P. J. Rooney

Death by Force

On July 23, 1901, P. J. Rooney, a white male, was murdered during a violent spree on Unimak Island in the Aleutian chain of Alaska. Rooney was one of three victims killed that day by Fred Hardy, born Frederick S. Watkyns in 1876 in Lexington, Ohio. Hardy, a former U.S. soldier who had previously killed a fellow serviceman in the Philippines in 1898, was known to use the alias 'Diamond Dick.'

The attack unfolded when Hardy ambushed a group of gold prospectors, including Rooney and the Sul ...Read More