October 11, 1925: Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan becomes the 1rst FBI Agent killed in the line of duty. He was 32 years old.
He was born in 1893 in Chicago, and joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1920. On October 11, 1925, he and the team he was working with received word from underworld sources that Martin J. Durkin, a car thief who had previously wounded 4 police officers to avoid capture in Chicago, was planning to hide a stolen automobile in a certain Chicago garage.
Born in 1901 in Ireland, Durkin was investigated for violation of the Dyer Act, a law that made transporting stolen cars across State borders a federal crime, to be prosecuted by federal law enforcement. Hence, it fell under the jurisdiction of the FBI.
Shanahan and officers of the Chicago Police Department proceeded to that garage to wait for Durkin to appear. When Durkin drove the stolen car into the garage, Shanahan, who was alone at the time, attempted to arrest him. However, Durkin swept a revolver from the front seat of the car, and shot the Agent in the chest. Shanahan returned fire, but Durkin escaped as his victim collapsed. Death was almost instantaneous.
J. Edgar Hoover, then 31 years old, had been Director of the FBI for a little under a year and a half at that point, and with the 1st federal agent to be murdered, from any agency, happening to one from his agency, he took it personally. He launched a nationwide manhunt for Durkin, saying, "We've got to get Durkin. If one man from the Bureau is killed, and the killer is permitted to get away, our agents will never be safe. We can't let him get away with it."
It lasted 3 months through 5 States, before Durkin was captured at a train station outside St. Louis on January 20, 1926. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder, and received an additional 15 years on stolen motor vehicle charges.
Because the murder of a federal agent was not yet a federal crime, he served in State prison for it, for 20 years. Parole on the State charges meant that the federal government then took custody of him on the federal car theft charge, and he served an addition 9 years, being released in 1954. He died in 1981, outliving his victim by 55 years, and Hoover by 9 years.
As of October 11, 2022, 98 FBI employees have died in the line of duty, 62 of them by murder, 1 of them in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and another 11 from long-term illnesses that have been ascribed to those attacks.
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October 11, 1925 was a Sunday. Writer Elmore Leonard was born.
Game 4 of the World Series was played at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Washington Senators beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0, with Walter Johnson pitching a shutout. The Senators were up 3 games to 1, but the Pirates won the next 3 games to take the Series.
And these 9 games were played in the NFL:
* The New York Giants, a 1st-year team, played their 1st game against another NFL team, losing to the Providence Steam Roller (no S on the end), 14-0 at the Cycledrome in Providence, Rhode Island.
* The Pottsville Maroons beat the Canton Bulldogs, 28-0 at Minersville Park in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
* The Buffalo Bisons and the Akron Pros played to a tie, 0-0 at Bison Stadium, later Offermann Stadium, in Buffalo.
* The Cleveland Bulldogs beat the Kansas City Cowboys, 16-13 at League Park in Cleveland.
* The Detroit Panthers beat the Frankford Yellow Jackets, 3-0 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cardinals beat the Columbus Tigers, 19-9 at Normal Park in Chicago.
* The Chicago Bears beat the Hammond Pros, 28-7 at Cubs Park (renamed Wrigley Field the next year) in Chicago.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Milwaukee Badgers, 31-0 at Green Bay City Stadium.
* And the Rock Island Independents beat the Duluth Kelleys, 12-0 at Athletic Park, the minor-league baseball park in Duluth, Minnesota.
