Eagle Scout project creates memorial to lawmen lost in Union Station Massacre 78 years ago

Seventy-eight years ago today, two Kansas City Police officers, an FBI agent and the chief of an Oklahoma police department were killed in a hail of gunfire in the Union Station Massacre. We took the time to honor them today thanks to the work of an Eagle Scout.

On June 17, 1933, police were transporting federal prisoner Frank Nash from Oklahoma to the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., when several of his mobster friends (Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Vernon Miller and Adam Richetti) attempted to free him as he got off the train at Downtown's Union Station. KCPD Detectives William Grooms and Frank Hermanson, FBI Agent Raymond Caffrey and McAlester, Okla., Police Chief Otto Reed died as the mobsters sprayed them with bullets. FBI Agent F. Joseph Lackey was injured but survived. Prisoner Frank Nash ended up dying in the massacre, as well. Another little-known victim, KCPD Officer Grant Schroder, was killed the following year by an officer who came upon the carnage of the Union Station Massacre, became mentally unstable with survivor's guilt and killed Officer Schroder. The FBI has a great description of Union Station Massacre on its site, including what led up to it and how the perpetrators were captured.

In the rain this morning, at the Trail of Heroes on the campus of the Kansas City Regional Police Academy and Shoal Creek Patrol Division, we dedicated a monument in honor of the lawmen who were killed in this horrid event. The monument was the Eagle Scout project of J.J. Duer of Boy Scout Troup 180, son of KCPD Officer Jeff Duer. They have been working on it for months, and it's breath-taking. It permanently will memorialize those who lost their lives in this event that changed law enforcement forever. As an Eagle Scout myself, I couldn't be more proud and humbled.

Today's dedication featured a couple special guests. One was Patrick Caffrey, grandson of FBI Agent Raymond Caffrey, who was killed in the Massacre. Caffrey's father was just six years old when he lost his dad in the barrage of bullets. FBI Agent Mike Oiler also joined us today. Another guest was actually present at the Massacre in 1933, but it's not a person. It's a Thompson sub-machine gun (Tommy gun) owned and used by KCPD officers during the Union Station Massacre. We still have three of those Tommy guns used by police that day in storage.

Check out some pictures from today's dedication below, and be sure to check out this amazing new monument, located about 500 feet from the trailhead on the Trail of Heroes.

Soon-to-be Eagle Scout J.J. Duer and his dad, Officer Jeff Duer

The Tommy gun Kansas City Police used at the Union Station Massacre, presented by KCPD Firearms Instructor Dave Andress.

FBI Special Agent Mike Oiler accepting a copy of a letter former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote to surviving FBI Agent F. Joseph Lackey three days after the Union Station Massacre.

Unveiling the memorial.

Many local businesses and individuals donated their time and supplies to assist with the memorial's creation.

J.J. Duer with Patrick Caffrey, grandson of Raymond Caffrey, the FBI agent killed in the Union Station Massacre.

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Tactical teams give Trail of Heroes a facelift

Because of the demanding nature of their work, our tactical team officers must stay in peak physical condition. They spend many hours a week undergoing physical training, but they engaged in a pretty novel way of working out last Thursday: spreading mulch.

I hope you’ve had the chance to visit the Trail of Heroes on the campus of the Kansas City Regional Police Academy. It’s a 1.5-mile mulch trail that runs through woods, by a pond and other beautiful scenery near 6885 N.E. Pleasant Valley Road. Benches along the trail commemorate fallen officers, and it’s open for everyone to come use. Unfortunately, significant rains in the last few months had caused bad erosion on the trail, and more mulch was needed to keep the walking path accessible. That’s where our tactical teams came in. They used their normal physical training time to help spread 300 cubic yards of mulch – enough to fill three 18-wheelers’ trailers. Working with Capital Improvements officers who designed the trail, the tac teams spread all this mulch in eight hours. They even added another leg to the trail that runs by a second pond. Everyone agreed it was a pretty good workout.

The tac teams weren’t the only ones working on the trail in the past few days. Two Boy Scouts are doing their Eagle Scout projects there – one is setting up a picnic area, and another is building a memorial to officers who died in the 1933 Union Station Massacre. Another group of Scouts will be camping along the trail soon.

The Trail of Heroes is now in tip-top shape and ready for you and your family to stop by and take advantage of.

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Donate a Scout uniform, help build future leaders

I have mentioned before that I am a proud Eagle Scout and now have the privilege to serve as vice president of Urban Scouting on the Boy Scouts of America's Heart of America Council. I believe Boy Scouts provides a solid leadership training program, and I'd like it to be available to as many boys in Kansas City as possible, especially in the urban core. Our Urban Scouting commitee - and a cadre of KCPD officers who were or are involved in Boy Scouts - is working hard to reach these young men.

Unfortunately, many children who could really benefit from Scouting lack the most basic piece of equipment to get started: a uniform. The economic downturn has put a strain on families who would normally be able to afford these basic Scouting items for their sons. That's why we're collecting new or gently used Boy and Cub Scout uniforms at each of our six patrol division stations. New uniforms are available for purchase at the Scout Shop at 103rd and Holmes or Brant's on the Square in Liberty, Mo. Or if your Scout has simply outgrown his uniform but it's still in good shape, we'd love to have that, too.

If you can donate a uniform, you can start the journey of leadership and development for a Scout. Thanks so much for your support.

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Building up Boy Scouts in the urban core

There's a story in this edition of our department's Informant newsletter about the work I and some other officers have been doing off the clock to promote Scouting in the inner city. I really believe this is a great program that could benefit untold young people, so I wanted to share the newsletter article:

Before there was an Ike jacket with four arm bands, there was a sash full of merit badges.

Police Chief James Corwin became a Cub Scout in the 1960s, and now as an executive-level leader in the area’s Boy Scouts of America council, he’s trying to get more urban-core boys involved in scouting. He’s an executive director for the Boy Scouts of America’s Heart of America Council as chair of the Urban Scouting Committee.

“It’s a proven program with a solid values system,” said Chief Corwin, himself an Eagle Scout.

Chief Corwin said many children could benefit from the leadership skills taught in Boy Scouts. Which is why he wants to expand the program in a place that tends to be under-served: the inner city. To do so, he wanted to do a brainstorming session with former urban Scouts and current urban Scout troop leaders. Luckily, he knew just where to look.

“KCPD has many, many people who have been involved in troops in the urban core, both as children and as adult leaders,” Chief Corwin said.


He called them all together on meetings March 24 and 25 to discuss what urban scouting programs are getting right and where they need to improve. Twenty officers and commanders showed up to these meetings and came up with a variety of ideas. First, they identified the barriers that prevent inner-city kids from participating in Scouts – things like transportation, a lack of volunteers, and little funds for things like uniforms and camping trips.


“We also discussed that the traditional Monday night Scout meeting may not work for people like single moms,” Chief Corwin said. “A lot of problems all scout programs have are exaggerated in the urban core.”

The Boy Scouts’ Scoutreach program provides after-school activities and meetings for Cub Scouts, and Chief Corwin said that’s a model Kansas City’s urban troops could convert to.

He said he’s also concerned about what will happen when the Kansas City Missouri School District moves forward with closing nearly half its schools this year, several of which sponsor Boy Scout troops. One possible solution he and the group of scouting cops came up with: have KCPD patrol stations sponsor those troops instead. The stations could provide meeting space, and the officers could provide volunteers. The group also is looking at recruiting retirees and community members to volunteer. He said a partnership involving a large number of Leawood, Kan.-based Eagle Scouts coming to mentor and assist troops in the inner city also is showing signs of success.

Another program Chief Corwin hopes will reinvigorate urban scouting is the Explorers program. Sponsored by Boy Scouts, Explorers offers teenagers a chance to get police training and volunteer alongside officers. KCPD used to have an Explorers program, and Chief Corwin said efforts are underway to resurrect it.

Chief Corwin plans to take the Police Department’s ideas to the Urban Scouting Committee next month, followed by a full presentation to the Heart of America Council.

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