CAPITOL SHOOTING REMINISCENT OF CAPE POLICE OFFICERS' DEATHS

Just as the nation mourned the death of two Capitol police officers shot late last month in the line of duty, so 37 years ago the city of Cape Girardeau mourned the death of two of its officers in the same line of duty.

On March 10, 1961, a Cape Girardeau police officer and an auxiliary police officer were shot and killed during a gun battle with two California prison escapees.

Patrolman Donald Henry Crittendon and auxiliary police officer Herbert Goss died as a result of gunshot wounds they received after stopping a car

In the car were Sammy Tucker and Douglas Wayne Thompson. Tucker and Thompson were two prison escapees who had broken out of a California jail and made their way across the country before being stopped in Cape Girardeau.

Police were alerted to Tucker and Thompson by the manager of the Kroger Food Store which was located in the Town Plaza Shopping Center. The manager of the store told police that two men, later identified as Tucker and Thompson, were loitering around the store.

The manager told the two men to leave or he would call the police. After the left, the manager alerted police who began a city-wide search for their vehicle.

Crittendon and Goss joined in the pursuit of the car, eventually stopping it near the entrance to Arena Park on North Kingshighway. The two policemen approached the car -- Crittendon on the driver's side and Goss on the passenger's side -- to ask for identification.

As Crittendon approached the car, Goss was on the passenger side near the rear window post of the two-door Oldsmobile. After Crittendon asked the driver, Tucker, for identification, Tucker opened the door and fired one shot at Crittendon from about three feet away. Almost simultaneously there were two more shots from the other side of the vehicle.

Don Wissman, who was 17 at the time and saw the shooting from the parking lot of a nearby restaurant at which he worked part time, testified at Thompson's trial that he saw the passenger side door come open while Goss was standing near the car. Wissman also testified that he saw two flashes of light and heard two shots from the side of the car.

Wissman also testified that after he heard the shots, he saw Goss stumble to the ground. Goss bled to death after a bullet entered his right leg, passed through it and went into and out of his left leg, severing his arteries.

Crittendon, who was shot in the abdomen, was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. He died 11 days later.

Crittendon had submitted his resignation to the police department so that he could accept another position. His resignation would have become effective at 11 p.m. that night, an hour and a half after the shooting occurred.

Tucker and Thompson were eventually captured and tried for the killings. Tucker was found guilty of killing Crittendon and was executed.

Thompson was found guilty of killing Goss and was sentenced to death. However, that conviction was overturned in 1965 on grounds of suppressed evidence.

A second trial was held in 1966 and Thompson was again found guilty. But in 1975, the 8th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the second conviction on the grounds that the jury selection process was invalid.

Thompson was tried a third time in 1984 by then Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney Larry Ferrell and was again convicted of the crime. Judge Tony Heckemeyer sentenced Thompson to life in prison.

He was released from prison in 1987 when a federal judge ruled that he was being held illegally. He was subsequently arrested in Minnesota and charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.