We sometimes long for the “good old days” when life was simpler. Surely in the old days people felt safe and secure, especially in a small town. Well, perhaps the evil around us now is a little more flagrant, but if these clippings are any indication, crime has always been a problem. Of course what is a little different is the punishment, and exactly what was considered a crime!
Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen & Outlaws
by Jay Robert Nash, page 293
“During an attempted holdup of a Missouri-Kansas-Texas train near Caddo (Okla) in the Choctaw Indian Territory in May 1879, Henri Stewart shot and killed J.B. Jones. He was captured in Missouri and was brought to Fort Smith (Ark) where he was hanged on Aug. 29, 1879.” (This is also reported in Benton County records and Ft. Smith criminal records.)
June 11, 1912, The Oklahoman
Caddo Man Shot by Son-In-Law
J.L. Robinson, proprietor of a hotel at Caddo, was shot and instantly killed in Dodd’s drug store there this morning by Ray McCee, a young farmer who married Robinson’s daughter Saturday night against the wishes of her parents. Robinson had opposed the match most bitterly. Reports of the killing differ widely, some of the witnesses saying Robinson followed McCee into the drug store and attached him with a knife. Others say the knife was in Robinson’s pocket when he was shot and killed by his new son-in-law. McCee surrendered to an officer and was brought to Durant this afternoon where he was placed in the county jail.
February 6, 1920, The Caddo Herald
“Last Sunday night the safe at the Katy depot was robbed of $170.”
July, 1921, Caddo Herald
Citizen is Charged with a Serious Crime
(this was on the front page, and I omitted the names to protect any current family)
_____, a white man and ______, a Negro woman living at Colbert, were arrested by the sheriff’s force last night under an indictment returned by the grand jury of adultery. They are in the county jail. The indictment came as a surprise to many as _____ is said to be quite a prominent citizen of that section, at one time having been a deputy sheriff. He and the woman are charged with open and notorious adultery. The bond was placed at $3,000. They also had another case, that of outraging public decency and morality, and a bond of $2,000 was set on this. It was alleged that _____ and the woman have been living together, she acting as housekeeper. (Interesting to note that there is a murder indictment in the same issue of the paper and the bond is $5,000.)
July 30, 1940, The Oklahoman
Roads Blocked After Robbery of Caddo Bank
Department of justice agents and highway patrolmen organized a blockade of roads in this area Monday night in an effort to trap two young men who escaped with $300 in a noon-day robbery of the Caddo State Bank. In their haste, the pair overlooked $3,700 hidden in the vault in which they locked a clerk, Joe Gibson, and two customers, O.B. Hales and Mark Davis.
March, 1948, The Durant News
McIntosh Drug, Caddo, robbed of $500 in narcotics and $20 cash.
June 25, 1948, The Durant News
Arvin Ellis Drug robbed of $300 in narcotics and 15 watches.
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