the entrance to Sawyer Camp Trail setting forth the circumstances of Officer Doran's murder and the naming of the bridge in his memory.
STEPHEN EVANS CLARK
Civil Defense Reserve Officer
San Mateo Police Department
End of Watch: August 19, 1956
San Mateo Reserve Police Officer Stephen Clark was killed in the line of duty at the San Mateo Fairgrounds on August 19, 1956. Officer Clark was struck and killed by a stock car at the Bay Meadows Race Track while attempting to render aid following a collision on the track. Officer Clark was preparing to leave the track to direct traffic at the intersection of El Camino Real and Hillsdale Boulevard when two race cars collided and crashed through the track fence at the south turn. A large group of spectators attempted to reach the crash scene. Officer Clark directed a fellow officer to keep the spectators from entering the track via an exterior fence. As Officer Clark attempted to cross the track to render aid to those involved in the collision, he was struck by and additional stock car. Officer Clark did not survive this collision.
Officer Clark served as a Reserve Police Officer with the San Mateo Police Department for nine years and was survived by his wife and brother.
Officer, South San Francisco Police Department
Date of Birth: November 30, 1925
End of Watch: May 4, 1953
Personal Information
Arthur William “Bill” Moyle was born October 31, 1925, in San Francisco, California to Arthur T. Moyle and Mary Viola Ryan. The Moyle family was originally from Cornwall in southwestern England and the Ryans from Ireland. Bill’s father was a conductor and later a superintendent for the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Bill had four sisters.
At 17, Bill enlisted in the Navy on February 25, 1943. It was the height of World War II. At first he served on the USS Boxer and the USS Revenge. On December 31, 1943, he was transferred to the cruiser, USS Cleveland, where he spent the rest of his Navy career. During his service on the Cleveland he became a coxswain, the lead enlisted man on a smaller vessel aboard the cruiser. Being a coxswain is a highly sought after and prestigious assignment for an enlisted man. Moyle was mustered out on October 1, 1946. He was not quite 21. After being mustered out of the Navy, Bill worked as a loader for a cargo company, and then became a salesman for a soft drink company. He married Alice Joudas on October 30, 1949.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1953, Moyle was hired by the South San Francisco Police Department and was sworn in on April 15, 1953. He had only been a rookie officer for three weeks when the incident occurred which took his life.
End of Watch
In the early morning hours of May 4, 1953, Officer Moyle and Sergeant Stagnaro were investigating a car which had plunged from a service road onto the Bayshore Freeway. Moyle was setting out flares around the car and using a flashlight to direct cars around the scene. At the same time, Highway Patrol officers were pursuing a speeding car which was going in excess of 80 mph. It was driven by a 23-year-old woman who had recently graduated from college and was the daughter of a Palo Alto insurance executive. Her car crashed into the car which Moyle and Stagnaro had been investigating. Stagnaro jumped from the path of the careening car and tried to warn Moyle, but it was too late. The careening car hit Moyle and dragged him about three hundred feet. Moyle was killed instantly. The CHP officers who were pursuing the careening car noted that the driver appeared intoxicated, and she admitted coming from a nightclub. She was charged with felony vehicular manslaughter and gross negligence. Ultimately, she was found guilty of misdemeanor manslaughter and fined $750 with no probation. Her parents immediately paid the fine and she was allowed to apply for a commission in the Women’s Marine Corps.
Services were held for Officer Moyle at the Nieri Funeral Home and All Souls Church in South San Francisco. More than a hundred officers attended the funeral. Eight motorcycle officers led the procession to Golden Gate National Cemetery where he is interred.
Moyle was survived by his wife, mother and four sisters.
Officer, California Highway Patrol
Date of Birth: February 21, 1890
End of Watch: June 30, 1945
Personal Information
James “Jimmie” Dalziel was born February 21, 1890, in Galt, Ontario, Canada, to Alexander Gibb Dalziel and Jessie Lenet Kersell Dalziel. Both his parents were born in Scotland. Jimmie, his older brother, John, and his parents moved to California in 1892. There, three more boys were born. Initially, the family settled in Santa Clara, but moved to San Mateo by 1910. By that year, Alexander Dalziel and his two oldest sons, John and Jimmie, all worked as machinists in the planing mill at the Wisnom Lumber Works in San Mateo.
By 1917, Jimmie’s World War I draft registration card shows he had married Leota and had become a naturalized American citizen. They had one daughter, Marjorie.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1917, Dalziel was hired as one of the County’s first traffic officers. The squad of six officers and a captain covered the entire county. The traffic squads in each county were under the auspices of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Newspaper reports of the 1920s are replete with stories of the many arrests Dalziel made.
On August 14, 1929, by act of the Legislature, the California Highway Patrol was formed. Dalziel and his fellow County traffic officers were some of the original motorcycle officers. He worked in San Mateo County until 1941, when he was assigned to the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. Even at age 55 he was considered one of the most capable motorcycle officers in the state.
End of Watch
On June 30, 1945, shortly after midnight, Dalziel was returning from duty on the Bay Bridge when an automobile turned directly in front of him. A passenger in the car said that they had been traveling south when they decided to return to San Francisco. The driver cut to the side of the road and made a u-turn directly in front of the officer. Officer Dalziel hit the car and was thrown, dying almost instantly. He was a 28-year veteran of law enforcement.
Dalziel’s funeral services were held at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in San Mateo where he was escorted by 50 California Highway Patrol Officers. Over 200 friends paid tribute and there were more than 100 floral pieces honoring him. He was buried at St. John’s Cemetery in San Mateo near his mother. He was survived by his wife, daughter, father and four brothers and their families.
The driver of the car which pulled in front of Officer Dalziel was held to answer to Superior Court on a charge of manslaughter. However, it appears the driver was never convicted because of a flaw when the laws were amended about homicide and vehicular manslaughter. Vehicular manslaughter was temporarily omitted. That flaw was quickly remedied, but not in time to prosecute the driver whose negligence occurred during the brief hiatus.
Personal Information
Forrest Gerken was born February 17, 1898, in Oklahoma to Fred W. Gerken and Anna Kassner Gerken. His grandparents were all from Germany. Forrest lived in Oklahoma until at least age 12 when his parents moved to Placer County, California. Forrest completed two years of high school.
In Placer County, Township 9, the family had an olive and fruit farm on which Forrest worked. He also worked as a trucker for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Sacramento division, until he joined the Navy during World War I. He returned to the farm after the war. By 1930, he had moved to San Francisco and was a merchant in radio sales and service. He married Grace, a nurse, and began raising a family. They had three children, Barbara, Marilyn and Cliff. In the 1930s they moved to Burlingame where Forrest continued to operate his radio business. Among his activities, Gerken was a Mason both in Penryn in Placer County and in San Mateo. When World War II broke out, the radio business was no longer viable because of the unavailability of radio parts, all of which were going to the war effort. Forrest tried to reenlist, but at 43, the Navy said he was too old.
Law Enforcement Career
Later, Gerken saw a newspaper ad for the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Although he was older than the normal recruitment age for the CHP, there was a manpower shortage because of the war. Gerken was quickly hired.
Gerken, as with all CHP officers of the time, rode a motorcycle and took his motorcycle home. He started out in San Francisco patrolling the Bay Bridge but then transferred to Redwood City. Occasionally he gave his young son, Cliff (a future CHP officer), a ride to school on the motorcycle which made Cliff the envy of the other kids.
End of Watch
On February 15, 1944, just two days before his forty-sixth birthday, Officer Gerken was riding his motorcycle southbound in the slow lane at about 35 mph on Bayshore Highway heading to the CHP office in Redwood City. At 7:53 a.m. at Oak Grove in Burlingame, a truck driver made a left turn in front of him. Gerken struck the right fender of the truck. Hurtled against the roof of the truck, he suffered life ending head injuries. Gerken had been a member of the Highway Patrol for about three years and would have finished two years in San Mateo County in March of that year. He was the 45th CHP officer killed in the line of duty.
A coroner’s inquest found that the truck driver had committed negligent homicide. A civil case filed by the widow resulted in an $8,000 settlement, the largest share of which went to the State Employees Retirement System. There is no indication either in court or district attorney’s records that a criminal case was ever filed against the truck driver.
Gerken was survived by his wife and three children.
Date of Birth: February 17, 1898
End of Watch: February 15, 1944
Officer, California Highway Patrol
Personal Information
Herman Fleishman was born December 31, 1896, in San Francisco to Albert H. Fleishman and Elizabeth Jean Mackie Fleishman. Albert was born in Los Angeles and Elizabeth was born in Scotland. The Fleishmans were early residents of northern coastal California in the Arcata area and operated a general mercantile store. Albert’s father moved the family to Los Angeles where he continued to work as a merchant. In the late 1890s, Albert and Elizabeth took their family back to Northern California. Born in San Francisco, Herman grew up in Samoa, near Eureka. His father worked as a tallyman for a lumber company. In 1900, the Fleishmans returned to San Francisco.
By 1917, Herman married Harriet Call and had a daughter, Eleanor. By 1919, he had another daughter, Dorothy. He was a steel worker for Pacific Coast Steel Works. By 1924, Herman had divorced Harriett and was married to Margaret McCullough.
Law Enforcement Career
In the early 1920s, Fleishman was hired by the Redwood City Police Department to be their eighth officer in addition to the Chief. The newspaper article announcing his hiring by Redwood City calls Fleishman an athlete and a longtime member of the Native Sons’ baseball team in Redwood City.
End of Watch
Fleishman had been a Redwood City police officer for almost 15 years. On Sunday, January 22, 1939, while working patrol, he observed a car speeding along the El Camino Real at about 60 mph. He and his partner pursued the car north into San Carlos, where it was stopped near Brittan Avenue.
Fleishman and the driver of the speeding car were standing behind the car while Fleishman was writing him a citation. At that moment, another car, driven by a young Palo Alto resident, crashed into them with the first driver losing both his legs and Fleishman losing his left leg. Fleishman attempted to get up and crawled to the aid of the first driver. Both men were transported to Mills Hospital where they died later that day.
The young driver from Palo Alto was charged with two counts of negligent homicide. He had a jury trial where the jury took less than 30 minutes to find him guilty of both counts. He was sentenced to a year in the county jail and three years probation. Later, his probation was terminated and his record expunged so that he could be an officer in the military.
Herman Fleishman was 42 years old when he died, leaving a wife and two daughters. His widow brought suit in court and, ultimately, the City of Redwood City was ordered to fund a pension for Fleishman’s widow. Fleishman is buried at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto.
Officer, Redwood City Police Department
Date of Birth: December 31, 1886
End of Watch: January 22, 1939
Date of Birth: 1896
End of Watch: December 23, 1936
Chief of Police, Daly City Police Department
Personal Information
John “Jack” Doyle was born in England on March 6, 1885 or 1886. Patrick Doyle, his father, was born in Ireland in 1860. Mary Kennedy Doyle, his mother, was born in Scotland of Irish parents in 1863. Patrick and Mary were married in England. Their first two children, Jack and his older brother, were born there.
In 1887, the young family immigrated to America and settled in San Mateo County. Jack’s father was a laborer and his mother a housewife looking after their growing family. Jack had four other brothers and two sisters born in California.
As a young man, Jack held a variety of jobs including being a truck driver, a butcher and a cemetery worker at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma where he eventually would be interred.
In 1920, Jack married his wife, May. John Thomas Doyle, Jr., their only child, was born in 1921. Jack became an American citizen in 1930.
Law Enforcement Career
By 1920, Doyle became a town marshal in Daly City. He became Chief of Police in Daly City in 1922. Doyle served 14 years as the Chief of Police. In the spring of 1936, he decided to step down as chief because the responsibilities were becoming more than he wanted. He agreed to stay on as a patrolman.
End of Watch
On December 19, 1936, Doyle was engaged in his duties as a patrolman at the intersection of Mission and Market Streets in Daly City. At about 7:30 p.m., Doyle was helping a pedestrian, a Colma rancher, across the street through a heavy fog to catch a southbound streetcar. Doyle apparently stumbled on the track and hit his head on the streetcar. He suffered a compound fracture of the skull and was dead on arrival at Junipero Serra hospital. The pedestrian was also seriously injured.
Witnesses at the scene believed that Doyle had been hit by a blue coupe automobile which was seen speeding away from the scene with its lights off. There was a statewide manhunt for the car and its driver. Several men were arrested and then released when they could not be tied to the incident.
After a very thorough investigation by Daly City detectives, including Ricco Benedetti and led by Deputy District Attorney Louis DeMatteis, it was concluded that the incident was an accident. They found the streetcar just as it was about to undergo a routine washing in the railway yard. On the front of the streetcar was evidence of human remains consistent with the head wounds suffered by Jack Doyle. The conductor claimed he did not realize that he had hit someone and he and passengers on the streetcar only remembered hearing a loud thud. The conductor said his attention had been focused on the track ahead.
Doyle’s wake was at the Lasswell funeral home in Daly City where police officers and firefighters in uniform stood vigil. On the day of the funeral, almost a thousand San Mateo County residents lined the streets between the funeral chapel and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and then again on the route to Holy Cross Cemetery. The hearse carrying the much beloved former chief was preceded by police officers and firefighters in uniform on foot. At the chapel there had been a service conducted by the Fraternal Order of Eagles of which Jack was an active member. A requiem high mass was said at the church. On the day of the funeral, all the stores in Daly City closed from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. as a gesture of respect.
In addition to being a Daly City Officer, Doyle had been a member of the Daly City Fire Department, the Peninsula Peace Officers Association, and the Veteran Fireman’s Association.
Doyle was survived by his wife, his son, his mother and six brothers and sisters. The Market Street Railway Company paid the family an undisclosed sum in compensation.
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Bayshore City Police ( annexed by Daly City)
Date of Birth: November 27, 1909
End of Watch: March 14, 1933
Personal Information
Frank Robertson, was born November 27, 1909 in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon to James A. Robertson and Grace E. Robertson. Frank was the 4th of 7 children. His father was a plumber and his mother a housewife. Sometime in the 1920's the family moved to the Bay Area and are listed in the 1930 census as living in Oakland where Frank was listed as an unemployed plumber's helper. At age 20 he married Nelle Eames, age 15. They had one child, a son Franklin Clare Robertson Jr. born September 21, 1930 in Alameda County. Franklin Jr. died in 1947.
Laws Enforcement Career
Frank was hired by the Bayshore City Police Chief in 1933 and was on probationary status. Bayshore was a small city in Northern San Mateo County which only existed for eight years before its citizens voted to disincorporate. Bayshore City was then annexed by the City of Daly City. It was roughly the area known as Visitation Valley and encompassed what is now the Daly City area around the Cow Palace. Frank Robertson spent less than one full day as a police officer.
End of Watch
On March 14, 1933, Frank Roberson was on duty riding a motorcycle. The Police Chief was citing a speeder when the speeder decided to take-off to avoid getting a ticket. The chief indicated to Robertson to go after the speeder who Robertson pursued at a high rate of speed northbound up the Bayshore Highway, (now known as highway 101). Robertson crashed into the southbound vehicle of another driver. The accident occurred in San Francisco County just about a half mile north of the San Mateo County line. Robertson was vaulted over the handlebars of his motorcycle and onto the oncoming car. He was killed instantly at just after ten o'clock in the morning. Initially both the speeder and the driver of the oncoming car were arrested, but the charges against the driver on the oncoming vehicle were dropped. Services for Robertson were held at Mission Dolores and he was buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma. He was 23 years old.
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Fish & Game Warden, San Mateo County
Date of Birth: August 15, 1899
End of Watch: April 30, 1930
Personal Information
Alan Curry was born August 15, 1899 in San Francisco, to Joseph and Annie Curry. By the time of WWI, the family was living in Alameda County where Alan registered for the draft and his father was farming in Castro Valley. Curry returned to San Francisco to live when he began working as a Game Warden for the California Dept. of Fish and Game.
Law Enforcement Career
It is unclear exactly when Curry became a Fish and Game Warden but it had been for several years as he had worked with John (Jack) Burke, with whom he died, and who had not been a Fish and Game Warden for at least a year. Curry was one of several wardens responsible for San Francisco and San Mateo Counties on both the Bay and Ocean sides. Even after Burke was apparently discharged by Fish & Game, Curry remained friends with his former senior partner and Burke called upon him to conduct the investigation of the man who would be their killer.
End of Watch
On the day in question, April 30, 1930, Curry with Burke, a civilian, went to San Francisco Bay off Burlingame to confront the killer, who by all descriptions, a giant of a man in both stature and strength. The killer had a new fishing net which was not legal and was being used to illegally catch fish. Curry backed up by Burke, boarded the fisherman/killers boat and started to confiscate the illegal net. The killer was having none of that and determined to keep his new $600 net, shot Curry four times in the back with a shotgun. The shotgun jammed or misfired and the killer grabbed a revolver he had retrieved from the boat's cabin and shot Burke in the heart. Burke had apparently been able to get off four shots with Curry's gun which grievously wounded the killer fisherman, who nonetheless was able to pilot his board back to the wharf in San Francisco with the dead warden and Burke. Other fishermen in San Francisco saw the boat with the dead passengers and alerted police and ambulance services. The killer was taken immediately to the hospital where he survived his injuries. His version of the events told to the San Mateo County Grand Jury had both sides dueling with guns blazing and he was just the lucky survivor. The Grand Jury refused to indict and so the District Attorney filed a criminal complaint for manslaughter. After convoluted criminal proceedings, the admitted killer was exonerated and never answered for his behavior. The Department of Fish and Game moved to confiscated the illegal net which had been the source of the initial dispute.
State Traffic Officer, California Highway Patrol
Date of Birth: September 4, 1889
End of Watch: June 12, 1929
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Article from the June 13, 1929 issue of the San Mateo Times.
Personal Information
Leland “Lee” Stanford Bond was born September 4, 1889, in California. His father was from Louisiana and his mother, Lottie, from Texas. His older sister Edna was born in Texas in 1886. Sometime in the late 1880s between his sister’s birth and his, the family migrated to California.
By 1900, Lottie Bond was a widow raising two young children and supporting her mother in San Francisco. Lee’s education ended after the eighth grade when he had to find employment to help support the family. He worked as a plumber until he was drafted into the Army where he served in World War I.
Law Enforcement Career
After the Great War, Bond came back to San Mateo County where he found a job as a County Traffic Officer. He took the vacancy created by the death of George P. Lowans, one of the original County Traffic Officers. With the addition of Bond, the County Traffic Squad was comprised of six men and Capt. James Logan. The County Traffic Squads were under the auspices of the motor vehicle department and remained in place until the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was formed on August 14, 1929, by act of the legislature. Bond served over ten years as a County Traffic Officer and would have been a CHP officer had he not been killed just two months before its formation. His fellow County Traffic Officers all became original members of the CHP.
End of Watch
On June 12, 1929, Officer Bond was patrolling on his motorcycle in District One, the north area of the County, when he began to pursue a speeder on the County Highway which is known now as El Camino Real. Near Jenevein Avenue in San Bruno, a car pulled out of a service station directly in front of him. Bond could see the impending collision and stood up on his motorcycle apparently intending to jump off but was going too fast to do so. He collided with the car and was thrown twenty feet, breaking his neck and dying instantly.
Bond is buried at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma and was survived by his widow Emily, mother Lottie, sister Edna and her husband.
Shortly after his death, The Modesto Bee newspaper noted that he was the third County Traffic Officer killed already in the State that year and that steadily increasing traffic was taking a high toll on their ranks.
Date of Birth: June 29, 1889
End of Watch: September 29, 1927
Undersheriff, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
Personal Information
Pierre “Pete” Larracou was born June 29, 1889, in San Francisco, California to John Pierre Larracou and Marie Cedley Larracou who had immigrated to the United States from France. He had two brothers and a sister. The senior Larracou operated a French laundry in San Francisco. They moved to the Peninsula in 1893 where they operated the first full service French laundry in the area. They served an upscale clientele which included the Leland Stanfords. The Larracou family home was at the corner of what is now El Camino Real and Oak Grove Avenue in Menlo Park.
As a young man, Pierre had a number of different jobs including working in a government camp as a laborer, being a bartender and merchandising liquor. He was a veteran of World War I.
Pierre married Hazel Irene English in Reno, Nevada, in June 1927, just three months before he was killed.
Law Enforcement Career
Larracou joined the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department in the 1920s. In 1923, he was promoted to Undersheriff. He was in charge of the regular force of deputies and directed their activities.
Larracou was involved in several notable cases including one where he and another deputy, Julio Jara, were hailed as heroes for saving the lives of two men whose boat had overturned. Larracou almost died in that incident.
Working at the time of Prohibition, bootlegging was a significant criminal activity officers encountered. In 1923, Larracou and Jara came upon a stalled truck loaded with $20,000 of rum on a road west of Redwood City. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article, a rum running “king” offered Larracou $15,000 to ignore the stalled truck. The newspaper called him a “perfect officer” for refusing the offered bribe.
End of Watch
On September 25, 1927, Larracou was in a restaurant having a meal with an off-duty California traffic officer (the predecessors to the California Highway Patrol) when two masked men entered and shot him. It is believed that he was shot for his work enforcing Prohibition. In the shootout, one of the masked men was also killed, but the other escaped.
Larracou was survived by his wife, mother, brothers and sister. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park with other family members.
Date of Birth: 1882
End of Watch: July 16, 1927
Personal Information
Julio “Jules” Jara was born April 12, 1876, in Spanishtown, present-day Half Moon Bay, California. His parents Lorenzo, a native of Chile, and Edwarda, who was born in California of Mexican parents, had settled in Spanishtown some years before and farmed in the area. Jules had a brother, Augustine, and three sisters, Beatrice, Leonora and Inocenta. His brother Augustine is on the rolls of San Quentin as a prisoner serving two separate terms for Grand Larceny and Burglary.
Jules is listed in voter registration rolls as Julian and is described as 5’ 7 ½” tall with dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He worked for many years as a house painter and wallpaper hanger in and around San Francisco. He also worked as a musician.
Law Enforcement Career
In 1924, Jara moved to Redwood City where he served part time as a deputy sheriff. On August 1, 1927, facing a rising crime rate, the Board of Supervisors authorized the hiring of three new full-time deputies, including Jara. The San Mateo Times announced his selection noting that he had considerable police experience and was competent to fill the position.
Jara was involved in several notable cases including one involving Under Sheriff Pierre Larracou when they rescued two men who had been clinging to their boat for nearly eight hours. The two men, apparently dazed by their experience, fought with the officers and had to be knocked unconscious before they could be saved. Larrecou nearly died in the attempt and both Larrecou and Jara were hailed as heroes.
End of Watch
On November 9, 1927, Sheriff James McGrath sent Jara to southern California with another deputy to return an apprehended robber to San Mateo County for trial. Jara was driving the Sheriff’s car on the Cuesta Grade in San Luis Obispo County when he attempted to pass a slow-moving truck. The driving rain hindered his vision and caused him to get too close to the truck. When he realized his mistake, he applied the brakes and skidded over an embankment. The vehicle overturned, crushing Jara’s head and breaking his neck. He died instantly. Sheriff McGrath brought the remains back to San Mateo County by train.
Family and friends celebrated a mass in Jara’s memory at All Souls Church in South San Francisco. Prominent members of the community including J.C. McGovern, brother of the Sheriff who appointed Jules, and “Bud” Thorpe, later the police judge of Redwood City, were among the pall bearers. Jara was buried in the family plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. He had never married.
Deputy Sheriff, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
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Deputy Town Marshall, San Bruno Police Department
Date of Birth: July 17,1878
End of Watch: July 29, 1924
Personal Information
Albert Coturri was born July 17, 1878, in France to Lorenzo Coturri and Emilia Lippi Coturri. Both his parents were born in Italy. When Albert was six years old, the family left France from Le Havre aboard the ship Canada. They arrived in New York on December 13, 1884. Their final American destination was San Francisco.
As a young man, Albert held a variety of jobs including being an apprentice in an iron works, a boilermaker and a welder and assistant foreman in a shipbuilding yard. He was a naturalized American citizen.
Albert married Salome Rene Martinelli in 1901. They had five children: Amelia, Lawrence, Angela, Frank and Rena.
End of Watch
Coturri became a deputy marshal for the City of San Bruno. On July 29, 1941, he was directing traffic around scattered glass on the County Highway, now known as El Camino Real. He was hit and carried 50 feet on the bumper of a car. He died at the scene. The driver said he never saw the marshal.
Deputy Marshal Coturri was survived by his wife and five children. He is buried in the family plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.
Date of Birth: January 12, 1875
End of Watch: January 7, 1924
Personal Information
Heber Woodville Lampkin was born January 12, 1875, in San Jose, California. His parents, Susan Diana Chapman (1846-1940) and Henry Smith Lampkin (1841-1926) were of hearty pioneer stock with family members participating in both the Civil War and the War of 1812. Herber had one older sister, Bertha (1874-1926).
Following the Civil War, the Lampkin family scattered from their land in southwestern Virginia to new futures in the bay area of California, northern California, and Montana. Henry Smith Lampkin met Susan Diana Chapman in Solano where they were married in 1872. They moved to San Jose, and their two children followed. Close family nearby made large family gatherings possible, and the children were active with their cousins, aunts and uncles.
Heber Woodville completed school, became a baker, then travelled to Montana at the turn of the 20th century to see an uncle, Lucien Lampkin. He continued travelling, ultimately heading to visit his mother’s family in Missouri. He practiced his baking skills and met Harriet “Hattie” Isabel Bray (1872-1947). The two were married in September 1901 in Kansas City, Missouri. The couple moved to San Jose and later Redwood City, California.
Hattie and Heber had three children, Nyda Elinor (1903-1976), Douglas Bray (1908-1957), and Arthur Woodville (1909-2008). Heber invented his daughter’s name. She adored her father who encouraged her love of music, dancing and critical thinking. He wanted her to become an attorney, something he worked around yet never attempted himself.
Growing up in a family of lodge members, Heber joined the International Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic Lodge and other groups of civic and community minded men. A tall and strikingly good looking man, he made many friends within these groups. Always kind, he is remembered as being a person “everyone liked.”
Law Enforcement Career
Possibly influenced by his uncles and their law practices, Lampkin became interested in law and the sciences surrounding its practice. Around 1910, he began studying criminal identification through fingerprints - a new science of the time. He became quite successful with this study and was qualified as an expert. Lampkin was a Justice and Committee Magistrate for San Mateo County. Then, he worked for eight years as the undersheriff before being elected as Sheriff of San Mateo County in 1922.
Lampkin felt that investigation of the evidence using all current techniques available was an important part of his position of Sheriff. Lampkin used a police car to quickly respond to situations as needed. This led to a fatal accident.
End of Watch
Without communication devices inside police cars, no one knows whom, or even why Sheriff Lampkin was “chasing a bad guy” in Palo Alto in December 1923. Following the speeding car around a corner onto Middlefield Road, the Sheriff turned but did not execute the turn well, and ended up hitting a large tree. The car was not equipped with airbags or seat belts. Instead, the steering column crushed his upper torso as he collided with the tree.
Lampkin survived just over 2 weeks as family and friends gathered from around the Bay Area to be with him. The Sheriff of San Mateo County passed away on January 7, 1924. His successor was sworn in the next day. The county mourned at their beloved Sheriff ‘s passing.
Sheriff Heber Woodville Lampkin is buried in Colma, California.
Sheriff, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
Date of Birth: September, 1892
End of Watch: September 19, 1923
Chief of Police, San Bruno Police Department
Personal Information
Arthur George Meehan was born in California in September 1892 to George Henry Meehan and Margaret Desmond Meehan. The Meehan family had lived in California, mostly in San Francisco, since approximately 1860. Arthur had one brother, Charles H. Meehan. The father, George, died as a young man in his early thirties. Arthur was raised by his grandmother, Henrietta.
Arthur worked as a bookkeeper in a brokerage house and later as an auto investigator for an indemnifier (in modern times an insurance company) before he became the San Bruno Police Marshal.
He married Elizabeth Marie Dondero. They had one daughter, Dorothy Virginia Meehan.
End of Watch
Marshal Meehan succumbed to gunshot wounds on September 19, 1923, which he had received the previous day. Riding the department motorcycle, Meehan was attempting to stop a vehicle that had evaded a railroad crossing arm. The vehicle forced him into a ditch in front of the San Bruno City Hall. While he was attempting to extricate himself from the tangled motorcycle, two young men emerged from their vehicle and shot him. Meehan got off several shots, but the two men escaped.
The vehicle was stolen and the two young men in the car were wanted for the theft. The car the suspects were driving was later located in South San Francisco with several bullet holes. Posses were formed and northern San Mateo County was searched house by house, but the killers eluded capture at that time. Two suspects were later apprehended and tried in San Mateo County. While awaiting the verdict, they placed bets on who would get the death penalty, and laughed joyously when neither got it. The jury hung ten to two for life and each of the killers were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Marshal Meehan.
Both suspects escaped from San Quentin Prison in April, 1925. For the next six weeks they went on a reign of terror throughout Northern California, killing a Sacramento merchant, kidnapping and robbing several people and shooting a Sacramento police officer. Once again posses scoured the state looking for them.
One of the murderers returned to San Francisco where he was killed in a shootout with San Francisco police detectives when police raided an apartment looking for another wanted man. Two of the San Francisco detectives were seriously wounded in the shootout.
The second murderer of Marshal Meehan was apprehended, ending the six-week crime spree. The killer was returned to prison. He was convicted of the Sacramento merchant’s murder and received another life sentence. He was paroled February 16, 1956. He violated parole and was returned to prison and then paroled again.
In 1972, with the assistance of a prominent lobbyist, the murderer was pardoned for all his crimes. Both San Mateo County District Attorney Keith Sorenson and the Sacramento County District Attorney objected strenuously to the parole and to the later pardon, all to no avail.
Marshal Meehan is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. Many other family members are also buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Meehan was 30 years old. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth, age 26, and a daughter Dorothy, age 8. Dorothy was a long-time school secretary at San Mateo High School until her death in 1947.
Sheriff, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
Date of Birth: July 5, 1861
End of Watch: October 28, 1897
Personal Information
William Phillip “Phil” McEvoy was born in San Mateo County on July 5, 1861. Pioneer settlers, the McEvoy family immigrated to San Mateo County around 1850. They farmed in what is now Menlo Park, in an area listed in old census records as Township 3 of San Mateo County.
John McEvoy, Sheriff McEvoy’s father, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 24, 1824. His mother, Bridget Shaughnessy McEvoy, was also born in Ireland in 1824. John McEvoy was sent to Australia from Ireland as a convict in 1839 for a term of seven years for “housebreaking.” He apparently did his time, married Bridget, and had his oldest son, Patrick, there in 1848. The young family then moved to San Mateo County, where at least seven other children were born. The youngest child, Phil was educated locally and worked on the family farm.
In 1896, he married Elizabeth J. Hall, daughter of another pioneer settler of San Mateo County, Samuel Hall. Phil and Elizabeth had a single child, Gladys Elizabeth, who was also born in 1896.
Law Enforcement Career
McEvoy was elected Sheriff in 1892. A newspaper of the time the Redwood City Democrat is quoted as saying:
In Phil McEvoy the people of San Mateo County have a Sheriff than whom there is not a better one in the State. He has held the office two years and all the time to the satisfaction of the people of the county, regardless of party…We doubt there was ever a public official whose conduct in office gave more satisfaction than Phil McEvoy’s. It is admitted that Phil is one of the best Sheriffs in the State of California.
Sheriff McEvoy was well known for his ability to capture notorious criminals and for his recapture of escapees from the antiquated county jail in Redwood City. The sheriff’s popularity grew, and he was easily reelected in 1896.
End of Watch
On October 26, 1897, Redwood City was rocked by the murder of a well-known local dairy farmer. The man was killed by his son, apparently in a dispute over the operation of the family farm. The farmer had papers served on his son to remove him from the ranch and its operations. Upon receiving the papers, the son saddled his horse and rode to his father’s house. An argument ensued, and three shots were fired. The son left the house and rode away.
Upon learning of the dairy farmer’s death and the circumstances, Sheriff McEvoy set out after the suspect. When he arrived at the dairy ranch, he found it empty except for one locked room. McEvoy concluded that since his horse was in the stable, the suspect must be in the locked room. Undersheriff Joel Mansfield arrived, joining the Sheriff in the house. Deputy Butts and Constable Barton were stationed outside to prevent the suspect’s escape. The Sheriff and Undersheriff demanded admission to the locked room. In response, the suspect yelled “What do you want?” “We want you,” the sheriff responded. The suspect responded, “Come and take me.”
McEvoy and Mansfield broke the door down and were greeted by a shot from suspect’s Winchester rifle. The shot hit McEvoy in the wrist and traveled up his arm and exited by the elbow. Mansfield suffered a flesh wound in the arm. Mansfield fired two more shots, and the suspect was disabled and arrested.
Sheriff McEvoy was taken home. His wounds were not expected to be fatal, but two days after the shooting blood poisoning set in. Doctors hurriedly amputated the arm, but Sheriff McEvoy died from complications of the gunshot wound. The funeral was one of the largest the county had seen with 220 carriages lining the streets around Redwood City’s Mount Carmel Church. After the services, the procession proceeded to Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park where Sheriff McEvoy rests with other family members in their plot. Sheriff McEvoy was 33 years old when he died.
Nearby is the grave of the dairy farmer whose murder began the tragic chain of events resulting in Sheriff’s McEvoy’s death. The killer later is said to have told people that if he had known it was Phil McEvoy at the door, he never would have shot him. The killer liked him very much and had supported him in his election. Venue for the trial was changed from San Mateo County to San Jose, where the killer was convicted and sentenced to hang. The sentence was carried out on June 29, 1900.
Date of Birth: October 20, 1814
End of Watch: February 24, 1888
Jailer, San Mateo County Sheriff's Office
Personal Information
George Washington Tallman, the youngest child and son of Stephen and Mary Tripp Tallman, was born on October 20, 1814, in Washington, New York. The family moved to Mentz, New York, around 1820. They farmed and grew the "Tallman Sweet" apple.
When news that gold had been discovered in California in 1848 reached the East Coast, a group of adventurous men in Auburn, New York, came together to form the Cayuga Joint Stock Company. Their goal was to come up with enough investors to buy a vessel and sail around Cape Horn to San Francisco. They wanted only men of a good standing, and fair reputation who could contribute $500 and become a member to receive all the advantages to be derived from the venture.
George became one of those investors and traveled to New York in February with the group. By the advice of Samuel Barney, an experienced whaleman chosen as their Captain, they purchased the bark Belvidere.
They set sail on the February 28, 1849, with 79 aboard, 12 men acting as crew, 4 women and 1 child. They sailed into San Francisco Bay on October 12, 1849.
The group set up tents as living quarters in the infant city of San Francisco, and all went to work seeking jobs to accumulate monies to head for mining camps. The venture did not go as planned. By the spring of 1850 it was decided to dissolve the Company. Everything was sold including the ship. Two dividends were paid out, the first of $208 and the second of $70.92.
In letters* home, George described Gold Rush San Francisco. He told the family he was planning on heading to Stockton to the mines. Between November 1849 and August 1853, his wrote in his letters about his finances and health.
By January 20, 1854, George moved to the Alpha mining camp in Nevada County, east of Yuba City, to try his luck there. In April of 1856, he wrote that he was still mining in Camp Alpha, but had not had much luck as it has been dry for a long period, and there was no water for the sluices. He later moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he operated a toll road and pursued mining.
Years later, George wrote in a letter home that, “I have made a lot of money but, I have made too many bad speculations.”
Law Enforcement Career
At some point in the 1850s, Tallman served as a Justice of the Peace in Nevada County, California. An article in the Sacramento Daily Record Union in 1857 noted that a defendant had been arrested on a warrant issued by Tallman for “assault with a deadly weapon, with intent to commit murder.”
Tallman had moved to Redwood City by 1884 when he started serving as the Justice of the Peace for the city. After his term expired in January 1887, the 72-year-old man was appointed a deputy jailer of the San Mateo County Sheriff s Department.
End of Watch
An article from the Sacramento Daily Record described the attack on Tallman at the Redwood City jail on Saturday, February 18, 1888:
RESULTED FATALLY
Death of the Redwood City Jailer Who Was Beaten by Tramps.
Redwood City, February 24th. G. W. Tallman, the jailer who was so roughly handled by four tramps on Saturday evening last at the county jail, died in the Tremont House today. He had steadily failed since Monday, and the doctors gave up hope then. He was solicited to make an ante-mortem statement, but maintained that it was not necessary, as he would be able to testify, and was not going to die. He has relatives in Los Angeles. The funeral will take place on Sunday under the auspices of the Masons. A tramp was arrested at San Jose today on suspicion and brought here, but was not positively identified. Two of the four are in custody.
Tallman was the first San Mateo County lawman killed in the line of duty. He was buried at Union Cemetery in Redwood City with Masonic honors following a procession of horses and carriages carrying public officials and police.
In 2003, a group of history buffs and law enforcement officers gathered at Union Cemetery to dedicate Tallman’s new gravestone – a replacement for the original, which was stolen about two decades earlier. The new granite headstone, paid for by San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department employees, was unveiled after a motorcycle procession from the courthouse. A bagpipe-led police honor guard carried the flags of the United States and California. "We wanted to try to do it right. Even though none of us knew him, he still was one of our own," said San Mateo County Deputy Philip Moser.
*Letters – Opens to the Tallman letter describing Gold Rush San Francisco
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