Former Cop Convicted of Crime of Spousal Non-Support
Cecil A. Banker: 1896-1939 (Maternal Second Cousin 2x Removed)
When I researched Cecil Banker’s work history, it led to
some surprises. He had some fascinating work experiences, but his loss of
employment ended up being even more fascinating to me. “Working for a living”
had more than one meaning in Cecil’s life. He needed to work to live as a free
man.
Cecil Banker was born August 12, 1896 in Janesville,
Minnesota. His parents were Albert Banker and Jennie Anderson Banker. He was
the second of their three children and was the only boy. While he was still a
young child, his parents moved from Janesville back to Wisconsin, where his
father had been born. The family settled in Superior, Wisconsin, at the
northwest tip of the state on the shore of Lake Superior. Only a bridge
separates Superior from the Duluth area of Minnesota.
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| Map of Superior, Wisconsin |
Cecil’s father, Albert, died in 1914 when Cecil was
eighteen. Cecil went to work for the Great Northern Railroad, working as a
switchman. He married Helen Billmayer on September 8, 1917. He was twenty-one
and Helen was two years older.
Cecil registered for the World War I draft in 1918. He listed
his job as switchman, with a notation that he has “gasoline experience good”. This
was probably a note made by the draft board regarding any work experience that
could potentially be valuable to the army. It does not appear that Cecil was
drafted or served. Interestingly, he listed his name on the draft form as Cecil
Almond Banker. Some records, including his Social Security Application, list
his middle name as Albert after his father, rather than the unusual Almond.
Cecil and Jennie had a son, Albert Cecil Banker, on August
17, 1918. They also had a second son, Roger Jay Banker, on February 17, 1923.
Sadly, baby Roger died on August 12, 1923 at only six months of age.
At some point in late 1926 or early 1927, Cecil decided to change careers, and went to work for the police force in Superior, Wisconsin. At that point in time, Superior had a population of nearly 40,000 people, far more than today’s 26,000.
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| Superior downtown in 1930s |
Cecil appears in a few news articles about crimes and
arrests in 1927 and 1928, and he is listed as a patrolman. The articles include
his arrest of a drunk driver and his assisting a man who claimed to have been
robbed and run over by a car.
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| Arrest notice from Oct 21, 1927 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram |
Cecil was fortunate to be employed by the city government
when the stock market crashed in 1929 and the country entered the Great
Depression. He took and successfully passed the police exam in September 1929.
The news article reported that “among those taking the policeman’s test were
several who are on the force at present, but since they had not been confirmed,
had to go through the exams for the second time.” I assume this is why Cecil
took the exam in 1929 despite having worked as a patrol officer for two years.
Cecil was involved in a notorious criminal case in 1929. His
commanding officer, a Sergeant Zimmerman, had chastised another officer,
Patrolman Ben Meyers, for drinking on the job. Meyers pulled out his service
weapon and shot the sergeant. Zimmerman ordered Cecil to arrest Meyers, and
then walked to a nearby store to call in his injury. He died days later in the
hospital, so the prosecution of Meyers rested in large part on Cecil’s testimony.
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| Headline from the December 2, 1929 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram |
The Superior Evening Telegram reported on Cecil’s testimony
in the January 14, 1930 edition:
“Patrolman Banker, the next witness on the stand, was
questioned for about two hours and a half. He told of seeing Meyers shortly
after midnight, and of seeing Zimmerman a short time later. At 3: 22 a.m., Banker
met Zimmerman at Belknap Street and Tower Avenue, he related on the stand, and
the two officers walked toward Fourteenth Street. ‘We saw Ben come out from
behind the Kindy Optical Company while we were standing in front of the post
office,’ Banker testified. ‘Zimmerman
said ‘there’s Ben, I’m going over to meet him.’ … Banker watched the two men
walk toward Thirteenth Street, he told the jury. Then, shortly after passing a
lamp post a few feet from the northeast corner of the street, he saw them separate,
he said, and then he heard a shot and saw a flash.
‘Did you watch the two men continually from then on?’
Attorney Cooper asked.
‘Almost, I was running and had to watch the ice a
little,‘ Banker answered. ‘When I got in front of the Grand Rapids, I stopped
for a few seconds, wondering what I had best do,’ Banker testified, ‘and then,
drawing my gun from my pocket, I walked across the street, and told Ben I had
my gun on him. I stuck my gun in his back and told him to give me his,’ Banker
said. ‘Then Zimmerman grabbed my arm and pulled himself up. He led the way
across the street. Meyers followed him and I followed Meyers,’ the patrolman
said.
The consequent telephoning of the police department for
the patrol wagon and ambulance were related by Patrolman Banker, and then he
made his statement in regard to the final conversation between the two officers,
one of whom had shot the other a few minutes previous.
It was a glowing tribute to Sergeant Zimmerman. A silent
courtroom heard the gruff officer tell of the wounded police officer’s last
utterance, ‘You shouldn’t have done it, Ben, you shouldn’t have shot me.’ While
Banker made no statement in praise of Zimmerman’s action, his attitude
portrayed an admiration of the dead sergeant’s manner of mildly rebuking the
man who had shot him.”
Cecil was still on the police force at the time of the 1930
census. However, he was no longer on the force by 1932, when he was sued for
non-support by his wife. By that point, Cecil and Helen had a third child, a daughter,
Beverly, who was born in 1929. The news article on the non-support arrest
stated that Cecil was a “discharged” police officer. I am unsure whether this
means he was fired for cause or if the city, facing financial problems during
the Depression, layed him off. The result was the same: he had no job, so had
no means to support his wife and children.
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| Non-Support Charge from May 24, 1932 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram |
To my surprise, I discovered that being unemployed and
unable to provide for your family was a crime in Wisconsin in the early 1930s,
and was punishable by a prison sentence! That seems patently ridiculous, as a
prisoner had no ability to provide for his or her family from jail, so the
family still suffered. Certainly Cecil was not the only man unable to find a
job in 1932, when the unemployment rate was a horrifying 23.6 percent! However,
on January 6, 1933, Cecil was convicted by a jury on a charge of non-support
and was jailed. There was no newspaper story on the sentencing portion of
the trial, so I don’t know how long a sentence he received. He did file a
motion for a new trial on January 28, 1933, but the newspaper did not have any
further articles about this effort.
Helen Banker was granted a divorce from Cecil in December
1936. Cecil was released from jail at some point, as he remarried June 1, 1938.
He married a woman named Ella Schroeder in Carlton, Minnesota. Carlton is less
than twenty miles from Superior, so obviously he stayed in the Superior area
following his release.
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| Divorce notice from the Dec 19, 1936 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram |
Sadly, Cecil died on September 17, 1939 after a brief
illness. He was only forty-three years old. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery
in Superior.
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| Obituary from the Sept 18, 1939 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram |
Cecil’s story was a revelation for me. Working for a living
was essential in the early twentieth century, not just as a means of supporting
oneself and one’s family, but to keep one’s freedom. Failure to work and
provide support for family members was a criminal offense punishable by jail
time. Cecil tried to provide for his family, but during the Great Depression,
it proved impossible once he lost his job as a policeman.
Sources:
U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Registration
State: Wisconsin; Registration County: Douglas. Ancestry.com
Articles from the Superior Evening Telegram, Superior,
Wisconsin. 1927-1939. Accessed from Newspapers.com.
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