A suspicious accident and a stolen Chrysler

Chapter I


10:15 p.m. Sunday, April 15, 1928

It had been, for the most part, an uneventful Sunday shift behind the desk for Aurora Police Sgt. Clinton Dickerson.

Dickerson had missed the night's only excitement — if you could call it that — while he was eating dinner. When he returned from his meal, Patrol Officer Thompson Richardson filled him on the highlights:

Early in the evening, Bill Robinson, the former East Aurora wrestling coach, had an accident with the two kids who fled the scene. Richardson told Dickerson how he had hardly finished taking the report, when Mr. C.A. Howell came in to report that the Chrysler Roadster he had borrowed from a friend had been stolen from in front of his house on Iowa Avenue.

Richardson and Dickerson figured the two incidents might be connected, so Dickerson dispatched Richardson and patrolman Harry Montgomery to look for these kids.

It would probably turn out to be nothing more than pranks, but it was keeping Dickerson edgy.

For instance, a few minutes ago, he could swear he heard three gunshots coming from downtown.

But when he looked outside, everything appeared to be normal.

People were going about their business—shopping and eating in downtown Aurora. No one seemed to have heard these phantom gun shots.

Dickerson went back to his desk work.

But then a few minutes later, patrol officer Richardson staggered through the police station doors. He was crouched over holding his stomach with one hand.

He was using his hand to stick his gun in the back of a teenager.

Both Richardson and the teen were bleeding; their faces were deathly white.

"This punk got me," Richardson growled.

Richardson swayed. Then both he and the long-faced teen collapsed in the lobby, Richardson's night stick clacking on the floor.

Chapter II


8 p.m. Sunday, April 15, 1928

Delmar Miller and Francis Houston were hardly criminal masterminds. Although they were barely old enough to drive, they were already on their way to substantial juvenile records.

Miller, 17, was lanky and his hair bounced up in a cowlick that seemed to accentuate his generally overwhelmed and blank expression. Miller was born in downstate Bloomington, but he became familiar with the Fox Valley after he served a term at the St. Charles School for Boys for stealing a Ford with a friend, 19-year-old Francis Houston.

Houston, who worked with his father as an apprentice for a mechanic on the railroad, was also sent to the St. Charles School.

Miller bloomed in St. Charles, starring on the school's basketball team and even serving as an aide for the teachers.

But when he returned to Bloomington, the boys returned to their old ways.

For reasons lost to history, in mid-April they decided to grab a gun, steal a Nash Coupe and head north.

Around 8 p.m. while passing through Aurora, the Coupe got a flat and the boys — with apparently no other useful knowledge of cars — decided to steal a replacement. They spotted a Chrysler roadster parked at 123 Iowa Avenue, the home of C.A. Howell.

It was an easy steal.

But while fleeing the scene, the boys hit William Robinson's vehicle and cracked the bumper. Robinson had coached wrestling at East Aurora High School, so as soon as he got out of his car, he pegged these kids as troublemakers. Seeing the age of the kids and the fancy car they were driving, he suspected they might have stolen the car.

Robinson told the boys, under the guise of reporting the damage to the bumper, he would need to talk to police. He asked them to follow him to the station downtown.

The boys followed him to city limits, then took off on a side street.

But Robinson continued on to police headquarters, figuring he should tell the police about these boys.

When Robinson got to the station, he spoke to the officer who was filling in for another patrolman during his lunch break: Thompson Richardson.

Tomorrow: Officer Thompson Richardson fights for his life on the streets of downtown Aurora.

Notes about this series: The information in this story was gathered from the original Beacon News story about the shooting.