August 30

APPEALING SUBJECTS
BY CRAIG MANSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Photography was all the rage in the St Louis area at the turn of the twentieth century, and not surprisingly so. The city was "The Gateway to the [still wild] West." It would be celebrating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase .and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. A World's Fair had come to the city. It was a photographer's Paradise.

When A.J. Magill had the chance to get into the photography business, he jumped at it--or at least he would have jumped had he had two good legs with which to do so. Magill had been one of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders at San Juan Hill; but he had survived that unscathed. However, when the handsome soldier with "a magnificent physique" returned to civilian life in Missouri, he had taken a job at the St Louis National Stockyards. Such work in that era was highly dangerous. A court later had occasion to describe what then happened to Magill:

On August 15, 1907, in the middle of the afternoon, a switching crew was at work in the Armour yards, distributing empty cars, which had been returned from the carrying railroads. Eepair track No. 4 was full of cars and, as was the custom, a space had been left at the end of every second car, so that the repairers and cleaners could get about them conveniently. When such was the case, the track was called "set," and it was the custom of the yards and so understood, that no more cars should be set in on that track, or the cars disturbed so as to interfere in any way with the safety of the workmen. When, on this occasion, track No. 4 was "set," the foreman of the switching crew threw the switch between the short lead and tracks 3 and 4, so as to connect track No. 3 with the lead, cutting out No. 4, and took all the crew, except a brake- man named Wysong, with the engine and went out of the yards to bring in more cars and distribute them on the proper tracks. When the crew returned, it started, under the direction of the foreman, to send several cars over the short lead, connecting 3 and 4 with the fence lead track, intending to kick them in on track No. 3; but in the meantime the switch had been thrown back from No. 3 to No. 4, and the cars ran in on the latter track, violently striking the spaced cars loaded there and causing them to break loose and move.

Magill was at work under one of the cars, and when the impact occurred, the car under which he was located moved and a car wheel ran over his leg, cutting it off.

Harding v. St Louis National Stockyards, 149 Ill.App. 371-72 (1909)

As a result, Magill wore a left leg made of cork. But also as a result of the accident, Magill was no longer able or interested in working in the packing industry. He sued Armour & Co. and the St Louis National Stockyards for his injuries, planning to put the money into a new photography business. Even before the trial of his lawsuit, Magill, who had been a "practical" photographer for a long time, had opened a studio in the Victor Building on Collinsville Avenue in East St Louis. He eventually won $7,500 in the lawsuit.



Magill, a bachelor, lived with his sister, Mrs. A.J. Barnum. When he was not working, Magill spent time with his sister and her friend, Susan Brogan, whose husband worked for the St Louis Water Company.

On Saturday, July 11, 1908, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, two young women entered Magill's studio to have their portraits made. A few minutes later, according to witnesses, at least one gunshot was heard as the women left the studio. Two men who had offices nearby rushed into the studio and found Magill dead from a gunshot wound. The assailant was gone. The police arrived and immediately seized the plates on which Magill had last worked, thinking there would be a clue there.

A.J. Magill (photograph appeared in St Louis Post-Dispatch on July 13, 1908

The customer in "Uncle Charlie's" pawn shop one morning in July, 1908 was not a man "of magnificent physique." Indeed, it was said that he had "a deformity of shoulders" that "made him resemble a hunchback." The man said he needed a revolver to "shoot a thief." Charlie showed him some pistols, but became alarmed at the unsafe ways in which the customer handled them. Charlie refused to sell the man a gun and the man left. Later, the man entered a pawn shop owned by one Paul Kahn. Kahn sold the man a .38 caliber revolver. The man signed his name as "Reuben Johnson."

The shooting of Andrew Magill was big news throughout the region. The Chicago Tribune and the New York Times both carried the story.

That night, Gibbons Brogan, Susan's cruel and misshapened husband, did not come home.

The last photographs ever taken by A.J. Magill. The young women are Aggie Stemmer, age 27, and Lottie Tarloting, age unknown. The police cleared the women of any involvement in the crime (Photograph appeared in St Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1908).

Susan Brogan, who had spent the previous night at the Barnums' residence, upon hearing that Magill had been murdered, exclaimed to her 18 year old son, "Papa's killed Andy!"


Susan Brogan (photograph appeared in St Louis Post-Dispatch on July 13, 1908).




The police had no solid leads on the whereabouts of Gibbons Brogan for more than eighteen months. Then, in early January, 1910, a man told detectives in San Francisco that he knew where to find Gibbons Brogan and that for an appropriate reward, he would lead them to Brogan. Thereupon, the East St Louis police arranged a reward of $300 for information leading to the arrest of Gibbons Brogan. On January 25, 1910, Brogan was arrested in San Francisco.

Returned to Illinois by U.S. Marshals, Brogan confessed that he had been "involved" in Magill's murder, but had that he did not actually pulled the trigger. The evidence, however, seemingly contradicted his story. Susan Brogan told the press that her husband had threatened to kill Magill as much as five years before the actual murder. Eyewitnesses came forward and said they could see into the studio and described a stooped man shooting Magill in the right arm, then beating him with the butt of a revolver. When Magill fell down, the stooped man shot him in the head. Two .38 caliber bullets were recovered from Magill's body.

In March, 1910, Brogan was denied bail and bound over to appear before the St Clair County Grand Jury.

Following his arraignment, as one local newspaper reported, "he was sent back to the county jail for safekeeping."

So what happened to Gibbons Brogan in the end? Take a look at this: (click on images to enlarge)

1910 Federal Census, Sapapula, Creek County, Oklahoma

How did Gibbons Brogan end up here just two months after his arraignment for murder?

You tell us what happened! Appealing Subjects and Shades of the Departed will award a T-Shirt artfully designed by footnoteMaven to the person who gives us the best explanation of what happened to Gibbons Brogan after "he was returned to the county jail for safekeeping." We'll take submissions by email (craig@geneablogie.com) until October 15. In the October Appealing Subjects, we will announce the winner. We are the sole judges of the matter and our decision is final.


References:

"Jealous Husband of 50 Sought as Studio Murderer," St Louis Post-Dispatch, July 12, 1908, p. 1
"Wife Aids Hunt for Suspected Husband," St Louis Star and Chronicle, July 13, 1908, p. 1
"Hopes Husband Will Be Caught and Hanged," St Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1908, p. 3
"Photographer is Killed in Studio," St Louis Globe-Democrat, July12, 1908, p. 1
"Picture a Clue to Solve Crime," New York Times, July 12, 1908
"Police Look for Body of Maniac to Solve Murder," Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1908, p. 3
"Want Man Who Knows Whereabouts of Brogan," San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1910, p.11
"Brogan a Murderer," Decatur (Ill.) Daily Review, January 31, 1910, p. 3, col. 2



Special Thanks to:

St Louis Public Library, St Louis, MO
St Clair Historical Society, Belleville, IL