Oklahoma Law Enforcement Museum and Hall of Fame

85 Years Ago Ray Smith Clark, Sr. Patrolman Oklahoma City Police Department... On a rainy Saturday night, May 23, 1936, at 10:30 p.m. Officer J. A. McRee was driving east bound on the Exchange Bridge with his partner Officer Ray Clark, 45, in route to a fatality traffic accident. When the officers got to the east end of the Exchange Bridge, where it jogged to the right, Officer McRee attempted the turn to the right but the police car skidded out of control. Officer Ray Clark’s passenger door came open and he fell partially out of the car. When the car slid sideways into a telephone pole, Patrolman Ray Clark was crushed between the pole and the car killing him. Patrolman Ray Clark was survived by his wife Lela and daughter Mary Jane, 17. Ray Clark, Sr. is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma county, Oklahoma. OLEM 8S-4-19 NLEOM 47W4

86 Years Ago Charles Thomas Warner Deputy U.S. Marshal U. S. Marshal Service... On Thursday, December 29, 1932, Deputy Marshal Charles Warner left his home in Bartlesville and traveled to Vinita with thirteen other lawmen from Oklahoma and Kansas to track down the men who robbed a bank on Friday, December 9th in Kinsley, Kansas. The lawmen had captured two of the outlaws, but were sure the rest of the holdup gang, numbering five or six, had made their way to Oklahoma to avoid capture. After planning the raid, the group left Vinita at 11:00 p.m. traveling to Spavinaw. Surveillance was set up on the small house believed to be where the outlaws were holed up. After throwing several gas bombs in the house and riddling it with bullets, four men walked out of the house with their hands raised above their heads. One man remained inside and had to be forcibly dragged outside and handcuffed. Two of the men were wounded, but not seriously. The prisoners were loaded into cars and taken back to Vinita. As the prisoners were being loaded, Deputy Marshal Charles Warner remarked that he had been shot in the arm and probably needed to have it treated. It was found that a bullet had entered his forearm just above the wrist, had traveled upward and exited just below the elbow. The doctors found as the bullet had traveled upwards it went between two bones. X-rays showed that the bullet had nicked one of the bones. For the next two years, Deputy Marshal Warner kept up his usual work routine. In early 1935 infections set into his arm, and although treated, kept getting worse as time went by. By May 1935 he was confined to his bed and on Thursday, May 23, 1935, Deputy Marshal Charles Warner died. Physicians stated the arm wound he received in the gunfight in December 1932 was the direct cause of his death. Deputy U.S. Marshal Charles Warner was survived by his wife Minnie and daughter Georgia, 17. Charles Warner was buried May 25, 1935, in the Rose Hill Memorial Park Cemetery, Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma. OK 10N-1-14 NLEOM 5W27

88 Years Ago John Harold Beasley Patrolman Oklahoma City Police Department... Officer John Beasley, 45, was riding in the back seat of a police car with a suicidal mental patient named James Ferguson who the officers had just taken a gun off and arrested in an alley at N. W. 4 and Hudson, on the morning of Thursday, May 18, 1933. Soon after placing Ferguson in the police car, it was discovered that he had a box containing twenty-four sticks of dynamite strapped to his body. The officers were driving to a less populated area when Officer Beasley began struggling with James Ferguson in the 100 block of N. W. First Street (now Park Avenue). Officer John Beasley was shot twice, perhaps with his own weapon, before other officers fatally shot James Ferguson thirteen times. The box of dynamite was then removed from Ferguson and later harmlessly detonated. Officer John Beasley died from his wounds four days later Monday, May 22, 1933 and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. OLEM 7N-1-13 NLEOM 63W15

64 Years Ago John Doyle Lawrence Deputy Sheriff Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office... Shortly before midnight on Monday, May 20, 1957, Deputy Sheriff John Lawrence, 53, and his partner Deputy Sheriff William L. Lawson spotted a blue 1953 Packard that fit the description of a car used in the wounding of two Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers an hour before in northwest Miami. The deputies followed the Packard to one mile west of North Miami where the blue 1953 Packard rolled to a stop apparently drowned out by the heavy rains that had occurred. The driver got out of the Packard as the two deputy sheriffs were approaching and opened fire on the deputy sheriffs. The first shot struck Deputy Sheriff John Lawrence in the neck and he fell to the ground. Deputy Sheriff William Lawson returned fired and wounded the man who got back in his car and escaped. Deputy Sheriff William Lawson stayed with his wounded partner and broadcast the tag and car description to other units. The driver of the blue 1953 Packard, Jack D. Sloan, 27, was found dead an hour later in his house where he apparently committed suicide. Deputy Sheriff John Lawrence died a few hours later about 3 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21, leaving behind his wife and son. John Lawrence is buried in Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, Miami, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. OLEM 4S-3-18 NLEOM 3E22

102 Years Ago Benjamin Franklin Brashears City Marshal Panama City... About 4 a.m. Monday morning, May 19, 1919, City Marshal Benjamin Brashears was called to search for a burglar in the business district of Panama City in Le Flore County. A local merchant named Frank Massey was also called and told that someone was trying to burglarize his store. Frank Massey armed himself with a shotgun and proceeded to his store. Seeing a shadowy figure near his store, Frank Massey fired, fatally injuring Marshal Benjamin Brashears, having mistaken him for the burglar. Marshal Benjamin Brashears was survived by his wife Myrtle and two teen aged children and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Panama, Le Flore County, Oklahoma. OLEM 9N-2-7 NLEOM 15W6