In the summer of 1900, William 'Mox' McQuery, a 38-year-old patrolman with the Covington Police Department, met a tragic end. A former professional baseball player for the Detroit Tigers, McQuery had been an officer for four years. His life was cut short after a fateful encounter on June 9, 1900, at the base of the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge.
The series of events leading to McQuery's death began when two men, Wallace Bishop and Thomas Mulligan, murdered another man in a hobo camp known
as the Ludlow Lagoon. Fleeing the scene, the pair boarded a streetcar heading towards Cincinnati. Acting on information, Patrolman McQuery and other officers intercepted the streetcar at the bridge. As McQuery ordered the two suspects to exit the vehicle, they drew their revolvers and a gunfight erupted. McQuery was struck in the chest by a bullet.
Despite being gravely wounded, McQuery's actions led to the eventual capture of both suspects. In the chaos of the shootout, one of the men was wounded and apprehended. The other, later identified as Wallace Bishop, made a desperate attempt to escape by running across the bridge. Seeing officers from Cincinnati approaching, he leaped from the middle of the span into the Ohio River, a fall of a hundred feet. He was arrested after he swam to the shore.
William McQuery was rushed to a hospital in Cincinnati, where he fought for his life for three days. The bullet had perforated his intestines five times, and despite initial hopes for his recovery due to his strong physique, he succumbed to his wounds on June 12, 1900, from peritonitis. The man who fired the fatal shot, Wallace Bishop, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in the Kentucky State Penitentiary. His own life came to a violent end on August 20, 1902, when he was shot and killed during an escape attempt.
