BAD BOY PAGE II

On this page I have reprinted an article which appeared in a May 1998 edition of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel. It is the story of a Wisconsin resident that had died in the line of duty and after many years had been finally recognized for his sacrifice.

Memorial honors Wisconsin deputy killed on duty (Associated Press)

[Negaunee, Mich.] A former sheriff's deputy likened by a descendant to Wyatt Earp now has his name on a national memorial - 113 years after dying on duty.

During a ceremony this month, the late John Kohl, who once lived in Wisconsin, became the 22nd Upper Peninsula officer whose name has made it onto the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. The site bears the names of more than 13,500 law enforcers who died on duty nationwide since 1794.

"I am so honored to have this done," Pauline Russo, Kohl's great-granddaughter, said Thursday, when she was presented a Marquette County (Mich.) Board resolution honoring her slain ancestor. "I know the family feels the same way, even the ones who have gone on," she said. Kohl "always seemed bigger than life to me."

Kohl was shot twice March 5, 1885, while trying to arrest Pat Benan in what then was Gorman's Livery Stable in Negaunee. Kohl died four days later, leaving behind a wife and several children. Benan later was convicted in Kohl's death and was sentenced to life behind bars.

In the ensuing years, the livery disappeared from this city's Iron St., replaced by a succession of taverns and - most recently - the Eagles Club.

The memory of Kohl also had faded until last year, when a Marquette County Historical Society worker researched area law enforcement history and found newspaper articles describing Kohl's fatal encounter with Benan.

That discovery fed efforts by the Marquette County Sheriff's Department to have Kohl's name added to the national memorial.

Old census papers and other documents suggest that Kohl was born in Germany in 1847, then immigrated to the United States, where he fought as a teenager during the Civil War.

He later settled in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, where he married Sophia Leibenstein and fathered three children. Several descendants live in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

"When I was growing up, I heard a great deal about him," Russo said. "I always thought of him as a Wyatt Earp. I would listen to stories about how he died. I was always fascinated."

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