Cullinan, Hero Police SergeantUses Cane to Receive Award - Other Men Honoured for Effort Beyond Call of
Duty
[photograph]
Heroic Police Sergeant Honoured--Sgt. John F. Cullinan, who lost leg in gun battle
with criminal last January, is congratulated by Gov. Dever after receiving decorations for valour at annual
policemen's ball at Boston Garden. In center is Commissioner Thomas F. Sullivan. Leaning on a cane, Boston police
segeant John F. Cullinan of West Roxbury limped across the glittering floor of Boston Garden last night and stood
at attention while Gov. Dever decorated him with the Walter Scott Medal for Valour and the Police Department's
medal of honour.
The cane and the limp, caused by a wooden leg, gave mute testimony to the courage and bravery of
the officer who fought it out with a crazed gunman in the darkened corridors of a South End rooming house last
Jan. 24.
Sgt. Cullinan, attached to the Warren av. station, was shot through the groin by the entrapped criminal
and lost his leg as a result. He spent months in a hospital bed, and since his release late last Spring he has had
to return periodically to City Hospital for operations.
The marihuana maddened gunman who shot him now lives in
a world of darkness at Norfolk prison colony. He was blinded by a self-inflicted bullet wound through the head
about an hour after he had maimed the police sergeant.
Garden Echoes to Cheers
So Boston
Garden, scene of the annual ball of the Police Relief Association, resounded with cheers as the intrepid Sgt.
Cullinan received the highest award of the department...