By: Officer Mike Severance – North Precinct

 

Around 11:30 p.m. on November 15, 1945, Officers Ralph L. Osborn and Charles E. Dean were dispatched to a disturbance call at 1012 E. Jefferson, a tavern. A customer, Eugene Moszee, had thrown a beer in the face of a sailor, harassed a waitress, and brandished a knife. When the officers arrived, Moszee was gone. The officers learned that he might have gone to a service station at 19^th Ave. and E. Madison Street. Osborn and Dean arrived at the service station shortly before midnight. The lights were on inside, and Moszee was sitting in the office. The officers told Moszee to open the door. Moszee refused, and he warned the officers to not come inside. Officer Frederick Hull, 49, and his partner, Officer Thomas H. “Maggy” Magnussen, arrived at the service station. The officers spread out. Hull and Osborn remained by the front door. Moszee suddenly pulled a pistol from his pocket and started shooting at Hull and Osborne. Both officers returned fire. Osborne was shot in the foot and went down. Officer Hull stepped between the suspect and Osborne. Officer Hull was shot three times and fell to the ground dead. Moszee, who was probably wounded at that point, crawled into the service area. Officer Dean broke a window in the service area and fired shots at Moszee until the suspect dropped his gun. Moszee was dead.

 

Officer Hull was survived by his wife, Louise, a daughter, Hazel, and two sons, Raymond and Ronald. Officer Hull’s funeral was held at the Mittelstadt Chapel on November 19, 1945. His remains were cremated. He is entombed at Washelli.

 

Frederick Harold Hull was born in Forsythe, Missouri on November 28, 1895 or 1896 or 1897 depending on which record you check. In 1900, the family was living in Colorado. Fred was living in the Tacoma area in June, 1918 when he filed his WWI Draft Registration Card. His name first appears in a Seattle Directory in 1919. He was employed as a ship worker and lived at 615 James St. He was also employed as a carpenter. Fred Hull joined the Seattle Fire Department in 1921. On October 6, 1926, he married Louise Russell. Fred was commissioned as a Seattle police officer on January 1, 1927. At the time of his death, the family was living at 8335 29 Ave. NW. Louise Hull never re-married. She died in Seattle in 1961.

 

In May 1998, Officer Fred H. Hull was one of forty Seattle police officers, killed between 1881 and 1976, who were posthumously awarded the Washington Law Enforcement Medal of Honor. His medal has been in the custody of the Seattle Police Department since 1998.