In the early morning of August 5, 1959, a Hillsborough police officer was on routine patrol near Skyline Boulevard and Black Mountain Road. At around 4:00 am he began following a vehicle. After tailing it for a bit, he put his flashers on. In an effort to determine if the vehicle was stolen he called in a check on the plates.
The plate check came up clean.
However, a dispatcher in San Bruno who overheard the conversation did his own “hot check.” It came back as stolen in San Bruno on July 31st. He immediately called the reporting officer back, asking if he got the message that the vehicle was stolen.
There was no answer. The call went out to surrounding law enforcement agencies, asking them to get to the scene ASAP! The reporting officer’s car was spotted at around 4:45 am by two Belmont police officers. As they approached the officer’s vehicle, which was on the side of the road, they noticed the lights were on and the motor was running.
When they got closer they saw the reporting officer’s body lying next to the car, covered in blood. He had been shot multiple times. Excellent police work was able to track down the killer in Salt Lake City 72 hours later. It turns out the murderer had been on a crime spree for most of the evening of the murder, looting vehicles, etc. The murderer was a 19-year-old unemployed TV repairman.
On April 26,1961 Alexander Robilllard took his last breath in the San Quentin gas chamber in front of 50 witnesses, mostly police officers. To honor the memory of the fallen officer the San Mateo Creek Bridge above Crystal Springs Road was renamed the Eugene Doran Memorial Bridge. It would be renamed yet again as the Officer Eugene A. Doran and Marine Lance Corporal Patrick M. Doran Memorial Bridge after Doran’s son was killed in the Vietnam War.
Next time you take in the beautiful view as you cross the bridge, remember the Doran family.
Everything else is just history.
