Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND002 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 03101
Title: Edward A. Mumby
Date:
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 1/7/1900
Summary: Ed Mumby New Salem, July 15th, 1953 The murderer of Police Chief Edward A. Mumby, age 53 of New Salem, Edward E. Crane, was captured in the Moreau River bottoms of northwestern South Dakota without a struggle. The events leading to Mumby's death are as follows. Crane, with his wife and five children, registered in the hotel, and while the couple made the rounds in the bars, four of the older children entered Schmidt's Cafe and purchased four bottles of pop. Mrs. Ed Schmidt, proprietor, served the children and asked for 41 cents. The oldest child demanded to know what the extra penny was for and was told it was for the state sales tax. The child launched into an extremely vile protest over the penny, and with the other children put on a demonstration of swearing the likes of which have never been heard in New Salem before. The parents intervened, after a bit, and added their filthy comments to those of the motley brood and generally upset the peaceful atmosphere of the cafe. At length the bunch stormed out of the cafe, nearly tearing off the hinges as they slammed it shut. At this point, Mrs. Schmidt attempted to locate Mumby, so that there would be no more trouble from that source during the rest of the evening. While Mumby was being summoned to the scene, the Cranes packed up their belongings, loaded them into the car and backed away from the curb with their lights off. As the car backed away, Crane whipped out a pistol and fired five shots in complete abandon. Shortly after the car disappeared from view, Walter Hoherz, looking for excitement, pulled up in front of the cafe and shortly thereafter Chief Mumby arrived on the scene. Mumby, hearing the car described as a 1939 Oldsmobile, feared that he would not be able to catch up to them in his police car, asked Hoherz to try and locate the path of the car. The car was found in the street. Hoherz returned to pick up Mumby and a third party, Howard Krum, piled into the back seat to go along for the "thrills." Crane appeared and Mumby stepped out with gun in hand and arrested him on a charge of disturbing the peace. When Crane denied firing the five shots, Mumby ordered him into the back seat of the Hoherz car and as he sat beside the driver, told him to go to the city jail. The car barely got underway, with Mumby turned around to keep an eye on the prisoner, when Crane whipped out his pistol and shot him in the head, killing him instantly. At the shot, Krum jumped out of the rear seat and fled successfully making his escape in the confusion. He never reported the incident. Crane then ordered Hoherz to drive away and directed him to Highway 10. They headed east until they reached the cemetery where he ordered the car to return to his own auto to pick up his wife and five children. While turning the corner, the murdered man flopped over in the seat with his head resting on Hoherz's lap; he shoved his head down onto the seat beside him and drove to the stranded car. Crane herded his wife and the kids into the back seat and with his gun still on Hoherz, ordered him to go back to the highway and head east. The murder had occurred about 10:30 P.M., and now nearing 11:00 the fugitive was just beginning his escape. His instructions to Hoherz were brief: "I'm a nervous man. Don't drive over 35 miles an hour and do what I tell you and I won't hurt you." This statement prompted one of the many "Yes Sir" answers given by the kidnapped driver throughout the night. At the Judson corner, they turned south and about a mile below town, the car was stopped and Hoherz got out, opened the door, and the body of the slain officer was pushed out to lay on the side of the road, just mere inches from two-foot tall grass which would have possibly hidden the body for days. The two men got back into the car, with Hoherz again at the wheel sitting in a huge pool of blood, and under directions from Crane, proceeded to the George Ormiston, Sr. ranch. At the ranch they obtained a small amount of green tractor fuel so they could make it to a gas station. He then directed the car to Highway 31 at the Kaelberer school corner and continued south from there. They drove on through Flasher to Raleigh where they got a service station man out and filled the tank. They continued on south until reaching the South Dakota line just north of McIntosh, where he directed Hoherz to turn around, as he did not want to cross a state line with him in the car. During the return ride of about 7 miles north, Hoherz was made to stop and reverse the direction a few times to show Crane just how short it was possible to turn the car around. Finally, the moment came for the Cranes to depart and Hoherz figured he was living his last moments. He told Crane how to start and operate the car and as he drove away, his goodbye words were: "Start praying, you don't know how lucky you are. Farewell and good luck." Hoherz then turned north and after walking about six miles, came to a farm home. He finally managed to rouse someone, and told his story to the owner, through the narrowest possible crack in the door. After a 15 minute wait, he again took to the road, heading north and after another 6 miles, he flagged down a car, which belonged to the sheriff from McIntosh. From that point it was a matter of minutes until he phoned Sheriff K. A. Ellison, of Mandan, had breakfast and was awaiting the Sheriff for a ride home. He spent the balance of the day explaining things to Ellison, C. J. Schauss, State's Attorney, and law officers. Following the apprehension of the party, Hoherz went to South Dakota for his car and Ellison told him: "You brought the woman and the five kids here, you can take them back to Mandan." He again served as a chauffeur, but this time in a slightly altered situation. Mumby is survived by his wife.
Red ID: FND_I_77320 Image ID: 509140 Image Notes: 10950 00002 03101

Collection: FND002 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program
Date:

Summary: The North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program honors fallen officers with highlights of their lives and careers.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.