Thomas Archibald Brown (February 7, 1889 – January 5, 1959

Ely, Minnesota Ely ( ) is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,268 at the 2020 census. Located on the Vermilion iron range, Ely once had several iron ore mines. It is an entry point for campers and canoers into the Bou ...

), known as "Big Tom", was the mobbed-up

police chief The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. A native of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, Brown arrived in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

in 1910 and joined the St. Paul Police Department in 1914. At the time, the Department already had an unenviable reputation. Around 1900, Police Chief John O'Connor had developed the so-called "O'Connor system" in which fugitives from other jurisdictions were immune to arrest and extradition so long as they kept a low profile and committed no violent crimes while hiding in St. Paul. Upon becoming Police Chief in June 1930, however, Big Tom Brown refused to obey or enforce the O'Connor System's traditional ban on unnecessary violence. His alliance with both the

Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dill ...

and Barker-Karpis Gangs accordingly resulted in some of the most infamously violent crimes of the

Depression era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and unintentionally aided in the rise of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

and its Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...

. Through the FBI's influence, Brown's many felonies were publicly exposed during a Civil Service Board hearing and he was finally dismissed from the police force. He was never indicted, however, or prosecuted for his many capital crimes and died, a free man, in

in 1959.

Early career

Thomas A. Brown was born in a coal mining region of

, into a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

family of mixed German-Paul Maccabee (1995), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936'',

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

Press. Page 160. and Scotch IrishMahoney (2013), page 9. descent. He stood and was too tall to work in the mines, so he worked as conductor for the Great Northern Railroad before settling in St. Paul in 1910. He worked at various jobs before joining the Police Department as a traffic patrolman in 1914.Paul Maccabee (1995), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936'',

Press. Page 159. At the same time that other men from every other nation were fighting and dying in the

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...

of the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

, Patrolman Thomas A. Brown was learning to use his badge as a shield to commit extortion and many other crimes. Although he was careful enough never to accept a

bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corr ...

in front of eyewitnesses, in conversations with George Rafferty, his brother-in-law, Patrolman Brown used to boast that seeking bribes for a St. Paul cop was easy, "Go into taverns with your hand out." In 1919, Thomas A. Brown was promoted to Detective. Detective Brown achieved local fame after killing escaped murderer Edwin Rust in a gunfight. He was appointed to the "Purity Squad", which was supposed to identify and close down

illegal gambling Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, c ...

casinos, speak-easies, and brothels. He quickly learned to build contacts with the criminals who ran them and to

extort Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

in return for advance warnings regarding to the Purity Squad's raids. In 1926, he was arrested for stealing a large quantity of alcohol that had been confiscated in a raid. The same year, Brown was suspended for 30 days when a Federal judge ordered him extradited to Ohio with

Leon Gleckman Leon Gleckman (1894 - July 1941) was a Belarusian Jewish immigrant to the United States. Gleckman rose to prominence as a bootlegger during Prohibition and as a leader within what has come to be known as Jewish-American organized crime. So great ...

and the Gleeman brothers to face charges of conspiracy and liquor smuggling. He was subsequently reinstated. The Purity Squad became notorious for its repeated failure to find any illegal activity during raids, and a board of inquiry was moving toward dismissing Brown. The dismissal was suddenly withdrawn, however, probably due to pressure from corrupt politicians with links to local crime bosses, particularly

Jewish-American organized crime Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been referred to variously in media and popular culture as the Jewish Mob, Jewish Mafia, Kosher Mob, K ...

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

, who was often termed "The

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

of St. Paul".

Chief of Police

In June 1930,

engineered Brown's appointment as chief of police.Folsom, Robert, ''The Money Trail: How Elmer Irey and His T-men Brought Down America's Criminal Elite'', Potomac, 2010, pp. 247–8. Brown's daughter, Vera Peters, later recalled, "I'll never forget when my father was nominated to be police chief. He came home to tell my mother that he was going to get three hundred dollars a month - which was a big sum in those days... My father was the first police chief in the new police station, so he took us to the station to have our photos taken like they did with criminals." To the public, Brown depicted himself as a racket-buster and a fearless crime-fighter. Soon after his appointment, Brown declared war on

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

figures who were allegedly investing in Minnesota's bootlegging and

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

rackets, vowing, "St. Paul will not tolerate any gangsters... This is an open statement. There is nothing concealed. To all gangsters who may be in St. Paul, get out and stay out." In reality, speakeasy owner and FBI informant Frank Reilly informed his handlers about, "a number of people who had contributed large sums to Brown's campaign", including

Dillinger Gang The Dillinger Gang was a group of American Depression-era bank robbers led by John Dillinger. The gang gained notoriety for a successful string of bank robberies, using modern tools and tactics, in the Midwestern United States from September 1933 ...

leader

Homer Van Meter Homer Virgil Van Meter (December 3, 1905 – August 23, 1934) was an American criminal and bank robber active in the early 20th century, most notably as a criminal associate of John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Biography Early life Van ...

, who had donated $1000. "It was further understood that after he was appointed Chief of Police they were to be allotted certain rackets in St. Paul. During Brown's term it was impossible to run anything without paying off, and according to Reilly, it got to such a point where the various candy companies complained that they were not allowed even to install their merchandise boards in various stores without paying protection." Police officers Charles Tierney and Joseph Dahill also told the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

that, during Brown's 1930-1932 term as Police Chief,

was granted a monopoly on

and ran it from his suite at the St. Paul Hotel. Gleckman was kidnapped by rival racketeer Jack Peifer, and Brown worked hard for his release. The ransom was paid, but one of the kidnappers was later found shot dead by an unknown assailant. Brown took the ransom from the man's safe;Robert O’Connor, "St. Paul's Gangster Era", 3AM Magazine
/ref> he later claimed that he stored it at police headquarters, but it was never located. Brown's tenure as chief came to an end when he became involved with the Barker-Karpis gang, who had come to St. Paul at the invitation of Gleckman's rival Jack Peifer. The gang committed a series of robberies until a neighbor recognized them from pictures in ''True Detective'' magazine. Brown delayed responding to the information, and he or one of his associates tipped them off. They cleared out believing that

Ma Barker Kate Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark; October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935), better known as Ma Barker (and sometimes known as Arizona Barker and Arrie Barker), was the mother of several American criminals who ran the Barker–Karpis Gang ...

's lover Arthur Dunlop had informed on them, and they shot him and dumped his naked body. The Dunlop murder sealed Brown's fate as chief, as the publicity led to questions about how the gang had gotten away. He was demoted by the new mayor, who was elected on an anti-corruption ticket, from Chief of Police to head of the Department's Anti-Kidnapping Squad.

Head of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad

After his demotion, Brown ran for election as sheriff of

Ramsey County, Minnesota Ramsey County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 552,352, making it the second-most populous county in Minnesota. Its county seat and largest city is Saint Paul, the state capital and ...

. According to FBI informants, members of Dillinger's gang, particularly

, paid $1500 into Brown's election campaign, but he was unsuccessful. Despite suspicions against him, Detective Brown was appointed to head the St. Paul Police Department's newly formed Kidnap Squad. Meanwhile, with prohibition over, Detective Brown, acting through St. Paul

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...

es Jack Peifer and Harry Sawyer, suggested that the Barker-Karpis Gang should move into other crimes.

The Hamm kidnapping

They kidnapped wealthy businessman William Hamm. Brown informed them of plans by police to trap them. The ransom money was successfully collected, and a cut given to Brown. With the assistance of mobbed up Captain "Tubbo" Gilbert 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 ...

, the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, tha ...

succeeded in tricking the

into believing that the Outfit's mortal enemy,

Irish mob The Irish Mob (also known as the Irish mafia or Irish organized crime) is a collective of organized crime syndicates composed of ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, and have been in ...

boss

Roger Touhy Roger Touhy (September 18, 1898 – December 16, 1959) was an Irish American mob boss and prohibition-era bootlegger from Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. He is best remembered for having been framed for the 1933 faked kidnapping of gan ...

, had masterminded the Hamm kidnapping and many other crimes just like it in States all over the Midwest. Despite the Bureau's best efforts, however, a Federal jury in St. Paul acquitted Touhy and his enforcers of all charges.

Armed Robbery and Murder in South St. Paul

According to Paul Maccabee, "No crime illustrated how far the O'Connor System had eroded", than the Barker Gang's next robbery, which was carried out at the

South St. Paul South St. Paul is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, located immediately south and southeast of Saint Paul, Minnesota, St. Paul. It is also east of West St. Paul, Minnesota, West St. Paul. The population ...

post office on August 30, 1933 by Charles Fitzgerald, Alvin Karpis, Fred Barker, and

gangsters Byron Bolton and

Fred Goetz Fred Samuel Goetz (February 14, 1897 – March 21, 1934), also known as "Shotgun" George Ziegler, was a Chicago Outfit mobster and a suspected participant in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in 1929. Early life Goetz was born in Chicago t ...

.Paul Maccabee (1995), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936'',

Press. Page 166. After the Great Western Railroad delivered a $33,000

Swift and Company JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is an American food processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational company JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company. JBS speci ...

payroll from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis to the local post office,

police Officer John Yeaman and rookie Patrolma
Leo Pavlak
were assigned as escorts. At 9:45 AM, as both officers walked down the post office steps, the Barker-Karpis Gang drove up in a black sedan and unloaded

Doc Barker Arthur R. "Doc" Barker (June 4, 1899 – January 13, 1939) was an American criminal, the son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang, founded by his brother Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis. Barker was typically called on for violent ac ...

, who wielded a saw-off shotgun and shouted, "Stick 'em up!" After Officer Pavlak surrendered his side arm and obeyed, Doc Barker screamed, "You dirty rat, son of a bitch", and shot Pavlak in the head. Meanwhile, Fred Barker opened fire on Officer Yeaman, who survived until 1971, but was left permanently maimed. The Barker Gang then seized the money bags containing the $33,000 payroll, but, went on a shooting spree before fleeing the scene of the robbery. According to a report by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, "The bandits put on a

Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained stro ...

exhibition by shooting up and down Concord St., shooting about a dozen shots into the Postal Building and across the street. These bandits used a

Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Stat ...

and a sawed-off shotgun with which they did their shooting, and it is a miracle that no one else was shot and wounded. They appeared to be cool and reckless, not giving a damn who they shot." In an interview with Paul Maccabee, Robert Pavlak recalled about the day of his father's death, "I ran home... That's all I remember. My mother was dying of cancer at the time -- we had so much grief then."Paul Maccabee (1995), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936'',

Press. Page 169. While talking to the FBI, disgraced former St Paul Inspector of Detectives James Crumley alleged, "Truman Alcorn, former Chief of Police of South St. Paul, is very close to Tom Brown and... there is no question but Brown and Alcorn we're in on the payroll robbery in South St. Paul." When asked by Paul Maccabee about the possible complicity of fellow cops in his father's murder, Robert Pavlak responded, "There was so much criminality then, both within and without the Department, that Lieutenant Jeff Dittrich used to tell me, 'You never went to take the garbage out at night without having a gun in your hand.'"

The Bremer kidnapping

Another kidnapping by the Barker-Karpis Gang soon followed.

Edward Bremer The kidnapping of Edward Bremer was the last major criminal enterprise of the Barker-Karpis gang. Though successful in netting the gang a large ransom, it brought down the full force of the FBI on the gang, resulting in the death or capture of it ...

, a mobbed up

banker and brewery heir, was abducted on his way to work after dropping his daughter at school on January 15, 1934. The FBI became actively involved. When it became evident that leaks were coming from the St. Paul Police's Kidnap Squad, Brown was isolated from the investigation.

On August 23, 1934 Brown was involved in the killing of former ally Homer Van Meter at the corner of Marion Street and

University Avenue A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in St. Paul. Van Meter was lured to a supposed meeting, but was confronted by four police officers who were waiting for him, led by Chief of Police Frank Cullen. All were heavily armed with rifles and Brown carried a

.Morton, James, ''The Mammoth Book of Gangs'', Constable & Robinson Ltd., (2012), p. 1931 The officers later claimed Van Meter ignored their command to stop and fled into a nearby alley, where he fired twice on the officers with a .45 caliber pistol. Chief Cullen, armed with a rifle, held his fire as a bystander walked past, but the remaining officers opened fire on Van Meter, who fell dead."Homer Van Meter Walks Into Police Trap and Dies Shooting", ''Lawrence Journal-World'', 24 August 1934 He was 27 years old. Brown continued to fire at Van Meter as he lay prone; the impact of the bullets ripped off one finger and nearly severed a thumb and finger of the right hand.''Dillinger Mob Man Shot Down'', Prescott Evening Courier, 24 August 1934 The body was found to be armed with a .45-caliber Colt automatic pistol. The number and severity of Van Meter's wounds were attributed to the use of the Thompson submachine gun. Van Meter's family later said that their kin had been used for "target practice". Out of disgust over Detective Brown's betrayal of Homer Van Meter, the Barker-Karpis Gang decided to divide what would otherwise have been the Detective's share of the Bremer ransom among themselves. By this time, Detective Brown was also under investigation by the FBI. Many of the kidnappers had been arrested and detained by the beginning of 1935. A great deal of information about Brown's involvement given by minor gang members

Edna Murray Edna "Rabbit" Murray (1898–1966) was a criminal associated with several high-profile gangs in the Depression-era of the early 1930s. Although popularly known to the press as the "Kissing Bandit" for kissing a male robbery victim, she was known in ...

and Byron Bolton.

Public disgrace

In August 1936, a two months long public hearing began before the St. Paul Civil Service Board. In witness testimony, Brown was repeatedly implicated in a

criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance o ...

with

es Harry Sawyer and Jack Peifer, as well as the Barker-Karpis Gang, to commit both the Hamm and Bremer kidnappings. Claiming that all of the testimony against him was hearsay, Brown fought his dismissal, but mounting evidence of his corruption shocked the people of St. Paul enough to justify it. On October 8, 1936, the Civil Service Board announced, witness "statements have been fully investigated and as a result of said investigation, you are hereby discharged for inefficiency, breach of duty,

misfeasance Misfeasance, nonfeasance, and malfeasance are types of failure to discharge public obligations existing by common law, custom, or statute. The Carta de Logu caused Eleanor of Arborea to be remembered as one of the first lawmakers to set up the ...

, and

malfeasance Misfeasance, nonfeasance, and malfeasance are types of failure to discharge public obligations existing by common law, custom, or statute. The Carta de Logu caused Eleanor of Arborea to be remembered as one of the first lawmakers to set up the ...

." Due to the influence of equally mobbed up

County Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

Michael Kinkead, however, a Ramsey County

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

heard the evidence against the disgraced police chief, but declined to return an

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...

Personal life

He married Mary Rafferty, and the couple had four daughters and one son. The Brown family lived in a two story white stucco house 759 East Maryland Avenue in St. Paul. In keeping with the teachings of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

disparity of cult Disparity of cult, sometimes called disparity of worship (''Disparitas Cultus''), is a Annulment#Annulment in the Catholic Church, diriment impediment in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic canon law (Roman Catholic Church), canon law: a reaso ...

marriages, Mary Brown raised their children as Catholics, while her husband remained a Baptist, albeit a non-practicing one. Despite their familial relationship, one of the

's many

confidential informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

s relating to Brown's criminal activities was the police chief's brother in law, a cab driver named George Rafferty. In an interview with Paul Maccabee, Brown's daughter, Vera Peters, recalled her father as a strict disciplinarian, "of the old German feeling that kids should be seen and not heard." Peters also recalled, "We knew what was right and wrong in my family. When my brother Jim was engaged to be married, he still had to be home by eleven!"

Later life

After an

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

investigation into Brown for

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

fizzled out for unknown reasons, the disgraced former police chief was granted a

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the legal authority ...

in 1937. He then ran a liquor store in

Morris, Minnesota Morris is a city in and the county seat of Stevens County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,105 at the 2020 census. Morris is surrounded by some of the nation's richest agricultural land, and agribusiness is important to the loca ...

until 1946, when a municipal voting campaign forced him to close down his business. Brown then moved away to

and opened another liquor store. In January 1947, he was indicted by a Federal

for nine counts of violating Federal liquor laws. In a

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

negotiated by lawyer, Brown pled guilty to one count of evading Federal liquor tax and failure to register as an alcohol dealer. In return, all the other eight charges were dropped. Brown paid a $3,500 fine and received a suspended sentence of one year imprisonment. Brown's attorney alleged that his client was "a sick man", who was, "out of the liquor business and intended to stay out." After paying his fine, however, Brown returned to Ely, where he opened a brand new liquor store named, "Tom Brown's Bottle Shop". Brown died of a sudden

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

while crossing an Ely street in January 1959. He was 69 years old.Tim Mahoney (2013), ''Secret Partners: Big Tom Brown and the Barker Gang'',

Press. Pages 242-243.

References

Sources

* Paul Maccabee (1993), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook's Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936'',

Press. * Tim Mahoney (2013), ''Secret Partners: Big Tom Brown and the Barker Gang'',

Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Tom 1889 births 1959 deaths American extortionists American gangsters of German descent American municipal police chiefs American people of German descent American people of Scotch-Irish descent Criminals from Minnesota Criminals from West Virginia Law enforcement in Minnesota Organized crime in Minnesota People from Saint Paul, Minnesota People from West Virginia Police misconduct in the United States