Claude E. Ryan, Night Officer

Okemah Police Department

About 9:30 P.M. on Saturday February 26, 1927, while making his rounds Officer Ryan apparently interrupted the burglary of a warehouse and was shot once through the heart. Although the shot was heard at the time Officer Ryan’s body was not discovered in an alley until shortly after midnight. $1,500 in cigarettes had been stolen from the burglarized warehouse. Five men were charged with Ryan’s murder a month later.