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5. Sanford: KBI Growth, 1957-1969
- University Press of Kansas
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52 CHAPTER FIVE Sanford: KBI Growth, 1957–1969 At the age of twenty-one, during the summer of 1928, Logan Sanford worked for the police department in Kinsley, Kansas, as a motorcycle patrolman. That fall he entered the University of Kansas as a freshman. He attended classes in the morning and worked as a patrolman for the Lawrence Police Department during the afternoons, evenings, and weekends. But money was tight and he wasn’t able to complete his college education. He returned home to Stafford County and farmed, as he had been raised. He married Doris Nelson, the beautiful daughter of a Stafford County farmer, in 1933, and they continued to farm, throughout the Depression, until 1940, when law enforcement again beckoned him. That year he was persuaded by friends to run for sheriff of his home county, and he won easily. He never left law enforcement again, except for military service in World War II. After winning the sheriff’s election, he moved his wife and three daughters to St. John, the county seat and location of the sheriff’s office. When he ran for reelection in 1942, after his first two-year term as sheriff, his major campaign effort consisted of the following poem that he wrote and which the St. John News gladly printed: The Sheriff’s Job Now, this sheriff’s job is a curious one Like the housewife’s work, it’s never done. Calls come by night and come by day. They may be near or miles away. Today we hunt evidence and dig up the facts. Tomorrow we struggle with delinquent tax. Next day we’re hunting a mottled face cow. That night we referee a nice family row. Next day we have court and the lawyers all rave. The defendant sits there in need of a shave. “Where were you,” they beller, “on the first of September?” The defendant replies, “I don’t remember.” They argue around ’till half-past three. Sanford 53 Then the jury goes out and fails to agree. The judge sends them back ’till their duty is done. But eight hours later they’re still eleven to one. We set out to catch him and we do our best. We get our percentage and lose all the rest. We don’t get ’em all, for some leave no clue. They don’t leave their cards, like the candidates do. So it’s quite a game, if you stay right in. You’ll get a pat on the back or a sock in the chin. But I still like it all and I’m shedding no tears. And I’d like to be sheriff for another few years.1 —Sheriff Logan Sanford Sheriff Sanford again won reelection easily but resigned his position in 1943 to enlist in the army, although his age, family, and his law enforcement employment would have kept him out of the draft. He was honorably discharged in 1946, returned home, and was appointed undersheriff. That fall he again ran for Stafford County sheriff and was easily elected to the office. He served as sheriff until January 1, 1948, when his friend Lou Richter appointed him special agent with the KBI and assigned him to St. John to help cover parts of central and western Kansas. Although oversight of the Clutter investigation may be the contribution to the KBI legacy for which Logan Sanford is best remembered, it was not his only contribution. When Attorney General John Anderson Jr. appointed Sanford as director on April 23, 1957, the KBI had nineteen special agents and three office personnel. When he retired, twelve years later, on December 1, 1969, the agency, thanks to his efforts, had a roster of thirty special agents and fourteen office personnel. Moreover, during his tenure as chief of the KBI, he established the KBI forensic laboratory; hired the first laboratory director; initiated the KBI Bulletin, a monthly publication for Kansas law enforcement; created a KBI polygraph program; set up the agency’s first photography section; assigned special agents across the state, placing them, when possible, in their hometowns because Sanford felt “they know the area and the people”; and was actively involved in the creation of the state’s first statewide law enforcement teletype system. He had brought many of his innovative, progressive ideas from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, having graduated from that law enforcement executive program’s 57th Session in 1956. He was already an [44.201.59.20...