Historical Perspective

1900-1927

In 1910, the police budget climbed to $3,947.87, and included a yearly salary of $1,050 for the town's first Chief, John F. Sheriden. Samuel G. Gordon received $912; William G. Glenney, $912; and William F. Madden got $907. The department had expanded to 11 men, including supernumeraries.

Sheriden was named the first chief of police for the Manchester force on February 1, 1903. He served in that capacity until November 1, 1911, when he resigned to become deputy sheriff. Sheriden later served as chief of the Manchester Fire Department (Eighth District) and built the Sheriden Hotel at 605 Main Street, which opened in 1923.

Chief Sheridan was replaced by Samuel G. Gordon, who had been a Manchester officer since October 16, 1908. In 1912, William Madden, who had joined the department with Gordon in 1908, was appointed the department's first captain.

Other patrolmen on the department in these early years included William G, Glenney (1902-1923), Rollin M. Rood, Charles Johnson, David Crockett, Robinson Crockett, Clarence E. Wrisley, and William R. Campbell. Campbell who was the first supernumerary on the department's payroll in 1909, and who became a regular patrolman in 1911, later advanced to a captaincy in 1915. He left the department in October 1920.

One of the first major crimes to come before the police in Manchester was the "Love Lane Murder", so-called because of the location of the victim's body on Love Lane.

A town resident, Arthur Manning, was returning to his home from a show in Hartford on a night in December 1911. He came upon the body of a man lying beside the gravel road deep in the woods off Love Lane. He ascertained that the man was dead and then called the police. The body was removed to Holloran's Funeral Home and Dr. William R. Tinker and Officer Glenney of the local police investigated. A superficial examination revealed that the man had been killed by a shot through the heart.

It developed that the Italian victim had been shot by a man who had argued with him in a Hartford pool room. The victim had agreed to "shoot it out" in some "out of the way" place. The two men and their seconds took the trolley and when they stopped at the Love Lane station, they all got off and walked down Love Lane for their duel.

What exactly happened on Love Lane will never be known. But Chief Gordon did ascertain the identity of the man wanted for the murder. Gordon was informed by the ticket agent at the Manchester station that a stranger, a nervous appearing man, had bought a ticket to Willimantic and was waiting outside the station in the extreme cold weather. It was too late to catch the train at the Manchester station, so Chief Gordon phoned the chief of police of Willimantic and asked him to hold the man in question for investigation when he arrived at the Willimantic station.

The Willimantic chief of police refused to cooperate. Chief Gordon found another officer, not connected with the Willimantic department, to hold the suspect but it was too late. Although the officer called at the place on the outskirts of Willimantic where the suspect was reported to have gone, the suspect eluded the police. Subsequently, Chief Gordon learned that the man bought a ticket for Italy and left Boston for that country. The duelist was never heard from again.

The Town's board of selectmen relinquished their supervisory control of the police department in 1915, when a police commission consisting of three men, one appointed for three years, one for two years, and one for one year, was appointed. On July 12 of that year, the first Manchester Police Commission, with Ex-Chief John F. Sheriden, Philip Cheney and Gilbert E. Willis as commissioners, was charged with handling all police affairs and appointments.

The first Manchester police officer to give his life in the line of duty was William Madden. Madden, considered by many to be Manchester's finest all-around athlete ever, had lettered in football, baseball, basketball, and track in each of his high school years, and had been named Trinity College's top athlete in each of his four years there. He had been a patrolman since 1908, and was appointed captain in 1912.

On January 30, 1919, Madden received information from a railroad detective that a gang of New Jersey thieves were on a train heading for Manchester to steal a $100,000 consignment of raw silk from Cheney Brothers.

Madden and Clifton Macomber, a special officer, had stationed themselves near the silk vaults off Pine Street. Around midnight, a black touring car with New Jersey plates, pulled into the Cheney complex. The thieves were casing out a brick silk vault of Elm Terrace when the officers confronted them. "We know what your game is and you're not going to get away with it," growled Madden as he ordered the gang back into their car at gunpoint. Commanding one of the thugs to drive, Madden and Macomber hopped onto the driver's side running boards to escort them to the Pine Street firehouse for questioning.

As the driver began to pick up speed, he jerked the steering wheel to try to dump the cops. At the same moment, one of the suspects in the rear seat pulled out a hidden pistol and fired at Madden. "It's about time you fellows got off," the shooter said as he squeezed the trigger. Madden swiped at the gun's barrel, forcing a misfire but he couldn't dodge the point-blank shots that followed. At Pine and Pleasant, he slumped off the car. As he lay bleeding in the street, Madden emptied his revolver at the speeding getaway car. Macomber, who had dived off the running board and avoided the gunfire, did the same. Madden had been struck with a single bullet which had entered his upper arm and pierced his heart. Madden's last words to his partner were a plea for water. By the time Macomber returned with a bottle from a nearby stock house, Madden was dead, his head resting on the granite curb.

The bandits drove into Hartford and were spotted by Hartford P.D. Officer Daniel Ahern who commandeered a car and gave chase. The bandits, all railroad men, rolled off the running board of the touring car while it was traveling at better than 50 miles an hour. Fred Klein, the driver, was captured when Ahern rammed the vehicle on Franklin Avenue.

Klein, in what was later described as a "third degree session." unconsciously tipped off the police that one of the other thieves was William Miller. The officers knew Miller and he was caught in New Haven. John Neuss and Michael McDonnell were captured in Hoboken, New Jersey in a raid on the Hell's Hole Saloon. McDonnell was reported to be the unofficial leader of the gang. The saloon's owner, William Bessler, was also arrested. He was the driver of a four-ton truck waiting to haul away the silk.
The other two men in the car, James and John "Jocko" Moore, escaped capture and reportedly fled on a boat to South America. It was "Jocko" who fired the shot that killed Madden. All five were sentenced to life imprisonment in the state prison in Wethersfield. Neuss served 21 years before receiving parole; William Miller was paroled after serving 19 years.

Significant changes and advancements in the area of police equipment occurred in the late 1920s. The department obtained its first police cruiser in 1920. In 1923, a Gamewell call box system was installed at an expense of $11,000. Fourteen street signal police alarm boxes were placed at various locations throughout town. The red police call boxes were located on the same standard as the fire department box alarms. Prior to the installation of the Gamewell system, the officer on duty in the south end had to inspect, wind, and insert time cards in patrolmen's time clock boxes which were located at points on the local streets. There was no police officer on duty in the Hall of Records, the site of the police department, until after the installation of the Gamewell system.

With this system, officers were required to call headquarters every hour to check for instructions. If an officer was needed for an emergency, a red light on the top of the box could be activated from police headquarters. It was an unwritten rule that an officer had ten minutes to answer the call box or he would have to explain to the sergeant why he did not observe the red light. A paper tape was punched at headquarters when the beat officer activated the device.

After some time, the Gamewell devices were replaced in the red call boxes with a telephone hookup to headquarters. This "call box" phone system was used until 1973, when the last two boxes were removed from Main Street.

In 1927, a teletype system was installed at police headquarters. This connected the Manchester Police Department with the other local police departments on the teletype line and with the State Police. Connecticut was the first state in the nation with a state-wide teletype system.

It was in 1925, that the town started to provide each officer with a clothing and equipment allowance from which he purchased his equipment. Before 1925, the only equipment furnished by the town was the police badge and hat badge. The officers themselves had to buy their uniforms, handcuffs, nightsticks and flashlights. An officer had to furnish three complete uniforms for seasonal wear - a summer outfit, a somewhat heavier one for early spring wear and a heavy outfit with overcoat for winter wear. The officer also wore the old fashioned helmet - a gray one for summer wear and a blue helmet for winter.

In 1925, the force consisted of 5 regular officers and 12 supernumeraries. The budget was $30,585, and Chief Gordon received a salary of $3,015. The motor vehicle fleet consisted of a 1925 Studebaker and three motorcycles.

In 1923, Patrolman William G. Glenney, who had been a member of the force for over 18 years, became ill and later died while still a member of the department. His illness and death, and the death of Captain Madden were the cause of the formation of the Manchester Police Mutual Aid Association. "Under present conditions, men of the force, who were compelled through sickness or accident to be unable to perform their regular duties, lose their compensation, as the Town only pays wages to those who are able to work." The Mutual Aid Association, organized in 1925 with $2,000 proceeds from a benefit performance at the Circle Theater, was a means of providing financial assistance to the members of the department in case of sickness or accident, and to their families in case of death.

In 1923, the town's centennial year, a book, "Who's Who in Manchester, Connecticut." was published. It included the following description for Chief Gordon - "His integrity has never been doubted. His character is irreproachable. He is an honest and faithful public servant." The book included a biographical summary for Officer Glenney which ended. "He will be remembered for a long time as one of the best police officers who ever served his town and fellow townsmen in Manchester."

In 1927, Chief Gordon and Lieutenant William Barron set up the Manchester Police Department's first fingerprint file. This file contained over 1,000 sets of fingerprints and was used to solve several serious crimes of the time.

The most famous of the early fingerprint cases was "Manchester's Tong Murder" - so-called because the murder was a contract killing resulting from combat between two Chinese secret societies, or gangs, the On Leong Tong and the Hip Sing Tong.

In the early morning of March 24, 1927, Ong Geng Hem, an employee of the Sam Ong Laundry, was shot to death by Chin Lung. Chin and an accomplice Soo Hoo Wing had come into Manchester by taxi from Hartford. Chin had entered the laundry, had shot Ong Geng Hem, and had run from the scene. Sam Ong ran out of his laundry screaming, "Chinaman shot my cousin - catch him." Men who worked on Oak Street gave chase to Main Street, but the taxi carrying the two Chinese men had pulled away. A woman on her way to work hurried to Main Street and used a pay phone to call the police. Patrolman Albert Roberts fielded the call at 7:20 a.m., jumped in a car, and drove to the scene. After a look at the scene, he returned to the station and, by phone and teletype, alerted other police departments and the State Police with the description "two Chinamen in a taxicab." Hours later, Chin and Soo were captured in New Haven when a traffic officer there spotted two Chinese men in a taxi.

Police found a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver burrowed into a barrel of rice near the laundry exit. At trial, the state's firearms expert testified that this was the weapon used in the commission of the murder. The state's fingerprint expert testified that the murder weapon contained the left middle fingerprint of Soo Hoo Wing.

This case was the first time in Connecticut's history that fingerprint evidence was presented before a superior court jury in a murder trial. The two men were convicted of first degree murder. The conviction was appealed in State vs. Chin Lung and was argued before the state Supreme Court of Errors. The defense charged that the court erred in not excluding from the jury all evidence and testimony having to do with fingerprints. The use of fingerprint evidence was upheld and the two men were executed by hanging on November 8, 1927.

By 1933, the department under Chief Gordon included Capt. Herman O. Schendel, Lt. William A. Barron, Sgt. John J. McGlinn, ten patrolmen, and five supernumeraries. The police department had five pieces of motor vehicle equipment.