Steven S Kent & Lester Quigley Memorial - Yreka, CA
N 41° 43.908 W 122° 38.240
10T E 530161 N 4620063
This police memorial resides on the west side of a building on the corner of W. Miner and 4th Streets in downtown Yreka, CA.
Waymark Code: WMH3X4
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/17/2013
Views: 3
Hanging inconspicuously on the side of an empty building on the corner of W. Miner and 4th Streets is a dark, bronze plaque that reads:
DEDICATED BY THE
CALIFORNIA
HIGHWAY PATROL
IN MEMORY OF
STEVEN S. KENT
LESTER QUIGLEY
KILLED
IN THE LINE OF DUTY
March 10, 1933 |
I was very curious as to the story behind these killings and located a headline mentioning this incident from the NY Times newspaper and reads:
COAST SLAYING LINK IN BOETTCHER CASE; Suspect Caught at Yreka, Cal., After Killing Two in Gun Fight. HAD KIDNAPPED OFFICER
Washington State Guard Left Tied to Tree -- Denver Police Say Description Fits Fugitive.
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES - March 11, 1933,
Section LOST AND FOUND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, Page 28
YREKA, Cal., March 10. -- State Traffic Officer Steve Kent and Lester Quigley, a garage mechanic, were shot and killed here tonight by George Manning, suspected kidnapper of E.C. Ballinger, border customs guard, and believed involved in the recent abduction of Charles Boettcher 2d, wealthy Denver broker.
I also located another story about this incident from Jefferson Public Radio and reads:
On March 10, 1933, robbery suspect George Manning Hall of Seattle fled south with a federal officer as a hostage (E.C. Ballinger). California Patrol Officer Stephen Kent and Deputy Sheriff Les Quigley looked for the vehicle on Highway 99, north of Yreka. Hall left the highway on Center Street in Yreka with Kent, Quigley, and Deputy Sheriff Calkins in pursuit. Unfortunately, Hall shot and killed Kent and Quigley before Sheriff Calkins took Hall into custody.
I'm almost positive this plaque memorializing these two men killed is at (or very close to) the site where the shootings occurred since Center Street is just south of here. The NY Times mentions George Hall as being connected to a very famous kidnapping of the grandson (Charles Boettcher II) of a very wealthy Denver businessman, Charles Boettcher. This kidnapping happened a year after the Lindburgh baby kidnapping and at a time when bank robberies and kidnappings were becoming an increasingly more popular method of getting quick cash and fleeing quickly with the advent of auto transportation. George Hall had just robbed a bank in Washington and had taken Ballinger hostage while he was performing a customs inspection at the Washington border and drove him south through Oregon and left Ballinger tied up to a tree just south of the Oregon/California border. After the murders of the two officers, George Hall was convicted and sentenced to death but a year after the crime, locals from Yreka were becoming increasingly distraught with the courts and legal system which had yet to execute Hall for his crimes. A year later, in 1935, two men in nearby Shasta County had robbed a bar and ended up in a shootout with officers, killing one. One of the robbers was caught, the other escaped. Yreka locals utilized the 'Lynch Law' and wearing masks, broke into the Yreka jail, grabbing the convict and dragging him to a tall pine tree south of town and hanging him for his crime. The incident received major news across the state of California. I located an article from the Eugene Register Guard about Yreka locals' frustration with the state courts' handling of the Hall case and second officer killing two years later here. I also located a website which lists George Hall as being executed on March 27, 1936 at the age of 29 and the 483rd inmate to be executed (by hanging) in California here
California Highway Patrol has a website dedicated to patrolmen killed on duty and Officer Kent's memorial page is located here.