Crime Stories from Pushmataha County, OK Newspapers

Crime Stories from Pushmataha County, OK Newspapers

Probably Killed by Indians
Tuskahoma, I.T., Oct 2 - Dr. Gray, the most prominent physician in town is believed to have been killed by Indians for the purpose of preventing his giving testimony in an important case which comes up in court today. [October 2, 1893, Middletown Daily Times, Middletown New York -- Submitted by S. Williams]

Four Choctaws Murdered
Tuskahoma, I.T., Oct. 11-Word has just been received here that about 30 miles west of here three Choctaws were murdered. Governor Jones says the murders are the result of the late political trouble. Near Kosoma the body of Jonas Lewis, a Choctaw, was found in the woods riddled with Winchester bullets. The murderer is unknown. It is supposed that politics was also the cause of Lewis’ murder, as a very bitter feeling exists between the two factions. [October 11, 1893, Hornellsville Weekly Tribune, Hornellsville New York - Submitted by S. Williams]

Choctaws Kill Two Pales Faces
Tuskahoma, I.T., October 17-A Caddo dispatch received last night says that three drunken Choctaws opened fire without provocation on two white men named Fisher and Burley, killing them instantly. Officers are after the assassins. [October 18, 1893, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Georgia - Submitted by S. Williams]

Isaac Renben Puts Twenty-Seven Ballets Into a Sheriff's Body
ANTLERS, I. T., March 30. -At a funeral at Cedar Church, ten miles east of here, Isaac Reuben shot and killed Sheriff Campson Battiest, of Cedar county. Both are full blood Choctaws. Reuben claims that Battiest fired two shots at him with a pistol, he then shot out the sheriff's brains with his Winchester, dismounted from his horse and put eight more bullets into the prostrate body. Finally he took the dead sheriff's revolver and kept on firing and reloading till he had put twenty-seven bullets into the corpse. Reuben has not yet been arrested.
The Indiana State Journal, (Indianapolis, IN) Wednesday, April 1, 1896; pg. 5 Submitted by Candi Horton

SUPERSTITIOUS CHOCTAWS
Kill Three People for "Bewitching" Others with the Plague
ANTLERS, I. T., April 17.-Deputy marshals brought eight Choctaws here to-day and put them in the Antlers jail, charged with being accessories of Solomon Ho Tema In the killing of three persons and wounding of another on Friday, near Cold Springs, eight miles west of Grant. A great deal of sickness of a peculiar type has prevailed in
the neighborhood for several months, and it was believed that the persons killed Friday had bewitched the Indians and that by killing them the plague would be removed. Disorder has prevailed In the neighborhood for three or four days, but the arrest of Sam Tyantubbee the medicine man, has restored quiet and a feeling of safely.
The Weekly Indiana State Journal, (Indianapolis, IN) Wednesday, April 19, 1899 Submitted by Candi Horton