Arthur J. De Marrais, Jr. was appointed to the force on October 11, 1920, and while in the midst of a notable career he was killed at age 41 in the line of duty on November 7, 1937. De Marrais died five hours after being hit on the head with a metal pipe and bitten on the cheek by 37-year-old John Brown. The Detective had responded to a call from a woman named Virginia Lundy who summoned police because Brown had threatened her when she spurned his marriage proposal. When De Marrais arrived at her residence, Brown had a metal pipe and was menacing Lundy’s six and seven year old children. The Detective tried to disarm Brown, but the perp struck De Marrais on the head with the pipe. De Marrais finally subdued the assailant, but while on the way to the stationhouse, the perp bit the Detective in the cheek and struggled to get free. As Brown started to flee, De Marrais fired two shots, striking Brown in the chest. Responding radio patrol took De Marrais to Brooklyn Hospital and the perp to the Kings County Prison hospital ward.
The Detective’s death was a shock, because it wasn’t believed that De Marrais’ wounds were very serious. But, complications arose while he was undergoing surgery. His official cause of death was “strangulation brought about by foreign substances in the throat,” according to an autopsy report made public by then-Kings County Medical Examiner Manuel E. Marten, wrote the New York Times on November 9, 1937. According to the M.E.’s office, the Detective had eaten a large meal right before his 5:30 p.m. encounter with the perp. As De Marrais was coming out of surgery and the anesthesia was wearing off, his undigested food regurgitated into his throat, which choked the Detective when it got into his respiratory system.
At the time of his death, De Marrais was assigned to the 18th Division, 13th Detective District. He was promoted to third grade Detective in 1925, and jumped to first grade in 1928. He was celebrated for a number of cases, including solving the murder of six-year-old Helen Sterler. On January 28, 1933, the New York Times reported that De Marrais had “long been recognized as one of the keener plainclothes men in Brooklyn.” Also in 1929, De Marrais solved a $100,000 jewelry robbery from the home of a man named Frank Bailey in Brooklyn. In 1934, he partnered with Louis Woelfel as the lead Detectives who solved the six-month investigation of securities thefts at five branches of Citizens Bank. The Detectives were able to trace and nab the crooks when some of the stolen bonds wound up back at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC.
De Marrais was the married father of five children, and his family lived on Patchen Avenue in Brooklyn.
On November 11, 1937, approximately 2,500 people attended his funeral, including Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, and the Brooklyn District Attorney William F. X. Geoghan. Det. De Marrais is interred at St. John’s Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens.
On June 1, 1938, his widow, Catherine, was presented with his posthumous NYPD Medal of Honor. In 1940, a Police Athletic League Playground and Youth Center at 278 Classon Avenue in Brooklyn was named in De Marrais’ memory, but the building was demolished at some point after 1953.
Read more about Det. DeMarrais, Jr. and his career at the following links:
Hero Lost & Found DeMarrais001
DeMarrais — NY Times 1-28-1933
DeMarrais — NY Times 11-5-1934
DeMarrais — NY Times 8-17-1937
DeMarrais — NY Times 11-8-1937
DeMarrais — NY Times 11-9-1937
DeMarrais — NY Times 11-12-1937
DeMarrais — NY Times 4-25-1938
