Age: 39
Served: 4 years
1896 to June 12, 1900

William McQuery, known variously as Ox, Mox, and Big Mox, at age 23, during 1884, began playing major league baseball with the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds.  By 1891, having played in Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Syracuse, and Washington, his career ended and he returned home to Kentucky.  About 1896, “Big Mox” joined the Covington Police Department.

During June 1900, Wallace Bishop, alias William Burns, a mail clerk for the St. Louis Star, shot and killed a hobo in a hobo camp in Ludlow, Kentucky.  He and a companion fled to Covington aboard a horse drawn streetcar where they were intercepted on June 8, 1900 by Patrolman McQuery at the Covington end of the Suspension Bridge.  Patrolman McQuery was met with a hail of bullets from the two culprits, one of which struck him in the chest.  He returned fire, wounding the companion.  Bishop fled across the bridge where Cincinnati and Covington Police closed in on him.  He then leapt from the bridge but was captured when he came ashore.  Patrolman McQuery died from his wound in a Cincinnati Hospital on June 12, 1900. 

He was considered the most popular man on the Covington Police Department and there was a huge crowd at his funeral.  He is buried in Linden Grove Cemetery, Covington, Kentucky.

Bishop was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.  The companion survived his wound, was imprisoned, and later died in an escape attempt.

Anyone with additional informaiton with regard to family, artifacts, or photographs of this officer, are asked to contact the Museum Director at Director@GCPHS.com.