Patrolman William Kohrt

End of Watch : September 8, 1921

OFFICER WILLIAM KOHRT
Hibbing PD
Died September 8, 1921

At 4:30 p.m. Thursday, September 8th , Chief Daniel Hayes, Detective Eugene Cassidy and Officer William Kohrt went to the Jack Webb home in Nelson to arrest Webb for assaulting his 13-year-old daughter, Alice. Hayes entered the house and the other officers stayed in the car. As Chief Hayes went into the bedroom, Webb fired at him, striking him in the heart. Hayes staggered and yelled for help before collapsing on the kitchen floor and Officers Cassidy and Kohrt went to assist. As Cassidy reached the kitchen door, Webb shot Cassidy twice, once in the hip and once in the back. The officers then ran across the road and Webb fired again, hitting Cassidy, then Kohrt as he ran toward a field.

Webb then took two boxes of shells and the 30.30 rifle he had shot the officers with. As he left, he stepped over Chief Hayes' body and told his son, Walter, he would kill anyone who followed him.

Doctor F. W. Bullen happened to be driving by and stopped to help. Cassidy was dead and Kohrt was transported to Adams Hospital where he died at 9:05 p.m. that night.

Ironically, Chief Hayes and Webb had been friends. Hayes was in Webb's wedding and had helped him financially.

A $1,400 reward was offered for the capture of Webb. Hundreds of men aided in the search, including Webb's son, Edward, 20, who came from Minneapolis. He had left home to escape the abuse from his father. Webb's daughter, Ida, 19, feared her father and had asked the police for protection. Their mother had died three years earlier bearing her eighth child. Several weeks prior to the incident Ida had tried to take her 13-year-old sister, Alice, from the home after she learned her father had committed "an indecent assault" on her. A month before, Webb had tried to interfere at a house fire and after firemen literally threw him out; he had returned with a gun to shoot the fire chief. He also had mentioned shooting Judge Thomas Brady and Game Warden George Wood.

On September 14, at 7:45 a.m., Officers Alex Munter, M.E. Cupples, E. Johnson, W. Lindberg, and Tom Moore came upon a shack two miles east of Kittsville. As they were approaching the shack, they heard a shot. The surrounded the shack, then went inside where they found Webb's body sitting against a wall with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

Officers found notes literally all over the shack. On the windows were notes from Webb inviting the officers to come in to find him dead. One note to "whoever found him," said, "I hope Judge Brady gets his soon." Another said, "I'd like to shoot George Wood, but he's too much of a sneak. Maybe some of my friends will get him yet." Yet another said, "I shot Hayes. He and three others, seven or eight years ago beat me up. Thomas Killoran knows all about it. I have been arrested and my house searched for nothing. It has cost me money for nothing. I would like to get a shot at old Judge Brady, the cur. What right has a man to go into your house without a warrant. I hope this shooting will learn the officers of Hibbing not to go into a house without a warrant with them. Gene Cassidy has been at my poor kids, gone through their pockets on the street. I suppose I did not have trouble enough without people making trouble for me. Cort, (referring to William Kohrt) was not good to the people. He was after easy money. I hope it will learn officers of the U.S.A. to have papers before going to a man's house." He continued, "I am not sorry for what I shot those three suckers."

For his children, he wrote, "May God send my girl Ida May back home. Take care of babies…and church and school, goodbye, be good to children. Stick to one another. I mean to help you. Ida May, I had a hot time for fifteen years. I done things what wasn't…….but had to do it to get along….please forgive me. I know I do wrong. Tell Leonard and……be good to you they can see where drink sent me, so goodbye. God bless you all. Your father."

The officers strapped his body to the running board of their vehicle and drove into town. Then officers collected the $1,400 for finding him dead or alive.

The family would not claim Webb's body and he was buried by the county. The oldest son, Edward, took over as head of the family.

Chief Hayes became an officer in Hibbing in 1912 and was a sergeant from 1915-1920. He was acting chief, and then made chief in 1920. H was 37 years old and left behind a wife and two children, a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old son.

Officer Cassidy joined the department as a truant officer in 1917. He was survived by his wife and a son.

Chief Hayes' and Officer Cassidy's' funerals were held Monday morning, September 12th at the Church of Blessed Sacrament and burial was in Maple Hill Cemetery. Officer Kohrt's funeral was held at Grace Lutheran Church and burial was in the Hibbing Cemetery. The widows received 60 percent of the officers' salary for 500 weeks, not to exceed $7,500.

Sourced from: The book "We Will Remember"
With permission from Lisa Lovering, Author and Board of Director
MN Law Enforcement Memorial Association
L.E.M.A. 2009

Frank S Hallett

John T Foley