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“DEATH AT THE HANDS OF MEN UNKNOWN”

Daily Oklahoman of April 20, 1909--The mob spirit is no more predominant in Oklahoma's peaceful citizenship than elsewhere. But there are times when the ponderous machinery of justice seems to move too slowly, and public senti­ment, unwise though it may be, and often times misguided and mistaken, places in the hands of a few the enforcement of law and what they think justice demands.

            On such an occasion as these four men, murder suspects, were taken from the Pontotoc County jail at Ada, Oklahoma, and hanged. The methods employed by the mob in the consummation of their gruesome task, and the crime of which they were suspected, is graphically described in an article appearing in the Daily Oklahoman of April 20, 1909, as follows:

            Four men charged with the murder of A. A. Bobbitt, a wealthy cattle dealer of Ada, were quietly taken from the Pontotoc County jail, at 2:00 o'clock, this morning by a mob of sixty men and hanged to the cross-beams of an abandoned barn, a few feet from the jail.

            The mob dispersed as quietly as it was formed and the town knew nothing of the affair, until the bodies were found early in the morning.

            In the undertaking establishment of L. T. Wal­ters, lie the bodies of James Miller, B. B. Burrell, Joe Allen and Jesse West. Over them a coroner's jury sat this morning, and at the conclusion of the investigation justice Brown announced the decision: "That the deceased had come to their deaths at the hands of unknown men."

            An investigation of the affair will be started immediately, but at this time the Sheriff has no important clue as to the leaders or any of their confederates.

            Prior to the lynching, County Judge Toel Terrell and County Attorney Robert Wimbish got wind of the mob's plans and pleaded with the mob lead­ers at the jail to forego the crime. The authorities were ignored and they returned home between 11:00 and 12:00 o'clock.

Club an Officer

            When the mob entered the jail they encountered Joe Carter and John McCarty, night guards who upon attempting to prepare for resistance were bound and left under guard of a body of masked men. The mob then entered the sleeping apart­ments of Deputy Sheriffs Walter Goyne, and Robert Mester, and compelled Goyne to deliver his keys to the cells. This followed the secret slipping of Goyne's revolver from beneath his pil­low and the clubbing of Mester over the head with the revolver. The keys taken, Mester was bound hand and foot, and a guard placed over them. The leaders then entered the cell corridors, opened the cells in which the alleged murderers were kept, and took them out without trouble, save from West, who fought like a demon. He was struck over the head with a revolver and his skull fractured.

Lights Shut Off

            The mob then repaired to an old barn forty feet from the jail, strung the men to the cross­beams and quietly dispersed. In the meantime two men had gone to the power plant and ordered the street lights shut off for one hour. 'The whole affair seas planned and executed without a hitch. Not a word of the plans was uttered on the street yesterday, and the mob worked so quietly that people living two doors away were not awakened. The town was quiet all day. There had been no excitement and the only indication of anything un­usual had happened was the gathering of groups on the streets and around the undertaking estab­lishment where the bodies lay.

            During the day Oscar Peeler, charged with be­ing an accessory to the crime with which the other men were charged, made a sworn statement today, in which he said:

"Miller gave me and my sister the money to come up here and rent a house with. That seas in December, 1908, and we stayed about six weeks. I left between Christmas and New Years.        Miller told us he scanted us to come here and rent his house that he wanted to stay with us. That he had a land deal pending along with some cattle deals, and that he wanted to kill Bobbitt. He said we should tell the people that he was our uncle, should we be arrested. We are not related to him.

            "About a week after that he brought a pony here and told me to tell the people that I had bought it from Little John and on the installment plan. We kept the pony here, until we left after he brought it. I took the pony back to John. My sister left and Went home to see her people, and the people got to talking around here and I got scared and told Jim Miller, if he wanted to do this go ahead and do it, and told him I was going back home.

He said, 'Well, we will both pack up.' He was over there at the house nearly all the time I was here. He would stay at the house all the time. I got my money from. Jesse West. Mr. Miller said it was from Jesse West. I got three checks from Jesse West. One for fifty dollars, one for seventy-five dollars, and one for twenty-fine dol­lars. I think one of the checks was made out at Texola, and one at Canadian City. They sent them through here. One was New York Exchange and one was a registered letter. I never seen them together, except down here in jail. That is Jesse West and Miller. Miller never did tell me host much money he got, or was to get for killing Bobbitt.

Testimony Was True

            "I heard the testimony Miller's trial, and the testimony about me and Miller in the trial was all true. We had started after the pony at Little John's, the time that Skinner took the team away from me. After they took the team, we got on the train and went to Holdenville and doubled back and came to Ada that night. And the next morning we went to Little Johns, and got the mare. I put the mare in the wagon yard below the Harris Hotel. I do not know how long she stayed there.

            "I left Ada that night, and did not come back until I was arrested. There was a saddle left there, and I do not know what has become of it. Burrell spotted Bobbitt for Miller; this is what Miller told me. And that is what he had him for. Burrell and I talked about the case after they put us in jail. Burrell said he had something to do with it, and that Bobbitt was loading up with some cotton seed meal, and that he got in the buggy and went and told Miller that Bobbitt was coming, and said he got the team at his wagon yard, and that the man he got it from was drunk. He said it was a little gray pony team. Miller got to our ranch about 11:00 o'clock Monday morning and asked me if I would take the team back to Ardmore, and said that he made that deal and was expecting to be arrested every minute. I told him that I would take the team back and guessed they would not arrest me. He said, 'If they do, don't you make any evidence against me, but be careful.' He told me to write my name Milton on the registry up here at the hotel and deny it. It was the last thing he told me that Monday to he sure, and not own up that name Milton. I have been with Miller about a year now. I knew him in Fort Worth. Miller is gray. His hair is about like a possum's back."

Crime for a Crime

            The crime, for which the men were lynched, was the murder of A. A. Bobbitt, a very prominent cattle man and former deputy U. S. marshal. He was assassinated February 27, seven miles south of Ada.

            Suspicion pointed to Miller, and after consider­able search, he was located near Fort Worth. The others were arrested at different places. Allen and West being the last captured, these two at Oklahoma City.

            All waived preliminary hearing except Miller, in whose case the State forced a trial. This was heard Thursday, and after very damaging testi­mony had been introduced by the State, was com­mitted without bail. County Attorney Wimbish brought in a chain of evidence which seemed hard to break. The defense put no witnesses on the stand. Hence no one knows what line of defense they had in mind had the case gone to trial.

Who the Men Were

The prominence of the parties in the case gives it additional interest.

            Miller was under indictment for a murder com­mitted in Johnson County, and it is talked freely on the streets that he is suspected of numerous other killings.

            West and Allen who are brothers-in-law and lived at Canadian Texas, and were well-to-do stockmen; while living in the Seminole Nation a very bitter feeling arose between them and Bobbitt.

            Burrell lived in Fort Worth, but formerly lived in the Indian Territory, holding at one time the position of cashier of the Bank of Duncan.

            The theory of the prosecution in the case was that West and Allen had hired Miller to do the killing. Burrell working as go-between in the matter. It is thought that some members of the mob came from surrounding counties and parts of Pontotoc County, other than from the town.

            Many citizens at Ada have been heard to ex­press regret that such a tragedy has occurred here, but it seems to be the prevailing opinion that in view of the circumstances in the Bobbitt killing, and two or three like assassinations and the strong evidence introduced in the preliminary hearing, that no mistake was made in the men upon whom the mob wreaked such summary vengeance.

            Jesse West and Joe Allen were arrested in Okla­homa City on the night of April 6, at the M. K. & T. depot, by Detectives Robert S. Moore, Wm. A. Slayton, and Special State Enforcement Officer Todd Warden.

            When the men were in the police station here, Oklahoma City, they talked quite a little, and both of them said they would be killed if they were taken back to Ada, said Slayton last night.

West, in particular was sure that his trip to Ada would be his last. West told Moore, the only reason he never killed Bobbitt, was because he didn't get the chance.

            "I would have killed him on sight," he told Moore. "I didn't kill him, but that was the only reason, I didn't get the chance.

            "But they will kill us, if you take us hack to Ada. They will shoot us through the car windows, or through the jail windows, anyway they can."

        The men were taken to Ada by Todd Warden. He carried the guns that had been taken from them here, and proposed to give them the guns with which to protect themselves if they were at­tacked by a mob while on their way to jail.

            Editorially speaking, reflecting in a measure the sentiment of the people of the State, regarding the escapement of punishment by those suspected of murder the Daily Oklahoman of April 20, 1909, states as follows:

            "As the sequel of a vile assassination that oc­curred in Ada, in February last, four men suspected of the crime were lynched there yesterday morning, Crimes are to be deplored, but Oklahoma juries are permitting too many murderers to escape the pen­alty of their crimes, while procedure in the courts, with the importance given to trifling technicalities is making it easy for criminals to escape punish­ment.

            "At Norman, Saturday, James Stevenson, who was charged with the murder of Deputy Marshal R. W. Cathey of Pauls Valley, was acquitted by a jury.

            "Lynching is a form of popular vengeance that should have no place where courts and proper legal machinery are in operation.

            "It may be safely estimated that nine out of ten murderers in Oklahoma escape paying the pen­alty of their crime.

            "Where, then, must be placed the responsibility when the State is disgraced by such occurrences as that at Ada yesterday morning.

            “President Taft has deplored the growing inefficiency of the courts and eminent jurists have endorsed his utterance.”