Big League Murder in a Small Town: The Story of Tacks Latimer and the Crime that Shocked America in 1924

 It is November of 1924 and wild rumors of back-stabbing and deceit have been flying around the town of Xenia, Ohio.

Xenia, Ohio in 1924 is a bit of a thriving boom-town.  Home to some 20,000 souls; part of the Dayton, Ohio metropolitan area, Xenia is notorious as the site of frequent tornadoes, but it is also well known throughout the United States as a hub on the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads.

The central location of Xenia has, by 1924, made it the seat of Greene County, Ohio and home to the county’s courthouse, sheriff’s department, jail and other governmental departments.

In late November of 1924 two police officers, both employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, one time friends but now bitter enemies are about to be at the center of a crime that will shock all of America.

Greene County Courthouse in Xenia, Ohio

At the beginning of 1924 Lieutenant Charles Mackrodt was an officer with the Pennsylvania Railroad Police.  Despite being well known, and well liked by some, Mackrodt had a reputation as a bit of a shady character; an officer of the law who was not, from time to time, incapable of committing a crime himself.

While on the police force of the Pennsylvania Railroad over the course of the last half dozen years Mackrodt had been accused of lighting his own automobile on fire to collect on the insurance money.  He’s been known to turn a blind eye to department store robberies for a bribe and he had threatened to kill the Greene County coroner after an argument over membership in the Ku Klux Klan.  

In August of 1924, after refusing to take a demotion in rank, Lieutenant Charles Mackrodt was relieved of his duties as a police officer working for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Greene County, Ohio.

Never one for introspection or self-accountability, when Lieutenant Charles Mackrodt was fired he blamed one man--Clifford Weseley “Tacks” Latimer.

Clifford Wesley "Tacks" Latimer

In 1920, after losing his own bid to be elected Sheriff of Greene County, the man they called Tacks Latimer worked under Lieutenant Mackrodt on the Pennsylvania Railroad police force in Xenia, Ohio.

At one time Tacks Latimer and Charles Mackrodt were known to be drinking buddies, close friends even, but by the Autumn of 1924 all of that had irrevocably changed.

Mackrodt accused Latimer of having him fired from the force.  He claimed that Latimer had spread false rumors about him to their superiors designed to tarnish his reputation so that Latimer could gain the promotion in rank that he so desperately desired.

Sometime, immediately after his dismissal, Mackrodt was reported to have threatened to kill Latimer just as he had done to the Greene County coroner several years prior, though the specifics of the exact death threat remain vague, and there are many differing versions of what Mackrodt actually said about Latimer.

Between August and November of 1924 it is known that on several occasions, always at night and usually while on patrol in Xenia itself, that an unknown assailant armed with a revolver took several potshots at Officer Latimer that appeared designed to intimidate and not wound or kill the officer.

Nonetheless, as word of a worsening feud between the two men continued to spread around Xenia between August and November of 1924, Tacks Latimer made sure that he was armed at all times when off duty.

On the day before Thanksgiving, November 26, 1924, the bad blood between the two former friends and two officers pledged to uphold the law in a small Ohio town, spiraled out of control.

Wednesday was payday for all police officers employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad and on that day former Lieutenant Charles Mackrodt showed up in the Xenia town center before sunrise and waited outside the County Courthouse for Officer Latimer to appear to collect his pay.

In the early morning light, when Latimer caught sight of Mackrodt, the two men instantly took to arguing and shouting at one another in downtown Xenia before dozens of onlookers.

They stood nose to nose in the center of town and Mackrodt openly accused Latimer of slandering him to their superiors.  He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a long knife which he waved in Latimer’s face while he shouted, “I’ll get you before sundown even if I have to get you in your own backyard!”

Fearing that he was about to be stabbed, Latimer pulled out his .38 caliber service revolver and shot Mackrodt four times, killing him instantly.

Two police officers who had been standing nearby rushed up to Latimer who immediately dropped his gun to the ground, threw his hands up in the air, and surrendered peacefully with the barrel of his revolver was still smoking..

By the time forty-seven year old Clifford Wesley “Tacks” Latimer shot and killed Charles Mackrodt before a crowd of onlookers in downtown Xenia, Ohio, on November 26, 1924 he was already no stranger to publicity.

In 1898 Tacks Latimer made his Major League debut for the New York Giants and was known as one of the National League’s most sure-handed defensive catchers for a number of years, which is, perhaps where the nickname “Tacks” comes from, although Latimer himself said he received that sobriquet sometime around the year 1895 while playing Minor League ball for Austin of the Texas League.

Before the 1900 season, after some trouble with ownership and arbitration, always in a quest for more pay and more playing time, Latimer switched teams and played for the Pittsburgh Pirates with future hall of famers Honus Wagner and Rube Waddell.  He even lived with the eccentric and immensely talented pitcher Waddell for a time as a roommate while the two played together for Pittsburgh.

Though he spent several more years bouncing around the Major Leagues, Tacks Latimer always with a reputation as a sure-handed defensive catcher, was so light hitting that he could never quite stick in the big leagues and he ended up playing Minor League professional baseball in Atlanta, Montgomery, Austin, Dayton and finally Norwich, Connecticut just to name a few places.  

In total Tacks Latimer spent an additional eight years in the Minors after his big league playing days were over.

When his playing days were over Tacks married, ultimately had three children and worked briefly as a scout for his one time employer the Pittsburgh Pirates.  

Tacks Latimer (center) with the Pittsburgh Pirates 1900

But after permanently settling in the Dayton, Ohio area near where he was born, Tacks started to dabble in local politics and even ran for County Sheriff as the Republican nominee in Greene County as mentioned earlier.  At some point, probably around the year 1920 after failing to get his political career off the ground, Tacks took a job as a Police Officer on the Pennsylvania Railroad, a growing department that was always in need of new recruits…and then came the fateful day of November 26, 1924.

Latimer, who had killed Mackrodt only feet from the Greene County Courthouse and jail, was arraigned the same day.  His trial was set to begin a month later December 29, 1924.

The trial of former Major Leaguer Tacks Latimer was quite the sensation throughout all of Ohio and was covered by newspapers from every county in the state and from cities as far away as Philadelphia and Chicago.

Tacks Latimer and his defense team claimed self defense and said that their client fervently believed that Mackrodt was going to stab him in the chest.  But all four shots that Latimer fired had hit Mackrodt in the back.  It appeared like he had been walking away when Latimer took the opportunity to kill him.

At least the jury in Xenia thought so, and after a trial that lasted about a week, they convicted former Major Leaguer Clifford Wesley “Tacks” Latimer of second degree murder, and upon denial of his appeal, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. (Pictured at the beginning of this article.)

And though at one point it looked like the man known as ‘Tacks’ was about to spend the rest of his life wallowing in a prison cell in central Ohio, Latimer’s story doesn’t end there.

While incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary, Tacks Latimer was considered a model prisoner and right away he began to earn the trust and respect of both the guards and other inmates alike.  After less than two years into his life sentence Tacks Latimer became a trustee of the Ohio State Penitentiary and was given responsibility for various jobs around the prison and often allowed to move freely about the complex without a guard present or any restraints.

He both played for and managed the baseball team for the Ohio State Penitentiary during the years he was in prison.

Almost two years to the day after his arrest for murder, on November 8, 1926 a group of 13 prisoners attacked the guards assigned to their cell block and attempted a mass breakout from the Ohio State Penitentiary.  Tacks Latimer, along with several other trustees from the prison, were armed and allowed to assist the guards with rounding up the escaped prisoners.

After this incident, which was widely reported on by newspapers in Columbus, Ohio, friends of Latimer including several former Major Leaguers began to petition then Ohio Governor Myers Y. Cooper for a pardon on Tacks behalf.

Ohio State Penitentiary Fire 1930

While his friends and family were working on the outside for a commutation of Tacks Latimer’s lifelong prison sentence, a massive fire broke out at the Ohio State Penitentiary in the middle of the night on April 21, 1930.  The fire swept through most of the prison, killing over 300 inmates in the process,  and chaos immediately ensued in the wake of the conflagration as many prisoners sought to escape as emergency personnel rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze.

Once again, prison guards temporarily deputized trustee Tacks Latimer, and this time, armed with a shotgun, Tacks stood guard outside the walls of the Ohio State Penitentiary and bravely prevented other prisoners from taking advantage of the situation and escaping.

Almost six years to the day after his incarceration for second degree murder first began, Ohio Governor Cooper issued Tacks Latimer a full pardon on December 24, 1930.

Upon his release Tacks Latimer found work in a Cincinnati hotel as a security guard, and Tacks whose first wife had filed for divorce while he was in prison, went on to remarry in 1931.  He passed away from a heart attack at his home in Loveland, Ohio at the age of sixty on April 24, 1936.

Clifford Wesley “Tacks” Latimer is better remembered today for the crime he committed than for his defensive skills behind the plate as a Major League catcher, however, his life story is one of success, sorrow and even redemption that goes far beyond the baseball diamond and deserves a place in our memory as one of the most fascinating tales of the twentieth century.