The Killing Spree Ended Here
An Ohio Historical Marker
Just down the road from where we are currently camping in Ohio is a historical marker titled, “Killing Spree Ends Here in 1948.”
You know I had to make Rich stop so I could get some photos of it. An important coincidence is that the date of the event was July 23, the same as my birthdate.
The sign says…
One of Ohio’s greatest manhunts ended here on the morning of July 23, 1948. Robert M. Daniels and John C. West, parolees from the state prison in Mansfield, had gone on a killing spree that left six people dead. Driving west on U.S. Route 224 in a stolen auto transport truck, the pair approached this intersection and encountered a roadblock. It was manned by Van Wert County Sheriff Roy Shaffer, Frank Friemoth, the county game warden, and Sargeant Leonard Conn of the Van Wert City Police. West was driving the truck. Daniels was asleep in a car overhead. As Sheriff Shaffer climbed onto the truck and apprehended Daniels, West leaped from the cab and shot Conn in the chest and Friemoth in the arm. Conn returned fire and killed West. The officers survived their wounds. Daniels was convicted, sentenced to die, and electrocuted at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus on January 3, 1949. This marker pays tribute to all law enforcement officers who risk their lives to protect the citizens of their communities.
Robert Daniels, from Columbus, Ohio, and John West, from Parkersburg, West Virginia, became friends while both were incarcerated at the Mansfield prison. Daniels was labeled a psychopath and West was labeled a stupid moron. The media dubbed them the “mad-dog killers.”
They were paroled at separate times but met up on the outside in Columbus. The more they drank and partied, the more they talked about how much they hated the prison guards. The more they talked about it, the more they wanted to kill them all.
So they stole a vehicle, robbed a gas station, and returned to Mansfield to look up the prison guards they hated so they could kill them in their homes.
After killing six people, they were driving on U.S. Route 224 in Van Wert County when they were pulled over for a routine traffic stop. West was nervous and pulled out a gun and started shooting. West was killed, but Daniels was apprehended. The manhunt for these two killers was tagged “Ohio’s biggest manhunt since Dillinger in 1934.”
Daniels was later interviewed at the state penitentiary by Movietone News, an early version of Fox News. He stated that he was sorry he didn’t get to kill the guard he really wanted to kill, Willis “Red” Harris and then he winked at the camera, shocking the news reporters and audience alike.
Daniels died in the electric chair on January 3, 1949, and is buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus.
You can read more about the story here…
Violent Story of Murderer Robert Daniels at Mansfield Reformatory
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