“I’m still here…and
yet I’m gone,” is a line from a song that
Glen Campbell
recorded as his last
song. He is slipping away with Alzheimer’s
and the song haunts me a bit. I am here in Peoria America
Back in 1912 we had a gang
here in town called The Cedar Street Gang that had a reputation as a street
gang and they tried hard to live up to the reputation the local newspapers
tagged them with. The truth is that they
were just a bunch of thugs that made a living stealing, robbing and breaking
into buildings and businesses mostly along the river. The Cedar Street Bridge just happened to be
the place a few of them hung out along with the homeless men we called bums
back when I was a kid.
Now the policeman of 1912
was a street smart man that was very much aware of these bums and gang members
but he pretty much left them alone. They
were allowed to do their drinking and noise making down there but the moment
the officer saw them up around the shopping area, he immediately reported their
presence and kept a sharp eye on them along with every other cop on duty. Our
cops in those days were called Rounders because they were really foot patrol
officers and they knew everyone on their beat, and frankly they were very rough
individuals.
The phrase ‘Round up the
usual suspects,’ was coined way back then and when something in the way of an
assault or robbery occurred almost the entire police department went down along
the river and under the bridge in force rounding up everyone they could put
their hands on. They were taken to
magistrates and somehow they managed to sort the human mess out and usually
‘Got their man.’
On September 23, 1912, was
just a prime example of how the peace could be disturbed without a moments
warning, and that is when the local newspapers got into the act. Patrolmen Trager,
like the other officers on the Peoria Police Department was a local man who
knew the area in which he worked like the back of his hand. He often called the gang members by their
first names, and had a lot of conversations with them. He knew who the leaders were so when one of
them approached him he was courteous but cautious. Suddenly from his left he saw movement and
was just able to get out of the way as a man with a wooden club in his hand
swung at him. He quickly struck the man in the head with his night stick
putting him out of action. The other man attacked the officer with a blackjack
and brass knuckles. The battle was
vicious but Trager soon had his man in a ‘come-along’ which was a version of
today’s handcuffs. A third man lay
unconscious on the roadway and by now Trager had his weapon out firing in the
direction of two other men. Witnesses
stated they heard the two men yelling at the officer not to shoot. They were identified and later rounded up
under the Cedar Street Bridge
A SAD STORY
On August 30, 1881 a
ten-year old boy named Willie Tandrell, a kid the neighbors called ‘Little
Willie,’ was found unconscious, bloody and tied to the T.B.&W railroad tracks. A doctor was
called to Willie’s home to treat the little boy. The injured lad told his
parents and the police that a “Rough looking man had tied me to the railroad
tracks because I told him I had no money.” Willie wiggled and squirmed until he
was off the tracks but when the train came by the cow catcher on the front of
the engine hit him breaking three ribs and causing internal bleeding. Sadly in
three days little Willie was dead. A local newspaper said it was the most
brutal crime ever reported in Peoria ,
Illinois
Editor’s Note: Norm is a Peoria norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net
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