1908 Warrensburg Missouri History, Chief of Police and Deputy Gunned Down in the Hotel Estes, South Holden Street

Fallen Officers Honored by the Warrensburg Police Department

Two Officers Killed in a Shoot Out  in the Hotel Estes, Warrensburg, Missouri 1908  Easter Sunday

Warrensburg, Mo., April 20, 1908. James Ryan, chief of police, and Byron Hall, aged 30, son of J. E. Hall, a farmer living near Warrensburg, were killed and James E. Basham (later died) and Robert Pollock, night officers, were wounded in a pistol duel in the corridor of the Hotel Estes.  The three officers were attempting to take a revolver from Hall, when he shot all three.  The officer's returned fire and Hall was shot twice.  Two more shots were taken at him by L. Little, the negro porter of the hotel.  

Hotel Estes Floor Plan, Warrensburg, MO

After shooting the officers, Hall ran up the stairway in the lobby and stood on the landing as the porter fired at him.  He then staggered into an alcove off the landing and another shot was heard.  When Hall was found he was dead and his powder-burned shirt showed that he had been shot a third time, through the heart supposedly by himself.  Basham is not expected to recover.

 Warrensburg And Johnson County By Carol Berkland, Herb Best, Lisa Irle ,

James Ryan and James Basham were killed on Easter Sunday April 19, 1908
Marshal Ryan and Officer James Basham were shot and killed, and another officer was wounded while attempting to disarm a deranged man at a local hotel. Officers and a hotel porter returned fire killing the man. Marshal Ryan had been elected Marshal three years earlier.
City Marshall Ryan and Night Marshall Basham were fatally shot and killed in a 1908 shootout at the old Hotel Estes (which used to be located to the southern catty corner of City Hall). Byron Hall, declared insane by the testimonies of witnesses and family members, was apparently under the belief that attackers were pursuing him for $500 he had earned herding sheep. Before Hall committed suicide by shooting himself into his own heart, he shot Ryan 3 times and sent Basham to his death with a steel bullet that passed entirely through the Night Marshall’s body. Basham and Ryan are both buried about 100 feet North of the Confederate Memorial in Sunset Hill Cemetary, Warrensburg, Missouri.

Wallace Crossley's paper showed a penchant for solid reporting, including on April 18, 1908, when Byron Hall arrived in town by train. He toted an automatic pistol and seemed out of his head. Marshal James Ryan, Assistant Marshal James E. Basham and Officer Robert Polk approached Hall outside a hotel and tried to take the gun. The Star-Journal headlined the story, "Warrensburg Police Officers Slaughtered," and provided solid details of the shootout that left Ryan and Basham dead, and Hall wounded before committing suicide.
Part of the account states: "The five shots, every one of which did deadly work, were fired within two or three seconds. Such wholesale killing would have been impossible with any other sort of weapon. Had Hall been armed with an ordinary pistol, no more than one shot would have been fired under such circumstances and nobody would likely have been killed."

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/officer/11660-city-marshal-james-ryan#ixzz2MZhnLQSU

MADMAN KILLS TWO AND IS SLAIN

City Marshal and Watchman Are Shot and a Third Officer Wounded

WARRENSBURG. Mo., April - 19.— Three men are dead and another probably- fatally wounded' as the" result of the attempt of the local officers to arrest F. O. Hawes here tonight.  The dead: JAMES RYAN, city marshal. NIGHT WATCHMAN Basham, F.O. HAWES. - The wounded: Night Watchman Till Pollock, Hawes, who was 22 years old, the son of a Johnson County farmer, was returning to his home on a Missouri Pacific train this evening from a trip to a neighboring town, 

when, it is believed, he suddenly lost his mind. His actions were noticed by the other passengers and the officers here were notified. When the train arrived at 8:30 City Marshal Ryan and the two night watchmen were at the station. Hawes got off the train and as he did so the officers attempted to make the arrest. Hawes drew a revolver and began shooting.  At the first shot Marshal Ryan fell dead, shot through the head. Other shots followed and Night Watchman Basham fell dead, shot through the lungs. Night Watchman Pollock was the last one shot and he receiver what Is believed to be a mortal wound in the abdomen.

Hawes started to run from the scene but was shot and killed by the negro porter of a local hotel (L. Little). (Estes Hotel)

James E. Basham, Killed in the Line of Duty Warrensburg, Missouri 1908 ID: I32621 Name: James Edward Basham Sex: M Birth: 25 DEC 1860 in Grain Valley, Jackson Co., Missouri Burial: Sunset Cemetery Death: 20 APR 1908 in Warrensburg, Johnson Co., Missouri

Warrensburg City Marshals and Assistant Marshals  1868-1913.

Marshals. — 1868-1870. W. S. Snow: 1871, J. K. Miller; 1872. E. H. 
Shotwell; 1873, L. Collins; 1874, Eli Allman ; 1875, O. A. Redford ; 1876, 
S. J. Jackson; 1877-1880, H. F. Clark: 1881-82, P. A. Matthews; 1883-84, 
P. A. Magoon; 1885-86. D. R. Smith: 1887. R. F. Dalton: 1888. R. F. Dai- 
ton, Thomas H. Dillard ; 1889-1894, J. E. Morrison: 1895-96, George W. 
Warnick; 1897, W. H. Welch: 1898, W. H. Welch, George F. Fisher, K. 
G. Tempel; 1899-1900, K. G. Tempel, 1901-02. Carlisle Chase: 1901-07, 
James Ryan; 1908, William Ogle; 1909-12. A. Gaubert ; 1913 to 
present, B. G. Brown. 
Assistant Marshals. — 1892, Charles Morrison; 1893, Lewis Davis; 
1894, J. A. House; 1895, W. C. Johnson; 1896, R. H. Davis: 1807, K. 
G. Tempel; 1898-1900, J. P. Hampton; 1901. J. A. Burnett and James 
Ryan; 1902. James Ryan; 1903-06. B. G. Brown; 1907. James Basham ; 
1908. George A. Howard; 1909-12. B. G. Brown: 1913 to present, J. 
W. Quarles.