Martin James Durkin: The FBI’s First Killer and the Birth of a Manhunt
Martin James Durkin, born February 16, 1901, was an Irish-American criminal whose name became synonymous with one of the earliest high-profile cases in the history of the FBI. A career car thief by trade, Durkin gained national notoriety in 1925 when he became the first person to kill a federal agent in the line of duty—an act that led to one of the FBI’s first major nationwide manhunts, personally directed by the newly appointed Bureau Director, J. Edgar Hoover.
Early Life and Criminal Activity
Not much is known about Durkin’s early life beyond his birth and Irish-American roots. By the time he was in his mid-twenties, Durkin had already established himself as a prolific car thief. In an era where automobiles were becoming commonplace but car tracking methods were primitive, Durkin exploited the system with relative ease, transporting stolen vehicles across state lines—a federal crime under the Dyer Act.
The Murder of Agent Edwin C. Shanahan
On October 11, 1925, Durkin’s luck ran out in a Chicago garage. Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan had been tailing Durkin on suspicion of interstate auto theft. As Shanahan approached a car Durkin was hiding in, he was fatally shot in the chest. The killing of Shanahan—the first federal agent killed in the line of duty—shocked the nation and rattled the FBI.
J. Edgar Hoover, only recently appointed as Director of the Bureau, took this crime as a personal affront. He famously told a colleague, “If one man from the Bureau is killed, and the killer is permitted to get away, our agents will never be safe. We can’t let him get away with it.”
A Nationwide Manhunt
Durkin remained in Chicago briefly before fleeing westward. His trail led authorities through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. In San Diego, he was implicated in another auto theft. Later, in El Paso, Texas, Durkin was briefly stopped by a sheriff for carrying a concealed weapon while traveling in a stolen Cadillac with his girlfriend. Claiming to be a California deputy sheriff on vacation, he was allowed to go retrieve identification from a hotel. Instead, he and his companion fled into the desert.
The car was later found abandoned and partially buried in mesquite. Investigators tracked the couple through rural Texas, receiving a break when a local rancher said he had given a man and woman a ride to Girvin, Texas. From there, they purchased train tickets to San Antonio and then to St. Louis.
With the train set to arrive in St. Louis on January 20, 1926, the FBI coordinated with local police to stop the train before it entered the city. In a small town just outside the city limits, agents boarded the train, found Durkin in a private compartment, and arrested him without resistance—his guns within reach but unused.
Trial, Sentencing, and Imprisonment
Durkin confessed to killing Shanahan but was not prosecuted under federal law—murdering a federal agent wasn’t a federal offense at the time. Instead, the state of Illinois charged him with murder. The prosecution sought the death penalty, but after a split among jurors, Durkin was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He was also tried in federal court for multiple Dyer Act violations. After two trials and several guilty pleas, he received additional prison time, which was ordered to run consecutively to his state sentence. Durkin served nearly 20 years at Stateville Prison before being transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. He was paroled in 1954 and lived out the remainder of his life in relative obscurity, dying in 1981.
The Deadly Encounter with Elizabeth Andrews
The story of Durkin’s arrest has another deadly layer. On October 28, 1925, weeks before his final arrest, Chicago police had nearly captured him at the apartment of Lloyd Ervin Austin, the uncle of Durkin’s girlfriend, Elizabeth “Betty” Andrews.
Expecting Durkin, police officers hid inside the apartment. When Durkin and Andrews arrived, Sergeant Harry Gray attempted to arrest him. A struggle broke out. Sergeant Michael Naughton aimed a shotgun at Durkin and fired—but as Sergeant Gray was wrestling with Durkin, he was struck by the blast instead. The same blast mortally wounded Lloyd Austin, who was hiding in a closet.
Betty Andrews, enraged by her uncle’s shooting, drew her revolver and fatally shot Sergeant Gray. Though she was never tried for the killing, she would later become the star witness against Durkin. She died from tuberculosis in 1932 near Oak Forest, Illinois.
Legacy
Martin James Durkin’s story remains a landmark in FBI history. It marked the beginning of the Bureau’s transformation into a modern federal law enforcement agency. The high-profile case gave J. Edgar Hoover his first major opportunity to demonstrate federal capabilities in criminal pursuit, setting the tone for decades of FBI leadership.
Durkin also symbolized the growing threat of organized and mobile criminals in 20th-century America. His crimes, manhunt, and eventual capture showed both the dangers faced by law enforcement and the evolving nature of interstate crime.
Though overshadowed today by the likes of John Dillinger or Al Capone, Durkin’s case arguably played just as crucial a role in shaping the identity and methods of the early FBI.
