On Thursday, August 6, 1925, Det. Sgt. Richard M. Heneberry of the Safe, Loft, and Truck Squad stopped his police car around Ninth Avenue and West 34th Street in Manhattan, because he noticed a large, expensive car and grew suspicious because the occupants were young and resembled a street gang, which is what they were. When Heneberry started up toward Tenth Avenue towards the three men, one of them pulled a firearm and opened fire at the Detective, who was struck and gravely wounded.
The miscreants fled the scene. Responding Detectives and police followed two of them — John Rigley, age 22, and 18-year-old Edward Hart — who ran into a residence at 433 West 43rd Street just as the resident, 35-year-old Mrs. Marie Connolly, tried to exit the building. Connolly, a mother of four small children who lived at the location, was instantly grabbed by one of the perpetrators to use as a human shield. When responding cops and Detectives opened fire at the perps, she was struck by a bullet and died shortly thereafter.
Heneberry had been taken to Roosevelt Hospital, while Officers caught up with Rigley and Hart in a nearby backyard, where they were arrested. The license plate on the large car led to the third perp: 25-year-old Michael Guidice of Brooklyn and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Alma Johnson, who were both arrested.
Heneberry lingered on until Saturday, August 8th, when he expired from his gunshot wounds. It turned out that Heneberry’s hunches had been correct about the automobile. It had been previously reported stolen from a doctor in Brooklyn.
By August 13th, all four perps were held without bail. Rigley was known by aliases that included “Burke” and “Williams,” and Hart was out on bail from a previous offense. On August 18th, the three men were indicted, but homicide charges against Johnson were dismissed, because prosecutors decided to hold her as a material witness in the case. A few days prior to killing Det. Heneberry, on August first, the male trio held up the Premier Piano Company’s plant at 510 West 23rd Street and escaped with a few hundred dollars. They had also committed three other hold-ups, including two in Brooklyn. The teenaged girl who lived with Guidice was committed to the Florence Crittenden Home, a mission system that helped youth in crisis.
Eventually, Hart was sentenced to 20 years to life after he pleaded guilty and went to Sing Sing. Rigley also pled out in a deal that included him copping to a previous payroll robbery, and he was sentenced under a second degree murder charge. He also wound up at Sing Sing.
In 1923, when Richard Heneberry was a Police Officer and attached to the West 68th Street Station, he was awarded the NYPD Peter F. Meyer Medal for Bravery for capturing one of two gunmen who had shot Officer John F. Smith near the Ansonia Hotel on the upper west side of Manhattan. Heneberry’s struggle with the perp was so violent that Heneberry broke a knuckle.
And, at the end of 1926, Heneberry’s family accepted his posthumous Medal of Honor.
You can read more at the following New York Times articles:
Heneberry — Medal for Bravery1923
Heneberry — Perpetrators Held NY Times
Heneberry – Slayers Indicted NY Times
Heneberry Slayers Get 20 Years to Life NY Times
