Superintendent Joseph Kipley (November 25, 1848 – February 6, 1904) was

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals ...

of the

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...

from 1897 to 1901. He succeeded John J. Badenoch and was succeeded by

Francis O'Neill Francis O'Neill (August 28, 1848 – January 26, 1936) was an Irish-born American police officer and collector of Irish traditional music. His biographer Nicholas Carolan referred to him as "the greatest individual influence on the evolution o ...

. Lindberg, Richard.
To Serve and Collect
'. Accessed 2 November 2018.

Early life

Kipley was born in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. He moved to Chicago in 1865. He worked at a picture frame factory which burned down in the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 1 ...

in October 1871.

Police career

33RD-HEAD-OF-THE-CHICAGO-POLICE-DEPARTMENT-General-Superintendent-of-Police-Joseph-Kipley-1897-1901

Three months after the fire, he joined the

, and he worked there for many years. He was named Inspector and then an Assistant Superintendent, but when

George Bell Swift George Bell Swift (December 14, 1845July 2, 1912; buried in Rosehill Cemetery) served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1893; 1895–1897) for the Republican Party. He was selected to replace the assassinated Carter Harrison, Sr. as Mayor pro te ...

was elected mayor of Chicago in 1895, Kipley no longer had a position in the department. For the next two years, Kipley organized the Star League, a political group consisting of former Chicago police officers. Kipley was appointed Chief of Police of Chicago by Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. in 1897.

Death

In early 1904, Kipley began to experience stomach problems. He underwent an operation, but it left him very ill and he died a few days later on 6 February 1904. A death notice in the '' St. Louis Republic'' called him "the most widely known Chief of Police Chicago ever had."

Legacy

'' The Ice Pond Mystery'', a

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as spe ...

written by Kipley as a police lieutenant, was published posthumously by the J.S. Ogilvie Publishing Company as part of its '' Shield Series''.The Shield Series
''The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer''. p. 247. 15 September 1914. Accessed 2 November 2018 The fictional character of Detective Joseph Kipley in ''Manacle and Bracelet; or, the Dead Man's Secret, A Thrilling Detective Story'', by Edmund C. Strong, in which Detective Kipley solves a series of crimes in Chicago, including

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

, is based on the real Joseph Kipley.Kaser, James A. (2011)
The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide
p. 346. Accessed 2 November 2018.

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kipley, Joseph 1848 births 1904 deaths General Superintendents of the Chicago Police Department People from Paterson, New Jersey