Charles D. Powell, Foreman
Oklahoma State Penitentiary
At noon on Wednesday, May 13, 1936, fourteen convicts in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, surrounded the guards who were eating lunch in the office. The convicts, led by Julius Bohannon, Claud Beavers and William Anderson, were brandishing prison-made dirks. Threatening to kill the guards, they forced them to throw down their keys and weapons, then piled into a commandeered automobile and drove through the gate with half a dozen prisoners hanging on to the running boards. During the attempted escape, Charles D. Powell, brickyard foreman, was shot in the head and his body dumped nearly a mile away on a McAlester thoroughfare. Julius Bohannon was finally captured after two and a half months of freedom. He was tried before Judge R.E. Higgins, Pittsburg County, for the death of foreman Powell. Although there was some question whether, during the escape, it was his shot or one from the guards that killed Powell, Bohannon pled guilty to the charge of murder. A second life term was added to the 99-year and life sentences he was already serving and cost him four and a half years in solitary.
W.H. “Pat” Riley, Chief Sergeant
Oklahoma State Penitentiary
On Monday, December 13, 1943, prisoner L.C. Smalley told Sgt. Riley that he had been robbed of a watch and $30 by two other prisoners. Smalley told Riley that the men who robbed him were Mose Johnson and Staley Steen. About 3:15 p.m., Sgt. Riley located both suspects in the boiler room where they worked. As he questioned them about the robbery, Johnson hit Riley over the head with a piece of pipe, and Steen stabbed him in the face and back with a knife. Leaving the officer on the floor, the two inmates then ran to the canteen where Smalley worked behind the counter. When the two ran in the canteen, the other inmates ran out before Johnson killed Smalley with an ice pick. Other officers arrested the two in the canteen but not in time to save Smalley. Sgt. Riley was survived by his wife, a daughter and four sons.
Both Johnson and Steen were tried for both murders. Stanley Steen was given a death sentence for murdering Sgt. Riley but cheated the electric chair by slashing his wrist and committing suicide before his execution date. Mose Johnson was given a life sentence for killing Riley but a death sentence for murdering Smalley. Johnson was electrocuted on November 1, 1946.