Detective William J. Grooms

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

The Kansas City Massacre occurred when the Pretty Boy Floyd gang attempted to free gang member Frank Nash. Nash was being transported from Oklahoma to the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Unknown to officers, an informant had relayed all the information regarding the arrival of Nash and his law enforcement escorts to various gangsters throughout the area. As the group of officers and agents entered their cars at Union Station, in Kansas City, the gang opened fire. 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. Frank Nash, the suspect the gang was trying to free, was also shot and killed.

Pretty Boy Floyd was shot and killed the following year during a shootout with officers. A second gang member was arrested and executed for the murders, and the third gang member was found dead from an unrelated murder.