# State v. Richetti, 119 S.W.2d 330, 342 Mo. 1015 (Mo. 1938)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/courtlistener-state-v-richetti-119-sw2d-330/

Missouri Supreme Court opinion affirming Adam Richetti's conviction and death sentence for killing Kansas City police officer Frank Hermanson in what the court calls the "Union Station Massacre" of 17 June 1933.

The Supreme Court of Missouri reviewed Adam Richetti's conviction for the murder of Frank Hermanson, a Kansas City police officer, in what it calls the "Union Station Massacre." It states that "about seven-fifteen o'clock in the morning of June 17, 1933, four Federal agents and three police officers, including the deceased Hermanson, were transferring a convict named Frank Nash from a train which had just arrived at Union Station in Kansas City to an automobile standing with many others in a parking space in front of the station," when "a barrage of machine gun and pistol shots was turned upon them by two or three men who had been lurking behind adjacent automobiles."

The opinion reviews eyewitness identifications, among them Lottie West, a social worker for the Travel Aid Society at the station, and ballistic evidence tending to show that a pistol Floyd carried at the time of his death was used in the shooting. It concludes: "The conviction and infliction of capital punishment are affirmed," and remands for sentencing under the 1937 statute substituting lethal gas for hanging.

CourtListener dates the opinion August 17, 1938. The FBI's history page says the conviction was affirmed on May 3, 1938. The two dates are not reconciled here.

## Sources

- CourtListener: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3549976/state-v-richetti/