04/27/2026
The History of Boulder County Rests Here: Paul Raddatz
Paul Raddatz was born on July 30, 1875. He spent a number of years working in law enforcement, several of which he served with the Boulder Police Department. By 1923, he had worked his way up to captain. Raddatz served during a difficult time in Boulder’s history — it was the height of the Prohibition era, which deeply divided the always-progressive city.
The State of Colorado was the first to grant women the right to vote and had been at the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement. In 1893, it was the first state (after the Wyoming territory) to grant women the right to vote. As women gained the right to vote, they sat their efforts to bring an end to the social problems that plagued many families due to alcoholism. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which was very active in Boulder, and the Anti-Saloon League are two organizations that impacted Colorado.
Another major factor that gave rise to Prohibition was the anti-German sentiment that spread across the U.S. during World War I. German immigrants owned and operated the country’s largest and most successful breweries. This was certainly true in Colorado, first with Adolf Zang in Denver in the late 1800s, and later with Adolph Coors. If they wanted to survive and retain their wealth, they had to find other means of income. Adolph Coors, for example, switched to producing milk and porcelain products during the Prohibition. Even before the Prohibition went into effect nationally on Jan. 17, 1920, it was already the law in Colorado. Voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution during the 1914 election, which went into effect in January 1916.
Over the 17 years the Prohibition was in effect in Colorado, the law proved to be a failure, giving rise to bootleggers and gangsters, and grew increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression. Boulder was not exempt from the corruption that the Prohibition bred. Louis B. Reed, who served as district attorney, called Boulder “a hellhole of protected vice, graft, and crime.” This is not to say that there were not local officers of the law who were determined to uphold the law and stamp out vice, but sadly, they had to fight corruption, often in high places. When the Boulder chief of police was replaced in January 1923, the mayor appointed someone who seemed more sympathetic to those who disagreed with Prohibition and its enforcement. This led to strife within the ranks of the force, and in mid-November of that year, the city manager issued a letter informing five members of the Boulder Police Department that their services would not be required after Nov. 30. These officers had been active in enforcing the law when it was passed. They were Capt. Raddatz, H. O. Waxham, William Brunick, Elmer Cobb, and William A. Gentry.
Just a few days later, on Nov. 19, 1923, Cobb was found mysteriously slain. It appeared he had been ambushed by an assassin, and his body was dragged behind a billboard across from the police station just as his shift was ending. His body was discovered by a delivery man on his way to work who noticed his feet protruding from behind the sign. He ran across the street to the police station, where he notified Raddatz and Cobb’s wife, who had come to the station because her husband hadn’t come home on time. The town was strongly divided when Chief of Police Claude Head and Norman “Spookey” Drake were charged with Cobb’s murder a few months later.
Attorney General Reed was convinced that Cobb was killed because he knew too much about the corruption that was going on and that Head wanted him out of the way and paid to have him assassinated. There were a couple of witnesses upon which he based his charges, but when one of them changed their story, he eventually felt forced to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. He resigned and went back to private practice in Greeley, later retiring in California in 1938. Head continued to serve as chief of police until February 1927. The city manager also eventually resigned, and the case was never resolved, nor was the cloud around the case lifted.
Capt. Raddatz had stood by his fallen officer and against Head, and the stress weakened his health. He died at the age of 56 on March 26, 1932, and was laid to rest in the peaceful Green Mountain Cemetery. His wife, Bessie, eventually joined him there following her passing in 1950.
