The+1918+Crime+Spree

Original Author: Laura Letendre, ENG299 FL10 Revision Author:
 * The 1918 Crime Spree**

Although not quite as “before” the Quad Cities as some of the other reports listed here, the year 1918 saw one of the largest crime sprees in Quad Cities history. The subject originally came up in the March 5, 1955 installment of “Off the Beaten Path” by Fred Klann. In this article he questions if there had ever been as intense a crime wave as they were experiencing that year in the Quad Cities. The question was asked frequently and became “the subject of a number of barbershop and bar arguments” (Klann, 1955). The answer became a resounding “YES” when the year of 1918 became the argument. As Klann states in his article “on many nights there were up to four or five holdups on the streets of Moline and also safe crackings and burglaries…the climax of that fearful wave of crime came when the sheriff of rock Island County was killed in a gun battle with bandits on Coaltown road a short distance southeast of the city limits of Moline.”

What led up to this crime wave is almost as interesting as what happened. On Jan 20, 1920, prohibition was signed into law, however, in 1918 the United States had entered into World War I, and bars, saloons, and taverns anywhere within five miles of the Rock Island Arsenal were shut down. This occurred as the result of a federal ruling stating “that alcohol could not be served within five miles of a government war facility” (Mohr, 1999). Keep in mind that the quad Cities was nowhere near as large as it is today, and that five mile radius without liquor becomes pretty large. As a result of this ruling and Prohibition being passed it was estimated that by the 20’s almost every house had its own method of producing alcohol in many different forms. In addition to this there were the so-called “gallon houses” (allowed before Prohibition) that replaced any and all liquor establishments within the five mile area. A gallon house was a “wholesale liquor establishment” (Klann, 1955). These were created so that the five-mile law could be observed.

So, in 1918, with men being sent away to the war effort, and the Arsenal in need of workers, the solution was to release hundreds of criminals from the Joliet penitentiary and Pontiac reformatory to send to the Quad Cities to work on the Rock Island Arsenal. Now one couldn’t say that all of the crime that occurred in the area around this time was as a result of early-release criminals being sent to work here, but as Klann notes in his article “the major crimes were committed by paroled convicts- they were professionals, had ‘learned’ by experience before being sent to prison and probably learned more while in prison” (1955), but the largest problem was that crime became “contagious” (Klann, 1955), and became more the norm than the exception for many, not just the criminal element.

The crime wave breaks down in the following manner, with its culmination being the aforementioned murder of sheriff Jacob Wigers of Rock Island County. The first “big event” was a series of boxcar lootings perpetrated in East Moline and Barstow adding up to $30,000 before the thieves were arrested in an East Moline house. Oddly enough, the men stated that they had stolen all the merchandise in order to “open a store” (Klann, 1955). Almost all of this merchandise had been stolen from the Burlington railroad freight cars located in Barstow Yard.

In September there were over a dozen burglaries in Moline alone from personal residences as well as $400 in jewelry from the Jennisch store formerly located at 10th Street and 18th Avenue. The first attempt at armed robbery, however, occurred on October 6th, “but the intended victim, August Rydbeck fought the thug and took his gun from him” (Klann, 1955). Two days after this the next armed robbery occurred when the bank at Mineral was held up. October 5th saw the first safe cracking, pulled off at the office of Dimock, Gould & Co. in Moline, and the safe crackers (also known as “yeggs”, earliest use cited as 1903 (Merriam-Webster.com)) made off with $2000 in bonds. (This same safe was, unfortunately, cracked again in November, but only lost $200 cash.) A few days after this first safe cracking, yeggs again made off with $2000 in bonds, this time from the Barnard & Leas Mfg. Co. October 20th saw another armed robbery when a man named Wilbur Conrey was held up while walking home. An East Moline store was burglarized on October 24th and thieves made off with over $500 worth of clothing.

November saw its start with with a Bishop Hill bank safe being cracked and another $2000 in bonds being stolen. After this, there were six different holdups and over a dozen burglaries in Moline as well as a grocery store holdup in East Moline. The Midland Ice and Coal Company was cracked the same night as Dimock, Gould, and Co., but was empty, the interesting fact here being that the two businesses were only a few streets away (makes one wonder if the same yeggs, frustrated by one empty safe simply moved down the street to another!). November 29th had a crime of alcoholic proportions, when the railroad depot at Carbon Cliff was “relieved” of 350 cases of whisky or 8,500 quarts! November 30th brought an end to the month with a Rock Island pawnbroker being shot and critically wounded. The final criminal act resulted in a high-speed chase and the shooting death of sheriff Wigers.

**Works Cited** Klann, Fred. //Off the Beaten Path: Worst Crime Wave- Terror, Fear in City---Convicts, Yeggs, Gunmen-Bandits Kill Sheriff//. Unknown newspaper article retrieved from Rock Island County Historical Society Mohr, Lisa. (1999). Liquor brewing was popular in Quad City homes. //The Moline Dispatch//, online retrieved from []

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