Patrolman Walter Franklin Stathers - Coral Gables Police Dept. - True Life Hero

Walter Franklin Stathers
- Dec. 19, 1967 -

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Coral Gables Police Dept. Patch

Resided:	FL, USA
Born:	Aug. 21, 1921
Fallen:	Dec. 19, 1967
Race/Sex:	Caucasian Male / 46 yrs. of age
	Agency
Dept:	Coral Gables Police Dept. Coral Gables, FL USA
County:	Dade
Dept. Type:	Municipal/Police
Hero's Rank:	Patrolman
Sworn Date:	2/1953
FBI Class:	Homicide - Gun
Weapon Class:	Firearm
On The Job:	14 years

Bio: Walter Franklin Stathers was born on Aug. 21, 1921, in Allison, PA, to Fred W. and Etta Meinhardt Stathers. His father, with his parents and sister, Annie, immigrated to PA when Fred was a baby. Fred Stathers, 17, and Etta Meinhardt, 16, married in 1904. Etta was born in Nashville, TN, and was the eldest of eight children. Her mother was a second generation Cherokee Indian.

Walter was the fifth of five children (George, Earl, Raymond, Carolyn, and Walter). He was born in Allison, PA, but grew up (after age three) in Dearth, PA, a coal mining town (in the southwest corner of PA south of Pittsburgh and north of Morgantown, WV) owned by H.C. Frick Co. Walter's father was a carpenter working on the outside area of the mines, repairing coal cars and "company" (employee) houses.

Walter attended the company schools in Dearth until the eighth grade and then was bussed to Uniontown, PA, to Benjamin Franklin Jr. High School and Uniontown Sr. High School. He could not participate in after school activities because of the daily bus trip. He graduated from Uniontown Sr. High School in 1940.

Walter Stathers served in the U.S. Navy during World War II from April 7, 1943, to Dec. 24, 1945. He trained at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station and then was stationed for two years at the Richmond Naval Air Station in South Dade (where the Metro Zoo is now located) where he worked with "lighter than air craft" (i.e., blimps) that were used for air surveillance during World War II.

While stationed at the Richmond Air Station, Walter Stathers met Ethel Blanton of Miami who worked at the base. She was born and raised in Miami as her parents, Y.F. and Jeanie Blanton, moved to the area in 1925 and opened a grocery store. Ethel graduated from Ponce de Leon Sr. H.S. in Coral Gables. The couple married in 1946 and lived for a short time in PA before moving to Akron, OH, where Walter worked for the Goodyear Rubber Co. The couple moved to Miami in 1947. Their son, Wayne Thomas Stathers, was born in Miami on July 26, 1948.

Before joining the Coral Gables Police Department on Jan. 29, 1953, at the age of 31, Stathers was a store manager (at Ideal Holding Co.) in Perrine and a labor foreman with FL Power and Light in Miami. Coral Gables Officer Harry Purcell, who at the time was Stathers' brother-in-law, encouraged him to become a police officer and told him that the Coral Gables Dept. was hiring.

The family moved to 9770 Dominican Dr. in Cutler Ridge in 1953 and lived there during Stathers' 14 years as a Coral Gables officer. Sgt. Leland Pluto of the Coral Gables Police Dept. lived across the street. Nearly every resident in the large Cutler Ridge development knew Officer Walter Stathers as he bought the first house for sale in the development. He loved to work in his yard and was known by neighbors for his friendliness and humor. He often went fishing and boating with his neighbor and fellow police officer, Leland Pluto and his boyhood friend and cousin from PA, Fred Minehart.

Stathers graduated from the Police Academy in 1954 after joining the Coral Gables Police Dept. in Jan. of 1953. At that time officers attended the academy after an eight-hour shift. Officer Tony Raimondo, who attended the 1954 academy classes with Stathers, remembered him as a "policeman's policeman" who was serious about catching crooks. Ironically, he specialized in catching prowlers.

Survived by:

Ethel Stathers - Wife

son, Wayne Thomas, 19; a sister, Carolyn Black of Mt. Dora, FL; three brothers, George, Earl and Raymond; and a cousin, Fred Minehart of Miami. (Walter's father died in 1953 and his mother in 1960--both were buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Uniontown, PA.)

Fatal Incident Summary

Offender:

Location:	FL USA Tue. Dec. 19, 1967
Summary:	Coral Gables Police Officer Walter Franklin Stathers, 45, a 14-year veteran, was killed by a prowler in an exclusive residential area of Coral Gables on Dec. 19, 1967. The killer was never caught. Stathers was the fourth Coral Gables officer killed in the line of duty following Cy Guest (1921), Homer Collins Barton (1938), and Billy Howard Stephens (1957). His murder is one of only three unsolved cases among the 108 Dade law enforcement officers killed from 1895-1995. Shortly after 4:00AM on Tuesday morning, Dec. 19, 1967, Officer Stathers was on patrol in the "plush South Alhambra Circle section" of Coral Gables, which includes some of Coral Gables' most spacious and expensive homes. This area is south of U.S. 1 between Maynada St. and Granada Blvd. Officer Stathers had been assigned to the midnight shift in this same residential area for 9 years and "knew every house, every car, every resident." He had received a report from the dispatcher about a black male prowler being seen in the area and had been looking for the prowler during the first four hours of his shift. At approximately 4:18AM, Officer Stathers apparently saw the prowler in the 700 block of S. Alhambra Circle. He picked up his radio and said, "204 (his police zone), send me a dog car to S. Alhambra Circle". This message was the last received from Stathers. Two police cars, one a K-9 unit, headed for the area. Officer Jim Harley arrived in the general area but Stathers had not given a specific address and thus Harley drove around the area for a few minutes looking for Stathers' police car. He heard a gunshot in the distance but could not find the location until citizen calls began to be relayed from the station via the dispatcher. It is unclear what happened after Stathers saw the prowler but the police believe that the officer first gave chase in the patrol car and then on foot. He apparently exited his vehicle, leaving it in drive so that it rolled into the "palatial home" at 700 S. Alhambra Circle (the corner of Alhambra Circle and Camarin--two blocks west of Granada Blvd.). Stathers then confronted the prowler on the front lawn at that location. Lori Kaaber, 13, who lived at 700 S. Alhambra Circle, was awakened by the sound of a car running in her driveway and two people shouting. She woke her sister and both continued to listen. Lori then heard a gunshot and ran to another room to awake her father. She then heard a loud crash (apparently the police car hitting the side of the house). Lori stated that she heard someone yell, "Stay down. Stay down. Hold it." She then heard a second shot and someone moan. Lori's father, Herman Bent Kaaber, 42, went to his daughters' window and looked outside. He saw a man in a white shirt (Stathers) standing, and then saw a blue flash and a sound like a faint gunshot. Kaaber ran downstairs, opened the garage door and saw a man wearing a white shirt lying on the grass moaning. He ran back upstairs and called the police. The Kaaber's maid, Bertha Droquett, looked outside and saw a tall, thin black male standing over a man lying on the ground and apparently going through his pockets. She then saw the black male get on a 28-inch bicycle (probably a lightweight, English model) and ride away southbound on Camarin St. Another neighbor was awakened by the noise and saw a black male on a bicycle with a chrome rear fender ride by the front of her house. Officers Harley and Slawson were the first officers to arrive on the scene. They found Officer Stathers face down in the N.W. corner of the front yard. The officers rolled the wounded officer over and found no signs of life. They saw that he had been shot in the lower right side of the neck and that the bullet had come out of the upper left forehead. Powder burns indicated that the shot was fired at close range as apparently the gun had been pressed against the neck as it was fired. Medical Rescue was called but officer Stathers was declared dead at the scene. The autopsy determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound of the head. Officer Harley then walked to the rear of the house and saw the patrol car with its headlights on "nudging the side of the house, the engine still running, driver's side door open, shift lever in drive." Harley turned off the engine and noticed that Stathers' helmet was on the seat of the car and that the microphone was down on the floorboard. One of the numerous officers who soon arrived at the scene was Coral Gables Officer Robert DeKorte, who would later (in 1972) become the next Coral Gables officer to be killed in the line of duty. The community was in shock at the death of the well-known and popular officer. Many nearby residents gathered at the murder scene and broke into tears when told of the identity of the slain officer. A wreath was placed on the lawn at the murder site in honor of the popular officer by Herman Bent Kaaber, the owner of the house. The Miami Herald published a picture of the palatial Kaaber home which was in an area well known by many Dade residents since many came to see the lavish Christmas decorations at the homes on Alhambra Circle. In fact, many spectators had been in the area earlier in the evening looking at the Christmas decorations. Also in shock the night of the shooting was Sgt. Leland Pluto, Stathers' close friend for 16 years and next door neighbor. Sgt. Pluto was working the desk that night and took calls and dispatched units to the scene without knowing that his best friend had been killed. Coral Gables Police Chief William Kimbrough went before the City Commission on Jan. 9, 1968, to plead for two-man patrols to prevent the type of situation that led to the murder of Officer Stathers.
Disposition:	A massive police search was undertaken for a black male fitting the description of the witnesses. However, the perpetrator was never found.
Source:	Book Excerpted in part or in whole from Dr. Wilbanks book- FORGOTTEN HEROES: POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN DADE COUNTY, FL, 1895-1995 by William Wilbanks Louisville: Turner Publications 1996

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Last Updated: May. 29, 2019