In the summer of 1933, a tragic event unfolded at the Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, that would become known as the Kansas City Massacre. On June 17th of that year, Orrin Henry 'Ott' Reed, the 48-year-old White/Caucasian Chief of Police from McAlester, Oklahoma, found himself in the midst of a violent shootout. Reed was part of a group of law enforcement officers escorting a captured fugitive, Frank Nash, to the U.S.
Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
The transfer of Nash had been meticulously planned by law enforcement, but an informant had leaked the details of the transport to Nash's associates. As the officers and their prisoner were getting into their vehicles, a gang led by the notorious criminal Pretty Boy Floyd ambushed them. The tranquil scene at the train station erupted into chaos as the gang opened fire with machine guns and rifles in an attempt to free Nash.
The ensuing gun battle was swift and brutal. In the hail of bullets, Chief Reed was tragically killed. He was not the only casualty among the ranks of law enforcement that day. Two Kansas City police detectives, Frank Hermanson and William Grooms, and FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey also lost their lives in the line of duty. The prisoner they were transporting, Frank Nash, was also killed in the crossfire.
In the aftermath of the massacre, a significant law enforcement effort was launched to bring the perpetrators to justice. The manhunt for those responsible was extensive. A year after the bloody shootout, Pretty Boy Floyd was located and killed in a shootout with police. Another member of the gang, Adam Richetti, was captured, tried, and subsequently executed in 1938 for his role in the deadly ambush. The sacrifice of Chief Orrin Reed and his fellow officers remains a somber and significant event in the history of American law enforcement.
