The St. Paul Underworld Hits a Homer

A month and day after John Dillinger was gunned down in Chicago, his pal and accomplice Homer Van Meter met a similar end in a St. Paul, Minnesota alley. After hearing about Dillinger's death, Van Meter and his girlfriend fled Chicago for the Twin Cities where he had contacts with St. Paul underworld. However, because of the heat of the Dillinger killing and the ever growing threat of the FBI, the St. Paul underworld didn't make themselves available for the desperado. After staying at numerous tourist camps over the course of and traveling into town to meet up with contacts, it was decided that Homer had to go.

It's not known who actually set up Van Meter but he was definitely put on the spot. One version has it that underworld banker Harry Sawyer was holding nine grand for the bank robber and Van Meter showed up to collect. Realizing that Van Meter's time was running out anyways, hes contacted a crooked detective named Tom Brown who knew that bringing down someone of Van Meter's stature would help to polish his tainted reputation. At about 5:00 pm on August 23, 1934, a car dropped Van Meter off at a car dealership. The bank robber went inside and came out about ten minutes later. Detective Brown, who happened to be waiting outside with the chief of police and two other officers, two with sawed off shotguns and two, Thompson machine-guns. They yelled for Van Meter to "Stick 'em up!"

Van Meter drew a pistol and took off running. He fired a couple of shots over his shoulder as he ran. There was a woman between him and they officers so the law didn't return fire but chased him on foot. After a short run Van Meter made a fatal error. He turned into an alley that was a dead end. He turned to escape but the officers were at the end. Brown pulled his trigger and the blast blew Van Meter two feet off the ground. The bank robber leaned forward and tried to raise his gun but a blast from one of the Thompsons finished the job.

Sawyer kept his money, Brown got a feather in his cap and his share of the reward and the St. Paul underworld didn't have to worry about Homer anymore.

Homer Van Meter