Two career criminals who shot dead two highway patrolmen at a roadblock after a bank robbery in Mexico, Missouri, were pursued during a 17-month manhunt throughout the United States.
Police Sergeant Benjamin Booth, father of two small children, and County Sheriff Roger Wilson, grandfather of a later Missouri governor, were gunned down on June 14th, 1936. Their killers were finally caught when Francis McNeily, under arrest for another crime, confessed to being involved in the shootings, and implicated his partner-in-crime, George McKeever, 36, who was already in the South Dakota State Penitentiary serving time for an unrelated crime.
McNeily was convicted of killing Sheriff Wilson and was jailed for life. McKeever was convicted of murdering Sergeant Booth and was publicly hanged in Fulton, Missouri, on Friday, December 18th, 1936.
Ironically, neither McNeily nor McKeever was involved in the Missouri bank robbery. Worldwide Hangings from True Crime Library.
True Crime Library is the leading source of information on crime stories throughout modern history; our worldwide hangings stories offer an amazing insight into the world of capital punishment. We offer interesting and insightful crime publications, DVDs, books, magazines and back issues to buy online.