John “Joplin Red” West
Age Unknown
Northwestern Hotel
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
February 24, 1900
The story is straight out of the pages of Damon Runyon: safe blowing, burglaries, and — incongruously — silk thefts perpetrated by men named “Yellow,” “Whiskey,” “Shady,” “Miggins,” and “Moon Eye.”
And it is a cautionary tale not only of lack of honor among thieves but also of what can happen when a law officer gets too close to the criminals he has sworn to catch.
On Saturday morning, February 24, 1900, his mistress found John West — a.k.a. “Jud West,” “Jud Curry,” “M. Michel,” and “Joplin Red” — dead in bed in room 54 of the Northwestern Hotel in downtown Des Moines.
Courtesy photo Cowles LibraryA long and notorious criminal career was ended.
John “Joplin Red” West had turned up regularly when suspicious activities occurred in Des Moines and served prison terms in Illinois and Missouri for safe blowing.
In 1897, he was arrested in Des Moines for “vagrancy” — then a euphemism for pimping — and was said to be “a resident of White Chapel,” a notorious red light district where prostitutes, gambling, and liquor were freely available.
West was sentenced in 1898 to two years in prison for trying to smuggle tools and nitroglycerin to a fellow gang member to escape the Story County Jail in Nevada.
At the time of that incident, the Oxford Mirror wrote:
“West is known as ‘Joplin Red.’ There is quite a romance connected with his life which involves Des Moines people, he having been a Des Moines character for many years.”
Surprisingly, one of the first to be notified of the death was W.A. “Bill” Richards, Deputy United States Marshall at Ottumwa. Richards was characterized by newspapers as a “friend” of three years with West, whom he called “Jops.”
Bill Richards traveled to Des Moines, where he told the newspapers:
“I have talked with a number of persons who saw him [Joplin Red] between Wednesday and the night of his death and these have informed me that he had about $600 in money and a gold watch he had purchased for his mistress. . . . [At the time he was found] he did not have a cent on him, while the watch was also missing. I am satisfied that the investigation of West’s stomach will show that he was poisoned. Some of my witnesses saw West with several hundred dollars up to a few hours before he was taken to the hotel.”
Richards was correct about the death. An autopsy by Polk County Physician Edwin B. Shope revealed that West — of an unspecified age and already suffering from lung and kidney disease — died of an “unknown poison.”
Polk County Coroner Rollin V. Ankeny issued the opinion that West took poison “voluntarily or otherwise.”
Most thought the death involved foul play.
The night he died, Joplin Red visited the Fergusons, who lived on East Fourth Street between Walnut and Court avenues. In fact, some news agencies reported he died there, which may explain Bill Richards’s comments about the dead man being “taken” to the Northwestern Hotel.
A few months after the death, a Daily Iowa Capital reporter interviewed the Fergusons at their home.
They said Frank “Davy” Utterson brought him in and said, “I suppose you know this man. This is Joplin Red.”
Mrs. Ferguson described the evening:
“‘Joplin Red’ stayed and talked awhile and while he was there in the room he told us that the doctor had told him that he had apoplexy and that he might die at any time; of course, we never thought anything about it at the time, but when we heard that he was dead it all came to us.’”
The source of the apoplexy? He told them he was “hurt while working.” Not actual physical labor, but the burglary of a hotel in Indiana, where he had gone because there was little “work” available then in Des Moines. In the dark, Joplin Red fell over a landing and struck his head.
She said:
“He got out all right and after he got clear of the town he went to a doctor, but of course he couldn’t tell him how he had been hurt, and the doctor told him that he might die at any time.”
Mrs. Ferguson said Joplin Red was an opium smoker and was drunk that night at their house, becoming maudlin. He gave Mrs. Ferguson — who was ill — five dollars and said, “I’ve got lots more handy if I need it.”
Because the police did not find any money, Mrs. Ferguson said she thought Joplin Red gave it to a friend for safekeeping and after the death the friend just held on to it and said nothing.
The Fergusons did not believe Joplin Red was murdered. They were certain he died of apoplexy.
Joplin Red’s criminal gang included Jim Dimmitt, a.k.a. “Shady Saunders” and “Whiskey”; his brother Elza Dimmitt, a.k.a. “Yellow,” “Red,” “Moon Eye,” and “George Thompson”; and one of the Dimmitt brothers’ pals, Denver Shine.
The gang burglarized properties and even pilfered the occasional bike.
However, they concentrated on stealing high-end clothing from tailor shops and bolts of silk from upscale stores in Illinois and Iowa.
They stole silk from the Weishaar and Fassig store in Waterloo, the Taft Store in Cedar Rapids, and similar businesses in Marion and Marshalltown.
Along the way, the gang blew a few safes, Joplin Red’s specialty.
After his death, Joplin Red’s gang wasted few tears on him.
The Webster City Tribune reported:
“It is stated that West’s former pals were not adverse [sic] to his being made away with, and that they succeeded in accomplishing what they may have considered necessary to their own safety. Shortly before his death West returned from Chicago with between $600 and $700 which it is supposed he got by giving information of a proposed attempt to rob the Adams Express Company.”
West was perceived by his gang as the worst thing a criminal could be: a squealer.
At the time of Joplin Red’s death, many wondered how U.S. Marshal Bill Richards became friends with him.
Richards even testified to Joplin Red’s “good character” in the 1897 Story County jail break trial, which cast some doubt on his own moral fiber.
Then, burglary tools were found in Richards’s office; and he was forced to resign his U.S. Marshal duties.
The Estherville Enterprise wrote:
“It had been known for two years that Richards had kept company with a bad gang in Des Moines and that some of his apparently closest friends were Pete Yoark, John West, Bill Burgoyne, [a] man named Miggins, and others who have records as safe blowers and term servers. It was supposed he was using them as ‘stool pigeons’ in his detective work.”
If that is true, it may account for the large sum of money Joplin Red was flashing before his death.
Eventually, the life of crime had too strong a pull on Richards.
Within a few years, former U.S. Marshal Bill Richards was accused of robbing an elderly couple near Knoxville with an accomplice, Frank Baird. After temporarily disappearing — some thought to Mexico — Richards gave himself up.
Frank Baird turned state’s evidence and was paroled within a few years. Richards, however, received a 15-year sentence.
Not long afterwards, Frank Baird’s lawyer, Peter Sullivan, was convicted of attempted murder when he tried to cut another man’s throat during a dispute over 50 cents in a card game; he was sent to prison where he met up again with disgraced U.S. Marshal Richards, the man he helped put there. Sullivan blamed his downfall on “adherence to the flowing bowl.”
Little is known about John West, if that was his real name.
Without an established identity, authorities could not trace his family, although some believed he was a Sioux City native.
With his friends having deserted him and law enforcement breathing a sigh of relief at his death, there was no one to mourn Joplin Red.
The Waterloo Daily Reporter wrote what passed for his obituary and eulogy:
“John West, alias ‘Joplin Red,’ alias M. Michel, safe blower, burglar, all around crook and ‘stool pigeon,’ is dead . . . . For twenty years his face has adorned the walls of rogues’ galleries and during half that time he has lived inside prison walls. He started out as a petty thief, but soon became known as an expert safe blower and was constantly under the surveillance of the police.”
West’s place of burial is unknown.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1900 murder of John “Joplin Red” West should be directed to the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864 or Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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