Henry B. Crane, Deputy Sheriff
Muskogee County Sheriffs Office
The night of Wednesday, June 17, 1914, Deputy Crane, 34, and Deputy Sheriff Jim Barnes were ordered to ride out to the R. M. Chesser cabin near McLain to provide protection for Chesser’s sixteen year old daughter, Ruth, who Chesser feared would be kidnapped. When the deputies arrived Crane jumped over the fence while Barnes was tying up the horses. Crane was immediately fired upon by shotguns from the cabin and wounded. Deputy Barnes returned to Muskogee and returned with a posse the next morning. Deputy Crane had died during the night. The elderly Chesser and a friend, W. A. Reeve mistook Crane for a kidnapper and were arrested for the shooting. Crane had been a deputy for seven years.
Andrew Madison McGinnis, Special Deputy Sheriff
Muskogee County Sheriff's Office
Around dusk on Sunday September 18, 1932, Deputy McGinnis was a member of a posse that had trapped the two remaining fugitives wanted for a murder a few weeks earlier and the killing of Deputy Webster Reece the day before. The fugitives were in some woods south of Tahlequah. The two men started firing at the possemen. Deputy McGinnis and Rogers County Deputy Sheriff J Hurt Flippin charged at the fugitives and were shot down. The rest of the posse then killed the fugitives. McGinnis was dead at the scene and Deputy Flippin died the next morning. His wife and four children survived McGinnis.
Joseph P. Morgan, Deputy Sheriff
Muskogee County Sheriffs Office
Deputy Morgan and Muskogee County “speed officer” (County Highway Patrolman) John Barger had been sent to El Paso, Texas by train to recover Barger’s stolen patrol car and the Lawrence brothers, Bill and Albert, who were arrested driving it. The car had been stolen from Barger in Muskogee the month before. On the return trip back to Oklahoma, Deputy Morgan was riding in the front seat with Patrolman Barger driving the recovered patrol car with the two prisoners shackled in the back seat. About 7 P.M. on Monday June 16, 1924, just south of Fort Worth, Texas, Albert suddenly reached forward yanking Deputy Morgan’s gun from his holster. As Morgan attempted to retrieve his gun, Albert shot him in the head, killing him. Barger was forced to drive a ways before being told to stop the car and was forced from it. Deputy Morgan’s body was pulled from the car and dragged to a shallow ditch. The brothers then fled in the patrol car a second time. The Lawrence brothers would kill two more police officers before being apprehended near Tempe, Arizona on February 6, 1925. Bill was hanged January 6, 1926 in Arizona and Albert was sentenced to life in prison in Texas.
Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office
Deputy Reece formed a posse to try to capture the killers of a woman named Susie Sharp who was murdered near Braggs on September 2, 1932. Reece had received information that the suspects were three men named Tom “Kye” Carlisle, Troy Love and Bud McClain. Carlisle and Love were convicted bank robbers.
Reece’s posse consisted of Cherokee County Deputy Sheriff Frank Edwards, Special Deputy Tom Cook and Ray Crinklaw, an Oklahoma National Guardsman with previous law enforcement experience.
On the morning of Saturday, September 17, 1932, the possemen set up a roadblock on a curve of a rural highway near Standing Rock on the Illinois River about 20 miles south of Tahlequah in hopes the suspects would travel that road. The police car was pulled across the highway to serve as the roadblock. Deputy Sheriff Reece stood by the police car while the other posse took a more concealed position. Reece wanted to be the first to see the suspects and told the posse he would signal them with a flashlight.
Shortly after 4 A.M. the suspects came driving around the curve at a speed higher than Reece expected. As they braked the car rapidly, a tire blew on their car. As the car spun to a stop, Deputy Reece signaled the rest of the posse with his flashlight. One of the suspects in the suspects car on the passenger’s side using the flashlight as an aiming point, fired once, hitting Deputy Reece fatally. The other officers began firing and Deputy Edwards was wounded less seriously by the return fire.
When the firing died down, the possemen approached the car to find Bud McClain dead behind the steering wheel but Carlisle and Love had escaped on foot. Another posse was formed and trapped the fugitives the next day. Two more officers, Andrew McGinnis and Hurt Flippin were killed during that gunfight as were the two suspects.
Homer Teaff, Deputy Sheriff
Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office
On Tuesday, June 27, 1922, Deputy Teaff and Deputy W.O. Manley went to arrest John L. Welch on a charge of larceny sworn out by Frank L. Hendricks, a farmer, living near the scene of the tragedy. Welch was picking cotton in a field down the road from the shack that he and his wife lived in a mile east of Brushy Mountain. Hendricks, Teaff and Manley went in the Welch’s shack and found the stolen items which Hendricks identified. Hendricks went back to his home while Teaff and Manley went to find Welch. The two lawmen climbed the fence and approached Manley who was leaning on his hoe. Welch asked, “What do you want?” The officers replied, “We’ll tell you,” as they got closer to Welch. Manley told Teaff to slip the handcuffs on Manley. At first, Manley was calm but quickly shouted to his wife, standing about 27 feet away, to “get that gun.” As Welch’s wife, Daisy, ran for the rifle, Manley shouted for her to stop. She did not. Manley fired at her hitting her in the shoulder. She spun around and fell, but managed to get the rifle. Manley then emptied his gun at her. Manley turned to see Teaff locking the handcuffs on Welch scuffling with him. Welch got Deputy Teaff’s gun from his holster and fired two shots hitting Teaff. Deputy Manley was able to hit Welch twice over the head with his empty gun as Welch fired two or three shots at Manley, but missed. As Daisy reached her husband with the rifle, Deputy Manley retreated to the road and Teaff’s car. Welch fired several more shots at Manley before he and his wife ran into the brush. A posse was formed and began searching for the fugitives on the slopes of Brushy Mountain. Bloodhounds were brought in from Ft. Smith. Welch was later arrested and brought to trial. Deputy Teaff was survived by his wife, a daughter and a son.
James Work, Deputy Sheriff
Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office
On, Thursday, May 4, 1911, Muskogee County Deputy Sheriffs Jim Work and J. B. “Bud” Robertson were trying to arrest Bob Davis in Porum, OK, for cattle theft. A grand jury had indicted Davis on these charges. His friend, Leonard McCullough, had perjured himself during the grand jury hearings trying to help Davis. As the officers approached the Davis home, they encountered Bob Davis, his brother, Amos and McCullough. The officers ordered the men to surrender. They did not. They in turn ran toward the house then to the barn where a gunfight broke out. Deputy Work was shot once in the heart and then twice more after he fell to the ground. The Davis brothers and McCullough escaped while Robertson was trying to assist his fallen partner. The Davis’s and their companions were well known thieves of livestock and several murders had resulted from their work over the years. Bob and Amos Davis were captured in Denver, CO, and returned to Porum on Sunday, May 14, 1911. McCullough was also charged with the murder but he escaped.