John Mathew "Red" Cantrell, Deputy Sheriff

Murray County Sheriff's Office

On Wednesday evening, August 27, 1930, Deputy Sheriff W. T. Tuck called Deputy Cantrell, 46, to assist him in further checking out a couple in a car he had talked to earlier three miles west of Sulphur. Deputy Cantrell picked up Deputy Tuck in his car. Cantrell must have thought it was a mundane call as he brought his sons Emmitt, 14, and Leo, 12, along with him. The deputies located the car, now facing the opposite direction and at a different location on the road than it was before. Deputy Cantrell pulled up next to the car and as he started to get out by standing on the running board of his car he was shot in the chest with a 20-gauge shotgun by a man laying in the back seat of the car. Deputy Tuck opened fire on the man but he was able to escape out of the car. The two Cantrell boys then witnessed their father die. Cantrell also left behind a wife and 9-year old daughter.