James A. Keirsey, Officer

Seminole Police Department

About 8 P.M. on Thursday, November 7, 1929, Officer Keirsey was one of four officers who surrounded the home of Sam and Ruth Dyer in Harjo where a group of bank robbers were suspected to be hiding out. Officer Keirsey and State Crime Bureau Agent Claude Tyler covered the backdoor, Seminole Police Chief Jake Sims going to the front door and Seminole County Deputy Sheriff George Hall covered the side of the house. Chief Sims was met at the front door by Owen Edwards and the two men started firing at each other. Edwards, wounded in one shoulder, then ran for the back door. Agent Tyler had taken the Dyers into custody and Officer Keirsey had stepped in the back door with his gun drawn. When Edwards saw Keirsey he opened fire on him with his two .45 automatic pistols, hitting him numerous times, killing him. Keirsey was able to return two shots before dying. Chief Sims and Agent Tyler then shot and killed Edwards. Officer Keirsey, 41, was survived by his wife and three children. A year later Keirsey’s brother, William Con, would die in the line of duty also

Ben Mayes, Officer

Seminole Police Department

On Sunday December 1, 1929, Officer Mayes was attempting to arrest a black man named H. L. “Sonny” Carson when Carson shot him in the leg. Although Officer Mayes’ wound was thought not to be serious, he died in a Seminole hospital on the morning of December 3rd. Officer Mayes was a black officer with extensive law enforcement experience having served as a deputy sheriff in Seminole and Okmulgee Counties before becoming a Seminole officer.

Christopher C. Whitson, Officer

Seminole Police Department

On the afternoon of Saturday, July 4, 1936, the highly respected Officer Chris Whitson of the Seminole Police Department was gunned down in cold blood. Melvin Harvey of Shawnee was riding with a friend near Seminole when he saw his own car drive past him. Realizing his car had been stolen he had his friend follow the car until it stopped at Dale’s Tavern. The men then went to the Seminole Police Department and solicited the assistance of Officer Whitson. Whitson returned to the tavern and found the car with two men inside. He approached the car, opened the driver’s door and demanded they get out of the car. The driver, Paul Goodwin, got out. Horace Lindsay, the passenger, was holding a .32 automatic pistol on the officer. Whitson went for his gun, but was shot six times before he could get his gun out of the holster. The two men escaped taking the officer’s weapon with them. A manhunt involving more than 200 officers began searching for the fugitives. Horace Lindsay surrendered in Shawnee a few days later. He confessed to the killing and led officers to where he had hidden Whitson’s gun. Paul Goodwin was arrested at his brother’s house in Pensacola, FL, on July 20^th. Officer Whitson was survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

Hugh Reynolds, Officer

Seminole Police Department

On the evening of Friday, October 23, 1936, a massive three car traffic accident occurred about one mile northwest of Seminole on Highway 270. The accident happened when Joe Epperson of Tecumseh tried to pass a car driven by J. L. Purser, who was trying to turn left across the highway. While trying to pass Purser, the Epperson car struck another car belonging to R.B. James, Epperson and his wife were killed in the resulting crash, eleven other people were injured and a crowd gathered while police were being summoned.

One of the first four responding officers on the scene was Hugh Reynolds. He, along with other officers, began caring for the injured, directing traffic around the accident scene and trying to disperse the gathering crowd. During these actions, one of the officers saw another vehicle approaching the accident site at a high rate of speed. When he saw that the speeding car was not going to be able to avoid the wrecked cars on the highway, he yelled at the other officers to get out of the way. Officer Reynolds had barely finished forcing a group of bystanders off of the roadway when the oncoming vehicle hit him, crashed into the wreckage and pinned him in between them. The force of the crash was so great that it took two wreckers more than two hours to separate the wrecked cars enough to remove the officer’s body.

Officer Hugh Reynolds, 54, had been a deputy sheriff at Cromwell during the boom town days that had cost the life of Bill Tilghman. Following that service, he had been a Constable at Seminole for two years and had been an officer for the Seminole Police Department for the past four years. He was survived by his wife, two sons and four daughters.

Wilbur Tucker, the driver of the other vehicle that killed Reynolds, was determined to have been drunk at the time of the accident. Murder charges were filed against the 50-year-old carpenter the next day. A few days later, R.B. James died from his injuries, becoming the fourth fatality from the accident.