Officer Charles O. Legate is found murdered on March 17, 1922.

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On March 17, 1922, Officer Charles O. Legate (1872-1922) is found murdered in a locked garage on his beat near 12th Avenue and Jackson Street. At first, the death is ruled a suicide, but is later discovered to be murder.

Officer Legate and a sergeant had recently come off a two-week suspension for "neglect of duty in failing to keep their respective districts free from prostitution" (Victor, 167). In the early morning hours of March 17, Legate went missing from his beat. Officers went to a garage where Legate kept his car and found him inside with the doors locked. He was dead with two gunshot wounds and a gash to his head. His revolver was found nearby with two rounds fired. The wounds to his head were later found to have come from a different gun.

Four years later, Police Chief William B. Severyns, who was appointed to clean up the Seattle Police Department after Legate's death, wrote in a series of articles in the Seattle Union Record, "It was something in the inner workings of the tenderloin that brought Legate's murder ....[It might have been] a quarrel over the division of spoils. There had been hard feelings between Legate, other policemen, and other underworld characters, and ... Legate had threatened to squeal. One of two men, or both, did the shooting. One of these men was a policeman. The other was an underworld character, a dealer in liquor and dope" (Victor, 167).

Legate's sergeant was E.W. Pielow, who had been suspended along with Legate. It was Pielow who had suggested that the officers look in the garage where Legate's body was found.

Less than a year after Legate's death, Pielow was arrested by U.S. Customs for smuggling liquor from Canada. He was dismissed from the police force. In September 1924, three men were arrested in Sumner for the murder of Officer Robert L. Litsey in Seattle. The killers were driving a car stolen from former sergeant Pielow.

Sources:
Rae Anna Victor, Century of Honor: Excellence and Valor in Washington State Law Enforcement (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2000), pp. 166-167; Michael D. Brasfield, "An Examination of the Historical and Biographical Material Pertaining to the Violent Deaths Involving Seattle Police Officers (1881-1980)," (Undergraduate thesis, University of Washington Library, 1980), 49.

By Dave Wilma, May 18, 2002

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