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Cops and Robbers

cops and robbers

noun

  1. a children's game in which a group of players imitate the behavior of police and of thieves, as in pursuing and capturing.

Though cops and criminals have long been fascinating subjects for literature, television and childhood games, the epic struggle between good and bad is ultimately played at the thin blue line.

 

These are the stories of some real bad guys and some real good guys who have played the real-life game of cops and robbers in Toledo. The cases below are as colorful and complex as the men involved, which may be why we find them so fascinating. This collection is not an effort to debate the character of those involved or the political affairs that entangled policing in the early 1900s. It is an effort to shed light on significant local crimes in a bygone era and the men who grappled at the periphery between right and wrong.

Click on the photos below to read a narrative of the crime, see photos of key participants and view (for the first time) police case files from the Toledo Police Museum archives.

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