Murder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Sonny Longtine

Author:Sonny Longtine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

Eileen Ford with a memorial plaque honoring her father, Martin Ford. It was given to her in 1992 by the National Policeman’s Association. Author’s collection.

Although only five at the time of her father’s death, Eileen vividly remembers his playful nature. On one occasion, he good-naturedly shaped the mashed potatoes on her plate in the form of a house. She said, “Later on in life, others told me that he was a ‘witty Irishman.’”

Eileen said, “Mom took Dad’s death real hard. She went to her bedroom and stayed there for a long time. She led a lonely life after he died. She never talked much about his death.” Mary Ford never drove the new Nash; it remained in the garage for years collecting dust on its once shiny finish, never having the chance to spin down the highway in quest of distant shores.

The newspaper noted that a quiet service for Lampinen was held at his home in Deerton.

The Marquette City Commission went on record as favoring the state compensation law for families of police officers killed in the line of duty. Both the Ford and Thornton families would receive $4,200 over one hundred weeks under the state provisions.

Walter Tippett was unsettled after killing a man, justifiable as it was. He later worked at the prison and then went to work in Ishpeming’s underground mines. He had several brothers who were working in the mines, and it seemed like a natural fit and a safe place where he did not have to worry about death being around the nearest corner. Providence, however, interceded. In a cruel twist of fate, Tippett was killed within hours of starting his first day at the mine on November 3, 1926. This occurred only two years after the bloody shootout in Marquette. Tippett died in the worst mining disaster in Michigan: a catastrophe at the Barnes-Hecker mineshaft that claimed fifty-two lives in 1926.

On May 5, 1990, Eileen Kroken received a plaque honoring her father, the late Martin Ford, in a ceremony at the Holy Cross Cemetery. Eileen said, “I was honored but really nervous about being in the public eye—I’m really quite shy.” On that day, National Police Officer’s Day, all slain police and conservation officers from the Upper Peninsula who have died in the line of duty were honored.

Eighty-five years have passed since that infamous day. Marquette has been relatively peaceful since then. There have been other murders over the years, but none of the magnitude that claimed the lives of two police officers and a young man. Relative tranquility has returned, and that’s just fine for the citizens of the peaceful lakeshore city.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.