I have found a short biography of Lorenzo D. Dickerson in "A History of The State of Oklahoma Volume II" by Luther B. Hill.
This book can be downloaded at Archive.Org
This web site is a treasure house of old books which are out of copyright.

The entry for Lorenzo says that "the Dickerson brothers captured and brought to justice the participants in the noted Haystack murder case, which was one of the notable events in the early criminal history of the territory."

Does anyone know any details of this? I have several accounts that would seem to contradict this. My information is that the participants never attempted to run or hide since they belived that no law could touch them since they had committed the murders in No Man's Land where no legal authority existed. The individuals were simply served with warrants in various parts of Kansas and Colorado and taken to Paris Texas.

This book also has a biography on William E. Little describing him as serving with Marshal R. S. Reagan, J. J. Dickerson, J. S. Williams
and Leo Bennett.

The Haystack Murder case is also known as the Cross Murder Case in which Sheriff Cross of Kansas was killed in the current panhandle of Oklahoma. The accused were taken to the federal court at Paris, Texas which finally obtained confirmation of jurisdiction and a lengthy trial ensued. There are other posts on this subject on our website.

Its mostly called the "Hay Meadow Massacre" which name the newspaper started within days after it happened. Our local papers said the participants came straight back and the next day had a day long celebration including a burning in effigy of Col. Sam Wood. It took over a year for Wood to get the Paris court to take the case after the men were indicted at Wichita. No one was really hiding or on the run so how can the history book say that the Dickerson brothers captured and brought them to justice? My guess is at best they may have escorted some prisoner to Paris. The information I have is some were even allowed to turn themselves in at their own convenience.

I forgot to mention, that Oklahoma History book also has a full length picture of Lorenzo D. (Ren)Dickerson. It shows him turnd away from the camera in about a 3/4 pose.

Comparing this to that much debated Garvin County Deputy U.S. Marshals picture at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okgarvin/usmarshals.html
you can easily see that the he little guy in the center, apparently seated with the beady eyes and turned away from the camera in about a 3/4 pose is Lorenzo D. (Ren) Dickerson. Both pictures are in the same pose and you get the idea that he may have ad some sort of facial blemish he was hiding.

I've seen the book and the article you mentioned and agree Ran Dickerson and his brother Marshal James Jones Dickerson did not "capture and bring to justice" the participants in the "Hay Stack murders." It was during Dickerson's administration that the trial began and Ran may have served some of the men involved, although I've not found specific mention of him doing so yet.

As to the photo on the Garvin County web site, it is from the Susan Swain Peters collection, Oklahoma State Historical Society, and the little fella in the middle is Ran Dickerson. His brother is seated in the middle of the photo and is mislabeled on the OHS copy.

Bill Little is one of those who activities has not been well documented. He was working for the Paris court by September, 1889; then in 1892 was one of the "gun men" hired to participate in the Johnson County, Wyoming range war. He got photographed there too.

I forgot to add, the book, History of Oklahoma, is typical of the biography books which flooded the market in the late 1890's through the early 1900's. The biographical information was submitted by the subject, cleaned up by the author, but generally not edited for historical accuracy. Such books are great places to start from, but are not to be taken at face value.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tower,

I was glad to get the info that the "History of Oklahoma" was online. I checked it out and found my grandfather in it. As you say, take the bio's with several grains of salt.
It was fun to be able to print the pages though.
My grandfather was Theodore Shackelford and lived in Konawa.
Carl

Here's the info that I have on J.J. and Ran Dickerson:

Dickerson, J.J.
J.J. Dickerson was a deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Arkansas and later served as the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Texas at Paris in 1890-1894.
**REFERENCES**
-Northern District of Texas Case File, Martin Beavers, John Dirckson, G.E. Harbolt, #CR262
-Fort Smith National Historic Site Federal Employee Database, 1872-1896
-West of Hell's Fringe, by Glenn Shirley, pg. 127
-[Sephus] Wright vs. United States, 158 U.S. 232, 15 S.Ct. 819, 39 L.Ed. 963 (1895)
-"Chilliocothe Constitution", December 11, 1891
-"Indian Citizen", July 6, 1893
-"Brooklyn Daily Eagle" [Brooklyn, New York], January 2, 1894
-"Purcell Register", March 29, 1895

Dickerson, Ran
Ran Dickerson was a deputy U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Texas in 1892-1893.
**REFERENCES**
-"The Territorial Topic", Purcell, O.T., November 5, 1892
-"Indian Citizen", July 6, 1893

I was looking for something else, and ran across this. This mentions J.J. Dickerson.

http://digital.libraries.ou.ed...pers/13596%20Lee.pdf

Lee Crockett interview

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/a...51C0A9679C94659ED7CF

J.J. Dickinson, taking prisoners to New York, Jan 2, 1894