Age: 57
Served: More than 30 years
January 25, 1881 to October 26, 1917
OFFICER
Julius was born September 3, 1860 in Independence to William Harrison and Susan (Thomasson) Plummer. On January 25, 1881 he was sworn in as a Campbell County Deputy Sheriff. Nine months later he married Carrie Bell Gosney in Newport. He was elected Sheriff on October 2, 1888.
During 1896 he was credited with finding the clue that led to the identification of Pearl Bryan’s headless body (a notorious tristate murder case). Sheriff Plummer pulled the lever at the hanging of the murderers, Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, in 1897. They were the last criminals to be hung from the gallows behind the Campbell County Courthouse on York Street.
Sheriff Plummer went on to become one of the directors of the Central Savings Bank and of the Woodlawn Home Company. On March 10, 1905, Carrie died from pneumonia in Millersburg, Kentucky.
He later returned to the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office; we believe as chief deputy and/or sheriff’s spokesman. When it came time to delegate a menial task, he sometimes took care of it himself – such as transporting prisoners.
INCIDENT
On October 26, 1917, Deputy Plummer was transporting Lone Star, an American Indian, to the Southern Railway Station in Ludlow for transport to the Frankfort Penitentiary. At the intersection of Fourth Street and Madison Avenue in Covington, the Fort Mitchell streetcar struck his vehicle. Both Deputy Plummer and Lone Star were injured and rushed to St. Elizabeth Hospital.
DEATH
Sheriff Plummer died the next day on October 27, 1917. When notified of the death, Lone Star exclaimed, “Me bad man. He good man. Better I die than he die (sic).”
Sheriff Plummer was survived by seven children: Jessie Plummer (35), Frank Plummer (34), Julius Leonard Plummer, Jr. (31), Irene Evans (28), Willard Wayne Plummer (27), Thornton G. Plummer (24), and Margaret Christine Plummer (22). Funeral services were held on October 29, 2012, at the First Baptist Church in Newport. He was buried in Section 23, Lot 84 of the Evergreen Cemetery, Southgate.
EPILOGUE
Julius Plummer, Jr. went on to become a Campbell County Police Chief.
If you know of any information, artifacts, archives, or images regarding this officer or incident, please contact the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum at Memorial@Police-Museum.org.
© This narrative was researched and revised on October 24, 2015 by Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Stephen R. Kramer (Retired), Greater Cincinnati Police Museum Executive Director, with research assistance from Cincinnati Homicide Detective Edward W. Zieverink III (Retired), Greater Cincinnati Police Museum Historian, and Cincinnati Intelligence Section Detective Richard W. Gross, Greater Cincinnati Police Museum Curator. All rights are reserved to them and the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.