Moore_Farm

Moore Farm Shoot Out

The Attempt To Discover The Grand Plan - If One Ever Existed

Introduction

There was a gun battle at the Frank Moore farm, in June 1925, just northeast of Headson's Landing, in what is now East Syracuse (Headson's Landing was a location on the old Erie Canal, where Thompson Road crosses Eire Blvd. today.). This event was instigated by James Corcoran’s son, in an effort to steal some of his father’s stash of liquor, which was hidden at their relative’s farm. There were several attempts to steal the whiskey but all were unsuccessful. On the final attempt, the Coast Guard got into a "shoot out" with Syracuse police officers at the Moore farm. The former thought the latter were hi-jackers and the police thought they had caught some bootleggers. It was thought that Corcoran Jr., even though he was only 16 at the time, had arranged for both groups to converge on the location. No booze was ever found. The investigation led nowhere and no one was charged.

In what follows below I have attempted to discover who knew what, when, and if there was one or more plans behind all these activities. In several places there are still open questions that could not be adequately answered based on newspaper reports alone.

Person Zero – James Corcoran, Jr.

1^st Conspirator – Arthur C. Guilds. Corcoran Jr. knew Guilds hated his father and wanted to get even, plus he had a car. Now, Guilds wanted to get back at Corcoran, Sr. but he didn’t want to get too involved since he didn’t trust the Corcorans. Guilds probably called Conduct and Palmer as soon as he found out the location of the liquor stash, not because they were “the authorities,” but because they were in the same business as Corcoran, Sr. The description of the plan going forward is always different from the description given to the authorities after the person has been caught.

PLAN A:

Corcoran, Jr, Conduct and Palmer were going to use Guilds’ taxi to steal the liquor from the Moore farm. For some reason this didn’t work out.

PLAN B:

Same three persons – same plan – still didn’t work. These first two attempts never had firm dates associated with them.

PLAN C:

Hi-jacking the liquor wasn’t going to work. However, if they couldn’t have the liquor then they wanted to make sure that Corcoran, Sr. couldn’t have it either. This led to Tuesday’s visit of the Coast Guard men. Warren, Findlay and Wilson(?) .

QUES: How did the Coast Guard get involved? – McNeal only mentioned the two Syracuse men’s complaint on Thursday. However, the Tuesday Coast Guard visit seems to have been officially sanctioned. Perhaps Guilds thought this three couldn’t pull it off so he called the Coast Guard and gave them the tip.

The Coast Guard men were turned away on Tuesday by persons at the Moore farm. Plan C failed. While someone was putting together the Oswego end of PLAN C, Conduct and Palmer were in Syracuse trying to get the local law enforcement folks to help “raid” the Moore farm. They were told they needed a search warrant and who to see about getting one, but they chose not to go that way. The Tuesday night attempt failed and the following day some Moore farm folks complained to the Sheriff. At this point Conduct and Palmer went back to Oswego to see what was going on. The plan seemed to be moving on without them. They went to McNeal and gave him the same story that didn’t work in Syracuse on Tuesday. McNeal wasn’t sure who these guys were, other than they said they were from Syracuse (which they weren’t, but technically they had just come from Syracuse). However, McNeal went ahead and assigned his two guys from the Tuesday visit, to go with them on Thursday night. There was no issue with obtaining a search warrant on the Oswego end. It is curious that they still have Guilds’ taxi and that the Coast Guard didn’t assign an official vehicle for the operation.

PLAN D:

This was for Thursday. At this point maybe Corcoran, Jr. was feeling left out of his own hi-jacking plan. However, it wasn’t really hi-jacking anymore because no one was going to get the liquor, if there was any, but the government. At this point Corcoran probably called Sheriff Scriber and told him another visit to the Moore farm was under way for Thursday. Strategically, there was no logic behind this move, other than that of a teenage tantrum (Corcoran, Jr. was only 16), because HIS PLAN had gotten totally out of his control.

What Happened To The Liquor?

The following is from [1925-06-26b]

"Captain E. H. HOFFMIRE of the motorcycle squad assigned Moss, Dear and Buoccaccio to the investigation and the three men arrived at the Moore farm early in the evening, concealing themselves to await developments."

"Moss and Buccaccio took up positions in a chicken house and Dear hid himself in another out building. With orders from Sheriff Scriber to shoot to kill if necessary, they waited with guns ready for anything that might come."

"Shortly after midnight they say four men, traveling in a powerful sedan arrived. They left the car some distance from the barn and proceeded to break the lock which Hoffmire had placed on the door earlier in the day."

QUESTIONS: No liquor was ever confiscated during the course of this little drama. How did Hoffmire know which barn to lock? Did Hoffmire look into the barn before he put the padlock on the door? Did he lock up an empty barn? If the barn wasn't empty, what happened to the liquor after they arrested the four suspects and confiscated their car? Without any liquor can there be a bootlegger?

Summary

Not one of the news papers ever picked up on the fact that, behind all of this, Corcoran, Sr.’s wife was the aunt of Frank Moore, the owner of the farm. After the Tuesday night visit they most likely warned Corcoran, Sr. that someone was after his liquor. While the Moores were in town complaining to the Sheriff, Corcoran, Sr. was probably moving his stash to a new location. In none of the newspaper reports was it ever reported that any liquor was found on the Moore farm.

Afterthoughts

Sheriff Scriber’s first meeting with the press was described as follows: “While Sheriff Scriber said he was not ready to divulge all of the information in his possession regarding the operations of the quartet, he declared he believes the capture is one of the most important ever made here in connection with prohibition enforcement. Investigation into the movements of the alleged hi-jackers has opened a number of new lanes, the authorities say, that may involve a number of men in the government service and uncover a wide range of collusive operations between enforcement forces and rum runners.” [1926-06-25a] In the end nothing happened, everyone was released.

The Confusing Identity of Conduct and Palmer

The Sheriff would seem to be implying in his 1925-06-26 comment, that Henry Conduct and Glen Palmer were rum runners. Sergeant Bamrick referred to them as the “two Federal men.” In a 1925-06-27 newspaper report Malpass said, “the two civilians with them (Conduct and Palmer), taken along as ‘stools,’ were not properly within their rights.” In the 1925-06-30 newspaper report DA Malpass refers to them as “the two civilians.”

Cast of Characters

OSWEGO
CROWLEY	Ralph C. Crowley, Captain, in command of the Great Lakes patrol
JACKSON	C.G. Office at Oswego
McNEAL	Boatswain A. M. McNeal – Captain of C.G. Cutter 144
WARNER	William E. Warner – C.G. personnel assign to C.G. Cutter 144 – Moore farm participant.
FINDLAY	William B. Findlay - C.G. personnel assign to C.G. Cutter 144– Moore farm participant.
SMITH	Melvin Smith, Chief Engineer of the C. G. Cutter 144. He might have accompanied WARNER and FINDLAY on the Tuesday night visit to the Moore farm.
GUILDS	Arthur C. Guilds, of 64 East 5^th Street, Oswego, NY, owner of the taxi that was rented by James Corcoran, Jr. to take the men to the Moore farm.
VINCENT	Rock Vincent, Sheriff of Oswego County – not involved until after the 6/26 shooting.

SYRACUSE
SCRIBER	L. E. Scriber, Onondaga County Sheriff
MALPASS	Frank P. Malpass – District Attorney
HOFFMIRE	E. H. Hoffmire, Captain of the motorcycle squad.
HOLMES	Holmes, Deputy Sheriff
BAMRICK	Edward Bamrick – Detective Sergeant, Syracuse Police Dept.
MOSS	William Moss – Motorcycle officer sent to Moore farm.
DEAR	Raymond Dear – Motorcycle officer sent to Moore farm.
BUOCCACCIO	Anthony Buoccaccio – Motorcycle officer sent to Moore farm.
HENDERSON	Harvey N. Henderson , Commissioner

CORCORAN, SR.	James Corcoran, Sr., 334 Seymour St. Syracuse, NY – Owner of the liquor stored in the barn on the MOORE farm.
CORCORAN, JR.	James Corcoran, Jr., 334 Seymour St., Syracuse, NY., son of Corcoran, Sr. and instigator of the drama.
MOORE	Frank Moore, owner of the farm just east of Headson’s Landing. Not mentioned in any of the articles was the fact this was Mrs. Corcoran, Sr.’s nephew.
OTHER
BURDEN	Oliver D. Burden, United States District Attorney
Who did Palmer and Conduct work for? Everyone else’s chain of command appeared in the newspaper reports – but not theirs. In one of the papers they were referred to as “civilians.” In the first report (Friday, June 26, 1925), Conduct’s last name was given as Wilson and both men were said to be from Oswego. In the June 30, 1925 report DA Malpass refers to these men as “two civilian companions.”
PALMER	Glen Palmer, Civilian – Canadian– Moore farm participant.
CONDUCT	Henry Conduct, Civilian - Oswego– Moore farm participant.

Date	Events	Comments
1925
Wk of June 15 or earlier	James CORCORAN, JR. approaches Arthur GUILDS of Oswego with a proposition to hi-jack a load of liquor, belonging to his father (CORCORAN, SR.), from the MOORE farm near HEADSON’S LANDING. CORCORAN, JR. wanted to rent GUILDS’ taxi to use in the hi-jacking. Initially he wanted GUILDS to drive. GUILDS promised to send a driver. Who was the driver?	After he learned the location of the liquor, GUILDS claimed he told the “authorities.” Who? The two “men from Syracuse?” When? Why rent a car in Oswego to do a job in Syracuse? It would only make sense if a round trip out of Oswego was part of the plan.
	DA Malpass [1925-06-30] stated: “Two visits made by Corcoran (Jr.) and others to the Moore farm before the first visit of the revenue men (the Coast Guard sailors) Tuesday night, indicated that charges of attempted grand larceny might be lodged against some of the men but the probe was productive of little in the way of evidence to substantiate the charges.”
	1^st visit to Moore farm. Who were the participants?	Could this have been Plan A which failed?
	2^nd visit to Moore farm. Who were the participants?	Could this be Plan B, which also failed.
Tues 6/23	PALMER and CONDUCT were in Syracuse on Tuesday night looking for aid in raiding a farm in HEADSON’S LANDING. Sergeant Detective BAMRICK sent them to Commissioner HENDERSON for a search warrant but they didn’t return to BAMRICK. Visit (3^rd) to MOORE farm. Two or three men with sailors’ uniforms came to the MOORE farm. In addition to WARNER and FINDLAY, a 3^rd sailor named SMITH might have been with them.	They were labeled by BAMRICK as “two Federal officers” in the paper [1925-06-25b] What instigated this 3^rd visit? PALMER and CONDUCT weren’t in Oswego until Thursday (6/25).
Wed 6/24	Person or persons from the MOORE farm complained to Sheriff SCRIBER about the visitors from the night before looking for liquor. Two or three were in sailors’ uniforms.
Thur 6/25	Sheriff SCRIBER got a TIP that another visit to the MOORE farm was to take place Thursday evening. SOURCE: Investigators in Oswego probing alleged hi-jacking operations. SCRIBER sent motorcycle officers: MOSS, DEAR and BUOCCACCIO to the MOORE farm to wait for the night visitors. McNEAL (of C.G. Cutter 144) gave the statement that two men claiming to live in Syracuse came to see him on THURSDAY and complained about large quantities of liquor being smuggled into Syracuse and being stored in a cache just outside the city.	McNEAL claimed that he didn’t know who the men were, but despite this lack of ID, McNEAL assigned two of his men to go with these unknown men to this storage location. In a [1925-06-27?] article McNEAL implied that one of the men was Corcoran, Jr.
Fri 6/26	Just past midnight a “powerful sedan” drives up to Moore farm. Four men get out and make their way to the barn. The lock is broken by one of the four and the sheriffs men approached. One of the group of four fired first, according to the Sheriff’s men. The Coast Guard men claim the Sheriff’s men fired first. 50 shots were exchanged during the half-hour gun battle. WARNER’s 45 automatic had only been fired twice, in the air, as he claimed. FINDLAY’s 45 automatic had not been fired at all. Finally the four surrendered. Taken into custody were : WARNER, FINDLAY, PALMER and CONDUCT. The “powerful sedan” was traced to Arthur C. GUILDS of Oswego and it was in taxi service in that city. “Deputy Sheriffs HOFFMIRE and HOLMES went to Oswego yesterday (Friday, 6/26) to arrest Melvin SMITH, chief engineer of the rum chaser (C.G. Boat 144), who is accused of assaulting Mrs. Moore when the coast guardsmen searched her place for smuggled contraband early Wednesday [my emphasis] morning.” [1925-06-27c]. This must have been the Tuesday night visit.	James Corcoran, Jr. was thought to have been with the four men but stayed back and then ran and hid when the shooting started. WARNER & FINDLAY – “Both dispute the deputies stories that 50 shots were fired and say there were only three – one by the sheriffs and their two, aimed at the ground. The sheriffs stick to their original story.” [1925-06-27c] The two Coast Guard men “were accompanied by three other men when they waged the thrilling pistol battle with deputy sheriffs at Frank Moore’s place, one mile east of Headson’s Landing. One of the other three escaped and two are in jail. They are Henry Wilson [Conduct] and Glenn Palmer, alleged tipsters.” [1925-06-27c]. WARNER & FINDLAY admitted the car which took them to the MOORE farm is owned by the elder CORCORAN. They also said there were 2 or 3 other men in the background, other than the three police officers.

NOTES:

[1925-06-26a] – “Nab Four As Hijackers In Fight Here,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Friday, June 26, 1925 – Part 1.

[1925-06-26b] – “Deputies Nab Four in Hijacking Raid,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Friday, June 26, 1925 – Part 2.

[1925-06-27a] – “Malpass Admits Little Ground to Hold Suspects,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Saturday, June 27, 1925-Part 1.

[1925-06-27b] – “Malpass Admits Little Ground to Hold Suspects,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Saturday, June 27, 1925-Part 2.

[1925-06-27c] – “Coast Guard Captain Halts Sheriff’s Duel Inquiry,” The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, Saturday, June 27, 1925.

[1925-06-29] – “Two More Investigations of Gun Battle Open,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Monday, June 29, 1925.

[1925-06-29] – “Malpass Checks Up On Headson’s Landing Gunnery,” The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, Monday, June 29, 1925.

[1925-06-30] – “Double Crossing Galore Shown In Gun Battle Probe,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Tuesday, June 30, 1925.

[1925-07-02] - “Two Paroles in Shooting Case,” The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, July 2, 1925.

[1925-07-02] – “Guilds Recites Tale of Intrigue Among Bootlegs,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Tuesday, July 2, 1925.