Murder Charge Sought in Oilton Gunfight Death
        Hunt for Band Led To Shooting; Search For Trio Continues

Out of the confused aftermath of a wild gun battle at Oilton in which a woman was killed and three men wounded, officers Saturday put together the scattered pieces of a crime story reminiscent of the Pretty Boy Floyd days.

The shattered body of 30-year-old Jeanne Dowd Coffey, a widow with her hair dyed red, lay in an Oilton funeral home, central figure of an investigation from which officers hoped to produce a murder charge in her death.

She was tossed from the speeding desperadoes car in a furious gun battle with officers Friday night. Everett S. Collins, Sapulpa county attorney of Creek county, said examination showed the woman was shot at close range with a shotgun, one blast nearly tearing off her left leg, and a pistol bullet pierced hear  her heart.

Chief's Condition Critical
        "Bits of the wadding from the shells even were found in her body," he said. "All the evidence points to one thing—the going got rough and she was too dangerous so somebody got rid of her."

The story wasn't finished yet. In Cushing, Ben D. Clark. Oilton chief of police, who WAS met with a shotgun blast when he sought to question the gunmen at Oilton, was still In critical condition in a hospital.

And C. C. Hawk, Shawnee, sheriff of Pottawatomie county, was at Oil-
ton to establish identification of Mrs. Coffey as the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Tom Dowd, farmers of Asher, near Shawnee. Previously, the victim
had been identified as Jeanne Culp of Asher.

Sheriff Hawk said the gang originally had appeared at a hideout near Shawnee Thursday. He believed two other men and a woman of the original group were in the state and a search was started for Clarence Dickerson, a Nebraska fugitive, believed to have been with the group.

Two Held in Sapulpa
        Joe Lovelace, 24 years old, Lincoln, Neb., one of the desperadoes, and Henry Washington, Oilton Negro, who was in the car. were held in the county Jail at Sapulpa and Collins said the third captive might be brought there later. Lovelace was a fugitive from Nebraska state prison farm at Genoa.

This was William Hall, 26 years old. Shawnee, a fugitive from McAlester penitentiary, who was wounded in the gun fight. He was recovering from a _____________ gun fight. He was recovering from a bullet wound near the heart In a Stillwater hospital.

Officers said Washington told them a third man was in the car with Lovelace and Hall.

An innocent victim of the whole affair, Bill Glimp, a farmer of near Drumright who was seized by the desperadoes as a hostage and wounded In the leg in the gun battle, was recovering in the Stillwater hospital.

Sheriff I.. L. Fisher said Lovelace told him Hall ordered Mrs. Coffey thrown out of the car because she was wounded and was bothering his driving.

Shooting Ts Denied
        At the hospital Saturday. Hall vehemently denied the implication that Mrs. Coffey was deliberately shot in the car and thrown out by her pals. She was, he said, his sweetheart for the last few years.

"They killed her," he said, meaning the officers. "She was the only one in my life I ever cared anything about. My gun was shot out of my hand and when I reached down to pick it up from the car floor, they killed her. If I hadn't leaned over, they would have killed me, too.".

Sheriff Hawk said Mrs. Coffey's husband. Virgil Coffey, was killed in a fight in Shawnee three years ago. Since then, he said, she had been friendly with Hall. Hawk revealed the previously untold prelude to the gun battle at Oilton.

On a tip, Hawk said he and his deputies went to a house five miles northwest of Shawnee early Thursday to pick up Hall and his companions, reported hiding out there. Instead, they found, he said, only James Taber, the occupant of the house, friend of Hall's relatives.

Search Continues
        Taber was held for questioning and revealed that Hall and Lovelace and Mrs. Coffey had been staying at the house, Hawk said. There were, he said, also two other men and a black- haired woman. Hawk said the shooting at Oilton ended part of his search.

He still is looking for the two other men and the woman. At Oilton, Taber identified Mrs. Coffey as the woman who was staying with the desperadoes at his house. Taber said he didn't know whether one of the other men was Dickerson.

The shooting started Friday night when Chief Clark and C. L. Irwin, Oilton constable,  tried to question the desperadoes In their car about a restaurant holdup near Oilton earlier in the day. The gunmen shot Clark in an exchange of gunfire and wounded Irwin. Mrs. Coffey was thrown out near the water tower.

Car Commandeered
        Southwest of Oilton. they forced Earl Williams to surrender his car. East of Drumright they forced Bill Glimp, the farmer, to replace Hall. who had been wounded, at the driver's wheel. When they crossed the Cimarron river, highway patrolmen challenged them.

A brief chase and the car was stopped. John Boyd and J. R. Butler, the highway patrolmen, fired.  Glimp, trying to get out of the car. was shot in the leg. Hall and Lovelace came out with their hands up.

 
        newspaper articles

Complied and transcribed by Marti Graham, 2010.