The Death of Officer James Henry Roche
James Henry Roche left Ireland and arrived in Boston in 1900, moved to Nashua, New Hampshire, married Elizabeth Somerville, and had five children. He joined the Nashua Police Force in 1922.
“Rosaleen Roche of Alstead Avenue, daughter of Police Officer and Mrs. Roche, returned to her school duties at Canaan following a vacation passed with her parents.” Her father also returned to his job. Eight days later, Patrolman James H. Roche was working the night watch. The Temple Street neighborhood was peaceful as usual. This wasn’t a high-crime area, and Officer Roche probably didn’t expect any trouble when he noticed a stranger on the street in the early morning hours of Sunday, 23 September 1928.1
When asked what he was doing there, the stranger pointed to the nearby house. He was on his way home. But he wasn’t. Officer Roche knew his beat, so he accompanied the young man to the door. At the door, the stranger pulled a gun, but Roche also drew and shots flew. The stranger went down, but while Roche was blasting his whistle to call other officers to his aid, the officer was shot from behind.2
Officer Roche’s assailant left a trail of blood and discarded burglary tools, but it petered out before responding officers caught up with him. A family, awakened by a man stumbling outside their apartment about a mile from the shooting scene, called the police. Upon being confronted, the bloody Thomas Kelley asked, “Is the cop dead?” Police knew they had their man.3
Kelley, a 27-year-old native of Manchester, had spent time in the juvenile correctional facility in 1916, but he had no record of criminal activity there. But he hadn’t lived in the city for years. His family didn’t know where he’d been or what he’d been doing. A few days earlier, he had dropped in, but when he left that afternoon, the family had no idea he was headed to Nashua, and they had no idea what business he would have there. Kelly died in Memorial Hospital four hours after the shooting.4
Meanwhile, a few doors down from Kelley’s room, Officer Roche “was lying, suffering in pain.”5
James Roche was born on 3 June 1872 in Kilmanihan, Brosna, County Kerry, Ireland, to John Roche and Catherine Keane. John Roche most likely hired out as a farm laborer to support his large brood of children. Poverty was rampant in County Kerry, and many “left the county never to return.” The Roche family joined the exodus.6
Maurice was probably the first to emigrate. He arrived in Boston in 1892. He paid for his brother Stephen’s passage in May 1898. In 1899, their widowed mother arrived to stay with her brother Maurice Keane in Lowell. Her son Maurice must have gone back to Ireland, perhaps to help his mother make the trip, because he and his brothers Richard and Joseph were with her when she arrived in Boston. At some point, her daughters also arrived, and by 1900, most of the family was together, living in a Lowell boarding house and working at the textile mill. But James wasn’t with them yet. The census was taken on June 12th, and James didn’t arrive in Boston until after June 19th, flat broke.7
James found a job at “one of the large mills,” probably at the Massachusetts Corporation, where his brother Stephen was employed. In 1903, James moved to Nashua and worked “in the Jackson Mills of the Nashua Manufacturing Co.” This is when he met Elizabeth Somerville, probably in the mill, and they were married on 11 August 1906 by Father Maurice J. Redden, probably at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. They were blessed with five children: Rosaleen, Isabelle, Irene, Lillian, and James.8
That Monday, 24 September 1928, the five children were all gathered in the family home, keeping vigil with their mother. Office Roche had been shot five times.9
“One of the shots entered the officer’s back on the right side penetrated his body passing near the spinal column and lodging near one of the ribs on the left side. Another shot struck the officer in the thigh, two near the right ankle and one in the left lower leg. Two of the shots went through the officer’s foot and into the fleshy part of the lower leg leading doctors and police to believe that several of the shots were fired after Officer Roche had fallen to the ground.”10
The Lions Club started a fund to help Roche with his expenses while he was recovering. In about 24 hours, $300 was raised. Personal, club, and corporate donations were made, and a fund-raising dance was scheduled for October 15th. The morning of the dance, Roche passed away.11
Since a dance would be inappropriate, the event transitioned into a concert and memorial service. “Morey Pearl and his Tent Orchestra gave a delightful musical program including piano solo, trombone solo, saxophone solo, and several vocal selections by William Cody, well known recording artist.” Pearl added his $100 check to the fund that night.12
James was laid out at his Alstead Avenue home in a room filled with floral tributes. On the 17th, the body was “escorted by Sgt. Fabian Mayo, and Officers Patrick J. Winn and Herbert Mears” to the Church of Good Shepherd, Episcopal, where it “lay in state with Officers Mears and Winn as body guards.” The Chamber of Commerce requested that merchants and manufacturers lower their flags to half mast during the funeral. After the services, “the funeral cortege proceeded to Woodlawn cemetery. From the church to the cemetery, the entire police force acted as escort together with members of the Odd Fellows and Foresters.” Taps were played as the casket was lowered into the ground.13
The James H Roche Fund raised over $6,000 (worth $112,794.74 in 2025). It paid off the $500 mortgage on the house, and the remainder of the money was placed in trust for the family.14
With no financial worries, life should have been smooth sailing from here on out, but tragedy was not done with the Roche family.
“Crown Hill,” first paragraph, Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Friday, 14 September 1928, p. 14, col. 6; Community History Archive. Also, “Monday, September 24, 1928,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 4, col. 1; Community History Archive.
“Monday, September 24, 1928,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 4, col. 1; Community History Archive. Also, “Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 1, col. 7; Community History Archive.
“Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 1, col. 7; Community History Archive. Also, “Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies From Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, cols. 6–8; Community History Archive.
“Kelley Little Known At Home,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, col. 3; Community History Archive. Also, “Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 7, cols. 4 & 5; Community History Archive. And, “Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 1, col. 7; Community History Archive.
“Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, col. 7; Community History Archive.
Superintendent Registrar’s District Tralee, Registrar’s District Brosna, District of Brosna, Union of Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, unidentified register, 7, no. 461, James Roche birth, 3 June 1872, Kilmanihan; IrishGenealogy.ie. His father was listed as a laborer, and as Kilmanihan was an agricultural town, he probably worked on a farm. Also, “Social Conditions in Kerry in the Early 20th Century,” The National Archives of Ireland. And, Kieran McNulty, “‘A Hard Bargain’ An Analysis of the Social and Economic Background of Kerry in the Early Twentieth Century,” 23 December 2021, The Irish Story.
Superintendent Registrar’s District Tralee, Registrar’s District Brosna, District of Brosna, Union of Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, unidentified register, 3, no. 462, Maurice Roche birth, 15 January 1871, Kilmanihan; IrishGenealogy.ie. Also, Soundex Index to Local and Federal Naturalizations Filed in Immigration and Naturalization Service District 9, 1840-1950, R-153 through R-216, R-200 Maurice Roche, Naturalized 12 November 1915; FamilySearch. And, Manifests of arriving aliens and United States Citizens and the crew lists of arriving vessels at the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, Vol. 57, 1 April–31 May 1898, manifest for the S.S. Cephalonia from Queenstown, List H, typewritten page 263, entry 2, Stephen Roche, age 19; FamilySearch. And, Manifests of arriving aliens and United States Citizens and of crew lists of arriving vessels at the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, Vol. 67, 1 June–30 June 1899, manifest for the S.S. Catalonia from Queenstown, List A, typewritten page 140, entries 11–14, Catherine Roche, age 50, Maurice Roche, age 22, Richard Roche, age 20, and Joseph Roche, age 11; FamilySearch. And, 1900 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, City of Lowell, part of Ward One, ED 774, 17B, dwelling 77, family 78, Alfred Thompson household; FamilySearch. The family is scattered in the listing of the boardinghouse residents: line 74, Mary Roche, lines 88–91, Morris, Stephen, Richard, and Joseph Roche, and lines 97 & 98, Isabella and Catherine Roche. And, Manifests of arriving aliens and United States Citizens and of crew lists of arriving vessels at the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, Vol. 78, 1 June–30 June 1900, manifest for the S. S. Ultonia from Liverpool, list B, typewritten page 211, entry 14, James Roche, age 28; FamilySearch.
“Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies From Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, cols. 6–8; Community History Archive. Also, Manifests of arriving aliens and United States Citizens and of crew lists of arriving vessels at the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, Vol. 78, 1 June–30 June 1900, manifest for the S. S. Ultonia from Liverpool, list B, typewritten page 211, entry 14, James Roche, age 28; FamilySearch. Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, Marriage Records, Vol. 8, 507, James H. Roche and Elizabeth Summerville [sic], 13 August 1906; FamilySearch. They were married by M. J. Redden, “Catholic Clergyman,” who was serving at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. See “Personals,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Thursday, 8 February 1906, p. 8, col. 4, paragraph 3; Community History Archive. And, “Officer Roche’s Family Worried Over Condition,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, cols. 1 & 2; Community History Archive.
“Officer Roche’s Family Worried Over Condition,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 5, cols. 1 & 2; Community History Archive. Also, “Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 1, col. 7; Community History Archive.
“Patrolman in Battle With Burglar Suspect Who Dies from Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 24 September 1928, p. 1, col. 7; Community History Archive.
“Lions Club Starts Benefit Fund in Behalf of Patrolman Roche,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Tuesday, 25 September 1928, p. 1, cols. 1 & 2; Community History Archive. Also, “Mr. Finn’s Gift Adds to Roche Fund,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Tuesday, 2 October 1928, p. 3, col. 4; Community History Archive. And, “Patrolman J. H. Roche Succumbs to Wounds,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 15 October 1928, p. 1, cols. 1 & 2; Community History Archive. And, “Memorial Service Instead of Dance for Roche Fund,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 15 October 1928, p. 1, cols. 5 & 6; Community History Archive.
“Memorial Service Instead of Dance for Roche Fund,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Monday, 15 October 1928, p. 1, cols. 5 & 6; Community History Archive. Also, “Impressive Tribute Paid Memory of Officer Roche,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Tuesday, 16 October 1928, p. 1, cols. 1 & 2; Community History Archive.
“Last Rites for Officer J. H. Roche,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Wednesday, 17 October 1928, p. 1, col. 6; Community History Archive. Also, “City News Stories Told in Brief Form: Flags at Half Staff,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Tuesday, 16 October 1928, p. 3, col. 3; Community History Archive. And, “Last Rites for Officer J. H. Roche,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Wednesday, 17 October 1928, p. 2, col. 6; Community History Archive.
“Nashua Trust Co.’s Gift Increases Roche Fund,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), Thursday, 18 October 1928, p. 1, cols. 7 & 8; Community History Archive. Also, CPI Inflation Calculator.