Relevant History welcomes Donis Casey, author of the Alafair Tucker historical mysteries. This award-winning series features a sleuthing mother of ten children and is set in Oklahoma and Arizona during the booming 1910s. Book seven, Hell With the Lid Blown Off, will be released June 2014. Enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site, look for her on Facebook, and check her biweekly blog posts about writing.
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The Tucker family of my Alafair Tucker series is partially based on a branch of my own family by the name of Morgan, of whom there are gazillions in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. My great-grandmother was named Alafair Morgan. For the past 25 years, I have lived in Tempe, Arizona, twelve hundred miles from the place where my books are set.
For my fifth novel, Crying Blood (2011), I was unable to find the name of the sheriff of Muskogee County in 1916. So I called the library in the city of Muskogee and asked the local history librarian to look it up and e-mail the answer to me. Later that afternoon, she sent me a wonderful campaign photograph of Sheriff J.S. Barger. Once I knew his name, I was able to find his obituary online. From this I discovered that it is indeed a small world, and time does not dim our connections to one another.
Sheriff John Barger lost his reelection bid in 1918. He became a county “Speed Officer,” whose job was to curb the then-growing automobile menace, and was given a county patrol car to cruise country roads and highways. In 1924, the county’s “speed patrol” car was stolen from the garage by the Lawrence brothers, “Babe” and Bill, young Muskogee desperadoes who were wanted for auto theft in several towns around Oklahoma.
After unsuccessful attempts to catch them in Oklahoma, the sheriff of Muskogee County was notified that the pair had been apprehended in El Paso, Texas. He sent Deputy Barger and his partner, Joe Morgan—a cousin of my grandmother’s—to pick them up and bring them back to Muskogee. After taking charge of the prisoners, Barger and Cousin Joe started back with them in the county car. Barger was driving and Morgan was in the rear seat with the Lawrence boys.
Barger heard a shot, looked around and found himself peering down the barrel of a gun in Babe Lawrence’s hand. Cousin Joe Morgan was on the floor, shot through the head with his own pistol. The car, going at a rate of at least 20 miles an hour, crashed into a fence, righted itself and mowed down fence posts for 40 yards before stopping.
The boys forced Barger to walk off the road into the woods and handcuffed him to a tree, before escaping again in the county car. Barger shouted until he attracted the attention of a ranch hand, who refused the help him. He was handcuffed to the tree for three hours, until officers arrived and rescued him. He then went back to Ft. Worth, where he organized a posse and went after the Lawrence boys.
They were apprehended in Tempe, Arizona. Bill was later hanged in Arizona, and Babe served a life term in Texas. Barger died in 1938 at the age of 77.
How could I make up anything better than that?
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A big thanks to Donis Casey. She’ll give away a trade paperback or hardback copy of her fifth book, Crying Blood, to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week. I’ll choose the winner from among those who comment by Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery is available worldwide.
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