This period includes, for example, the rampage of a gang run by the famous love couple Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, or the trial of Chicago criminal number one, mobster Al Capon.
Al Capone’s Day. The untouchable mob boss made up for an unnecessary mistake
The Young Brothers’ massacre, sometimes referred to as the Brookline shootout, is not as well known in Europe as the above stories, perhaps because, unlike them, it has not seen such a famous filmmaking. However, he made a name for himself in the history of the American police: there were six dead police officers left at the end, making him the worst murder of American police officers ever committed in the 20th century.
Of the villains, murderers and car thieves
The trio of Young’s brothers, Paul, Harry and Jennings, have been well known to law enforcement in southwest Missouri since the 1920s, but were always considered petty thieves. Each of them served some time in Missouri State Prison for burglary and theft at the time, and the brothers Jennigs and Paul also served in Leavenworth Prison.
By the end of the 1920s, they were already known to all local judges and prosecutors under the nickname “Young Triumvirate”. However, they still considered them only as thieves who did not commit violence and were not dangerous to others.
He killed the way he went. He wanted to kill as a child, he grew into a terrifying monster
That changed on June 2, 1929, when Harry Young and another accomplice murdered Mark Noah, the Missouri city police chief, when he stopped their car because he did not like Young sitting behind the wheel drunk. The thief who became the killer at the time then disappeared with his brothers and allegedly hid under a false name in Texas for about two and a half years.
The trio switched from petty burglary to car theft and gradually formed one of the largest car thieving gangs in the entire United States. But she didn’t last long in the south because her ties to her family were too strong. In late 1931, Harry and Jennings, nicknamed “Jinx,” decided to return home and appeared on a family farm in Brookline, Missouri, shortly before New Year’s Eve.
The sheriff believed he could do it
The local sheriff soon found out about them. They betrayed their own carelessness. “They brought in a stolen car that one of their sisters tried to sell to a used car dealer in Springfield. However, this transaction seemed suspicious to him, because the car was not driven in her name, but in the name of one of her brothers, “the American website quotes KSMU Ozarks Public Radio Dr. Brooks Blevins, Associate Professor of History at Missouri State University.
They lived on the edge. The godparents entered the history of crime and the movie screen
So the next day the woman tried again, this time with papers in her name. But she failed again this time either. The owner of the second-hand car shop refused it, saying that it was New Year’s and the banks were closed, so he could not withdraw the money.
The nurse still did not want to give it up, and on the third day, January 2, 1932, she and her sibling came to the car dealership for the third time. This time, however, the police were already waiting for them, which the seller had warned in the meantime.
“If you tell us where your brothers are, and we catch them before they do something worse, it will be better for them and for you,” the police tried a proven method that really worked for one of the sisters. She admitted that her brothers were hiding on a farm in Brookline, and gave her address.
A mysterious murder in Chicago. Journalists with contacts on Capone were killed in broad daylight
Sheriff Hendrix of the local district then formed a ten-member group of partly Springfield officers and partly his deputies, assuming that everything would go smoothly. Hendrix knew the Young family from the neighborhood personally, was in normal neighborhood contact with them, and believed that he would talk well with the brothers. “It was his first mistake,” commented Springfield Police spokesman Matt Brown many years later. “It simply came to his notice then that he knew them a little. But not enough. “
It’s me, come out with your hands over your head
The police set out for the farm only weakly armed. Each had only one handgun with no spare magazine. In addition, they only carried a few tear gas grenades with them. They apparently did not envisage any battle. When they arrived at the house, they normally entered the front yard and called for everyone inside to come out.
But no one came out. The house seemed empty, but then Officer Ollie Crosswhite called. “I heard something. As if someone was walking inside. ”
As no one responded to the official call, Hendrix ordered one gas grenade to be fired into the house, hoping the brothers would smoke. It didn’t work, no one showed up.
Bloody Sunday on a yacht: Only a little girl survived the massacre. She waited three days for rescue
Hendrix was apparently still convinced that he was safe, so he and his deputy, Wiley Mashburn, walked to the back door and called again that it was him, standing outside, who wanted everyone to come out with their hands over their heads. When there was still silence inside, he and Mashburn kicked open the door.
Not one of the men was ready for what came next. When they kicked out the door, they found themselves in a dark corridor facing two brothers (it is not entirely certain who they were, but it is believed that it was Harry and Jennings and that only they were in the house), and they did not wait empty-handed. . One held a 12-caliber shotgun, the other a 32-20 caliber hunting rifle. Both men of the law had just the time to realize that the two weapons were aimed at them and that they would fire. And they fired.
Farm massacre
Hell broke loose. Hendrix and Mashburn fell, both mortally wounded. The police standing outside immediately started firing at the windows of the house, but they did not even see the hidden attackers. On the contrary, they had a police team in the front yard like a shooting range. Although police tried to hide behind the tree trunks, they were too narrow and small to provide real protection, and the sheriff’s team quickly came under deadly crossfire.
In a matter of moments, three other police officers, Tony Oliver, Sid Meadows and Charles Houser, were fatally hit. The others in the shootout quickly ran out of ammunition, which they had nothing to replace, while the attackers inside apparently had enough ammunition. The surviving men of the law had no choice but to leave their dying and dead comrades and take their feet on their shoulders to move away from the field of fire.
A horse’s head in bed? The famous scene from Godfather was inspired by reality
Only one of them remained at the house. Officer Crosswhite, the first to notice the movement inside the house, stood at the back of the house at the time of the firefight, hiding behind a hatch leading to an outdoor cellar as a shelter from a windstorm.
The attackers noticed his presence when they decided to go out and did not give him the slightest chance. According to a later reconstruction, one of the brothers literally pinned him to his position by continuous shelling, and the other crept up with a shotgun behind Crosswhite’s back. This was followed by a cold and ruthless execution by a shot to the back.
As another assault police team rushed to form in Springfield, the assassins searched the bodies of fallen police officers, robbed them of money and weapons, and fled.
We’re dead, come on
The murder of six police officers in a single moment, the bloodiest massacre of men of the law that had taken place in the United States so far, immediately provoked great outrage as well as a nationwide search. The result came quickly: police received word that Jennings and Harry Young had rented a room in Houston, Texas.
Just three days after the shootout, on January 5, 1932, Houston police officers entered the house where the room was located with guns in their hands. It seemed empty again, but then the police noticed the closed bathroom door. They called on the men inside to surrender. And it started again – the brothers opened fire from the bathroom.
Inside Alcatraz: The famous prison scared to death, solitary confinement was experienced by many murderers
The police hid and returned fire this time. After a moment of frantic cannonade, there was silence, then a few lone shots came from the bathroom. Then a dying voice said, “We’re dead. Come in.”
The officers cautiously opened the door and saw the two brothers’ bodies covered and bloodied. Jennings Young was already dead, Harry Young was still breathing, but his multiple gunshot wounds were undoubtedly fatal. He died shortly afterwards. The two men also had weapons taken from police officers they killed on a farm in Brookline.
The medical examiner’s office in Houston concluded that the two brothers had shot each other to avoid being caught, and that these gunshot wounds were fatal. Not everyone agreed with this version and suspected police that they literally shot at the desire to avenge their fallen colleagues, but failed to prove this, and the suicide version of both criminals officially remained in force.
The massacre changed police arrest procedures
According to Springfield Police spokesman Matt Brown, the Brookline massacre forced the US police to reconsider their detention practices, especially if they are suspected of using violence.
“The massacre was the biggest loss of law enforcement life in the 20th century for the United States, and it happened here in this region. That day changed the way law enforcement authorities communicate with criminals, “Brown said.
A murderer who took revenge on women. He committed a terrible massacre in Texas 30 years ago
Although the Young Brothers never achieved the fame of other legendary outlaws, probably because only a short time passed between their worst crime and their own death, their horrific act nevertheless indelibly entered the history of the American police.
A memorial with the names of all six police officers killed still stands in front of the Springfield Police Headquarters.
– .
