Yester-Heroes: First NPD Line-of-Duty Death: Patrolman James Roach, after ‘duel with a bandit’

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Stories from the History of Nashua’s Police and Fire-Rescue Departments


NASHUAHISTORY

YESTER-HEROES

By Gary Ledoux


Nashua Telegraph headline

Official Text from the Police Memorial

During the early morning hours of Sunday, September 23, 1928, Patrolman James Roche was on foot patrol when he stopped a male subject on the porch of 32 Temple St. who was suspected of committing a burglary. The male subject produced a handgun and ordered Patrolman Roche to raise his hands. Patrolman Roche drew his service revolver and fired twice bringing the subject down to the ground. The subject then fired six shots at Patrolman Roche hitting him five times. The suspect died four hours later. Patrolman Roche was rushed to Nashua Memorial Hospital where he died of his wounds twenty-two days later.

Patrolman Roche was 53 years old and was a six-year veteran of the Nashua Police Department. Before immigrating to the United States, Patrolman Roche was a Constable in Limerick, Ireland. He was survived by his wife and five children.

Information from Nashua Telegraph

As seen in the Nashua Telegraph of Monday September 24, 1928, the suspect’s name was Thomas Kelley of Manchester. After being shot twice by Patrolman Roche, Kelley was able to “crawl” or probably staggered to Amory Terrace, a mile away, where he was captured and transported to the Memorial Hospital. Despite being wounded twice, and what must have been an exhausting, mile-long trek, he fought the hospital nurses and the guarding officer before his death.

The report notes that Kelley “emptied the magazine of his heavy army Colt” (the gun was actually a Colt revolver) into the body of the officer. This day’s Telegraph notes that Patrolman Roche was in critical condition and has seen little change since he was brought in early in the morning of the prior day. Due to the seriousness of his condition, doctors were not able to remove the bullets. This left him in severe pain.

The article went on, “One of the shots entered the officer’s back on the right side, penetrated his body, passing near the spinal column and lodging near one of his ribs on the left side. Another shot struck the officer in the thigh, two near the right ankle, and one in the left lower leg.” Given the position of the shots and where Roche was found, investigating officers believed that Kelley fired on Roche as he lay on the ground

Officer James Roche, the first Nashua Police officer to die in the line of duty.  Photo courtesy of Nashua PD

The Incident 

Patrolman Roche was on the Temple Street beat, walking eastward on Temple near what is today the former YMCA when he saw a man coming up the hill from the opposite direction. A few seconds later, the man disappeared into the yard at 12 Temple St. Something did not seem right to Roche so he followed the man into the yard. In an apparent attempt to stall the officer, Kelley stepped up on the porch of the house and opened the screen door as if making entry as if he owned the place. Roche also stepped up on the porch to check if the man was all right and that is when Kelley pulled his gun.

Author’s Note: This house was located on the north side of Temple Street, approximately across from the former YMCA. This is now an office building and parking area known as 30 Temple St. 

The two men reportedly grappled with each other for a moment and then Roche pulled his service revolver and fired twice. The two men were in very close proximity to each other. The two men fell off the low porch onto the sidewalk. Kelley collapsed and “fell under some lilac bushes under the dining room window of the Gauthier home.” At that moment, Roche figured he had disabled Kelley. He turned his back to the prone man for a brief second to sound his police whistle signaling for assistance. While Roche’s back was to Kelley, Kelley gathered the strength to fire from beneath the lilac bushes; five bullets finding their mark. Roche collapsed, paralyzed. 

Kelley struggled to his feet to make his escape. He knew that a volley of gunshots and the shrill tweet of the police whistle were sure to bring more police and onlookers. Kelley began to stagger off but he was not hard to following leaving a trail of blood.

The Chase

Within moments, neighbors began to emerge from their homes in the early morning darkness to see what had happened. Officers Peter Caron and Arthur Higgins arrived at the scene in the Police Patrol wagon to find Roche writhing in pain on the ground. Roche reportedly had the presence of mind to advise the first two responding officers to chase Kelley and pointed the direction of his flight. Concerned for the welfare of their fellow officer, Caron and Higgins placed Roche in the wagon. Two roomers from the YMCA offered to drive Roche to the hospital while Caron and Higgins went after Kelley. One man, Joseph Ramonda took the wheel while the other man, James Cox, rode on the back with Roche. An alarm was sent out that a “heavily armed” man who had shot a police officer was wounded and running for his life.

Police Chief Irving Goodwin and Chief Inspector Edward McCarthy were roused from their homes and reported to police headquarters to take control of the situation. Officers followed the trail of blood northward thru the Gauthier back yard to Church Street, across Cottage Avenue and then was lost. Finally, officers found where the wounded man had tripped over a wire, leaving behind a sizable pool of blood along with a blood-soaked handkerchief and some burglar tools. Kelley continued down Cottage Avenue to Temple Place, then back onto Temple Street again.

Continuing to look around the Gauthier property, police found a bag of burglar tools including a short-handled 16-pound sledge hammer of a type used to smash combination dials from safes. 

Meanwhile, Kelley continued down Temple Street to the intersection of Temple and Pearl streets where he apparently stopped to rest. As he sat on the curb, two men happened across Kelley, thought he was in some sort of distress and offered to help him home. Kelley responded by pointing the large army Colt at the men telling them to leave him alone. The two men promptly vacated the area.

At this point, realizing his gun was empty and useless, and apparently having no spare ammunition, Kelley abandoned his revolver and continued down Temple Street stopping at a small lunch room nearly across Temple Street from the J.F. McElwain factory. (This building still stands as of August 2022.) Kelley went down the embankment behind the lunchroom and followed the railroad tracks to Amory Terrace. He stumbled along Amory Terrace, got to 2 Amory Terrace, walked up onto the front porch and dropped. Officers and citizens were scouring the neighborhood as the trail on the suspect had turned cold.

A Mrs. Weymouth at 2 Amory Terrace was awakened by the thud of the suspect on her porch. She called out and asked what the man wanted. Kelley asked for water. Meanwhile someone else in the house called police.

Chief Goodwin and Sergeant Desmarais showed up a few minutes later, guns drawn. The Chief ordered the prone Kelley to put up his hands. He replied, “I haven’t got a gun.” Desmarais cuffed Kelley. It was apparent that he was in great agony, his body soaked in blood.

As the Police Chief and Sergeant helped the suspect to his feet, Kelley asked, “Is the cop dead?” At this point, no one had mentioned anything about a police shooting. But this one comment left no doubt that Kelley had been the shooter. Kelley was placed in the Chief’s car and brought to the hospital, ironically, only a few feet away from where Patrolman Roche lay suffering. 

Chief Inspector McCarthey found the gun that Kelley had thrown away. It was marked “263595 No.751 Job 121 Colt.”

Meanwhile, the Chief and Inspector McCarthy were at the hospital trying to question a still-conscious Kelley which only elicited a growl and sharp words from the wounded man saying he would not talk to cops. After a few moments, nurses and doctors took over to try to save Kelley’s life. Again, he asked, “Is the cop dead?” There was no response from anyone.

A few moments later, perhaps knowing that he was dying, Kelley uttered his name, and that he lived at 36 Bridge St. in Manchester. Nashua Police called the Manchester Police to check out the story which proved to be true. He in fact lived on Bridge Street near the corner of Bridge and Elm streets with his brother and mother. What the police were unable to determine at that time was where Kelley was headed, or what his intentions were. 

Author’s Note: 36 Bridge St. in Manchester no longer exists. The corner of Bridge and Elm is now one large commercial building, designated as 1155 Elm St.

Kelley’s Manchester Life

A Nashua Telegraph story records that Manchester Police said that Kelley had been sent to the State Industrial School in Manchester in 1916 when he was 15 years old, although they did not mention why. Between the time he was committed to the school, and the ensuing time since he was released, Manchester Police had not heard from Kelley. They suspected that he was living outside Manchester and may have worked in Littleton for a time.

Kelley apparently returned to Manchester sometime in the early summer, had been working at the Amoskeag Mills, and went out for a vacation on August 2 when the mills closed for their summer vacation. It was at that point he went to visit his mother on Bridge St.reet who, ironically happened to be away working at the time.

Manchester Police searched the small, 3-room apartment spending considerable time in the room supposedly used by Kelley. In it they found a large, “old-fashioned” trunk which was searched thoroughly. Police only found a few gun cartridges consistent with the type and caliber used by Kelley to shoot Patrolman Roche. Kelley was 27 years old, and a native of Manchester.

The Keene Connection

Upon hearing about the attempted robbery and shooting in Nashua, Keene Police Chief William Philbrick remembered a set of burglar tools that were left by a suspect attempting to burgle a drug store in that city. Chief Philbrick drove from Keene to Nashua with the tools and the sheet that they were wrapped in. It turns out the tools were similar to what Kelley had left behind and it was apparent that the piece of sheet used by Kelley in Nashua matched the sheet left behind by the escaped suspect in Keene, leaving the two Police Chiefs to believe that Kelley had been on a robbery spree.

The Roche Family

James Roche was a native of County Kerry, Ireland, 53 years old, and emigrated to the United States in 1900 settling in Lowell, MA, where he worked in the large mills for three years.  While in Ireland he was a Constable for the City of Limerick. Roche moved to Nashua around 1903 and found work at the Jackson Mills of the Nashua Manufacturing Company. He joined the Nashua Police Department March, 2, 1922 as a Special Officer and was named a “regular officer” one month later. At the time he had five children; Rosaleen, 21; Isabelle, 19; Irene, 18; Lillian, 16; and a son, James, 10. Their address at the time was given as 1 Alstead Avenue in the Crown Hill section of Nashua; a “pretty little cottage.” A Google street search of the address now shows a large apartment building on this lot.

Headstone for Office Roche.  Photo courtesy Kim Johnson

The Death of Patrolman Roche

Patrolman James Roche succumbed to his wounds at 7:20 a.m. on October 15, 1928, after lying near death’s door for three weeks. Doctors were able to remove four of the five bullets inflicted on him by a robbery suspect. The fifth bullet, lodged in Roche’s ribs could not be extracted due to the extent of Roche’s condition.

A statement from Nashua Police Chief Goodwin said:

The James H. Roche fund dance which was scheduled for this evening in the auditorium has been cancelled owing to the death of Officer Roche this morning. In place of the dance, it has been decided to conduct a Memorial service for the departed officer at the auditorium at 8 o’clock tonight. The Morey Pearl orchestra of Boston will furnish music assisted by the Elk’s Memorial quartet. The principal speaker will be Rev. Earl F. Nauss of the First Congregational Church. The dance tickets will be taken at the door but there will be no dancing.


Excerpted from “Nashua’s Finest: The History of Law Enforcement in Nashua NH” 

Yester-Heroes author Gary Ledoux grew up in Nashua’s Crown Hill area, attending Nashua schools and graduating from Nashua High in 1970. He attended NH Vo-Tech for a time, then moved to Amherst, then Manchester, and Weare. He served as a volunteer on the Amherst Fire Dept from 1974 to 1977. A career in the automotive business took him to Florida and then to southern California. After 48 years, he retired in 2017, moving back to Florida with his wife, Rachel, and two dogs. He has published seven books, including two about Nashua history, and has been a contributing editor or contributor to 10 different magazines. Gary can be reached at mayorclum@yahoo.com


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