Deputy Sheriff John Henry "Frank" Keller was killed after being struck in the head with a pick axe by a prisoner.

Deputy Keller was supervising a chain gang working in a quarry approximately one mile north of the zoo on Grant Avenue. While Deputy Keller was distracted with one prisoner a second prisoner struck him in the back of the head with a pick axe and then stole his revolver. Before the prisoner could escape Deputy Jack Bettis shot the suspect in the face with bird shot, wounding him. Deputy Keller died of his injuries at his home at midnight that evening.

The suspect, George Hayes, who had been serving a 90-day sentence for petty larceny at the time of the attack on Deputy Keller, was sentenced on November 2, 1895 to 99 years. Previously, in 1891, Hayes was sentenced in Lawrence County to two years in the penitentiary for assault and was also arrested numerous other times for minor crimes. In 1901, he was moved to an asylum in Fulton and was later pardoned by the Governor Dockery.

Deputy Keller was survived by his wife, Anna, and a daughter.
Interment: Maple Park Cemetery, Springfield, Missouri.