YUBA  COUNTY

Crimes & Criminals

(pre 1924)

JOHN SPERBECK

            In the period between September 6, 1915, and February 6, 1922, Marysville lost three policemen at the hands of assassins.  Police Officer John Sperbeck was the first to receive a fatal bullet wound.  About four o’clock on the afternoon of September 6, 1915, while Sperbeck was on duty at the police station, word came that a Chinese store on C Street, between First and Second, had just been held up by a youthful-looking bandit, and the contents of the till taken.  Sperbeck at once responded, and with Chief of Police C. A. Smith traced the robber to a lumber-yard near the corner of Fourth and C Streets and found him hiding behind a pile of lumber, where he was changing his outer clothing for some he had previously placed there. He flashed a gun on Smith, at the same time taking refuge behind another stack of lumber.  Smith shouted to Sperbeck to beware of the man, and the next moment a shot rang out.  The robber had espied Sperbeck taking aim at him from another portion of the yard, while crouched behind some timbers.  The robber’s aim was true, the shot striking Sperbeck in the back of the head and inflicting a fatal wound from which he died about seven o’clock that evening, in a hospital to which citizens had hurried him.  He never regained consciousness.

            The murderer proved to be Kosta Kromphold, alias John W. McLarney, a New York lad, only eighteen years of age.  He was caught in the Yuba River bottom east of the city while trying to escape a horde of citizens who took up the trail from the lumber-yard.  The jury that tried him returned a verdict of murder in the first degree, and he was hanged at Folsom prison.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles

JAMES MOCK

            Policeman James Mock was shot at a spot in the jungles, a short distance from the Western Pacific passenger depot on K Street, on May 7, 1918, while in the discharge of his duties.  His murderer was a colored man named William Shortridge, who was traced to the spot after he had attempted an early morning robbery at the Dawson House, a hostelry of pioneer days which was wrecked in the year 1922 to make way for the service station now located at Second and E Streets.  Mock died a few days after he was shot.

            Mock was in the act of placing his handcuffs on Shortridge when the negro wretched the officer’s pistol from him and fired.  He escaped, but was found by citizens in the afternoon of the same day hiding in a grain-field south of the city.  He, too, was convicted and hanged.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles

FRANCIS M. HEENAN

            About 9:30 o’clock in the evening of February 6, 1922, Police Officer  Francis M. Heenan had his attention attracted, as he was walking along C Street, between First and Second, to a pistol shot fired in the Canteen Saloon at the northwest corner of Second and C Streets.  Hastening, with a citizen, to the swinging doors of the place, Heenan observed that a hold-up was being enacted.  Bolting through the doors, without seeming to realize the seriousness of the situation, he came face to face with the robber.  In a flash the man fired a shot into the officer’s breast, killing him almost instantly.  The murderer lost no time.  He was seen to hasten along the north side of Second Street to Elm, where he changed his course up that narrow street; and although citizens at once took up the trail, he covered his tracks completely.  Many explanations have been made as to how he got away, but none has been accepted as the correct one.

            Joe “Silver” Kelly, alias Con Connelly, is wanted for this crime.  There is a reward of $800 on his head, $300 of which was offered immediately by the owner of the Canteen Saloon, and the remainder by the city council.  The fact that Kelly was in Marysville on the day preceding the night of the murder, and could not be found after the shooting, convinced Chief of Police C. A. Smith and Sheriff McCoy that he was the murderer of Heenan.  Circulars have been sent to all parts of the world giving Kelly’s description, and heralding the reward, but so far to no avail.

            In the early days, an officer named “Butch” Dobler was killed by a Mexican near the spot where Officer Heenan was murdered.  In this instance, also, the murderer made a successful get-away.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles

BACK TO CRIMES & CRIMINALS PAGE

Copyright ©2003, 2004, 2005  Kathy Sedler   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor. The contributor has given permission to the Yuba Roots website to store the file permanently for free access, but retain the rights to their work.