Eighteen Salt Lake police officers have died in the line of duty - the stories of the fallen officers chronicle the evolution of Salt Lake City and of the peril faced by peace officers.
The men are each honored annually in a Washington, D.C., memorial during the month of their death, along with peace officers nationwide who died during the same month.Locally, the officers' photographs and biographies are a key part of the police museum and are also displayed in the foyer of the department's downtown headquarters.
- Andrew H. Burt, killed Aug. 25, 1883 - The chief of police was shot in the chest with a rifle by a man who had brandished a .44 pistol at a downtown merchant after he was turned down for a job.
Burt's death prompted Salt Lake residents to liberate his attacker from jail and lynch the 35-year-old black man in a jail yard. The crowd dragged the man's body through the city streets until the mayor ordered them to stop. The incident, from the time Burt was shot to when the perpetrator was killed, lasted less than a half hour.
- Charles S. Ford, killed Dec. 14, 1907 - The officer was killed only a year after joining the police force. He was shot by two gunmen as they fled from the Albany Hotel bar near 200 South and 500 West, which they had just robbed.
- Charles C. Riley, killed Oct. 5, 1909 - Riley was shot dead by one of his prisoners in front of a crowd of people leaving the Orpheum Theater. The officer had arrested two men earlier for robbing a man at gunpoint. Riley was taking the men to jail when he was killed.
- John Henry Johnston, died July 8, 1911 - The Salt Lake police sergeant was shot by a former Pinkerton detective, who had vowed to kill his wife and then himself. Johnston and another officer responded to a domestic dispute at the Albert Hotel on West Temple. When they knocked at the door, the man pulled a revolver and shot Johnston in the abdomen. He died of his wounds three days later.
- Thomas F. Griffiths, killed June 25, 1913 - "Little Tommy" Griffiths was shot twice in the torso after his prisoner escaped as the officer walked him to a callbox at the corner of 200 South and 200 West.
Griffiths had arrested the man after he had refused to pay for drinks at a nearby establishment, then slashed another man with a razor. When the man escaped, Griffiths chased him to the rear of the Sweet Candy Co., 220 S. 200 West, where the man shot him twice in the torso and then in the head. The man fled but was later apprehended.
- Green B. Hamby, killed Feb. 8, 1921 - The detective was killed after he kicked open the door of a Nord Hotel room where fugitive Tom "Blackie" Burns was hiding. Burns shot the officer in the head and wounded Salt Lake Police Chief Joseph Burbidge in the arm. Burns was also shot and died from his wounds.
- Nephi P. Pierce, died March 26, 1923 - Pierce was shot in the back Nov. 28, 1922, as he sought cover following a confrontation with two armed men near 550 South and State Street. He died four months later. He lived long enough to identify his attacker, Henry C. Hett, who was executed in 1925.
- David H. Crowther, killed Oct. 12, 1923 - The officer was shot in the head, robbed and his car stolen by a 20-year-old parolee from the Wyoming State Prison as he drove a carload of transients to the city limits. Crowther's body was found along the banks of the Jordan River near South Temple. The parolee was later arrested in California and executed by firing squad in 1926. He had sold the officer's gun in Cedar City for $5 and Crow-ther's watch in St. George for $10 and some groceries.
- Nolan Huntsman, killed Feb. 15, 1924, and Brigham Honey, died Feb. 16, 1924 - The two Salt Lake police officers were shot after they tried to stop a fleeing robber, who then shot his girlfriend and killed himself.
The 26-year-old man, who had recently been released from San Quentin, arrived in Salt Lake City with his girlfriend, and both were out of money. He held up a cafe at 46 W. 300 South about midnight, taking some $50. As police chased him, the man first shot Huntsman, who died immediately, then Honey, who died the next day.
- Gus J. Lund, killed Aug. 25, 1924 - The officer was crushed by a trailer loaded with bricks after he motioned for a truck to pass, then stepped off the curb near 2100 South and 1100 East, unaware of the trailer.
- Blaine L. Baxter, killed Sept. 4, 1935 - Baxter steered his police motorcycle into a brick wall to avoid colliding with a car that turned in front of him near 200 N. 300 West. The accident occurred as the officer was chasing a speeding vehicle. The car that turned in front of him was never located.
- Owen T. Farley, killed May 5, 1951 - When his police car wouldn't start, Farley decided to transport two armed robbery subjects - a man and woman - to headquarters in their own car. But the man, 31, pulled a gun from his front coat pocket and shot the sergeant before fleeing with the woman. The man was executed at the Utah State Prison on July 1955.
- Thomas W. Stroud, killed Jan. 5, 1951 - The sergeant died instantly when his automatic pistol fell from his shoulder harness to the pavement and discharged, shooting him in the heart.
- Harold A. Peterson Sr., killed Oct. 27, 1954 - Peterson died from injuries sustained in an accident at 1300 S. 1300 East. He was traveling north on a police motorcycle when he collided with a vehicle turning left. The officer survived an earlier brush with death when an armed robbery suspect shot him, but the bullet bounced off a mechanical pencil Peterson carried in his front pocket.
- Percy L. Clark, killed Jan. 11, 1973 - The detective, a second-generation Salt Lake police officer, was shot in the head by a 21-year-old robbery suspect at the Third Avenue Pharmacy, 564 Third Ave. A group of officers had set up surveillance at the pharmacy to catch suspects wanted in a series of robberies. His attacker was killed when the other officers returned fire.
- David W. Olson, died March 22, 1980 - Olson died of accidental wounds he sustained while on duty April 3, 1977. Known as "Hagar" to his friends, the detective had joined the department in 1971.
- Ronald L. Heaps, killed Jan. 13, 1982 - In a vacant field near 1300 S. 300 East, Heaps was shot by a man wanted for killing a California highway patrolman.
Three Salt Lake officers had responded to the call of suspicious activity and found three men in a motor home there. When the officers asked who owned the vehicle, the man opened fire, killing Heaps and wounding another officer.
*****
Additional Information
A century of law enforcement
Interesting Evidence
Blackie Burn's gun - Stolen from Wyoming, the weapon was used by Burns to kill Salt Lake detective Green Hamby in 1921. It still carries a swatch of tanned leather, said to have been made from the skin of a dead Burns and looped around the gun's trigger guard.
Officer's manual, circa early 1920s - The manual is a guide to Salt Lake City's streets, laws and hotels/rooming houses of the early 1920s. The majority of establishments listed no longer exist, having been replaced by downtown high-rises.
Japanese Nambu machine gun - Confiscated as contraband during a search of a local house several years ago, the gun is now a conversation piece in the museum. "It's not often that you find an operational, 1940s Japanese Nambu machine gun just kind of floating around Salt Lake City," said Salt Lake City Police Lt. Steve "Duffy" Diamond, coordinator of the police museum.
Pencil, notes and slug - A mechanical pencil stopped a bullet and saved the life of officer H.A. Peterson Sr. The policeman was shot in the early 1950s when he confronted two men who had just robbed a bakery at 900 South and 900 East.
Collection of Photos
Through the years, photographs have chronicled evidence in important police cases and are now displayed throughout the museum exhibits.
- Panoramic-style photographs of the police force, taken in 1909, 1929, 1913, depict a unique photography method that allowed the officers to congregate in a line that spanned nearly an entire downtown intersection.
- Photographed in 1890, four sober-faced men represent the countenance of law enforcement at the turn of the century. "It just looks like this is the epitomy of policing at the turn of the century in this city," said Diamond. "Here's four guys that gave no quarter and asked none, and you just didn't fool around with them."
- Andrew Thorpe and Fred Anderson, a horse soldier and patrol officer, dressed in the long coats typical of the 1920s. "You look at this picture and he looks like such a down-to-earth, kindly man," Lt Judy Dencker said of one of the subjects. "It's one of those that I look at it and say, 'What was it like for you guys back them. Tell me about what you guys did.'"
SLCPD Trivia
The police baton - "They didn't use to use them just to whack people, get them in line and make people comply," Diamond said. "It was also the forerunner of the police communication system. These men would patrol, on foot, at night in the downtown areas and they had a signaling system. They would tap the sidewalk and they would tap the buildings and, through this system they had set up, they could actually communicate with the officer on the next beat. He could hear them and know everything was OK and at least know where they were."
The electric traffic semaphore - Salt Lake police officer Lester Farnsworth Wire invented the electric traffic semaphore in an effort to control Salt Lake traffic 1912-1913.
His invention replaced an earlier version that was held by the officer patroling the street. Wire's contraption hung in the center of an intersection, remotely controlled by an officer in a small box called a "coop", on the corner.
"I think that's where the term 'cooping' came from," Diamond said. "In police jargon, if you're 'cooping', you're sleeping."