Detective John O'Keefe (?-?)

On the evening of September 26, 1913, Henry C. "Harry" Spencer, born Jindred Shortna, murdered tango dancer Mildred Allison Rexroat as they walked along a set of railroad tracks in DuPage County, west of Chicago, Illinois. Spencer shot her in the head with his revolver. If that had failed, Spencer had planned to beat her to death with a hammer he had staged at the scene. A week later, two local men were searching the area when they found the hammer. They also found nearby a card with the name "Anthony Melville Rud" printed on it. Anthony M. Rud (1893-1942) was in no way connected to the murder. At the time he was just an innocent medical student. Rud would go on to write pulp-fiction stories, including a series of stories about a detective called Jigger Masters.

One of the men who investigated the murder of Mildred Rexroat was Detective John O'Keefe of the Chicago police department. Below is a photograph of O'Keefe and a fellow detective, named Trant, escorting Harry Spencer after having interrogated him for the murder. O'Keefe is on the left, Spencer in the middle, and Detective Trant on the right. You can see that their names are written on the image, though in reverse.

Henry C. "Harry" Spencer (center), born Jindred Shortna in 1877, is shown here leaving an interrogation session, escorted by detectives Trant (right) and John O'Keefe (left). The date is October 21, 1913. This photograph was published in the Chicago Daily News and is now in the negatives collection of the Chicago Historical Society. Spencer was soon hanged for the murder of Mildred Allison Rexroat (Jan. 1876-Sept. 26, 1913).

Nine years after the murder, two business partners, J.C. Henneberger and John M. Lansinger, began publishing a pulp magazine called Detective Tales. The first issue was dated October 1, 1922. Henneberger and Lansinger's company was called Rural Publishing Corporation. In March 1923, they put out a second pulp title, Weird Tales. Edwin Baird was the editor of both magazines.

The first cover story of Weird Tales was entitled "Ooze" and was written by Anthony M. Rud. Rud had two more stories in the second issue of Weird Tales, April 1923, one under his own name, the other under a pen name, Ray McGillivray. He also had a letter in each of the first two issues. What's missing from accounts of Rud's writing career in regards to Weird Tales is that he also had a story--a two-part serial--in Detective Tales. The title of it is "The Scarred Men." The first part was the cover story of Detective Tales for May/June 1923. The second part appeared in the July/August issue.

Detective Tales, May/June 1923. Cover story: "The Scarred Men" by Anthony M. Rud. Cover art by an unknown artist, possibly or probably William F. Heitman, who was also busy creating covers for Weird Tales at that time. In fact, the covers of the May and June issues of "The Unique Magazine" were his work. If this were a Weird Tales cover, it would go into the category of "Red Robes and Cultists."

Detective John O'Keefe also contributed to Detective Tales. Was he the same O'Keefe who had, a decade before, investigated the Tango Dancer Murder Case? I don't know for sure, but I assume that he was. Did he and Anthony Rud know each other? Again, I don't know. They would have had a chance to meet in 1913. And could they have been connected somehow through their writing? Once again, I don't know, but both wrote for Detective Tales. Whatever might have happened, I find their both being connected to the case of 1913 and their both writing for the same magazine to be an interesting coincidence.

Anyway, Detective O'Keefe conducted a regular column or department called "Fingerprints" in Detective Tales and its successors, Real Detective Tales and Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories. I don't know when it began and when it ended, but the installment of June/July 1927 is Number 39 in the series. Everything I have for O'Keefe when it comes to his credits is from The FictionMags Index, as is the cover image above. As always, I'm greatly indebted to the Index, an invaluable resource for anyone conducting research on popular fiction in America.

"Fingerprints" by Detective John O'Keefe

Detective Tales

• March 1923
• July/August 1923
• February 1924

Real Detective Tales

• May 1924
• June 1924

Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories

• February 1925
• March 1925
• April 1925
• May 1925
• July 1925
• August/September 1925
• December 1925/January 1926
• February/March 1926
• April/May 1926
• June/July 1926
• August/September 1926
• October 1926
• December 1926/January 1927
• February 1927
• March 1927
• June/July 1927 ("Fingerprints, No. 39 Are Fingerprints Ever Alike?")
• August 1927
• September 1927
• December 1927
• January 1928
• February 1928
• March 1928
• April 1928
• May 1928
• July/August 1928
• October 1928
• November 1928

These are his known credits. I'm certain there are more of his columns hiding in the pages of these three titles.

Unfortunately, I don't have any biographical or genealogical information on John O'Keefe, who had a fairly common name. Welcome to the world of Irish genealogy, where all of the men are named John, Michael, or William. I have a candidate, though. He was John O'Keefe, born in or about 1873 in Ireland, and a police officer with the Chicago police department. He was married to Agnes Quinn O'Keefe. They had a daughter, but this John O'Keefe did not live long enough to see her marry, for he died on March 27, 1933, in Chicago, ninety years ago this month.

I have written before about Detective O'Keefe, Anthony Rud, and Mildred Rexroat in "Anthony Rud and the Tango Dancer Murder-Part Two," posted on February 4, 2016, here.

Further Reading

"Interesting Questions Answered: Read This Interesting Correspondence Between Detective John O'Keefe, F.P.E. and Kennie MacDowd, Layman" in Finger Print Magazine, June 1928, pages 16-18.

Wearing green and sporting red hair, she wishes you a

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley