Along with his brother in-law Ollie Hipes, 22-year William Fleming was St. Louis bootlegger who started encroaching into new territory. According to his mother, who knew he was bootlegging, he received a call in the middle of August warning him to stay out of the southern part of the county. Mrs. Fleming went on to say that she overheard her son, Ollie and their partner William Shannon discussing the call and saying that it came from Sicilians. They ignored the warning.
Late in the morning of August 30, 1931 Hipes picked up Fleming in his roadster and then they picked up Shannon. According to Hipes, while driving, he heard an odd noise that seemed to be coming from his car tires. He pulled over to investigate. As he got out to inspect the front tires, Fleming and Shannon got out to look at the rear tires. While looking at the tires he heard a gun shot, he turned, ran and dived in a ditch. In that few moments he saw a black sedan behind his car. While face down in the ditch, he heard more gunfire. It is assumed that one gunman fired a shotgun while another opened up with a Thompson. Hipes stayed down until the sedan pulled away.
Clamoring out of the ditch he piled his partners into the car and drove them to the hospital. Fleming was already dead having been shot six times in the chest and taken thirty-five shotgun slugs to a leg. Shannon also caught his fair share of lead but survived.
William Fleming
No comments:
Post a Comment