It’s “True Crime: Schenectady” Week on Hoxsie!
From the Troy Sunday Budget, Nov. 30, 1924:
“Acting Police Captain Albert L. Youmans of the Schenectady police force, who was shot down from ambush by an unknown assailant on Edison Avenue in that city early Friday evening, died yesterday afternoon at the Ellis Hospital as a result of his injuries. Policeman John Flynn, who was wounded by the same blast which fatally injured his superior officer, was taken to the Ellis Hospital into yesterday afternoon. Flynn had been under a physician’s care at his home since the shooting. It was thought at first that his injuries were of a minor nature, but developments in his condition yesterday caused the attending physician to order his removal to the hospital for surgical treatment …
“The shooting of Captain Youmans and Policeman Flynn is believed to have been a sequel to the former’s activities in cleaning out the ‘tenderloin’ section of the city. As chief of the vice squad, he had been unusually active in raiding disorderly houses and ‘soft drink’ establishments with the result that he incurred the hostility of the denizens of these resorts. Several days ago, Youmans received a letter containing a threat to ‘get’ him but he paid little attention to the incident.”
Youmans and Flynn were on foot, crossing a culvert on Edison Avenue not far from the General Electric plant’s gates when they were ambushed by a single shotgunner. Flynn’s pocket flashlight deflected some of the shot, and he was able to drag Youmans to a police signal box and call the ambulance.
“Youmans was rushed to the Ellis Hospital where two surgeons, who had been attending a dinner at that institution, operated immediately without removing their dress suits. They found that his intestines had been pierced in twenty-five places…
“A squad of police was rushed to the scene of the shooting and after a short search, they found a double-barrel shotgun with two empty shells lying on the ground… Police are inclined to attribute the attack of Captain Youmans to hired gunmen brought here for the purpose of doing away with the local policeman.”
Mayor William Campbell responded with “a stern demand for an immediate clean-up of vice conditions in the city, a round-up of undesirables and a rigid enforcement of laws… Officers who are suspected of countenancing further violations of the law will be be suspended immediately and tried for dereliction of duty.”