Judge Thomas and John Jr.'s Horse
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Seven Die in Prison Mutiny
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Muskogee Times-Democrat 20 January 1914
"Mad with lust for Liberty. Three Convicts Resolve To Sell Their Lives Or Gain Freedom—Three Prison Officials and Judge Thomas Sacrificed As Their Victims—Guard Ritchie Then Kills All Three After Convicts Had Used Young Girl And A Prison Official As Shields
McAlester, Okla., Jan. 20.—The first great grim tragedy of the state’s penal institution occurred here at 4:45 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Seven lives were sacrificed, and one of these was Judge John R. Thomas, well known and loved by thousands in Muskogee, where he lived.
The mutiny was one of those things which every penal institution plans against, but when it flared up the prison officials were caught unarmed. Three convicts had carefully planned to gain liberty or sell their lives in the attempt. They not only lost their own lives but sacrificed four others besides.
The first man killed was Judge John R. Thomas of Muskogee, then in rapid succession E.C. Godfrey, storehouse sergeant; D.C. Oats, assistant deputy warden, and H. H. Drover, record clerk, were shot down. The convicts were killed after they had gotten three-quarters of a mile from the penitentiary building. They were all killed by R.J. Ritchie, a guard.
Dr. A.K. West, H.E. Shellon, and Paul Jones, members of the board of affairs, are here this morning conducting an official investigation of the tragedy.
There were three convicts in the mutiny. They were David Koontz, a bank robber from Roger Mills county, serving fifty years; China Reed, from Pittsburg county, serving two years for horse larceny, with one year to serve; and Tom Lane, of Garvin county, serving six years for forgery with eighteen months more to serve.
The three were working in the tailoring department. When they came in last night to deliver their work to the store room Koontz whirled and threw a .44 Smith and Wesson six shooter in the face of J.W. Martin, inner turnkey, and demanded that he open the barred gates. Martin had the gate partly opened and started to slam it when two of the convicts grabbed and held it open and the three dashed out slamming the gate behind them.
Their plan was to rush through the entire suite of administration offices, capture Miss Mary Foster, a stenographer in the parole department, use her as a shield, and march out of the prison to liberty. It was a bold and desperate dash for liberty and for the fifteen minutes they got outside the prison walls they gave their own lives and sacrificed the lives of four other persons.
Judge Thomas was sitting on a sofa in Warden R.W. Dick’s office. He was talking to Frank Haikey, a life-termer, about habeas corpus. Haikey saw the convicts coming and the gun in Koontz’s hand; he gave a warning cry. Judge Thomas sprang to his feet and raised his hands. As they rushed in he said, “Boys, I am not connected with the prison; I am merely here to see a prison on business.” Not a word was spoken but Koontz shot the judge dead, the bullet striking him just over the heart. Godfrey was ordered to stand with his hands up, face to the wall. He whirled to spring upon Koontz and the latter shot him dead. Then the convicts rushed into the inner office where Miss Mary Foster and Frank Rice were.
Rice was bound with a telephone cord and with Miss foster held in front of them the convicts started for the front door. In the meantime Oates had drawn a small automatic pistol which he carried in his pocket, and Marin had secured a shotgun from the outside. Both commenced firing through the thin wood doors. Koontz was wounded. China Reed grabbed it, shot through two doors and killed and Drover. Then they used the keys to the outer door which they had taken away from Martin.
Out the door and straight down the broad walk they marched. Reed had his arm around Miss Foster’s neck and the gun pointed over her shoulder. There were two guards in the tower and three more on the terrace in front of the building, all armed with Winchesters. None dared to fire for fear of killing Miss Foster or Rice. So the five marched in lock step to the road where Ed Frey, deputy warden, had left a prison buggy a moment before. All got in and drove off at a fast trot, going due west.
Three-quarters of a mile away, R.J. Ritchie, who had been warned by telephone, hid behind some rocks and waited.
As the fleeing convicts approached he called three times for them to halt. Then he commenced firing with his Winchester.
Reed was holding Miss Foster on his lap and had the gun pointing over his shoulder. He commenced to fire at Ritchie. Reed’s face was within three inches of Miss Foster’s Ritchie shot him twice, each bullet hitting him squarely in the head. Two more shots, each striking him in the head, dropped Tom Lane out of the buggy, and another finished Koontz, who had been wounded in the prison. Rice dropped out of the buggy and fell as if dead in the road. Miss Foster also dropped out of the buggy.
Ritchie had the advantage of not knowing that Miss Foster and Rice were not convicts. He thought the woman was a convict. He said he tried not to shoot her. He would have shot Rice as he lay in the road had he not thought him already dead. Martin, the turnkey, was grazed with a bullet over the left eye. Miss Foster got a bullet through the fleshy part of her leg and C. L.
Wood received a bullet that ripped his forearm and lodged in his body. These were received while the shooting was going on inside the prison. By whom the shots were fired is not known. None are seriously hurt, though Miss Foster is in the All Saints’ hospital and Wood in the prison hospital. Martin is on duty.
There were about twenty prisoners, trusties, in the corridors, outside the barred gates, when the convicts made their dash. None tried to escape though all might easily have walked out. On the other hand, several of them searched high and low for guns for the officers and guards.
The fifteen hundred prisoners in the penitentiary corridors commenced to gather at the barred inner gate, attracted by the shooting. There was a subdued hum that sounded like the distant roar of a mob in action, but the prisoners made no demonstration. When Deputy Warden Fred appeared at the head of the stairway and ordered them to their cells the prisoners fell into line in perfect discipline the blacks on one side and the whites on the other, marching to their respective divisions without protest.
So far as known Judge Thomas is the first innocent bystander ever shot down in a warden’s office in a prison mutiny. He never spoke a word after he was shot but sank to the floor after retreating two or three steps. On the big quarter-sawed oak table in Warden Dick’s office there is a great stain that covers one end of the table. This is where they laid Judge Thomas’ body and the blood ran upon the table and dripped upon the floor. His body was taken to a local undertaking office and prepared for burial, Perry Freeman, an old –time friend taking charge of the remains. L. H. Holmes, of Muskogee came down this morning to accompany the body back to Muskogee.
Frank Haikey with whom Judge Thomas was talking when he was killed, is a Cherokee Indian, a life termer held for murder prior to statehood. His is one of those cases that came over with statehood and because of the peculiar discrepancy of the enabling act requiring the criminal cases to be carried to the state supreme court on appeal, instead of to the criminal court of appeals, he is being held on questioned authority. Judge Thomas was here to see him about an attempt to secure his release on habeas corpus.
Mrs. Oats will take the body of her husband back to Alva, their old home for burial. Oats leaves two children, a boy of four and a girl of twelve. He was a member of the W.O.W.
Mrs. Godfrey will bury her husband at Medford, where they lived before they came to McAlester. They have three children, all boys, the eldest eight years.
Drover lived in McAlester, and was a photographer before he became a bertillion expert at the penitentiary. He will be buried in McAlester.
The dead convicts will be buried at the city cemetery here at the expense of the state unless their relatives claim the bodies which they have not done at this time.
Warden Dick sat in his office today, a silent man with his face drawn with suffering and lack of sleep. He was out on the prison farm when the tragedy occurred.
“This happened because three desperate men decided to sell their lives or gain their liberty,” he said. “They lost. But the state also lost four valuable citizens in the murdered men. It could not have been helped. No precaution would have averted this. Of that I am confident. Where the convicts got the gun we have yet to find out. They must have had some outside help. We take a chance every day on affairs like this or worse. With several hundred men working under the gun on the prison farm there are many chances that outsiders might smuggle arms to them. Why, they might even stack away a wagon load of Winchesters for the convicts. And that’s a risk we have got to run at all times. There is no truth in the story that bedlam broke loose within the prison walls when the shooting was going on with the officers. There was the natural excitement but no disposition to mutiny.”
Whether the trusty system or the state farming of convicts is responsible for the tragedy in the penitentiary is a matter that the state board of affairs will have to determine.
The gun that was smuggled in to the convicts must have been brought in through one or the other sources. Either appears to afford ample opportunities. The trusty system has brought much criticism to the administration of the pen in the past and this tragedy has revived it."
"Mad with lust for Liberty. Three Convicts Resolve To Sell Their Lives Or Gain Freedom—Three Prison Officials and Judge Thomas Sacrificed As Their Victims—Guard Ritchie Then Kills All Three After Convicts Had Used Young Girl And A Prison Official As Shields
McAlester, Okla., Jan. 20.—The first great grim tragedy of the state’s penal institution occurred here at 4:45 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Seven lives were sacrificed, and one of these was Judge John R. Thomas, well known and loved by thousands in Muskogee, where he lived.
The mutiny was one of those things which every penal institution plans against, but when it flared up the prison officials were caught unarmed. Three convicts had carefully planned to gain liberty or sell their lives in the attempt. They not only lost their own lives but sacrificed four others besides.
The first man killed was Judge John R. Thomas of Muskogee, then in rapid succession E.C. Godfrey, storehouse sergeant; D.C. Oats, assistant deputy warden, and H. H. Drover, record clerk, were shot down. The convicts were killed after they had gotten three-quarters of a mile from the penitentiary building. They were all killed by R.J. Ritchie, a guard.
Dr. A.K. West, H.E. Shellon, and Paul Jones, members of the board of affairs, are here this morning conducting an official investigation of the tragedy.
There were three convicts in the mutiny. They were David Koontz, a bank robber from Roger Mills county, serving fifty years; China Reed, from Pittsburg county, serving two years for horse larceny, with one year to serve; and Tom Lane, of Garvin county, serving six years for forgery with eighteen months more to serve.
The three were working in the tailoring department. When they came in last night to deliver their work to the store room Koontz whirled and threw a .44 Smith and Wesson six shooter in the face of J.W. Martin, inner turnkey, and demanded that he open the barred gates. Martin had the gate partly opened and started to slam it when two of the convicts grabbed and held it open and the three dashed out slamming the gate behind them.
Their plan was to rush through the entire suite of administration offices, capture Miss Mary Foster, a stenographer in the parole department, use her as a shield, and march out of the prison to liberty. It was a bold and desperate dash for liberty and for the fifteen minutes they got outside the prison walls they gave their own lives and sacrificed the lives of four other persons.
Judge Thomas was sitting on a sofa in Warden R.W. Dick’s office. He was talking to Frank Haikey, a life-termer, about habeas corpus. Haikey saw the convicts coming and the gun in Koontz’s hand; he gave a warning cry. Judge Thomas sprang to his feet and raised his hands. As they rushed in he said, “Boys, I am not connected with the prison; I am merely here to see a prison on business.” Not a word was spoken but Koontz shot the judge dead, the bullet striking him just over the heart. Godfrey was ordered to stand with his hands up, face to the wall. He whirled to spring upon Koontz and the latter shot him dead. Then the convicts rushed into the inner office where Miss Mary Foster and Frank Rice were.
Rice was bound with a telephone cord and with Miss foster held in front of them the convicts started for the front door. In the meantime Oates had drawn a small automatic pistol which he carried in his pocket, and Marin had secured a shotgun from the outside. Both commenced firing through the thin wood doors. Koontz was wounded. China Reed grabbed it, shot through two doors and killed and Drover. Then they used the keys to the outer door which they had taken away from Martin.
Out the door and straight down the broad walk they marched. Reed had his arm around Miss Foster’s neck and the gun pointed over her shoulder. There were two guards in the tower and three more on the terrace in front of the building, all armed with Winchesters. None dared to fire for fear of killing Miss Foster or Rice. So the five marched in lock step to the road where Ed Frey, deputy warden, had left a prison buggy a moment before. All got in and drove off at a fast trot, going due west.
Three-quarters of a mile away, R.J. Ritchie, who had been warned by telephone, hid behind some rocks and waited.
As the fleeing convicts approached he called three times for them to halt. Then he commenced firing with his Winchester.
Reed was holding Miss Foster on his lap and had the gun pointing over his shoulder. He commenced to fire at Ritchie. Reed’s face was within three inches of Miss Foster’s Ritchie shot him twice, each bullet hitting him squarely in the head. Two more shots, each striking him in the head, dropped Tom Lane out of the buggy, and another finished Koontz, who had been wounded in the prison. Rice dropped out of the buggy and fell as if dead in the road. Miss Foster also dropped out of the buggy.
Ritchie had the advantage of not knowing that Miss Foster and Rice were not convicts. He thought the woman was a convict. He said he tried not to shoot her. He would have shot Rice as he lay in the road had he not thought him already dead. Martin, the turnkey, was grazed with a bullet over the left eye. Miss Foster got a bullet through the fleshy part of her leg and C. L.
Wood received a bullet that ripped his forearm and lodged in his body. These were received while the shooting was going on inside the prison. By whom the shots were fired is not known. None are seriously hurt, though Miss Foster is in the All Saints’ hospital and Wood in the prison hospital. Martin is on duty.
There were about twenty prisoners, trusties, in the corridors, outside the barred gates, when the convicts made their dash. None tried to escape though all might easily have walked out. On the other hand, several of them searched high and low for guns for the officers and guards.
The fifteen hundred prisoners in the penitentiary corridors commenced to gather at the barred inner gate, attracted by the shooting. There was a subdued hum that sounded like the distant roar of a mob in action, but the prisoners made no demonstration. When Deputy Warden Fred appeared at the head of the stairway and ordered them to their cells the prisoners fell into line in perfect discipline the blacks on one side and the whites on the other, marching to their respective divisions without protest.
So far as known Judge Thomas is the first innocent bystander ever shot down in a warden’s office in a prison mutiny. He never spoke a word after he was shot but sank to the floor after retreating two or three steps. On the big quarter-sawed oak table in Warden Dick’s office there is a great stain that covers one end of the table. This is where they laid Judge Thomas’ body and the blood ran upon the table and dripped upon the floor. His body was taken to a local undertaking office and prepared for burial, Perry Freeman, an old –time friend taking charge of the remains. L. H. Holmes, of Muskogee came down this morning to accompany the body back to Muskogee.
Frank Haikey with whom Judge Thomas was talking when he was killed, is a Cherokee Indian, a life termer held for murder prior to statehood. His is one of those cases that came over with statehood and because of the peculiar discrepancy of the enabling act requiring the criminal cases to be carried to the state supreme court on appeal, instead of to the criminal court of appeals, he is being held on questioned authority. Judge Thomas was here to see him about an attempt to secure his release on habeas corpus.
Mrs. Oats will take the body of her husband back to Alva, their old home for burial. Oats leaves two children, a boy of four and a girl of twelve. He was a member of the W.O.W.
Mrs. Godfrey will bury her husband at Medford, where they lived before they came to McAlester. They have three children, all boys, the eldest eight years.
Drover lived in McAlester, and was a photographer before he became a bertillion expert at the penitentiary. He will be buried in McAlester.
The dead convicts will be buried at the city cemetery here at the expense of the state unless their relatives claim the bodies which they have not done at this time.
Warden Dick sat in his office today, a silent man with his face drawn with suffering and lack of sleep. He was out on the prison farm when the tragedy occurred.
“This happened because three desperate men decided to sell their lives or gain their liberty,” he said. “They lost. But the state also lost four valuable citizens in the murdered men. It could not have been helped. No precaution would have averted this. Of that I am confident. Where the convicts got the gun we have yet to find out. They must have had some outside help. We take a chance every day on affairs like this or worse. With several hundred men working under the gun on the prison farm there are many chances that outsiders might smuggle arms to them. Why, they might even stack away a wagon load of Winchesters for the convicts. And that’s a risk we have got to run at all times. There is no truth in the story that bedlam broke loose within the prison walls when the shooting was going on with the officers. There was the natural excitement but no disposition to mutiny.”
Whether the trusty system or the state farming of convicts is responsible for the tragedy in the penitentiary is a matter that the state board of affairs will have to determine.
The gun that was smuggled in to the convicts must have been brought in through one or the other sources. Either appears to afford ample opportunities. The trusty system has brought much criticism to the administration of the pen in the past and this tragedy has revived it."
