Scarsdale marks 100 years since sergeant's murder

Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Updated ·4 min read

Scarsdale police on Wednesday marked the 100th anniversary of the murder of a sergeant who was shot less than a block from headquarters after leaving the police desk to check on a report of a stolen car.

Sgt. John J. Harrison was killed just after 4:30 a.m. on July 19, 1923, the culmination of an overnight string of car thefts around the village.

A dozen officers and village officials stood at attention outside headquarters as retired Sgt. Thomas Meaney placed a wreath at the police memorial honoring Harrison and two other officers who died in the line of duty.

“His service to our community, his sacrifice, will never be forgotten,” Lt. Craig Carroll said. “Over the past hundred years a lot of things have changed. One of the things that has remained the same is that police work remains a very difficult and at times a dangerous job.”

A photo hanging in Scarsdale police headquarters of Sgt. John Harrison, who was killed in the line of duty 100 years ago. On July 19, 2023, police and village officials held a wreath laying ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of Sgt. John HarrisonÕs death. Harrison was killed when he left the police desk at 4:30 am on July 19, 1923, on a report of a stolen car nearby and was fatally shot by one of the thieves less than 200 feet from headquarters.

Harrison was manning the desk at headquarters that morning when a resident of Dobbs Terrace called to report his car had just been stolen from the garage and was headed toward Fenimore Road. Harrison asked an on-duty firefighter to watch the desk for him and walked outside headquarters to see the car about 175 feet south of him on Tompkins Road.

He went over there and was shot before and two men ran off because the car had stalled. A manhunt began and at least one of the thieves got out of the area by stealing another car, that of a state Assemblyman.

Both cars turned out be among several stolen that night in the village by a crew of thieves.

There were no breaks in the case until 1927 when Arthur Barry, dubbed the "$2 million gem thief" and "the American Raffles" was arrested in connection to high-end burglaries in Westchester; Greenwich, Connecticut; and Long Island where he would climb into upper windows of homes. He implicated James Monahan, who also went by the name “Boston Billy Williams," as his partner in crime, but each claimed the other was the one who killed Harrison.

Retired Scarsdale police sergeant Tom Meaney lays a wreath at a memorial in front of Scarsdale police headquarters July 19, 2023 during a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the murder of Sgt. John Harrison. Sgt. Harrison was killed when he left the police desk at 4:30 am on July 19, 1923, on a report of a stolen car nearby and was fatally shot by one of the thieves less than 200 feet from headquarters.

Barry was only convicted in connection with the burglaries, and was sent to Auburn state prison where he later escaped during a 1929 riot there in which three guards were killed.  He was eventually caught living incognito in New Jersey in 1932 and returned to prison, though acquitted in connection with the guards' deaths. His name even surfaced as a suspect in the infamous kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby. And a year before Harrison was killed he was charged, but never convicted, in connection with the killing of a Bridgeport, Conn. police officer.

Much of his story was told in the 1961 book "The Gentleman was a Thief" by Neil Hickey, although the Harrison murder was not cited.

"He was a sociopath, a really bad guy," Meaney said of Barry. "He could charm anyone but he was a true American psycho."

Looking for information and answers in John J. Harrison case

Meaney, who retired in 2005, remains the department’s historian. He began researching Harrison's killing soon after joining the department in 1980, after walking into headquarters, seeing his picture on the wall, and wondering about the back story.

Meaney said the gun that shot Harrison was never recovered. Because Harrison's gun was nowhere to be found that morning, Meaney suspects the thieves managed to get it from the sergeant and shot him with it before fleeing with the weapon. Testing of a gun found nearby showed it wasn't the one used to shoot Harrison, Meaney said.

Harrison, 37, was a 10-year veteran of the department. He had a wife and three young children and two of his five siblings were also police officers in the village at the time he was killed. He was awarded a posthumous medal of honor from the police department in 1995.

He was one of three Scarsdale officers killed in the line of duty since the department formed in 1909.

Elected officials, along with members of the Scarsdale police and fire departments attend a wreath laying ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the killing of Scarsdale police Sgt. John Harrison. Sgt. Harrison was killed when he left the police desk at 4:30 am on July 19, 1923, on a report of a stolen car nearby and was fatally shot by one of the thieves less than 200 feet from headquarters.

Patrolman Alonzo Doty died after being struck by a car on Post Road just three months before Harrison was killed. Officer Charles Ackerly was fatally shot during an early morning traffic stop on Weaver Street on Oct. 4, 1956. The suspect, Nils Tvedt, was killed the next night in a bowling alley by a Larchmont police officer who responded to a tip that he was there.

Meaney said Wednesday’s ceremony was important not just because it marks a milestone anniversary but because of Harrison's service to the community.

"I want it to be a reminder to all police officers, in Scarsdale and around the country, that danger exists even in small towns at any time," he said. "Our police department is family. And the Harrisons were a family of police officers who had a sense of duty."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Scarsdale memorializes Sgt. John J. Harrison, murdered 100 years ago