Detective William J. Grooms

William J. Grooms

Detective William Grooms was one of four law enforcement officers killed in an incident referred to as the Kansas City Massacre.

Detective Grooms was survived by his wife.

On June 17, 1933, a group of men attempted to free inmate Frank Nash as he was being transported to Leavenworth. In the ensuing gun battle, Detective Frank Hermanson and Detective William Grooms, of the Kansas City Police Department, Chief of Police Otto Read, of the McAlester Police Department, Oklahoma, and Special Agent Raymond Caffrey, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were shot and killed. This ambush became known as the Kansas City Massacre.