Police Chief Ira T. Chapman’s era

By Norris Dearmon
For the Kannapolis Citizen
On Feb. 24, 1928, Deputy Ira T. Chapman was sworn in as chief of police for Kannapolis. As a deputy, he had served under Chief Boger since 1924, during the period known as the Roaring ’20s.
Liquor was in much demand. When that happens, men always try to accommodate the demand in order to make a lot of money. Illegal distilleries were in operation everywhere, including Cabarrus County. Whenever the nation went dry, naturally, the illegal trade became more widespread.
The newspapers were full of stories about the trade. Headlines included:
• May 13, 1925: “Probation Officer Moore and Sheriff Chapman discovered Distillery” (Chapman was actually Chief by then, but the Concord reporters usually referred to all Kannapolis policemen as deputies.)
• June 6, 1926: “Policeman J.A. Hinson and I.T. Chapman capture a liquor car”
• April 3, 1928: “Deputy Sheriffs I.T. Chapman and Love Nussman find whisky”
• Sept. 19, 1929: “Chief Chapman, Officers Walter Tesh and Love Nussman, raid Jim Huntley’s Bootleg Den in Dark Town Section of Centerview”
• April 5, 1930: “J.L. Moore is named as one of the Federal Agents in Liquor raids in Cabarrus County”
• April 7, 1930: “Deputy Marshall Gorman, Prohibition Agent J.L. Moore and Chief of Police Ira T. Chapman arrest two more bootleggers”
Robert L. “Bob” Ketchie once told me a story about him, in his early years as deputy, and other deputies who were staking out a bootlegger’s house one night. They were lying in the grass and weeds on the ground behind the house. The lady of the house doused them with a dishpan full of water and garbage thrown off the back porch. It was dark and she did not see them. They eventually made the raid after brushing themselves off.
Officers busted many more stills and dens and made other liquor-related arrests. In Kannapolis, if a person who worked for Cannon Mills was arrested, he or she would be terminated upon returning to work. Mr. Cannon paid the salaries of the policemen and would not employ anyone who broke the law or came to work drunk.
No doubt this kept the crime rate down, and fewer police were needed. Of course, liquor-related arrests were not the only arrests made. Accidents, rapes, murders, stabbings and many other crimes were included in their reports.
Chief Chapman was written up in a national magazine for solving a murder that was committed on Chestnut Street.
In March 1939, Floyd Holhouser was driving his sister, Lillie Holhouser, and his young sister-in-law, Elsie Misenheimer, to visit a friend. They stopped at a house on Chestnut Street, next to a Texaco service station on the corner of A Street and Chestnut Street, to let his sister go into the house for something. She told Floyd to keep Elsie company.
As Lillie left, he turned to Elsie and said, “When my sister says a minute, that could mean half the night.” Elsie noticed a rapidly moving figure approaching the open door of the car. She yelled, “Floyd! Look out!”
A figure blocked the open doorway and hurled himself into the car. He rammed his fist into Floyd’s side and said, “Get going buddy! Fast!”
Elsie jumped from the back seat screaming. In an instant, Floyd threw his 170-pound body sideways, hurling the stranger out of the car with Holhouser after him. Suddenly flashes of light jumped from the gun as two bursts of sound boomed. Holhouser fell to the ground. The shooter fled.
Within 10 minutes, Chief Chapman and other deputies arrived on the scene. Soon an ambulance arrived and took Holhouser to the hospital. The two young women gave Chapman as many details as they could. The chief called Lee McCarn and Robert Ketchie, who were trying to keep the crowd away from the car. He told the deputies to get some men out of the crowd and search the nearby neighborhood. Unfortunately, nothing was found.
Soon, the chief had all the town deputies arresting vagrants and loiterers everywhere to keep them from leaving town.
Within the hour, Dr. W.R. Floyd called and said Holhouser was dead. He had two wounds. One was in the mouth and the other in the temple, which was lodged in the skull.
“Was he powder-burned?” asked Chapman.
“No,” replied the doctor.
The chief thought that was unusual since he had scuffled with his killer. He said, “He must have been a sharp-shooter.”
McCarn told Chapman about two similar, recent incidents involving an ex-convict, and it could be the same killer.
The next morning, the two women were able to give Chief Chapman a better description of the killer. They said they thought he had red hair and was wearing a wide-brimmed grey hat. Two other girls, who had also seen the shooting, gave a similar story. There was not much to go on.
Robert Ketchie, locally famous for his memory, thought for a moment and said to Chapman, “There was some trouble down at the town park once. A fight. Do you think it means anything?”
“It could,” said Chapman. “If Holhouser was in a fight, there might be some lingering grudge.”
Late that afternoon, Lee McCarn made two arrests at the freight yards. A stocky, red-haired man was carrying a .44 automatic, which had been recently fired. He gave his name as Perry Hendricks, from Atlanta, Ga.
“I’ve been target practicing,” he said. “You don’t think I bumped that guy do you? I just got into town at 10 p.m. last night.”
Chapman walked over to Hendricks.
“Had breakfast?”
“No sir,” he replied. “I haven’t been out of the hobo camp.”
“Seen the papers?” Chapman then asked.
Hendricks shook his head.
“Haven’t seen nothing,” he said.
“Then how did you know a man had been killed?” Chapman asked.
“Some of the guys told me,” he replied. He was held, pending the location of some of the men whose names he had given.
Another development came in early evening. Macon Furr, a respected local citizen, called the chief. He gave an account of what he had seen the night before. While driving down First Street, a man had darted out in front of him, and he had almost hit him. He got a good look at him when his headlight beams flashed on him.
“He was really chunky and sort of red-hair, I think,” Furr told Chapman. “The funny thing was that he was carrying a hat all crunched up.”
Furr took Chapman to the intersection where he had seen the man. It was the same corner where the blood hounds had lost his scent when they had tried to track down the killer earlier.
“That’s the fellow,” said Chapman. “At least we have a witness who had a good look at him.”
After more diligent detective work by the chief and his deputies, the killer was brought to trial, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The real name of the killer is not given for privacy reasons. The name given when he was arrested proved to be incorrect.
I often think we never give our police enough credit for all they do. I get a laugh out of the line Chief Paul Brown once told me when we were having a Red Cross Blood Drive and the officers were not showing up.
“They would rather face a bullet than a needle,” he said.
They do have a timid side of their life. Say thanks to one the next time you see him or her.
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Dearmon is a local historian and member of the Kannapolis History Associates. He volunteers in the Hinson History Room at the Kannapolis Library.