Saturday, March 3, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: March 3

March 3, 1921 – A robbery set-up as the background for a deliberate plot to murder is the theory that Minnesota police and private detectives adopted this evening in their search for the assailants of J. William Hooks, Minneapolis taxi stand owner, whose battered body was found today under a haystack near North Branch, Minn. Hooks disappeared Jan. 30 in his automobile.

North Branch, Minn.1

The robbery angle, police investigation disclosed, is substantiated by knowledge among many of his acquaintances that Hooks continuously carried large sums of money and further that he protected himself by carrying one or two revolvers.

On this theory police believe that whoever set-up a robbery against Hooks would be prepared to overcome him at once rather than risk a chance of being shot.

Four persons, a woman and three men, are being held at the Central Police Station for questioning, but J. Frank Walker, superintendent of police, declared this evening nothing conclusive had been gained from information furnished by them.

The belief entertained by police and detectives that Hooks was killed the night of his disappearance in a robbery set-up by persons who knew his habits was stated by R. C. Rogers, Minneapolis manager of the Burns Detective Agency.


“The information we have has been gained from talking with every friend and acquaintance of Hooks available and from close investigation of the case,” Rogers said.

“Hooks was killed when he had both his overcoat and inside coat off, as shown by the fact that while his vest, shirt and other clothing were saturated with blood, his two coats were unstained. They were found wrapped around his head when the body was discovered.”

Two theories are advanced for this by the detectives. First, that he was inside a house, perhaps one he was taken to by the persons who made the call for a taxi when he was last seen, and there slugged and robbed, and second, that he may have pulled off his coats to defend himself in a row either inside or outside.

Whichever may be true, it is declared positive that Hooks was hauled in his own automobile to the farm where his body was found and that he was carried from the automobile to the haystack by three men.

They were forced to cross a ditch that at the time was soft mud, and their footprints, later frozen hard, are clearly shown going to and from the haystack.

The tracks of the car were also plainly those of Hook’s car, with two rib tread and two weather tread tires. The car had been driven from the road close to the ditch, where it settled farthest into the soft earth. It did not turn back but continued on toward Duluth.

A nationwide search for the Locomobile car driven by Hooks has been instigated by the police and Burns Agency. Every police department, federal, state and county department and automobile theft detection agency in the country has been furnished with complete description and numbers. Much is said to depend upon the finding of the car (interesting, considering I could not find a photo of Hooks’ or his car in any newspaper).



Example of a Locomobile2

Meantime the dragnet will be extended in Minneapolis. Information is now said to be in possession of the police that two of Hook’s employees were off duty the night the call was received for him to come to 250 Third Avenue South, after which he disappeared.


Hooks is said to have been left word by one of those men off duty that should any call come for him, Hooks was to answer the call, as he was driving for the man that night. The call did come for this driver, and is said to have been the one to Third Street south.

All who knew Hooks are said to have known his habit of carrying a large roll of bills. It was a hobby with him, his friends said. Sometimes he is understood to have carried as much as $1,000, in addition to wearing diamonds valued at $2,000. On the night of his disappearance, though, he had neither the money nor the diamonds, Mrs. Stella Hooks, his wife, said he left his stones home and had only $25 in his pocket.

Perhaps he anticipated trouble on this occasion, the police suggested, but his wife refused to be moved from the theory that it was a “[set-up] robbery.”

Friends of Hocks this evening discredited the theory that the victim had his coats off for a fight. They declared that he always carried at least one gun, with which he kept himself out of trouble and safeguarded his money and diamonds.

This statement is borne out by information received from Eau Claire, Wis., that Hooks was arrested there shortly before his death on suspicion, because two revolvers were found in a suitcase in his automobile. He was immediately released when Eau Claire police communicated with Captain Frank Little of the Minneapolis police department.

It is known that on the night of his disappearance, Hooks was carrying a gun, which together with his watch, were missing when his body was discovered.

This fact strengthened the police theory of a set-up and surprise attack. Hooks was killed by a blow from a sharp instrument high on the forehead, which must have been dealt suddenly, police said, or Hooks would have averted it and used his weapon. The wound was so high on his forehead as to suggest that he was seated when he was struck, they declared.

Mrs. Hooks, who first accepted the theory that her husband had been murdered when she was told of his death by a spiritualist shortly after his disappearance, declared on her return from North Branch this evening that she would spend the rest of her life, if necessary, to solve the mystery.

“I believe he was murdered the night he disappeared by someone who knew of the large sums of money he carried,” Mrs. Hooks said. “There have been rumors of bootlegging deals, other women and such things, but I am satisfied it was an out and out [set-up] robbery.”

Mrs. Hooks said that the body would be brought to Minneapolis for burial following the inquest at North Branch tomorrow morning.

Mrs. Bridget Hooks, mother of the dead man, furnished the police with the name of a man, said to be Russian, who is alleged to have threatened her son’s life when he was a detective in N. D. The Russian is said to have been sent to prison on testimony by Hooks and is now out on parole. His whereabouts is being sought.

Discovery of Hooks’ body was made by A. W. Anderson, farmer and county commissioner of Chisago, on his farm at North Branch, which is on the Yellow and White trail to Duluth, 65 miles north of Minneapolis.

Mr. Anderson and helpers were hauling hay and started to loan from the stack near the road, when they came onto the overcoat sticking through the hay. They pulled at it and uncovered the body. It was said to have been a gruesome sight. The skull was crushed in from a heavy blow, apparently dealt with a monkey wrench or similar instrument. The head and face were badly decomposed and had been eaten by rats or mice. Mrs. Hooks later made identification.

Mr. Anderson admitted that he had noticed several times that the hay stack had been torn at of dug into, but gave the matter no attention. He declared also that he had never noticed the footprints that were found leading from the road to the stack.

The trip to North Branch was the last of many Mrs. Hooks has taken since told by the spiritualists that her husband was murdered. On one of those trips she traveled on the Jefferson Highway to Northfield, where she was told she would find his body buried in a swamp. On another trip she went to Iowa, just across the state line, where his automobile was reported to have been found. The final false clue came by an anonymous telephone call, in which a party told her her husband’s body was buried in a cistern at Duluth. A search was made which developed nothing.


The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; Plunder Plot Is Seen Behind Death of Hooks. Slayers Framed to Rob Taxi Man of Jewels, Money, Detectives Say. Tracks of Suspect Found Near Hiding Place of Victim’s Body. Nation-Wide Search Starts for Lost Auto, Key to Mystery.”; March 4, 1921; pp. 1 & 6.

1https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/minnesota/north_branch

2http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/cars/auto-progress-down-memory-lane-december-1954-air-trails.htm

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