THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510040220
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
During the spring of 1901, a baffling series of saloon robberies ended in one of the most bizarre shootouts in local history, one that, by all accounts, should have ended in one of Ripley's ``Believe It Or Not'' collections.
The story began when John Dolan, who operated a saloon at 506 Crawford St., reported a large quantity of cigars and whiskey missing from his business. The Portsmouth police started an immediate investigation and found no evidence of a break-in. But the robbery continued almost weekly with more tobacco and spirits disappearing. According to police records, it was if ``someone had a key to the front door and took what they desired and left by the rear door.''
Frustrated at finding no evidence or making any progress on the case, Portsmouth plain- clothes policeman Maj. J.M Broughton and Substitute Officer Joseph Abbot decided to conduct ``an inside stakeout'' to catch the elusive thief ``red-handed.''
Every night during the second week of that April, the two officers planted themselves in various locations, ending their vigil at daybreak. Sometime later in the morning, Dolan or an employee would come to open the saloon, whereupon they continued to find still more cigars and whiskey missing.
Determined to crack the case, Broughton and Abbot decided to stay on the case for another week and remain hidden in the establishment until the bartender arrived for the scheduled opening. The plan paid off.
According to police files, during the first morning of the second week, April 26, the intruder, who was later identified as Rudolph Patterson, an employee of Dolan's, ``climbed over a brick wall in the rear of the place, and came in through a window opened in a small room in which Broughton was stationed.''
Everything was going according to plan until Patterson saw Broughton first! Broughton thought he saw Patterson drop the window and run. In pursuit, he entered the back room to see in which direction the burglar had fled. Little did he know, that at that moment, Patterson was hiding behind the door.
As officer Broughton passed, Patterson struck him several times with a brick, knocking him unconscious to the floor. Hearing the fracas, Abbot ran to the back room in time to see Patterson astride his partner, raising a brick for a final blow.
The police reports state that ``Abbot shot at Patterson and struck him in the top of the head, the bullet glancing over the top of his head.'' The noise from the shot apparently restored Broughton to consciousness. Patterson now realizing ``the jig was up,'' jumped off Broughton, raising the brick in defiance. This time Broughton drew a bead on his assailant and fired.
The police summary continues, ``Although he (Broughton) had a new .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver, one of the bullets struck Patterson over the heart, glanced on a stiff bosom shirt and never entered his body; only raising a welt about the size of an egg.''
Either in an effort to surrender or further fight off the police, Patterson raised his hands and appeared to back away. Broughton in the heat of the moment, and no doubt still feeling the effects of the beating Patterson gave him earlier with the brick, continued firing his new gun. The police case file reported that ``one bullet struck a very large Army cuff button that Patterson was wearing, breaking the button, which dropped to the floor.''
Now Broughton and Abbot opened up their weapons on Patterson simultaneously!
After striking him five times, he was apparently in no mood to either strike Broughton any more with the brick or resist arrest, but neither was he seriously wounded by the fusillade of direct fire from two policemen's guns except for the egg-sized welt.
No doubt Patterson's luck amazed Broughton and Abbot as they brought him to police headquarters and booked him for ``housebreaking and maiming.''
Patterson was found guilty and given nine years in the state penitentiary for assaulting the officer and eight years on the charge of housebreaking. But that was not the end of the story for Patterson and Broughton.
After he served 13 years in prison, Patterson was given a pardon by the governor for the rest of his sentence. When he asked his parole officers why he was getting out four years early, Patterson was told that the governor made the decision based on a recommendation by the arresting policeman, Broughton. However, there was one condition upon which Broughton had made the recommendation and it was that Patterson never set foot in Portsmouth again. No doubt Patterson agreed readily with the parole.
As for Broughton, whenever things got boring around the station house, he liked to relate the story of Rudolph Patterson, the man he and fellow officer Abbot shot at least eight times at point blank range and who lived to tell the tale! ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Police Maj. J.M. Broughton survived a beating from the whiskey
burglar.
by CNB