Week 31: Irene "Animal Girl" Schroeder
In the 1930s, crime sprees filled the newspapers with lurid stories of bank heists, kidnappings, gun battles, and murders. The names associated with these crimes are still familiar today—George “Baby Face” Nelson, “Machine Gun” Kelly, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde. The exploits of these criminals made the newspaper feel like a serial crime novel, with regular updates on the last known whereabouts of these desperados. Eighty five years ago this week, an infamous criminal duo’s story came to an exciting conclusion after a gun battle in downtown Chandler.
The story began with a 20 year old woman named Irene Schroeder. Born in Benwood, West Virginia, in 1909, Irene married Homer Schroeder when she was 15, and gave birth to a son by the time she was 16. Soon, Irene left her husband and moved to Wheeling, WV, where she eked out a living as a waitress. There, Schroeder met Walter Glen Dague, a Sunday school teacher and salesman who was a married father of two. They soon became lovers.
On December 27, 1929, Schroeder, Dague, Schroeder’s older brother Tom Crawford, and Schroeder’s 4 year old son, Donnie, drove the 100 miles from Wheeling, WV, to Butler, Pennsylvania. On a whim they decided to rob the P.H. Butler Co. grocery store at gunpoint while Donnie waited in the car. They bound and gagged the store manager and an elderly customer, emptied their pockets and cleaned out the cash register. It wasn't their first such heist. Schroeder and Dague had robbed gas stations and stores from Ohio to Tennessee in the preceding months with handguns they'd purchased from pawn shops on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
Two Pennsylvania Highway Patrolmen, Cpl. Brady Paul and Pvt. Ernest C. Moore, were radioed about the robbery and stopped Schroeder’s car near New Castle, PA. A gun battle ensued while 4-year –old Donnie was in the car. Officer Paul was shot three times and would later die from his injuries. Officer Moore was shot twice, but survived. The fugitives drove into New Castle, dumped their bullet ridden car and carjacked another car. They dropped Schroeder’s son off with Irene’s father in Benwood, WV, and headed west, leading authorities on a several week pursuit marked by multiple shootouts and near escapes. Newspapers across the country gave Irene many names including “Iron Irene,” “Trigger Girl,” and “Animal Girl.”
The duo’s luck held until they arrived in Arizona. While fueling up their car and buying some food at a filling station in Florence, AZ, a Pinal County Deputy named Joe Chapman approached the car. After a brief struggle, Chapman was taken hostage and the bandits drove north towards Chandler. Awaiting them on Arizona Avenue directly across from the San Marcos was a roadblock set up by Maricopa County Deputy Sheriffs Shirley Butterfield and Lee Wright, who both lived in Chandler. As they forced the car to the curb, the fugitives began firing. Deputy Wright was shot in his left arm. Deputy Butterfield was blinded by shattered glass from his windshield. Hostage Chapman struggled with his captors during the battle and was shot in his hand. He was ejected from the car as Schroeder, Dague, and another accomplice fled the scene.
This escape did not last long. Schroeder and Dague abandoned their vehicle and fled on foot into the Gila River Indian Community and the Estrella Mountains. Maricopa County Sheriff Charles Wright, brother of Deputy Lee Wright, dispatched a large posse that included an airplane. After a six hour standoff, the fugitives surrendered.
Schroder and Dague were extradited to Pennsylvania to face murder charges for the slain Pennsylvania highway patrolman. In an interesting twist of fate, their last meal in Arizona was at the Ellis Café in Chandler, just yards away from where the now infamous gun battle that led to their capture had taken place. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, Deputy Lee Wright died from his injuries. A year later, Schroeder and Dague were found guilty of the murder of the Pennsylvania officer, and were sentenced to death by the electric chair. Schroeder was the first woman in Pennsylvania and only the fourth woman in the United States to be executed this way.