Bio & Incident Details
Age: 47
Tour: 22 years
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 3/16/1934
Weapon: Handgun
Suspect: Shot and killed
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Undersheriff Cavanagh was shot and killed after responding to a call about a man brandishing a handgun in a grocery store. When he arrived on the scene the two exchanged shots and both Undersheriff Cavanagh and the suspect were killed. The suspect had escaped from an Indiana jail with John Dillinger 13 days earlier.
Undersheriff Cavanagh had served in law enforcement for 22 years. He was survived by his wife and child.
Led by John Dillinger, the Dillinger Gang was a notorious group of Midwest bank robbers. Associates of the gang were responsible for the fatal shootings of 13 law enforcement officers in 1933 and 1934.
Two infamous members of the gang, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson, were shot and killed by law enforcement officers in separate incidents.
The other gang members were either murdered by criminals, shot and killed by law enforcement officers, executed for their crimes, or sentenced to time in prison.
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