In 1878 he received word that some party or parties were robbing box cars at the west end of the B&O freight yard. He, with
another detective, Christopher Lance, were detailed to try and capture the thief or thieves, if possible. Between one and two o�clock at night, they saw two
men enter a car. They rushed to the scene when a pitched battle with revolvers at close range ensued between the detectives and the robbers. Lance was wounded
severely and died the next day. Michael Riordan, though shot twice, succeeded in capturing one of the offenders (Marshall Smith), but the other escaped. Afterwards,
Smith reformed and entered the ministry, later the pastor of the largest Negro congregation of Washington City. The other later drowned in the James River, having
fallen from a barge on which he was working.
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Michael W. RIORDON was a member of the Martinsburg Police under Mayor W.E. Minghini and carried the scars of four bullet wounds,
one of which the bullet was never extracted. He received those on two different occasions, two while on the police force and two when he was a detective for
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He held the latter position for 20 years.
Submitted by Marilyn Gouge and extracted from History of Berkeley County, West Virginia, 1928