Daily Oklahoman, The
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
December 25, 1999, page 20A
Family leaves legacy in law enforcement
Bladder cancer claims longtime city officer
The day a father retired from a career as an Oklahoma City police officer, his son joined the department and pinned on his father's badge.
That was how police work began for Jack Mullenix on May 11, 1946. Mullenix, 75, died Tuesday after a short struggle with bladder cancer.
Like his father, Lee Mullenix, he had a part in adding to the police ranks. Jack's son, Sgt.
Eric Mullenix, 51, and a daughter-in-law,
Pat Mullenix, are Oklahoma City officers today. Pat Mullenix is a pistol instructor and Eric Mullenix has worked in the homicide division for 16 of his 27 years with the department.
On a Saturday in 1946, Lee Mullenix handed over his badge number 0338, and his son Jack wore it for 20 years. The badge is somewhere around the family home today.
"I grew up listening to old police stories from this old man right here," Eric Mullenix said, pointing to a photo in a scrapbook in his parents' southwest Oklahoma City home.
Lee Mullenix patrolled city streets when communication included tapping a nightstick on the sidewalk for help. Lee Mullenix was one of the city's first motorcycle officers and became a fingerprint specialist in his 31-year police career.
His son Jack was a graduate of the FBI academy who flew 47 missions in World War II as a Navy gunner in the Pacific. His crew crashed three times, and no one ever parachuted out of the airplane because none of the crew members could pack a parachute right. So they preferred to ride the plane down instead of trusting a poorly packed parachute, Eric Mullenix recalled.
About six months after Jack joined the city police, he responded to a Christmas Day collision. Nadine Roof was a passenger in Roy Roof's car. She was shaken up but not hurt. In the middle of the street, she spoke to her future husband.
"I don't think you want to know what he said; it wasn't very nice," Nadine Roof Mullenix said Friday. He gave her his name and number in case she had any questions about the wreck. She saw him again in court. After that, he called her about five times with dating in mind.
Finally, she decided to go to a girlfriend's house and have Jack pick her up there and drop her off there.
"I didn't trust those policemen," she said. She'd seen a ring on his finger in court and didn't know his mother gave it to him when he went to war. "I told him I didn't date married men, and he had me talk to his mother."
They married Sept. 7, 1947, in El Reno. They had two children, Eric and Wayne "Murphy," now 48.
Jack Mullenix rose to the rank of major and was the division commander of the detective bureau before he retired in 1966.
In 1947, he tangled with two armed robbers. Jack grabbed one robber and the robber fired a pistol twice. Jack told a reporter he'd "flushed out hijackers," and when he grabbed one, he had a gun shoved in his face. A bullet severed the eagle wing on the emblem of his hat badge. Another bullet just missed his neck.
Retired police Lt. Kenneth Linn met Jack in 1964.
"He was like a second father to me. He and Nadine both just adopted me early on. He treated me like one of the kids," Linn said. "My own father, Don Linn, passed away my senior year in high school."
Jack Mullenix worked as an investigator for the Oklahoma County district attorney's office and served as undersheriff for J.D. Sharp. District Attorney Bob Macy will be a pallbearer at his funeral Monday.
Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel worked with Jack Mullenix when Whetsel was Choctaw's police chief.
"He was a super person, very friendly and an excellent law officer. He was well-respected by the people he worked with," Whetsel said.
Former police Capt. Gene Goold's first partner in November 1947 was Jack Mullenix.
"Back then, Oklahoma City was only 29 square miles," said Goold, 72.
In the winter of 1949, Jack Mullenix and Goold worked the swing shift from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. Jack would have to go home to his wife and Goold would stop off at the original Beverly's restaurant.
There, Goold met an attractive woman he wanted to date. He didn't know much about her, but his partner found out some dirt.
"I ordered a little sandwich and a cup of coffee. It was almost closing time, and there weren't too many people in the cafe. I looked around and in the booth sitting behind me was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life," Goold said. "I picked up my sandwich and coffee and moved over to her booth and said, 'I don't believe in eating alone.'"
One day, Mullenix told Goold the two had a special assignment, so they parked in an alley and waited until two vice officers came out of a motel room. The officers had the woman Goold wanted to date. She was arrested on prostitution complaints.
"Jack looked at me and said, 'Sonny, do you think you've learned anything tonight?' That was the way Mullenix pulled a joke on me," Goold said.
Jack Mullenix became a detective and was promoted to captain in 1958. Goold went on to become a lieutenant supervising a training division.
Jack Mullenix retired in 1966. He then worked for Oklahoma County Sheriff Bob Turner, then for Macy as an investigator before becoming undersheriff when Sharp was sheriff.
Eric Mullenix said his father was devoted to his police work.
"We're just an old police family," Eric Mullenix said.
Jack Mullenix's funeral will begin at 2 p.m. Monday at Resthaven Funeral Home, SW 104 and Walker Avenue.
Caption:
Photo 1: Nadine Mullenix, widow of Jack Mullenix, holds his portrait in her Oklahoma City home Friday. Jack Mullenix died Tuesday after a storied law enforcement career. Photo 2: This photograph that ran in the Oklahoma City Times on April 22, 1948, shows Jack Mullenix driving a patrol car while partner J.C. Jordan talks on a radio for a story about communication improvements in the department. - File photo
Sources: good faith fair use of sources stated above
Contributed by Marti Graham, October 2007. Information
posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not
related to nor researching any of the above.
I believe in random acts of kindness and I believe in sharing genealogy. If you have copies of
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