END OF WATCH: January 14, 1944
Cleveland Police Department
Age: 70
On January14, 1944, Sergeant Patrick Ryan, a police veteran of forty years was killed in an automobile crash near Brookville, Florida as he and John J. Mahon, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, neared the end of a trip to pick up a vote-fraud suspect held in Miami, Florida.
Mahon’s car rammed into the rear end of a car that stopped suddenly in front of them. Mahon’s car flipped over seriously injuring Sergeant Ryan detailed to the Prosecutor’s office. Sergeant Ryan died several hours later in a Brookville, Florida hospital.
Ryan was credited with many sensational captures of Cleveland gunmen in the twenties when he worked out of the Thirteenth Precinct at East 80th and Superior. Daring arrests were made by Ryan after gun battles, but he remained unscathed.
The election’s fraud defendant was arrested in Miami and refused to waive extradition. Ryan and Mahon were sent with a Writ of Habeas Corpus to the Miami Court.
Patrick Ryan’s name is inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall, Washington, D.C. panel 54, west wall, line 15.
By Bridget Stefan, Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial Society
