William
E.
Kelly

WILLIAM E. KELLY was born in 1915 to John and Mary Kelly of Camden NJ. The Kelly family had moved to New Jersey from Pennsylvania in the early 1910s. By 1930 John Kelly Sr. had been a Philadelphia policeman for many years, and in 1930 he worked as a truck driver. The family had by this time owned a home at 55 State Street in Camden NJ. The two oldest brothers, John Jr. and Cornelius were working as clerks in the transportation industry. Still at home besides Leo were brothers Leo and Jeremiah, and sisters Catherine and Julia Kelly. John Kelly Sr. passed away in 1931. Brother Leo later went to work for Campbell's Soup.

On November 16, 1940 William Kelly joined the Camden Police Department, along with Joseph Caputi Jr., Joseph Carroll, Roland Comerford,  Joseph Hooven, Julius Kaunacki, Frank Nelson, and Harry Tracy.

William Kelly enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor. He left Camden for basic training on January 27, 1942. His brothers Jeremiah and Leo also enlisted. Leo Kelly was killed in action while serving with the United States Navy aboard the battleship USS South Dakota on November 15, 1942 .

Returning to Camden and police work after his wartime service, William Kelly married and started a family. The 1947 Camden City Directory shows him and his wife, Mary T. Kelly, at 362 Garden Avenue in East Camden. A son, William E. Kelly Jr., was born in 1951. The Kelly family remained at the garden Avenue address into the 1970s.

On September 5, 1949 Detective Kelly took part in the arrest of Howard Unruh, who had gone on a shooting spree in Cramer Hill that had resulted in the death of 13 people.

William Kelly was still with the Camden Police Department in 1962. After retiring from the Camden Police department, William Kelly worked as an investigator with the Camden County Prosecutor's office.

His son, William E. Kelly Jr., is a journalist an author of regional history books, as well as a history of golf. He has been involved in researching the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for since the mid-1970s, and maintains an excellent blog website.

Camden Courier-Post * December 4, 1940

Camden Courier-Post

February 10, 1942

William E. Kelly
Joseph Campbell
George E. Brunner
Dr. David S. Rhone
William Cahill
Charles Humes
Freeholder Schneider
Freeholder Quinlan
First Ward Republican Club
York Street

September 5, 1949

In this photo from the Camden Courier-Post, Detective William Kelly (left) and Officer Charles S. Hance stand ready to fire during he September 5, 1949 standoff between city police and Howard Unruh, who barricaded himself inside his apartment at North 32nd Street and River Road in Cramer Hill after shooting 13 people to death. More than 50 Camden policemen took part in the arrest.