Former LV Police Chief Witcher dies

Standing nearly 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds N.D. "Pete" Witcher cut an imposing figure as Las Vegas Police chief when he took the job in 1968.

But those who knew him best say he was just an old Texas farm boy at heart with a stature that belied a gentle and kindly man.

"He was a gentle giant," Witcher's daughter, Cynthia Shangreaux, said. "People would look at him and say, 'Oh my gosh he's big.' Not a single boy had me home late on a date in high school."

Witcher, who was chief of police from 1968 to May 1972, died of natural causes in his West Washington Avenue home on Friday. He was 82.

After his height, the second thing someone noticed when they met Witcher was his handshake because, as his wife, Irene, said, your hand would disappear in his huge ham-like mitts.

"Once you shook hands with him he didn't forget you," Irene said. "You could meet him once and come back five years later and he'd know who you were."

Witcher was born June 12, 1917, and grew up on a farm in Quitaque, Texas, a town of 513 people in the state's panhandle.

Witcher moved with his family to Salinas, Calif., when he was 17 and joined the Monterey County Sheriff's Department when he was 23. He stayed on there for 10 years and met his wife while on the job.

"I was working in the Monterey district attorney's office and there was a murder and I was sent out to take depositions from the witnesses," Irene Witcher said. "He (Witcher) was one of the detectives at the scene doing the questioning."

That meeting was in 1946, and the two were married in 1953. They moved to Las Vegas in 1954.

After spending a year with the Clark County Sheriff's Department, Witcher went to work for the Dunes hotel-casino as chief of security and later held a similar position at the New Frontier before settling in as the head security man at the Flamingo for eight years.

In 1967 he joined the Las Vegas Police Department as one of two deputy chiefs under then Chief Lorin Bunker, whom he succeeded in 1968.

During Witcher's tenure the department bought its first police helicopter and added many motorcycles for easy access to accidents. He was also responsible for standardizing equipment and uniforms for officers, even though it meant giving up one of his favorite things while on duty.

"We're going to see the end of cowboy boots being worn by on-duty officers," Witcher said in a 1968 Las Vegas Sun interview. "There probably isn't a man here who enjoys the comfort of boots more than I, but they have no place on uniformed men."

After leaving the department in 1972 Wicher became a security executive for Caesars Palace.

Witcher is survived by his wife, three daughters, a son, a sister, a brother, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Visitation will be held at Palm Mortuary, 1325 N. Main St., today until 6 p.m. Services are scheduled at the mortuary for 1 p.m. Tuesday.

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