Cops & Robbers 2
I've finished the 2nd in my "Cops & Robbers" series ... Doug Dawgz Blog: Cops & Robbers 2 ... this one featuring lawman Bill Tilghman of Dodge City, Ok/IT territory, Okc, fame. A synopsis and some of the images are below.
Oklahoma City Police Chief, 7/15/1911 ~ 2/22/1913
Tilghman's Background. Born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, July 4, 1856, Tilghman moved with his family to Atchison, Kansas, and then left home at the age of 15 (around 1869) to become a buffalo hunter. Eventually, though said to be a teetotaler, in 1875 he opened a saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, but soon accepted an offer from Bat Masterson to become a deputy sheriff, and where he also served as City Marshall. He participated in the April 1889 Land Run and most internet sources say that he established a homestead in Guthrie – although a June 27, 2003, article in the Chandler newspaper says that he settled in Chandler on Sac and Fox land during the Land Run. Whichever, in 1891 he was appointed as a U.S. Deputy Marshall and served in that capacity until 1910.
While a federal Marshall, he was under the jurisdiction of federal "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and, in that capacity, he single-handedly captured anti-hero Bill Doolin in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
He made a couple of silent movies, too ...
... and another movie, this one a "talkie," was made about him in 1999 ...
Cromwell. After his 1913 retirement as Okc's police chief, he continued to live here. However, in 1924, at the age of 70, he accepted the challenge of cleaning up another town, Cromwell, Ok, in Seminole County, just south of I-40 on the way to Wewoka, the county seat. Cromwell had hit "oil", big time in the early 1920s.
While it's just a bump on the road today, in the early 1920s, it was described as "a virtual cesspool of crime: bootlegging, gambling and prostitution (many of the prostitutes being underage)."
Tilghman's efforts in Cromwell were apparently too successful. There, while Tilghman was arresting him, he was shot dead by an allegedly corrupt federal prohibition officer, Wylie Lynn, who was said by some to be in control of the local corruption.
A Wikipedia article, Cromwell, Oklahoma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , says that, after Tilghman's death,
What followed after Bill's death must have been locally analogous to the O.J. Simpson trial, relatively speaking and without the immediate connectivity of television and the internet. Headlines splashed across the press from November 1, 1924, until the end of the murder trial in 1925.One month later, the town of Cromwell was torched, allegedly by angry citizens, with every brothel, bar, flop house and pool hall burned to the ground. No one took credit for the arson, although it has been suggested that instead of citizens, it was former lawman friends to Tilghman, led by former Deputy US Marshal Chris Madsen, who had formerly worked closely with Tilghman and lawman Heck Thomas, when the three men were known as the Three Guardsmen. There was no investigation into the arsons. Cromwell never recovered to its former wild status.
Lynn was found not guility. In 1929, a son of Bill, Bill Jr., escaped from a Tennessee prison with the intent of getting revenge ...
... but he got caught in Davenport, Ok (east of Chandler) before that could happen. Eventully, in 1932, Lynn was killed by a member of the OSBI.
Aftermath. William Matthew Tilghman was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1960. In 1999, he was one of several included in a "Legends of the West" stamp production ...
... and Bill Tilghman's portrait hangs in the Oklahoma State Senate chambers today ...
About a 1925 89er parade in Oklahoma City, an Oklahoman article said,
There's much more in the blog post.Although fate has decreed that William (Bill) Tilghman, veteran Oklahoma officer, cannot ride in the '89er parade Tuesday, those who rode with him more than thirty-two years ago will see that his memory does not fade.
A riderless horse, saddled with Tilghman's saddle, bridled with his bridle, the same Winchester tied to the saddlehorn, will be led by Ransom Payne, veteran officer who is in charge of the '89er section.
Enjoy Oklahoma City's grand history!
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