Newark Police Officers William Gorman and Thomas Roach Jr. served together for a year before Gorman left the force in April 1886 after four years of service.
Though Gorman had been a good police officer, the 26-year-old was an alcoholic and was seen suffering from delirium tremors. Over the next few months, he worked three different jobs. In October 1886, Gorman was working for the B.O. Railroad when he approached ironworker William Lane for a job.
Roach and Gorman were together outside the First National Bank, on the corner of South Third Street and South Park Place, when they ran into Lane. Gorman asked him for a job, and Lane said he didn’t have any openings at the time but would keep him in mind. Lane recalled that Roach told him to make sure he contacted Gorman if a job opening came up. Lane said the two men appeared to be on good terms with each other, but a few weeks later that seems to have changed.
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On Nov. 24, Roach was off duty with fellow officer Allison Powell. They had left a dance and were at the corner of Fourth Street and West Main when Gorman approached them. He accused Roach of telling Annie Keely, who was Gorman’s girlfriend, that he had seen Gorman “drunk in the street.” Roach denied it and offered to meet Gorman at the Keely home and prove it. They agreed to meet at 5 o’clock the next night. As they parted ways, Powell said that Gorman told Roach, “I’ll settle with you.”
Three days later, on Friday night, Nov. 26, Gorman was downtown drinking with Charley Bausch. About 9:30 p.m., witnesses saw them at Seiler’s Theater, on South Second Street, being drunk and loud. They then made their rounds to various downtown saloons and visited Harry Kear’s’ bar, on the South Side of the square, where they were refused drinks.
About midnight they left and went to Harry Kear’s’ West Main Saloon where they had a sandwich and a beer. According to witnesses, Gorman was “grabbing hold of people and pulling them around.” They said he was so drunk he probably didn’t know what he was doing. The pair then began singing and making noise and were warned if they didn’t quiet down they would have to leave. They left the bar and went to Phil Nie’s Saloon on North Third Street.
Officer Roach and Lt. Clement “Doc” Brooke had been watching the pair for a while going from bar to bar. Each time they left a bar they hoped they would just go to their homes in the south end, but that didn’t happen. As they left Nie’s saloon about 1:10 a.m., the pair was staggering up Third Street. The officers decided it was time to arrest them and caught up to the pair just south of the current location of the Buckeye Winery.
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Brooke grabbed Bausch and said, “We had enough of this, and you’ll have to come to the station house. I’m going to put you under arrest.” Gorman replied that he wasn’t going to be arrested. Brooke told him that he was indeed going to be arrested to which Gorman replied that he would “go down with Mr. Roach.” Bausch was resisting arrest when Gorman told him, “Go on with Doc; there’s no use kicking.” He also said something to the effect of he had been a police officer and knew his duty and would go quietly.
As the officers escorted the prisoners to the city jail on East Main Street, they crossed Third Street and walked across the courthouse lawn. Bausch and Brooke were about 30 feet ahead of Roach and Gorman when Bausch stopped on the east side of the square.
Officer Thomas Powell was on the northeast corner of Second and Main and heard Bausch ask if he could put up bail. Brooke told him he would have to wait until they got to the jail. When they crossed Second Street, Roach and Gorman were slightly behind Brooke and Bausch.
No one was prepared for what was about to happen.
Doug Stout is the local history coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Newark officers had history before city’s first line-of-duty death