Durkin - Murder of a FBI Special Agent
On
October 11, 1925, FBI Special Agent (SA) Edwin C.
Shanahan, sought to apprehend Martin James Durkin,
a professional automobile thief, for violation of
the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. Durkin had
a long record. He had previously shot and wounded
three policemen in Chicago and also had shot and
wounded a fourth police officer in California. He
had already attained a reputation as a desperate
gunman who would shoot to kill upon meeting the slightest
interference in his activities. SA
Shanahan had received confidential information to
the effect that a man thought to be Durkin was due
to arrive at a certain garage in Chicago with a stolen
automobile which he had transported to that city
from New Mexico. SA Shanahan procured proper assistance
and proceeded to the garage in question. After an
all day wait, it appeared that the information was
inaccurate and that Durkin would not come into the
garage as had been expected. While
the police officers with SA Shanahan had momentarily
left the garage for the purpose of seeking another
detail of officers to relieve them, Durkin drove
in with the stolen car. SA Shanahan attempted to
take him into custody but, through a ruse, Durkin
swept an automatic pistol from the front seat of
the stolen automobile and shot Shanahan through the
breast. SA Shanahan was the first FBI Agent to be
killed in the line of duty. As
a result of this atrocious murder, all the forces
of the FBI throughout the country were concentrated
in an effort to effect Durkin's capture. A
few weeks after the murder of Shanahan, information
was received that Durkin, and a woman with whom he
had been living, would appear in Chicago at the home
of a relative of the woman. Police officers of the
Chicago Police Department attempted to arrest Durkin
when he arrived at the house late at night. In the
gun fight which followed, a police officer was killed
and another wounded. Durkin again escaped. Durkin
successfully evaded capture until January 20, 1926,
when he was arrested near St. Louis, Missouri, as
the result of an alarm spread throughout the United
States and a last minute chase across the continent
conducted entirely by Special Agents of the FBI. Durkin's "racket" was
the stealing and interstate transportation of high
powered automobiles which he sold after all the numbers
thereon had been changed. The cars which he was particularly
fond of stealing were Pierce Arrows, Cadillacs, and
Packards. His favorite system in stealing such automobiles
was to present himself as a prospective buyer at
dealerships which handled these expensive cars. There
he would dicker for the purchase of a high priced
automobile and would agree to buy the same, arranging
to have the car serviced and filled with gasoline
and oil, ready for delivery to him the following
day. He would agree to return the following day and
pay cash for the car. That night he would burglarize
the garage of the dealership in question and drive
the expensive car away. He would then change the
motor, serial number, and all other assembly numbers
by means of which the car could be identified. Next,
he would procure license plates under assumed names
giving fictitious addresses. He would then drive
the car to another state where he would dispose of
it for several thousand dollars. Special
Agents of the FBI carefully notified dealerships
for such expensive cars throughout the United States
as to the method employed by Durkin in these thefts.
On January 10, 1926, as a result of this careful
and systematic covering of the entire country, a
Cadillac dealership at San Diego, California, informed
the Los Angeles office of the FBI that, on the night
before, a new Cadillac Phaeton, with brown California
top, green body and green wooden wheels, had been
stolen from their show room under circumstances identical
with the system employed by Durkin. The motor, serial,
and other assembly numbers on this stolen Cadillac
were procured by Special Agents of the FBI. In an
effort to stop this car on the theory that perhaps
the thief driving it might be Martin Durkin, all
roads leading from California to the eastern section
of the United States were covered. This systematic
covering of all highways was conducted by Special
Agents of the Bureau located in field offices at
Los Angeles; Phoenix, Arizona; Denver, Colorado;
El Paso, San Antonio and Dallas, Texas; and Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma. The transcontinental highways leading
East were covered by shotgun squads day and night
for almost a week to no avail. The Cadillac failed
to appear. On
Sunday, January 17, 1926, a sheriff in the town of
Pecos, Texas, noticed a green Cadillac parked on
the streets. He accosted the young man who was at
the wheel and asked him to identify himself. The
young man was a very smooth talker and did not present
the appearance of a hard-boiled gunman and murderer.
He convincingly told the Sheriff that his name was
Fred Conley and that he was a Deputy Sheriff of Los
Angeles, California. He also told the Sheriff that
he had been employed at Los Angeles as a movie actor
and that he was then en route east with his wife. The
Sheriff asked him to produce papers showing ownership
of the Cadillac, and the young man stated that those
papers were in his luggage at the hotel. He told
the Sheriff that he would be glad to go for them
and bring them back to the Sheriff's office. The
Sheriff carefully observed the Cadillac before permitting
this. He took a record of the motor number, license
number, and other assembly numbers on the car and
noticed in particular that it had red wooden wheels.
The young man was carrying a pistol and had a forty-four
Winchester in the car, all of which lent color to
his story that he was a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff.
Being disarmed by his innocent appearance and glib
talk, the Sheriff permitted him to go to the hotel
in Pecos for the purpose of procuring and exhibiting
the papers certifying ownership of the Cadillac. When
the young man describing himself as Mr. Fred Conley,
a Deputy Sheriff from Los Angeles, did not return
immediately with these papers, the Sheriff proceeded
to the hotel where he discovered that "Mr. Conley" had
hurriedly entered the hotel, seized his baggage,
and accompanied by the woman with whom he was registered,
departed from Pecos at a high speed in the Cadillac. Efforts
made by the Sheriff that day failed to effect the
capture of "Mr. Conley" in this Cadillac
car, which the Sheriff now believed to be stolen.
Numerous car thieves had been captured by this Sheriff
at Pecos, Texas, and he believed that this was just
another thief and did not, at the time, connect him
with Martin Durkin, the Chicago gunman, for whom
a thousand- dollar reward was outstanding. However,
on this Sunday, January 17, 1926, the Sheriff wrote
a letter to the field office of the FBI at El Paso,
Texas, describing the incident mentioned above and
ending his communication with the comment to the
effect that the FBI "might have something on
this bird." The
Special Agent in Charge of the office at El Paso,
Texas, immediately recognized the physical description
contained in this letter as being that of Martin
Durkin, the murderer of SA Shanahan. The
Cadillac touring car which had been stolen in Los
Angeles bore assembly numbers entirely different
from those on the Cadillac car examined by the Sheriff
at Pecos, Texas; and the wheels of the car driven
by "Mr. Conley" were red, whereas the wheels
on the car stolen at San Diego had been green. However,
the glibness with which "Mr. Conley" had
evaded the Sheriff at Pecos bore the earmarks of
Durkin's methods of operation. There was no doubt
in the minds of the Bureau operatives at El Paso
that they were on the right trail. The
telegraph and telephone wires were kept hot both
east and west in the effort to stop this Cadillac
car driven by "Mr. Conley" and his woman
companion. Bureau Agents now had the benefit of the
changed assembly numbers, as well as the license
number on this stolen car. Special Agents were dispatched
from El Paso to comb the country in the remote western
section of Texas known as the "Big Ben of the
Rio Grande." As
a result of an all day search through the cactus
and sage brush of those remote regions, the stolen
car was found deserted in a clump of desert mesquite
trees about fifty miles west of Fort Stockton, Texas.
The deserted Cadillac was found late in the afternoon
of January 19. The right rear wheel was broken off.
The fleeing murderer had the misfortune to get a
punctured tire and, because of the high rate of speed
at which he had been traveling, had lost the brand
new extra tire from the rack in the rear. In desperation,
he had continued driving on a flat tire with the
result that the spokes in the wheel had finally broken,
and he could proceed no further. Tests by Bureau
Agents positively identified the Cadillac as the
one which had been stolen at San Diego. A
hurried investigation revealed information from a
rancher nearby that he had hauled the smooth talking
stranger and the good looking woman with him, to
the small town of Girvin, Texas. The stranger had
said that they were going to catch a train at Alpine,
Texas, in the Davis Mountains, about 150 miles to
the south, near the Mexican border. Special
Agents of the Bureau, knowing the fondness of Martin
Durkin for the big cities and the night clubs, were
not fooled into believing that he had entered old
Mexico. They believed that he would not care to undergo
the hardships of desert travel in that bandit infested
region. Accordingly,
the ticket agent of the Southern Pacific Railway
in the village of Alpine, Texas, was immediately
interviewed. Information was obtained from him that
a strange man and woman had boarded Southern Pacific
Train No. 110 at 12:12 a.m., on Monday, January 18,
1926, for San Antonio, Texas. From Train Dispatchers
of the Southern Pacific, information was immediately
obtained as to the names and addresses of the Train
Conductor and Pullman Conductor who had ridden Southern
Pacific Train No. 110 through Alpine on the night
in question. The
Railroad Conductor was found at his home in El Paso,
and he identified a photograph of Durkin as being
the man who got on his train at Alpine at midnight
on the 18th and gave a good description of the woman
with him. He furnished additional information indicating
that Durkin had talked with the Pullman Conductor
concerning possible connections out of San Antonio,
Texas, for other points. It was ascertained that
the Pullman Conductor in question was, on the night
of the inquiry, en route on another train between
San Antonio and Dallas. Special
Agents from the Dallas and San Antonio Field offices,
on the morning of January 20, obtained information
that a couple using the same baggage check numbers
as those which had been used by Durkin and his lady
companion out of Alpine, Texas, had secured transportation
out of San Antonio, Texas, on the Texas Special of
the M. K. & T. Railroad, then en route to St.
Louis, Missouri, and due to arrive there that same
morning at 11 a.m. The
Pullman Conductor of Southern Pacific Train no. 110,
upon being interviewed, positively identified photographs
of Durkin. He also stated that Durkin, upon boarding
the train at Alpine, had immediately inquired as
to the quickest connection out of San Antonio for
St. Louis and had been told that the first and best
connection was the above described Texas Special. At
about daylight on the morning of January 20, Special
Agents of the FBI at St. Louis, Missouri, were notified
that Martin Durkin and his mysterious woman companion
were in a stateroom, in a car of the Texas Special
of the "Katy," due to arrive there that
morning at 11 a.m. The services of the City Detective
Bureau of the St. Louis Police Department were procured,
and through appropriate arrangements, the Texas Special
was stopped at a small town near St. Louis, where
the fugitive murderer would have no chance to escape
except by running on foot through plowed fields.
The train was surrounded, and Special Agents of the
Bureau, accompanied by St. Louis City Detectives,
dragged the desperate gunman from the stateroom and
placed him in irons before he had an opportunity
to reach for the weapons which were in his luggage
and overcoat. Because
it was not a Federal offense to kill a Special Agent
of the FBI until 1934, Durkin was tried and convicted
in state court for the murder of Agent Shanahan and
was sentenced to serve a term of 35 years in the
penitentiary at Joliet, Illinois. He also was tried
in the Federal Court at Chicago for the interstate
transportation of numerous automobiles in violation
of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. He was convicted
on all these charges and was given a term of imprisonment
in the Federal Penitentiary totaling 15 years. Durkin
was 25 years of age when he entered the Statesville
Penitentiary, at Joliet, Illinois, in 1926. In 1946,
he was taken to Leavenworth Federal Prison. He was
fifty-three when he was "released upon expiration
of sentence" on July 28, 1954.
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