Special Agent Richard P Horan

I started this post about 1.5 months ago, but as usual, I’m a day late and a dollar short (or in this case a few days late).

On July 26, 2008 the FBI celebrated its 100th anniversary. You can go to the FBI site for a history of the bureau and interesting summaries of some of their more famous cases. I’d like to know about Special Agent Richard P Horan; he was my grandfather Leo’s youngest brother and my mother’s uncle

On April 18, 1957, Special Agent Richard P. Horan was killed in Suffield, Connecticut, by Francis Kolakowski, a fugitive wanted for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the murder of his wife. He was also being sought in connection with a $66,573 payroll robbery, which took place on April 11, 1957, in Windsor, Connecticut. The FBI learned that Kolakowski was at his sister's home. While other officers searched the adjacent field and covered the entrances, SA Horan and a small group entered the home by forcing the basement hatchway at the rear. Kolakowski shot and killed SA Horan as the Agent began climbing the stairs to the floor above. Before officers could reach him, the fugitive killed himself.

SA Horan was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in April of 1922. He attended Western State College of Colorado at Gunnison, Colorado, for a couple of years before returning to Hartford to complete his Bachelor of Arts Degree at Trinity College. In 1948, SA Horan entered on duty as a Special Agent of the FBI and transferred to the Hartford Resident Agency.



As the years pass, its funny how some details stick in our memories. My mom was 17 when her uncle was killed - she recalls it was Holy Thursday, because he was born on Holy Thursday.

My second cousin Brien recalls he was “a couple of months shy of age 4 when Uncle Dick died. ... One thing I do know for sure is that this tragedy destroyed the life of your great-grandmother, who lived on for almost 7 more years but was a wreck and very unhappy. For a mother at age 73 to lose her youngest son in this way ... and especially somebody who was so full of life and promise and so well educated, was an unbearable tragedy.

So, if you find yourself on the Richard P. Horan Memorial Highway (I-91 from Hartford to the Massachusetts state line), you’ll know who it was named after and why.

I found this little snippet, but was unable to get the whole article – (if you know anyone who hangs out in libraries in Windsor Connecticut, ask them to search for this story and send me a copy?)

By FRAN WENOGRAD
IT was like a story in a detective magazine: A lone armed bandit made off with more than $60,000 in payroll funds from an armored car in 1957. Two weeks later, the suspected robber, Francis Kolakowski, committed suicide after allegedly killing an F.B.I. agent, Richard P. Horan, in a police stakeout at the home of the suspect's sister in Suffield. And now, 24 years later, what is believed to be the payroll money has been found buried in a wooded area near a major highway.
November 8, 1981