William H. DeGive, shield #1187, was an undercover Detective with the Main Office, Eighteenth Detective Division, when he exchanged shots with two men who were escaping from a hold-up of a dance hall at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue in Manhattan. DeGive and Joseph Franco, whom the Detective had arrested in the Harlem dance hall on a charge of attempted extortion, were seated in an automobile around 10:00 p.m. on the night of March 3, 1931, when 21-year-old Joseph Emanuel, Franco’s accomplice, stole up beside the car and opened fire. The Detective returned gunfire, wounding Emanuel, who was arrested soon after when he showed up at a hospital for treatment. DeGive died from his wounds several months later on June 28, 1931. He was 24 years old and lived at 987 Amsterdam Avenue, which is today between 108th and 109th Streets on the upper west side of Manhattan. DeGive had been on the force only two years and was part of Commissioner Edward Pierce Mulrooney’s “under-cover squad.” Mulrooney was the Police Commissioner from 1930 to 1933. DeGive was originally assigned to the 28th Precinct. He was promoted to Detective third grade on June 3, 1930, and transferred to the 18th Detective Division. On May 13, 1932, DeGive was posthumously awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor. On November 14, 1932, Judge Levine in General Sessions sentenced Joseph Emanuel, who lived at 1511 Mayflower Avenue in the Bronx, to 30 years in Sing Sing for killing Detective DeGive. Emanuel, who was found guilty of manslaughter, had previously served a term in Elmira Reformatory for robbery.