Gary Lee Cook, Reserve Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriff's Office
At 6:30 A.M. Saturday, October 17, 1998, Deputy Cook, 46, was directing traffic for a youth soccer tournament on Highway 266 at Keetonville Road when a vehicle struck him. The driver of the car and his male passenger ran from the car after it hit Cook, skidded 400 feet, hit a street sign and ran off the road into a ditch. They were both later arrested. His mother and two brothers survived Deputy Cook
Jess W Elliott, Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriff's Office
Deputy Elliott was in Catoosa serving legal papers on Thursday, November 3, 1892, when he became involved in a fight in a pool hall with Bob Talton alias Bob Rogers, 19, who was on probation for horse stealing. Other patrons threw Talton out and held Elliott inside until Talton had time to get away. However, Talton waited outside for Elliott to leave. After Elliott came out and got on his horse, Talton attacked the deputy and cut his throat, leaving Elliott lying in the street bleeding to death. Talton left for a short time but returned to kick and stomp the body while wearing the deputy’s hat. Talton was hanged on July 31, 1896 for the deputy’s murder.
J. Hurt Flippin, Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriff's Office
Deputy Flippin and Muskogee County Special Deputy Sheriff Andrew McGinnis were members of a posse that had been searching for Tom “Kye” Carlisle and Troy Love for the murder of a woman near Braggs in rural Muskogee County and the murder of Muskogee County Deputy Sheriff Webster Reece. Around dusk the evening of Sunday, September 18, 1932, the posse cornered the two fugitives in a thicket about five miles from where Deputy Reece had been killed the day before. Deputies McGinnis and Flippin were both shot in the ensuing gun battle. The two fugitives ran about 300 yards in a running gunfight during which they were shot and killed. Deputy McGinnis died at the scene but Flippin, 51, wounded in one ankle, was taken to the hospital where he died early the next morning, September 19th, having lost a great deal of blood from his wound.
Marshall H. Pebsworth, Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriffs Office
On Thursday, March 21, 1957, Deputy Pebsworth was returning from Coffeyville, Kansas, to Claremore. He had been to Coffeeville on a larceny investigation. In the car with Deputy Pebsworth was Richard Owen Hendricks. At the north edge of Talala, on US 169, Pebsworth lost control of his vehicle, which slid about 287 feet broadside, and then overturned four or five times, crashing into a telephone pole. A vehicle has passed Pebsworth traveling about 80 mph and he may have increased his speed in an attempt to catch the other car. The speeder drove on in to Talala and summoned an ambulance and notified the highway patrol. Hendricks survived but Deputy Marshall Pebsworth died at the scene. He was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.
Albert Pike "Al" Powell, Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriffs Office
About 1:30 A.M. Sunday February 4, 1934, Deputy Powell and Chelsea Night Marshal Bud Roberts saw two men walk away from the side of a hardware store. The officers turned their car around and stopped in the street. The two men started walking toward the car. When near the front of the car the two men opened fire on the officers setting in the car, killing Powell. His wife and seven children survived Deputy Powell.
George Colbert “Carl” Starr, Deputy Sheriff
Rogers County Sheriff’s Office
On Friday, September 20, 1912, Rogers County Sheriff W.E. Sanders and Deputy Starr were checking for bootleggers around the area just north of Collinsville. About 6:40 P.M. they spotted a wagon with three men in it. They stopped the wagon. Sanders went to the front of the wagon and Starr went to the rear. After being ordered to get down off the wagon, one of the bootleggers, as he was getting down, pulled a gun and fired at Starr. Deputy Starr immediately went down, fatally wounded through the heart. Sanders shifted his focus from the man he was holding at gunpoint to the man who was shooting at Starr. Both men began shooting and Sanders was wounded twice in the arm. Two of the three men on the wagon were able to escape, but Sanders was able to hold one man in custody. Sanders returned to Collinsville with the body of Starr and his prisoner, John Ettor. A posse was formed and they pursued the other two men, who were identified as Jack Triplett and the driver, named Guinn. They were captured the following day. Triplett and Ettor were found guilty and given life sentences.