Okla-homey
11/15/2006, 08:17 AM
Okay, does this Tulsa World columnist read the SO?
Compare his piece in today's paper with my "Good Morning" installment from Nov. 1...especially my thread title.
http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81874&highlight=tilghman
Lawman died with his boots on
By GENE CURTIS World Staff Writer
11/15/2006
Famous Oklahoma lawman Bill Tilghman, who was called "the greatest of us all" by another former deputy marshal, was shot to death outside a dance hall in Cromwell by a federal prohibition enforcement officer.
Tilghman, 70, died almost instantly after the Nov. 2, 1924, shooting by Wylie Lynn of Holdenville, who surrendered to a federal magistrate.
Lynn refused to say anything that night except to admit he was the shooter but later claimed he acted in self-defense, a claim apparently believed by a jury that acquitted him of a murder charge several months later.
Lynn said that he had gone to Cromwell, known as the state's wildest town, to investigate reports that the women at Ma Murphy's dance hall were providing liquor to patrons. He said one of his guns accidentally fired and the shot attracted Police Chief Tilghman's attention.
Witnesses said Tilghman, aided by a couple of friends, struggled with the intoxicated Lynn and managed to get two of his guns but Lynn pulled a third weapon and fired three shots into Tilghman's chest. Witnesses said Lynn was armed with two .38-caliber automatic pistols and a .44-caliber revolver, but he testified later that he had only two guns.
After Lynn was acquitted in a trial at Wewoka, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for contempt of court for carrying a pistol, which fell out of his pocket in the courtroom during the trial.
Lynn was mortally wounded in a 1932 shootout in a Madill drug store that also left the other gunman, a friend of Tilghman, and a bystander mortally wounded and a second bystander less seriously wounded. Witnesses said Lynn saw his enemy, Crockett Long, a state agent, sitting in the store among about 25 customers and ordered him to put up his hands.
"I'm going to get you some time and it might as well be now," witnesses said Lynn yelled as he pointed his pistol at Long.
Long rose, pulled his own pistol and the two fired at each other until their guns were empty. Each man was hit by five bullets. Long died on an operating table a few hours later, as did one of the bystanders who was hit by a stray bullet. Lynn died the next day.
Tilghman had frequently expressed his desire to "die with his boots on" in true frontier style, Muskogee County Sheriff J.F. (Bud) Ledbetter, a former marshal, said of his old-time friend.
Tilghman's career as a law officer began as a city marshal in Dodge City, Kan., where he killed at least 20 men in shootouts before he moved to Guthrie in 1889 and became one of three U.S. deputy marshals for Oklahoma Territory.
During his career, he also had served as Oklahoma City police chief, as a state senator and as an adviser on a movie about outlaws in Oklahoma. He and former train robber Al Jennings toured the country showing the epic movie with Jennings making short talks to illustrate the doom that awaited bad men. Tilghman didn't talk but stood by for scenery, wearing his pearl handled guns and his gold badge from Dodge City.
Tilghman came out of retirement to take the marshal's job in the oil boomtown at the request of Gov. M.E. Trapp to help bring some order to the town that often was referred to as the most wicked city in the world.
After Tilghman was killed, Bat Masterson, another famous deputy marshal, described Tilghman as the "greatest of us all."
Gene Curtis 581-8304
[email protected]
Compare his piece in today's paper with my "Good Morning" installment from Nov. 1...especially my thread title.
http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81874&highlight=tilghman
Lawman died with his boots on
By GENE CURTIS World Staff Writer
11/15/2006
Famous Oklahoma lawman Bill Tilghman, who was called "the greatest of us all" by another former deputy marshal, was shot to death outside a dance hall in Cromwell by a federal prohibition enforcement officer.
Tilghman, 70, died almost instantly after the Nov. 2, 1924, shooting by Wylie Lynn of Holdenville, who surrendered to a federal magistrate.
Lynn refused to say anything that night except to admit he was the shooter but later claimed he acted in self-defense, a claim apparently believed by a jury that acquitted him of a murder charge several months later.
Lynn said that he had gone to Cromwell, known as the state's wildest town, to investigate reports that the women at Ma Murphy's dance hall were providing liquor to patrons. He said one of his guns accidentally fired and the shot attracted Police Chief Tilghman's attention.
Witnesses said Tilghman, aided by a couple of friends, struggled with the intoxicated Lynn and managed to get two of his guns but Lynn pulled a third weapon and fired three shots into Tilghman's chest. Witnesses said Lynn was armed with two .38-caliber automatic pistols and a .44-caliber revolver, but he testified later that he had only two guns.
After Lynn was acquitted in a trial at Wewoka, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for contempt of court for carrying a pistol, which fell out of his pocket in the courtroom during the trial.
Lynn was mortally wounded in a 1932 shootout in a Madill drug store that also left the other gunman, a friend of Tilghman, and a bystander mortally wounded and a second bystander less seriously wounded. Witnesses said Lynn saw his enemy, Crockett Long, a state agent, sitting in the store among about 25 customers and ordered him to put up his hands.
"I'm going to get you some time and it might as well be now," witnesses said Lynn yelled as he pointed his pistol at Long.
Long rose, pulled his own pistol and the two fired at each other until their guns were empty. Each man was hit by five bullets. Long died on an operating table a few hours later, as did one of the bystanders who was hit by a stray bullet. Lynn died the next day.
Tilghman had frequently expressed his desire to "die with his boots on" in true frontier style, Muskogee County Sheriff J.F. (Bud) Ledbetter, a former marshal, said of his old-time friend.
Tilghman's career as a law officer began as a city marshal in Dodge City, Kan., where he killed at least 20 men in shootouts before he moved to Guthrie in 1889 and became one of three U.S. deputy marshals for Oklahoma Territory.
During his career, he also had served as Oklahoma City police chief, as a state senator and as an adviser on a movie about outlaws in Oklahoma. He and former train robber Al Jennings toured the country showing the epic movie with Jennings making short talks to illustrate the doom that awaited bad men. Tilghman didn't talk but stood by for scenery, wearing his pearl handled guns and his gold badge from Dodge City.
Tilghman came out of retirement to take the marshal's job in the oil boomtown at the request of Gov. M.E. Trapp to help bring some order to the town that often was referred to as the most wicked city in the world.
After Tilghman was killed, Bat Masterson, another famous deputy marshal, described Tilghman as the "greatest of us all."
Gene Curtis 581-8304
[email protected]