Patrolman Emery Elsunth McCreight

Emery Elsunth McCreight

Patrolman Emery McCreight was shot and killed when he and his partner discovered two men attempting to break into the Murphy-Benham Hardware Store at 66 N. South Street around midnight.

The suspect who police believed shot Patrolman McCreight was arrested and charged with his murder. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. During his trial and afterward, the suspect pleaded that he was innocent. In late December of 1922, a Jamestown man was arrested after he boasted to friends that two notches cut in the butt of his pistol represented two dead policemen.

The man confessed that he murdered Patrolman McCreight and had also murdered Police Officer Elvas Matthews, of the Xenia Police Department, on December 21st, 1922.

The man was convicted of Patrolman McCreight's murder and sentenced to life in prison on February 20th, 1923. He was paroled July 30th, 1945. His accomplice was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to one to 20 years in the Mansfield Reformatory. The man wrongly convicted of Patrolman McCreight's murder was released.

Patrolman McCreight was survived by his wife and two daughters.