Jason Victor Buchanan, Officer/Special Agent

Hugo Police Department/Frisco Railroad

Officer Buchanan and Hugo Special Officer Sterling Jackson were patrolling the railroad yards of Hugo about 9 P.M. on December 18, 1931, when they encountered three men who had just gotten off a boxcar. As Buchanan was searching one of the men, Nathan Rightsell, he drew an automatic pistol and shot both officers. Rightsell and one of the men ran off while the third man named Pickering stayed and notified authorities of the shooting. Jackson was shot in the hip and survived but Buchanan, shot through both lungs, died at 12:15 P.M. the next day, December 19th. Rightsell was later captured, convicted and died in the electric chair at McAlester on February 24, 1933. His wife and three children survived Buchanan.

Frank L. Cornelius, Special Officer

Santa Fe Railroad

 About 10 A.M. Tuesday January 18, 1921, Special Officer Cornelius, 30, was walking in the 100 block of West Noble Street (later renamed Southwest Second Street) in Oklahoma City in route to the railroad yard when two armed men approached him and tried to rob him. Cornelius drew his gun and a gun battle ensued where some twenty shots were fired in all. The two robbers escaped but not before one of them was wounded. Cornelius was also wounded and taken to University Hospital. Cornelius was conscious until just before he died at 1 A.M. the morning of Thursday January 20^th. In late March, Harry Henry and Bailey Owen were arrested and charged with killing Cornelius. They were later convicted of his murder and sentenced to terms in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Cornelius was a World War I veteran having been wounded twice in battle and had received the Distinguished Service Cross (the second highest medal for combat valor, behind only he Medal of Honor) and the Croix de Guerre for valor in combat I Germany and France.  He had been a Norman police officer and a city attorney at Wynnewood before going to work for the Santa Fe Railroad about a year before his death. He was survived by his two brothers and a sister and is buried in Wynnewood..

Lee Hobbs, Special Officer

Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T) Railroad

Officer Hobbs, 38, had been a Special Officer for twelve years when his body was found in the north McAlester railroad yards about 7 A.M. on Thursday, February 21, 1935. Officer Hobbs had suffered a broken left arm and a massive gash between his eyes. Some witnesses reported hearing gun shots in the area the night before but Hobbs had not been shot nor had his gun been drawn or fired. It was eventually decided that his death had been caused by a swinging door or some type of steel projection from a passing railroad car striking his head while he was walking the tracks on his rounds. He was survived by his wife and two children

Joseph M Kroskey, Special Officer

Santa Fe Railroad

About 11 P.M. on Thursday, February 22, 1912, three Guthrie Police Officers and Officer Kroskey met the train coming in from Perry looking for two negro men who had committed an armed robbery there earlier in the evening. The officers saw the two men get off the train. When the officer called for them to stop the men ran. One of them, Denise Alexander, was apprehended by the other officers. Officer Kroskey fired two shots at his fleeing suspect and the suspect fired two shots back. One of the suspect’s bullets fatally wounded Kroeskey when it pierced his aorta. The suspect was tracked and indications were that he got on a south bound train to Oklahoma City. Alexander had named his accomplice as Jim Pearson. Guthrie officers notified Oklahoma City Police and Pearson was arrested by Chief of Police Bill Tilghman the next day. The forty-year old Kroskey was single.


 

McDonald, Claude H., Special Detective

Rock Island Railroad 

Claude McDonald, 30, had served as a Canadian County Deputy Sheriff and an El Reno Police Officer before becoming a Special Officer with the Rock Island Railroad. He had been a Rock Island officer for seven years and was the head of their Secret Service in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas for the past two years prior to March 25, 1911. McDonald and his cousin Charlie McCain, also a Special Officer, went to Chickasha that Saturday night, arriving about 11 P.M. to investigate a series of box car burglaries. There were four strings of box cars in the yard that night and while searching them the two men separated so they could walk on either side of each row of cars. They started off walking opposite of each other but McDonald it seems fell back About 2:15 A.M. Sunday morning McCain saw a large man walking the opposite direction on the other side of a car then moments later three gun shots were heard. McDonald was found dead, face down with a bullet through his heart. His gun was in his hand and had been fired once. Claude McDonald was survived by Pearl, his wife of less than two years, and their three month old child. Two months later on May 29th a black man named Walton “Will” Roberts was caught in the act of stealing from a box car in the Chickasha railroad yards. Roberts was shot as he ran from pursuing officers and died from his wounds on June 2^nd. Before he died Roberts gave a full confession to killing Detective McDonald as well as a Tyler, Texas police officer several years earlier.

Ralph Robinson, Special Detective 

Rock Island Railroad 

In the winter of 1926, railroad officers in Oklahoma City were having trouble with a gang of coal thieves. Detective Robinson started riding the outbound trains during the early morning hours in an attempt to catch the gang of thieves. About 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 31, 1926, Robinson was riding an outbound train when he saw a group of men throwing coal off of the train. He pursued the men off the train and the conductor last saw Robinson with three or four black men lined up beside the tracks.

A short time later, Robinson’s dead body was found in the snow-covered railroad yard. He had been shot three times, once in each leg and once just above the heart. One of his own guns, unfired, was in his overcoat pocket. Robinson was known to carry two guns, but there was no sign of the second weapon. Eleven fired .32 caliber shells were found near the body. Robinson was shot with a .32 caliber automatic pistol. 

Oklahoma City Police and railroad officers began a massive investigation. One hundred and twelve black men were arrested and put in jail the first day. A few days later, John Scott, Charles H. Thornton and Willie D. Smith confessed and were charged with the murder. 

James Robert Robison, Special Detective 

Santa Fe Railroad 

Nolan Richard Willis, Detective 

MK&T Railroad 

Winfield Scott Wooten, Special Agent 

M.K&T Railraod