Forest Park in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Police Officer Edward Pflaume
Photographed By Sean Flynn, August 22, 2023
1. Police Officer Edward Pflaume Marker
Police Officer Edward Pflaume, 29, was shot and killed on December 13, 1925 as he and other officers attempted to arrest two men suspected of committing a robbery earlier in the day.
The suspects opened fire on the officers, killing Officer Pflaume and wounding a second officer. One of the suspects was killed and the other was wounded as he attempted to flee. Officer Pflaume was survived by his pregnant wife. Officer Pflaume had been a member of the Forest Park Police Department for less than one year.
Erected 2015 by Village of Forest Park.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Law Enforcement. A significant historical date for this entry is December 13, 1925.
Location. 41° 52.996′ N, 87° 48.538′ W. Marker is in Forest Park, Illinois, in Cook County. Marker is at the intersection of Randolph Street and Belvidere Avenue, on the right when traveling west on Randolph Street. This marker is near the southeast corner of Remembrance Park. It is one of four individual markers devoted to officers who died in the line of duty, surrounding a larger memorial to Forest Park’s fallen firefighters and police officers. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 7341 Randolph St, Forest Park IL 60130, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Fire Captain Frank Schnurstein (here, next to
this page online
Regarding Police Officer Edward Pflaume. Four days after his death, Pflaume was honored with a procession through Forest Park, led by fellow motorcycle policemen. He was buried in Chicago's Montrose Cemetery, next to his sister Margaret, who had died at age 16 in 1917.
The surviving suspect in the shootout was William "Three-Fingered Jack" White, an ex-convict with a long rap sheet as well as known connections to the Chicago mob, including as a lieutenant of Al Capone. White was twice convicted for Officer Pflaume's murder, and both times the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
Photographed By Sean Flynn, August 22, 2023
2. Remembrance Park
The memorials to fallen officers are to the right of this flagpole.
Also see . . .
1. Remembering those who died while serving. (Submitted on August 23, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
2. Officer Edward Richard Pflaume on Officer Down Memorial Page. (Submitted on August 23, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
Additional commentary.
1. The law couldn't catch up to "Three-Fingered Jack" White--but the mob did
The historical marker dedicated to Officer Edward Pflaume tells a dramatic story, yet his shooting death inside a tavern in 1925, believed to be at the hands of gangster William "Three-Fingered Jack" White, a known member of the Chicago mafia and an associate of Al Capone, was even more sensational in its time.
On December 13, 1925, two men robbed a Forest Park ice cream truck driver and fled in an automobile. Police from various suburban units on the lookout for the men converged at roughly the same time at the Mannheim Inn, near Mannheim Road and 22nd Street in what today is Westchester, about four miles west of the robbery, where they had found the getaway car.
Two of those
Photographed By Sean Flynn, August 22, 2023
3. Memorial to Forest Park’s fallen police officers and firefighters
Pflaume, 29 when he was shot, was honored a few days after his death with a funeral procession through Forest Park, led by his fellow motorcycle policemen. He was buried in Montrose Cemetery in Chicago, next to his sister Margaret, who had died at age 16 in 1917.
Meanwhile, White--a known criminal and an early member of Al Capone’s gang, who had been identified as a “public enemy” in a 1923 report by the Chicago Crime Commission--avoided capture. At the time of Pflaume’s shooting, White had been connected to a variety of robberies and other crimes, had spent many years in jail, and was a known accomplice of some of the most infamous members of the Chicago mob. Yet despite his wounding and despite a massive manhunt--which
Chicago Daily News Collection, Chicago History Museum, circa 1926
4. William "Three-Fingered Jack" White
This 1926 photo from the Chicago History Museum's collection of photos from the Chicago Daily News identifies the man on the left as William White — "Three-Fingered Jack," the suspected murderer of Officer Ed Pflaume — standing next to Chicago police captain John Stege inside a Chicago police station. Although the timing would line up, assuming the date is accurate, it is not known if or how this photo may relate to the murder of Officer Pflaume.
In March 1926, witnesses implicated White as the ringleader of an $80,000 robbery of an International Harvester tractor factory. Later that month, he was arrested in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and charged with that robbery and with the murder of Pflaume.
White was acquitted of the International Harvester robbery, but in January 1927 he was convicted of Pflaume’s murder. However in 1929, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial, saying there was not enough evidence to determine who had fired the fatal shot. White was tried again and convicted again, and prosecutors sought the death penalty, but in 1932 that second conviction was also tossed out by the state supreme court for similar reasons. Prosecutors decided not to pursue a third trial.
After Al Capone's May 1932 conviction for tax evasion, White was one of many members of the Chicago Outfit seeking to fill the void. In addition to his mob connections, investigators believed that White and other members of the former Capone gang were leading a trucking and transportation syndicate that was extorting Chicago businesses, according to contemporary news accounts.
In the final months of his life, however, “Three-Fingered Jack” spent much of his time hiding in his apartment at 920 Wesley Avenue in Oak Park, the village next door to Forest Park, apparently afraid of rival gang members seeking him out for a variety of grievances. Then, on January 23, 1934, while his wife, the showgirl Nancy Kelly White, was away, White was shot dead by two men who he was drinking with in his apartment, his body slumped over next to a dresser drawer where he was reaching for his gun.
White was 42 years old at the time of his death. His murder remains unsolved, with theories about his death ranging from revenge for misdeeds to suspicions that he had become a government informant. As a person of ill-repute, White was denied a Catholic ceremony after his death. He was buried in an unmarked part of Mount Carmel cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.
— Submitted August 23, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.
Credits. This page was last revised on April 9, 2024. It was originally submitted on August 22, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 103 times since then and 62 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on August 22, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 2, 3. submitted on August 23, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 4. submitted on April 9, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.
