The Murder of Tom Coughlin (1930)
In this article, published March 10, 1930, on the paper’s front page and continued on page 2, the Chicago Tribune reports on the murder of a warehouse security guard named Thomas Coughlin. The perpetrators appeared to be searching for something, possibly files related to an ongoing investigation into the payroll supervised by Richard W. Wolfe (1866–1951), the city’s commissioner of public works.
Slaying Linked to Pay Roll Quiz
GUNMEN KILL IN RAID TO GET CITY RECORDS
Books Also Sought by Prosecutor.
(Pictures on back page.)
Last Thursday two assistant state’s attorneys applied to Chief Justice D. J. Normoyle of the Criminal court for the pay roll and time sheet records of the city’s department of public works, headed by Commissioner Richard W. Wolfe. It was announced that State’s Attorney Swanson was about to resume his investigation of city hall pay rolls, department by department, in a search for evidence of graft and pay roll padding.
Early yesterday morning Thomas Coughlin, 62 years old, 2133 Grenshaw street, a night watchman, was shot and fatally wounded while protecting some of the records sought by the state’s attorney against a hoodlum raid. Two gunmen entered a garage at 1309 West Harrison street, where the records were stored, and demanded the papers at pistol point, shot the watchman where they thought he was about to frustrate their plans. Coughlin died yesterday afternoon at the Mother Cabrini hospital.
Links Murder and Inquiry.
Last night Assistant State’s Attorney Harold M. Keele said he believed he had established a link between the murder of Coughlin and the pay roll investigation launched by the state’s attorney office. Three detectives were placed on guard at the garage after a second mysterious effort to obtain possession of the records had been made following the shooting of Coughlin. The detectives were ordered to let no one have the documents. The garage where the shooting occurred is listed under the name of Charles E. Patterson, 5305 Quincy street, whose name has often appeared in city hall voucher lists as a renter of trucks to the city. Patterson’s garage had been leased to the city and fifteen trucks used by the city were kept there, it was learned.
Prosecutor Starts Inquiry.
When Assistant State’s Attorney Keele was notified of the shooting of Coughlin and of the subsequent effort to get possession of the records he started an investigation that led to the placing of the guard at the garage and an inspection of the records. Last night Keele recalled the events that had preceded the murder.
“We first attempted to get the records of the public works department last Thursday, when we went into Judge Normoyle’s court for a subpoena duces tecum,” the prosecutor said. “Assistant Corporation Counsel James W. Breen, representing the city, and Commissioner Wolfe promised to produce the records. Mr. Breen said no subpoena of any kind was necessary.
Tells of Breen’s Promise.
“‘If the state’s attorney office wants to see the records,’ Mr. Breen assured the court, ‘we will be glad to produce them and show them to the prosecutors.’
“Judge Normoyle then continued our request for the subpoena until next Tuesday, and we left it that way, taking Mr. Breen at his word. That afternoon we went to the city hall to get the records. They stalled us off; everybody was ‘out’ all the time. In the end we failed to get the papers we wanted.
The two men, armed with pistols, walked into the garage and pushed their guns into Coughlin’s ribs. This is the story as he told it before he died …
Hear About Garage Records.
“On Saturday we discovered that certain valuable records were stored in the garage on West Harrison street. We planned then to obtain them on Monday. The gangsters who killed Coughlin tried to beat us to it.
“The two men, armed with pistols, walked into the garage and pushed their guns into Coughlin’s ribs. This is the story as he told it before he died:
“They said, ‘Stick ‘em up!’ But they immediately added that it was no ordinary stickup. ‘We’re not after money,’ they said to Coughlin, ‘we’re after records.’ Then one menaced Coughlin with his revolver while the other attacked a desk with a crowbar.
“They must have had the impression the records were in the desk. As a matter of fact they were in a safe and a filing cabinet in the garage and still are. About the time they got the safe open there was a honking of au-
(Continued on page 2, column 4.)
Link Slaying to City Hall Pay Roll Quiz
Gunmen Kill in Raid to Get Records.
(continued from first page.)
tomobile horns outside. Coughlin got up and tried to open the door. The hoodlums shot him and ran out.”
Coughlin was taken to the Mother Cabrini hospital and soon afterward Sergt. Edward Balata was placed on guard at the garage at the request of the state’s attorney office. In the afternoon a city policeman, who did not give his name and has not been identified, entered the place and demanded the records in the name of Commissioner of Public Works Wolfe, Prosecutor Keele said.
Keele said that Patterson told him that a. man named “Burn,” known to Patterson only as “Wolfe’s man,” had been trying to get in touch with Patterson throughout the day, but that they had not met or held any conversation.
When Sergt. Balata refused to permit the removal of the papers the policeman telephoned to a person who he said was Commissioner Wolfe and reported the failure of his mission. Balata told Mr. Keele. Balata said the unidentified policeman, also called Patterson, but a woman answered the phone and he failed to reach Patterson. The policeman also called up and talked with a man named Sullivan, whom he described as the chief clerk in Commissioner Wolfe’s office, Keele was told.
Starts Inspection of Records.
Last night the prosecutor found Patterson and they went to the garage. Keele said that Patterson told him that a. man named “Burn,” known to Patterson only as “Wolfe’s man,” had been trying to get in touch with Patterson throughout the day, but that they had not met or held any conversation.
At the request of Keele, Patterson opened the safe which Coughlin’s slayers had nearly succeeded in looting and began looking through the records that caused the watchman’s death. The prosecutor said he found several canceled checks which had been issued to Patterson by the city and records showing that Patterson had been drawing about $4,000 a month from the city up to Dec. 1.
Filing Cabinet Is Unopened.
After inspecting the documents and books that were in the safe, Keele turned to the locked filing cabinet which stood in the garage office and which he said he understood contained Patterson’s personal records. Patterson explained that he did not have the key to the cabinet with him, Keele said, and the prosecutor indicated that he would go over the documents there this morning after the cabinet is unlocked.
Keele said Patterson’s records showed that he has been represented in legal matters by Attorneys George E. Gorman and Joseph P. Savage.
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