Dr. Charles Lynch was the brother of R. T. Lynch, Caddo’s barber who was shot and killed in his shop in 1903. Charles was in and out of this area for many years. R.T.’s widow, Mattie, stayed in Caddo, remarried, divorced, and worked in the millinery departments of several local stores.
March 31, 1916
Lynch Shot Majors
As the culmination of family troubles and a lawsuit, Dr. E. R. Majors of Boswell is dead, his brother Walter is seriously wounded and Dr. Charles S. Lynch of Hugo is arrested.
The shooting occurred at Boswell Thursday night about 9:30 o’clock, the two Majors being shot with a shotgun loaded with buckshot.
The trouble is said to be the culmination of trouble starting some time back and which resulted in a lawsuit last fall when Dr. Majors sued Dr. Lynch for the alienation of his wife’s affections in the sum of $30,000.
The suit caused much interest and bad feeling in Choctaw County. After the suit Lynch moved to Hugo and had returned Thursday to Boswell on business. As far as could be learned, none of the principals had met previous t the shooting.
It seems that Dr. Majors and his brother started home about 9:30 pm and on their way crossed a vacant lot by a path which they were in the habit of using. When about half-way across the lot five shots were heard by citizens in the neighborhood, who ran to the spot where the two Majors were lying. Dr. Majors had been shot through the stomach and his brother Walter was lying a short distance away, shot through one shoulder and through one side. Both Majors had buckshot wounds.
A short distance from where the Majors were found the hat of Dr. Lynch was located and lying by it three empty shotgun shells. Near Walter Majors was found a pistol with two empty cartridges in it.
Immediately after the shooting Dr. Lynch went to Hugo and surrendered to the officers. As far as is known he has not made any statement concerning the affairs.
Dr. Majors died a few hours after he was shot; but before he died it is understood he made a statement to the justice of the peace in which he said that he and his brother were going home across the vacant lot as was their custom when a bareheaded man raised up over a gate fronting the lot and began shooting.
No statement was taken from Walter Majors as it is believed he will recover.
Lynch has been released on a $15,000 bond.
April 7, 1916
Dr. Lynch Gets Bond
Saturday morning judge C. E. Dudley, sitting in chambers at Antlers, heard the habeas corpus proceedings for the release of Dr. C. S. Lynch, who is under charge of killing E. R. Major Thursday night in Boswell, as has been reported in detail. Bail was granted Dr. Lynch and the bond was fixed at $15,000.
The testimony showed that the defendant was entitled to bail. It was conclusively shown that numerous threats by the Majors contingent had been against Dr. Lynch’s life. That on Thursday the Majors made frequent threats and had purchased cartridges in a store and paraded the streets and particularly passed the places where the doctor was known to be. That they went to the depot and stationed themselves about in a manner as to create suspicion as to the propriety of their actions. That these facts were all reported to the doctor and that he was repeatedly warned that he was in a dangerous situation. And that when he left the Bushfields where he was a supper guest, he went out of their back door to go to an automobile in which a friend had offered to bring him to Hugo, so as to avoid any chance of meeting the Majors. And that he met them in the common back of the house which was a spot not on their way home and that he fired in defense of his own life, and possibly after one of his opponents had fired first.
Dr. Lynch was released at noon Saturday and went to his home in Hugo. – Hugo Hustonian
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