Special Officer Rube Tom Pollock

Rube Tom Pollock

Special Officer Rube Pollock succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained on March 3rd, 1934, in the railyards at Brinkley, Arkansas while investigating a fire inside of a boxcar.

He and another railroad employee had approached the boxcar and Officer Pollock went inside to investigate it. As he did so he encountered a man who opened fire on him, striking him several times. He was taken to a local hospital where he died on March 8th, 1934.

The suspect fled the scene but was later arrested in Cairo, Illinois. He was extradited back to Arkansas where he was convicted of Officer Pollock's first-degree murder and initially sentenced to death. The first-degree murder charge was reduced to second-degree murder on appeal and he was subsequently sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Officer Pollock was survived by his mother, four brothers, and two sisters.