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The hunt for the first person to kill the FBI agent

AmericaSuper-luxury car thief, Martin James Durkin became an enemy of the FBI when he was 25 years old when he shot and killed an agent. His net spread lasted 3 months, across 5 states.

On October 11, 1925, FBI agent Edwin C. Shanahan was ambushing Martin James Durkin, a 25-year-old professional car thief. According to a tip, Durkin was going to a garage in Chicago in a stolen car in New Mexico. Agent Shanahan went to the garage and waited for a day.

Just as the agent was about to leave, Durkin drove up and suddenly shot Shanahan, the bullet through his chest. Shanahan became the first FBI agent to be killed in the line of duty.

A few weeks later, in an ambush, another Chicago policeman was killed and Durkin escaped again. The response from the FBI was particularly harsh. They began to organize a large military deployment across the United States and a pursuit across five states. The campaign is directly run by a notoriously powerful figure – the first director of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover.

He called an aide to his office after hearing of Shanahan’s death and said, “we have to get Durkin. If a person from the Bureau is killed, and the killer wanders around, agents of We won’t be able to do anything with peace of mind.”





Edwin C. Shanahan, 42 years old, the first FBI agent to be killed in the line of duty.  Photo: Chicago Tribune

Edwin C. Shanahan, 42 years old, the first FBI agent to be killed in the line of duty. Photo: Chicago Tribune

The FBI began to investigate the whereabouts of the perpetrators and Durkin’s tricks as well. gradually exposed. Durkin had a long criminal record: shooting and wounding four police officers in Chicago and California. He is known as a reckless gunman who will shoot to kill even the smallest incident.

He pretends to be a car buyer and approaches dealers. He will pretend to buy a high-priced car, arrange for the car to be serviced and filled with gas, ready to be delivered to him. Durkin then promised to return the next day and pay cash for the car.

But that night, he broke into the dealership’s garage and drove the expensive car away. He would then change the engine, serial number, and all the assembly numbers through which the vehicle could be identified. Next, he would buy a fake license plate under a fake name and drive the car to another state, where he would dump it for a few thousand dollars.

The cars that he especially liked to steal were all super-luxury cars from Pierce Arrows, Cadillacs and Packards. The FBI then informed luxury car dealers across the country about the method Durkin used in these thefts.

Ten days before Durkin’s “netting”, a Cadillac dealer in San Diego, California, informed the FBI Los Angeles office that, the night before, a Cadillac Phaeton had been stolen from their showroom. . The trick was the same as the one Durkin used.

It was almost certain that the person who stole it was Martin Durkin, all roads leading from California to the border area were blocked by FBI troops. Interstate highways were covered by squads of shotguns day and night for nearly a week to no avail. The stolen Cadillac didn’t show up.

On Sunday, January 17, 1926, three days before the “netting”, the town of Pecos, Texas sheriff noticed a green Cadillac as described, parked on the street. He accused the young man of driving and asked him to identify him.

This is a person who talks very fluently and does not have the look of a gunman, a tough killer. He told police chief Fred Conley, who had just been appointed deputy sheriff of Los Angeles, California, and was on his way home to visit his wife.

The sheriff asked him to show proof of ownership of the Cadillac. The young man said those papers were in his luggage at the hotel. He promised to get it back and went to the town sheriff’s office to present it.

The Sheriff of Pecos carefully observed the Cadillac. He jotted down the engine number, license number, and other assembly numbers on the car, and especially noticed the red wooden wheel hubs.





One of the cars stolen by Durkin.  Photo: Chicago Tribune

One of the cars stolen by Durkin. Photo: Chicago Tribune

Searching the car, the police chief discovered the young man was carrying a pistol and 44 Winchester guns. The young man smiled, saying that it was too common for a county sheriff’s deputy to carry so many guns. Convinced, the sheriff of the town of Pecos finally sent him back to the hotel to find the car’s papers.

This young man is the car thief, Durkin. And of course, he didn’t go back to the hotel to get the car documents and then report, but hurriedly urged his mistress to pack up her luggage and jump into the stolen Cadillac, starting a new escape.

Being “eaten on the donkey”, the police chief Pecos wrote a letter to the FBI office in El Paso, Texas, recounting the incident. Through the physical description in this letter, the FBI El Paso office immediately recognized that it was Martin Durkin, the killer of Agent Shanahan.

The Cadillac passenger car stolen from the Los Angeles dealership has completely different parameters and colors than the car parked on Pecos street. But already knowing Durkin’s tricks, the FBI agents in El Paso knew they were on the right track, finding the right person. The FBI moved its forces to Texas, ambushed waiting for a Cadillac with red wheels, carrying a young man and woman.

On the afternoon of January 19, after a full-day search and ambush in this remote arid desert, the stolen car was found abandoned in a cactus grove about 70 kilometers from Fort Stockton, Texas. West. The right rear wheel is punctured. Police speculated it had a punctured tire on the run, but Durkin stubbornly continued to drive. As a result, the spokes on the rear wheel were broken.

A nearby rancher said he gave a young couple as described by police a hitchhiked ride from the area to the town of Girvin, Texas. There, the couple took a train to get closer to the Mexican border.

The local railroad ticket salesman immediately responded, that an unknown man and woman boarded the 12:12 train on January 18, bound for San Antonio, Texas. When viewed with photos, both the ticket agent and the railway conductor identified the male passenger as Durkin.





Durkin in court in June 1926.  Photo: Chicago Tribune

Durkin in court in June 1926. Photo: Chicago Tribune

In the early morning of January 20, following the tracks, FBI agents in St. Louis, Missouri was informed that Martin Durkin and his companion would be there on the 11 o’clock train that same day.

With the station surrounded on all sides by open farmland, there was little chance for Durkin to escape. Federal agents and police also boarded the ambush ship. The train is besieged, Bureau agents, along with the detective from the City of St. Louis, pulled Durkin out of the private compartment before he could even draw his gun.

Because killing a special agent was not a federal crime until 1934, Durkin was tried and convicted in Illinois state court to a prison sentence of just 35 years. He was also sentenced by a federal court in Chicago to an additional 15 years in prison for car theft and cross-state trade in exhibits. Durkin was released from prison in 1954 at the age of 53 and lived another 27 years as “the first person to kill an FBI agent”.

Hai Thu (According to FBI, Chicago Tribune)

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