90 years ago, a police officer was shot and killed in Galesburg. Here's what happened.
It was about 10:35 p.m. on a Thursday, April 28, 1932, when Eddie Geddes was shot and killed with his own gun on the platform of the C.B.& Q. Railroad depot.
A manhunt followed, and at 5:30 a.m. the next morning his killer, Willie Rogers, was caught while he was hitchhiking through Knox County. There was no doubt of who pulled the trigger that propelled the bullet that killed Geddes, but within two months the man was acquitted and set free.
What sets this apart from many other victims of a bullet in Galesburg over the years is that Geddes was a special agent of the railroad, killed while performing his duties. His story has remained forgotten, buried by time in microfilm and long ignored files by time, but is revived by a nephew who learned of his uncle’s sacrifice through a coincidence.
Lindsey L. May is now “fully retired” but is part of a legacy of multi-generational service to Galesburg. While May served as a member of the Galesburg Police Department from 1979 to 2011, his father, Dale R. May Jr. was a member of the Galesburg Fire Department from 1962 to 1994, serving as chief since 1977.
Galesburg news: He had roles in 'Psycho II,' 'M*A*S*H,' 'Columbo' and many more ... and he's from Galesburg
It was as a member of the police force that Lindsey learned the story of his maternal grand-uncle’s death. Several years into his employment, a fellow officer was retiring and May was tasked with calling former members of the department to invite them to the retirement party. One of these calls just happened to be to one of the officers who had assisted a dying Geddes, rushing him to St. Mary’s Hospital, who told May of that night in 1932.
Who was Eddie Geddes?
Durward Faldine “Eddie” Geddes was born Nov. 4, 1901, in Indiana to John and Ida Geddes. When Eddie was 9 years old the family, including his older sister Eura, moved to Minnesota. In October 1925 he moved to Galesburg and began working as a machinist in the steel car repair shops. Only the next year, his father became seriously ill so Eddie returned to Minnesota, coming back to Galesburg in the spring of 1927. This is when he was hired as a special agent for the railroad. On June 29, 1929, he married Lucille Conlon.
For a time, Geddes was promoted to work as the assistant to W.E. Pratt, who oversaw security for the entire C.B. & Q. But due to a reduction in workforce, was sent back to Galesburg in October 1931. He and Lucille, just before Geddes was killed, moved into a new home at 615 S. Academy St., only a couple blocks from her parents’ home on West Berrien Street.
From Galesburg to the White House: How Mike Ebbing traveled the world with Richard Nixon
The Register-Mail described Eddie Geddes as “a perfect specimen of manhood” who “never started trouble” but “was always capable of defending himself and as a result had gained a reputation as a fighter.”
One Quad Cities newspaper noted that Geddes had once shot and wounded a man “as he fled when discovered in the act of raiding railroad cars.”
Who was Willie Rogers?
Born in Garrard County, Kentucky on September 18, 1910, Willie Rogers had a sixth grade education. When he was 17, he married his wife, age 15, and it wasn’t long before they had two children. When Geddes was killed, Rogers had been in Galesburg for four months, coming here with his wife and children to visit her brother Eddie Adams, who lived on Lombard Street. After two months, his wife and children returned to Kentucky, while Willie stayed behind. But Mrs. Rogers was now expecting a third child. On April 28, 1932, Willie Rogers needed transportation to Kentucky.
The fateful night: April 28, 1932
At about 10:35 p.m. that night, a railroad employee at the station observed two men scuffling, but thought little of this until he heard three shots ring out. Eddie Geddes was found, alive and in great pain, lying on the railroad platform. Galesburg police officers Lester Sippel and George Fuller, who would later served as chief of police, rushed the wounded man to nearby St. Mary’s Hospital. He told the officers he did not know the man who shot him, but acknowledged it was a “bum.” Geddes, 30, then quickly died.
Hundreds of men were involved in the sudden manhunt for the slayer of the special agent. W.E. Wolff, Geddes’ boss and first cousin, was pulled from his bed and quickly wired to every station after Galesburg to search their trains, and every town and village within 50 miles of Galesburg was notified and asked to join the hunt. Police officers and railroad agents spread out in every direction from Galesburg.
Shortly after the shooting, a car was reported stolen from Seminary and Waters streets, which police first assumed was by the killer. But Rogers had actually caught a ride from a stranger, taking him as far as Maquon. He then walked the “hard road” toward Yates City, hitchhiking. As he approached Yates City, at about 5:30 a.m., a car approached and Rogers tried to thumb it down. The vehicle stopped, and three special agents got out. Arthur Hawkinson pointed a shotgun at the hitchhiker, who immediately admitted to the shooting.
There was little evidence on which to figure out what happened. The hats of both the victim and perpetrator were found on the platform, as was Geddes’ left glove. Officers believed that because Geddes never took off his right glove, he did not draw his weapon. His gun had either fallen out or been grabbed during the scuffle, and it was used to shoot its owner.
Three bullets struck Eddie Geddes. One near the pelvis, one went through his arm and into his chest. The third went downward through his torso.
A confession
Willie Rogers himself told officers what had occurred that night on the platform. Heading home to Kentucky, he had attempted to steal a ride on the train to St. Louis. He figured from there he could hitch a train to Cincinnati, and from there make his way to his family in central Kentucky.
He was “fixin’ to get on” at the Galesburg depot when Geddes shouted “where are you going?”
Assuming that Geddes was hopping on too, he told the agent “get on and I will tell you after we get started.”
Instead, Geddes grabbed him by the coat and pulled him, telling him he couldn’t get on.
“We fought for quite a little bit but I got him down and was getting the best of it when he pulled a gun out of his pocket. I twisted the gun out of his hand, but I didn’t want to shoot him, and said “let's get up and quit,” Rogers told police, according to the Register-Mail.
“The man did not reply but grabbed me about the neck and started choking me. I tried to call out to him to stop, but I could not talk because he was choking me. I didn’t want to shoot him, and I didn’t want him to shoot me either. When he didn’t stop I poked the gun up under him and shot three times, I do not know if they all hit him, but he let loose and I got up and ran.”
“I ran across the railroad yards to South Seminary Street along the tracks. I cut over to Adams’ house at 872 Lombard St. Adams was asleep and did not hear me. He was the only person in the house. I got a hat of mine that was there and left, walking out to the city limits.”
He then described his trip hitchhiking, until the agents captured him.
“I still had the officer’s revolver with me and they found it when they searched me. I told them that I shot the man, but I did not know before that he had died. They brought me here to the county jail.”
Willie Rogers insisted to police and a grand jury that Eddie Geddes never identified himself as a railroad agent, and that he shot the man in self defense. He was indicted for murder, and during his trial testified to the same in his defense. He was acquitted on June 24, 1932.
Epilogue for Rogers
Willie Rogers returned to Kentucky after his acquittal, but did not stay out of trouble. One night in October 1936, he and his younger brother got into a drunken fight in front of Welch’s Cafe in Lexington, KY. Willie went to his car and got a double barrelled shotgun, loaded it, and came back. He fired twice, hitting three people, including a 21-year-old woman.
The Rogers brothers fled in the car, but police shot out their tires in the ensuing chase through Lexington.
Les Burgess, 38, was a former police officer and seriously wounded. He died several days later and Rogers was indicted for murder the second time in his life.
On January 13, 1937, Willie Rogers, 26, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. In the fall of 1944, he was granted parole after serving only seven years of his life sentence.
Records show Rogers remarrying in 1946, but otherwise the trail goes cold until his death, January 1981.
90 years later
In the years since, those close to Eddie Geddes have passed on, but in April 2022, 90 years after losing his life in an attempt to keep the rails safe, was honored not just by his nephew Lindsey May, but by the Galesburg Police Department.
Family and officers honored Geddes at the former site of the depot, which was demolished in 1983.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Railroad police officer was shot and killed in Galesburg, IL, in 1932
