April 15, 1921
Attending District Court
Lake Brewer, M. L. Tanner, J. D. Nickels, H. I. Meadows, A. F. Manning, and W. P. Turnbull are serving as petit jurors in district court at Durant this week.
The criminal docket was taken up Monday:
Alfred Gonia, who is well known in police circles, pleaded guilty to burglary in the second degree and was sentenced to four years in the state penitentiary. Gonia was found guilty of burglarizing a box car, taking a large quantity of shoes belonging to Perkins Dry Goods Company.
Wesley Williford pleaded guilty to burglary in the second degree and was sentenced to two years in the state reformatory at Granite.
George D. Cooper, charged with forgery in the second degree, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the state penitentiary at McAlester for two years. He was charged with forging Edling Ewing’s name to a check and attempting to pass it at the First National Bank.
R.W. Nelson, charged with forgery in the second degree, pleaded guilty in two cases and was sentenced to two terms in the penitentiary of one year each, the second term to state immediately on the completion of the first. Nelson was charged with passing two forged checks on J. F. Roberts of Durant.
Hunter was sentenced to two years in the state reformatory at Granite on a charge of burglarizing a store at Armstrong, April 1. He also pleaded guilty.
Jesse Crossley was sentenced to reformatory on a charge of robbing the armory of a quantity of blankets and guns. He pleaded guilty.
April 15, 1921
Boy Sentenced
Tulsa, Ok. April 11- Eddie Shouquette, convicted of participation in the robbery of the Bank of Sperry last December, drew a fifteen-year sentence in the McAlester penitentiary. Frank Stanley, alleged leader of the band of robbers, was given a like sentence by a district court jury the first of the week. Shouquette, who is but 19 years of age, was the first convicted and the jury left his term of imprisonment up to Judge R. S. Cole.
The Durant Weekly News
April 29, 1921
Complete Auto Stealing Outfit
Simpson and Ivey Held in Jail on Bank Robbery Charge
Had Elaborate Sets of Tools
Whether or not the guilt of stealing the Chevrolet car and robbing the First State Bank at Calera is ever proven on Messrs. Simpson and Ivey, who are now held in jail as suspects of the crime, is yet to be seen, but one thing is certain, and it is that those birds had in their possession when arrested about as elaborate an outfit for the disguising of an automobile as have ever been seen here.
One solid leather portfolio, resembling that of a hardware drummer, was found to contain a varied assortment of things, which included several complete sets of automobile license tags for 1921, from numerous states including Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri; complete set of number punch dies, with which the serial number of an automobile engine could be changed with one blow of a hammer on punch; several “motor meters” for Ford cars; several ignition switch boards for Ford cars; files, chisels and hammers of various kinds and sizes; complete automobile maps for practically every state, and numerous other electrical and mechanical appliances such as might be found in a garage tool chest.
They stopped at the best hotels, and put up an appearance of prosperity. Considerable currency was found in their possession when they were arrested officers said.
They have employed Utterback & MacDonald to defend them as well as several lawyers from other cities and states. Their defense is said to include Moman Pruitt, famous criminal lawyer from Oklahoma City.
Both men are charged with two cases larceny of an automobile and burglary. The examining trial on the larceny case will be held in Justice Phillips’ court this coming week and that in the burglary case in Justice Archibald’s court. The exact dates of the hearings have not been determine.
The Durant Democrat (published in the Caddo Herald)
April 29, 1921
Still of Prosperous Farmer is Raided
What is believed to have been the biggest and most cunningly concealed still ever operated in this county was raided and dismantled by Deputy Sheriff C. M. Etchison and Constable Reuben Meek of Mead at the home of Henry Golding two miles southeast of Mead Monday morning at 1 o’clock. The still was of 50-gallon capacity and 300 gallons of mash and several gallons of whiskey were taken along with it. Eight large barrels formerly containing the mash were on display at the court house this morning.
It is said that the still has been in operation for two years, but it was so skillfully concealed that officers were not able to find it until last night. Golding, who owns a big farm and a handsome bungalow, has been suspected of manufacturing whiskey and officers have been watching for him the past week. Saturday night they lay and watched the house, but found no clue on which to work. Sunday night Etchison and Meeks returned to make the raid. Golding, supposing himself safe from the prying eyes of the law, worked. In the parlor of Golding’s residence, raising an art square the floor in the parlor the officers found a panel trap door. Under the floor was a cellar, and leading from the cellar was an underground tunnel in which the still was running on full time, as complete a still as was ever run in the days of revenue payments. Smoke from the furnace was directed to go out the kitchen flue. It was in reality a place of industry and production.
With the breaking up of this still, it is believed that the biggest source of the whiskey supply in that neighborhood will be cut off.
The Durant Weekly News
April 29, 1921
A Jealous Man Slays His Wife
Had Been Divorced and Wife had Returned to Nurse Child
Man Afterward Kills Self
Crazed with jealousy over the attentions of his step-brother paid to his recently divorced wife, D. W. Williams, a farmer living five miles from Atoka, shot and killed his former wife and then committed suicide by taking strychnine Tuesday.
Williams shot Mrs. Williams four times with a shotgun, blowing off entirely her head and one arm. He then wrote a note to the Odd Fellows, asking that they bury him, and took poison.
Mrs. Williams, who had been staying at an Atoka hotel, went to her former husband’s home in the country Saturday night to nurse one of her five children, reported to be seriously ill.
After breakfast Tuesday morning Mrs. Williams was walking in the yard with the other four children. When she returned to the house Williams began shooting, it was said.
After the murder he walked calmly to the barn 200 yards distant and took poison, returning to fall by the side of the woman over whom the deed had been committed.
All the children are under 15 years old, neighbors who are caring for the children said when the deputy sheriff from Okataha made an investigation of the affair.