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Today in Jacksonville History: Feb. 17, 1921

Bill Foley
Evangelist Billy Sunday, a former major league player, makes one of his famous baseball maneuvers outside the White House in Washington in 1922. Sunday visited Jacksonville a year earlier. [Special/United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division]

Double murder at Lenox Hotel bannered a crime wave that launched Jacksonville on two decades of violence.

Two out-of-town businessmen were shot to death at the downtown hotel as they played cards with the wife and daughter of one.

The press called the slayings the most sensational in the city's history.

The killings triggered a reaction that resulted in wholesale arrests of "suspicious characters."

The gangbusters era in Jacksonville had begun.

War's end, Prohibition and, most conspicuously, the automobile had moved cops-and-robbers into a new era.

Walter Burden and George Alexander Goodrich were shot to death in what police said was a botched robbery at the Lenox Hotel, Adams and Newnan streets.

The gunmen made clean getaway in a stolen Buick. They left behind a wallet with a large amount of cash and a diamond stickpin.

Police said the victims almost certainly knew the gunmen. Burden, 60, was described as a retired New York builder. Goodrich, 57, was an Atlanta businessman.

The Buick was found on Liberty Street. A note was inside. "Thanks for the ride," it said.

"The police department has started a sweeping crusade against vagrants, suspicious characters and persons armed with weapons," The Florida Times-Union reported.

"The mayor has directed police to arrest all persons seen loitering about at night in residential sections and to scour the city for vagrants. The mayor particularly mentioned idlers who loiter in pool rooms."

Despite a score of arrests -- all the usual suspects -- the twin killing was never solved.  

Also on Feb. 17, 1921:  

St. Luke's Hospital reported that Hattie Smith, attractive young actress shot in the chest two days before in an affray at the Park Hotel likely would recover. Tampa showman Clifford Stephens was being held without bail. Night clerk Joe Cooney was hit in the arm by a stray bullet.

Evangelist Billy Sunday said he "felt like a debutante" when swamped by a host of friends and members of the Billy Sunday Club when he stopped off in Jacksonville on his way to Daytona. "This is real Florida style," he said, promising to return for a day or two.

Wrestling promoter Charles Schwartz said he had signed world heavyweight wrestling champion Ed "Stangler" Lewis for a Jacksonville bout March 2 against any opponent, most likely Belgian champion Tom Draack.

Bill Foley was a Times-Union reporter, editor and columnist for more than 40 years. He’s best known for his quirky columns about Jacksonville and Northeast Florida’s history. He wrote this series of Millennium Moments columns in 1999 leading up to the year 2000. Foley died in 2001 at age 62.