Hero Spotlight: Julio “John” Vannucci

Julio John Vannucci was born December 25, 1887, in Venice Italy and came through Ellis Island at age 3 with his father. He was appointed to the Memphis Police Department in 1910.  He served with partners Fred Hendricks and Charles Redders, then was assigned as an Emergency Patrolman in 1921 and was assigned to the Emergency Car.

Emergency Patrolmen were all senior, experienced, physically powerful and intelligent officers. They were the modern-day SWAT. They were heavily armed and aggressively trained team of officers who whose task it was to quell any police emergency of the day.

In 1927 he was promoted to Sergeant and was later assigned to the serve as the Police Officer at the Elmwood Park baseball stadium. Elmwood was later renamed Russwood after General Manager, Russell Garner, of the Memphis Chicks, minor league baseball team. The name changed to Russwood in 1915.

In 1938 he was promoted to Lieutenant. During baseball season he served as the Officer at the Ball Park for more than 26 of his 29 years on the job. You would see him sitting just off of the Chicks dugout. He never missed spring training or opening day. He served the citizens for 29 years and 5 days. He died on January 4, 1940.

Fire and Police Commissioner Clifford Davis said he was an absolutely fine police officer. He would do anything, night or day, cold or hot, to help anyone in trouble.  Physically he was not someone you wanted to deal with if you were a criminal. He was well known by all and citizens liked him very much.

When he was a patrolman in the Sixth Ward,  he and his longtime partner Fred Hendricks took more than 85 guns away from criminals. He later partnered with Charles Redders until his EOW.

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Written by Joe Lowry with research and editorial assistance by Trish Gully.