United States Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Government
End of Watch: Wednesday, September 23, 1908
Age:
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: September 23, 1908
Weapon Used: Handgun
Suspect Info: Pardoned in 1925
Postal Inspector Charles Fitzgerald was shot and killed in Clinton, Mississippi, by the city's deputy postmaster during an investigation.
Inspector Fitzgerald had discovered a shortage of $476 during a review of the post office's accounts. The deputy postmaster asked him not to report the shortage and promised to pay restitution for the shortage. Inspector Fitzgerald refused not to report the shortage and was then accompanied by the man to the railroad station so he could return to Jackson.
The deputy postmaster continued to plea with Inspector Fitzgerald not to report the embezzlement. Inspector Fitzgerald again refused not to report the incident and, as he boarded the train, the man shot him without warning. Inspector Fitzgerald was taken to the Jackson Sanitorium where he died three hours later.
The man who shot him was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. On January 3rd, 1919, he escaped from the Parchmen Penitentiary but was recaptured 17 months later in Wichita, Kansas. He was pardoned by Governor Henry L. Whitfield in September 1925.