Officer Harry A Chesmore

End of Watch : January 5, 1911

OFFICER HARRY A. CHESMORE
Duluth PD
Died January 6, 1911

On January 6 at 6:00 a.m., Officer Harry A. Chesmore was taking two robbery suspects down to headquarters on a Garfield Avenue streetcar. The suspects had held up the night clerk at the McKay Hotel at 3:15 a.m. They had worn handkerchiefs over their faces and drew revolvers as they ordered the night clerk and another man to hold up their hands. The night clerk recognized them and laughed, thinking it was a joke until one of them said, "We mean business" and fired one shot through a wall. The suspects then took the clerk and the other man into the dining room where they tied them to posts. Another man staying in the hotel found the men and released them.

Chesmore had found the suspects heading for the Interstate Bridge at Garfield Avenue making their way to Superior. He placed them under arrest and transported them back to Duluth on the early train from Superior. He placed himself and the suspects on the rear platform. It is believed that he didn't search them. According the Duluth Herald, "He had never before had occasion to make an arrest of this kind and the thought probably never entered his mind, despite the fact that he had been told that they had previously robbed the McKay at the point of revolvers."

While on the way to the station, one suspect, Charles Melodrowski, 16, pulled a gun and fired five shots at the officer who was seated directly opposite the two suspects in the car. Chesmore was shot twice, once in his right chest, puncturing his lung. The second shot went straight into the top of his head. Chesmore was taken to St. Mary's where he died an hour later. The youths made their escape but were found later that night at the Cloquet Lumber Company's camp about 22 miles from the city.

The suspects, Melodrowski and Algot Johnson, 16, were both found guilty of Chesmore's murder. Melodrowski was sentenced to life in prison, but died in Stillwater from tuberculosis. Johnson was sentenced to 30 years, but was released from Stillwater because of his tuberculosis. He died at his home in 1913.

Officer Chesmore became the first Duluth police officer to be killed in the line of duty. He was 25 years old and was not married.

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

John Peterson

Joseph Ollinger