This isn’t really a Caddo story, but it was on the front page of the paper and is very interesting.
The Caddo Herald
March 31, 1916
Woman Shot Sheriff
One of the boldest escapes ever pulled off in the history of Oklahoma occurred this morning when a murderer in the charge of a Texas sheriff on the southbound Katy Limited No. 9, which reaches here at 4:25 o’clock, made his escape near Checotah, Okla.
From the information that could be obtained concerning the matter, the sheriff was from Beaumont, Texas and had been somewhere north after a man by the name J. O. Kendrick, who was wanted in Texas for murder.
The sheriff, whose name is understood to have been W. J. Biles, had captured his man and was on his way home with him on the Katy Limited. He did not have his prisoner handcuffed or shackled in any way and was sitting facing him in the coach.
When the train was about five miles north of Checotah this morning about 1 o’clock, a woman passed down the aisle of the car and when she got just back of the sheriff, placed the muzzle of a pistol in his head and shot. The sheriff was killed instantly, the bullet entering the back of his head just below the ear.
The woman who did the shooting is supposed to have been the prisoner’s wife, and as soon as the sheriff was shot the prisoner took the officer’s gun and he and the woman covered the passengers in the car and also the auditor who they made stop the train. As soon as the train slowed down the man and woman both got off and made for the hills in that section of the country.
The train proceeded to Checotah where the officers were notified and the names of all witnesses in the car at the time of the shooting were taken.
The officers immediately organized a posse and started in pursuit of the two daring criminals and a report was received this afternoon that the posse had surrounded the fugitives and captured the man and woman who were lodged in jail.
Comments