My interest in the field of lawman/outlaw history began in about 1985, and the one thing that has fascinated me all of this time is the way these stories often are "connected" somehow. I have commented previously on this bulletin board about a book that captured my attention. That book was "Dynasty of Western Outlaws." It presented the idea that there were connections between the Jesse James gang through others such as Belle Starr and the Doolin gang to Pretty Boy Floyd and the Kansas City Union Station Massacre.

An example of an "Oklahombres Connection" is found on page 97 of Ken Butler's book "Oklahoma Renegades." It represents the story of the Casey gang connected to the story of Shotgun Jim Miller. What is exceptional to me is the wide range of directions that branch out from this particular nexus (connection). On the Casey side you have the connection to the Christian brothers, while on the other side is lawman Gus Bobbitt, who was murdered by gunman-for-hire Jim Miller. Miller had many other victims, and has been a suspect in the murder of Pat Garrett in New Mexico.

Here is what is found on page 97 by Butler:

"[Neil] Morrison had previously encountered Casey and had a personal interest in bringing him in. Morrison led a posse into the Keechi Hills but lost the trail and returned to Anadarko. Upon observing the horses that the outlaws had left behind at the site of the homicides, he recognized the SB as the brand of a ranch in the Chickasaw Nation near Ada. He then notified A.A. Gus Bobbitt, an officer at Ada, about the branded horses and advised him to be on the lookout for the killers, as he thought they were headed into that area.

I will follow through with additional posts about Gus Bobbitt.

I hope you will join me in exploring these connections with posts of your own.

Here is part of an article I wrote for the Oklahombres Journal that tells a little more about Gus Bobbitt.

In the Line of Duty:
The Story of the Keirsey Lawmen
by
Dee Cordry

It is possible that no other single family in Oklahoma history has served and sacrificed more for law and order than the one named Keirsey. Four brothers, a father, a grandfather, and an uncle served as deputy U.S. marshals, county sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and city
policemen for an estimated fifty years. And sadly, four of these men died in the line of duty.

The family settled in the area six miles west of Durant known as Mead Junction. The settlement became known as the Keirsey community, named after William D. Keirsey. A post office operated there from 1904 to 1920. There were six brothers in the family, four who served as peace officers. The six brothers were: James (Jim), Con, Cliff, Milton, George, and Ben Keirsey. Their father, Will, was a deputy US Marshal in Indian Territory in 1905. Will's wife Mittie was a Chickasaw Indian.

Young Cliff Keirsey, age 14, received his first taste of police work when he went along with his father to arrest a thief. Another suspect was nearby, so Cliff’s father left him with an old “thumbuster” pistol to guard the first thief and went after the next one. The thief tried to “pull a sneak” on Cliff but did not get away with it. The experience left Cliff with the desire to become a peace officer. Cliff’s father passed away in 1912.

And their uncle was Indian policeman Ben C. Collins. A former deputy U.S. Marshal, Collins was well known in the Chickasaw Nation as a fine young man. Collins was serving as a policeman for the Chickasaw Nation. He lived near Milburn with his wife, who was a Keirsey. Collins made many arrests, and in the process made a few enemies. In
1903 he was forced to shoot Port Pruitt during an arrest. The Pruitts swore revenge on Collins.

Collins was at his home on August 1, 1906 when he was shot down while standing in the doorway. His wife heard a shotgun blast and four lighter shots. U.S. Marshal Jones, deputy marshals, and detectives immediately began work and identified two suspects by
the next day. Within a week, Ahmed Washwood was arrested and charged with murder. His attorneys began to bombard the court with writs and petitions. Washmood was released for "lack of evidence."

The Chickasaw Nation offerred a reward of $1,000 for the capture of the killers of Ben Collins. Federal investigators and private detectives hired by the family of Collins learned that Washmood had supplied a horse and wagon to an Indian named Dan Sie and another
man who was identified as the notorious hired killer "Shotgun" Jim Miller. Miller had been hired by Clint Pruitt to kill Collins as revenge for the shooting of Port Pruitt. Pruitt, Miller, Sie, and Washmood were indicted by a federal grand jury. (Newspapers reported
the arrest of these three men for the murder of Collins: Henry Pruitt, A. Washmood, and Dan Tie.)

In what has been called the "greatest piece of legal hocus-pocus in the history of Indian Territory," the four men evaded justice. Dan Sie passed away and Clint Pruitt was killed in a gunfight with Officer Tom Gilstrap. Washmood stood trial for murder and was found
guilty. But the conviction was "set aside" because the "testimony was not sufficient to support such a verdict."

Shotgun Jim Miller was held in the Ardmore jail until late 1907. By this time witnesses had disappeared. Miller was released on bail and he returned to Texas.

But Miller returned to Oklahoma in February 1909 and killed former deputy U.S. marshal Angus A. "Gus" Bobbitt near Ada. Miller and three other men were taken from jail in Ada by a mob and hanged when townspeople feared that Miller would evade justice again.

Here is more on the Keirsey story:

Cliff Keirsey began his law enforcement career when he became a Bryan County night jailer in 1914. He then served as a Bryan County deputy sheriff, a Durant city policeman, a Texas peace officer, an Ardmore policeman, and he served with the Seminole police department for 12 years. James A. Keirsey was born in about 1890 and upon becoming an adult he served as a Durant policeman for many years. James moved to Seminole during the oil boom days and served as a city policeman. In late 1928 or early 1929 he was asked to fill the unexpired term of the Durant police chief. James returned to Durant for a period, and then resumed his work at the Seminole police department, where he was the assistant chief of police in 1929.

During his law enforcement career, James Keirsey had arrested Owen Edwards a few times. Edwards was reportedly a member of the old Kimes gang of bank robbers, and had escaped from jail in Arkansas in the summer of 1928. He was a suspect in a string of 1929 Oklahoma bank robberies, including the banks in Minco, Prague, and Kendrick. During the time period that Keirsey was temporarily the chief of police in Durant, Owen Edwards reportedly vowed to kill Keirsey.
The robbery of the bank in Kendrick included the shooting of one man. The outlaws escaped in a Nash coupe, and in November 1929 the vehicle was found on the streets of Seminole. Two men were arrested. Within two days, Keirsey learned that Owen Edwards, and possibly other outlaws, were in Harjo hiding at the Dyer place. A call was quickly made to Oklahoma City for the assistance of agent Claude Tyler of the State Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Tyler immediately travelled to Seminole, where he joined Keirsey, Seminole chief of police Jake Sims, and Seminole County deputy sheriff George Hall. The four lawmen arrived in Harjo shortly after sunset.

They left their car in front of the Dyer place and Chief Sims went to the front door. Keirsey and Tyler went to the back door while Hall covered the side of the house. Sims encountered Edwards at the front door and a gunfight broke out. At the back door, Tyler
and Keirsey encountered Sam and Ruth Dyer. Tyler held them at gunpoint in the back room. Sims, having shot Edwards in the shoulder, continued to stand his ground at the front door. Edwards, seeing that escape in that direction was blocked, retreated toward
the rear of the house and picked up a second handgun on the way. At this point, James Keirsey stepped through a doorway with gun drawn and encountered Owen Edwards, who had a gun in each hand. As Chief Sims moved in from the front of the house, Keirsey told Edwards to drop his guns. In response, Edwards opened fire with both guns and shot Keirsey numerous times, killing him. Keirsey returned fire as he fell to the floor, hitting his killer once or twice. Tyler rushed to the aide of Keirsey - the Dyers escaped out the back door. Chief Sims approached Edwards from one side as Tyler moved in from another
direction. Edwards was still blazing away with his handguns. Sims and Tyler filled his head with bullet holes and brought the gunfight to an end.

A Seminole newspaper started a benefit fund for James Keirsey’s family, which included his wife and three chldren. According to the newspaper, he was known as an “upstanding, fearless and intelligent gentleman, engaged in upholding the law and protecting the members of society.” Almost 10,000 people attended Keirsey’s funeral, the largest ever held in Durant.

Here is the final part of the Keirsey story:

Ben Keirsey told reporters that their grandfather, whose name was not given, had served as a peace officer. According to Ben, their grandfather had also been killed in the line of duty. Following James’ murder, his brother Cliff resigned from the police department in Wichita Falls, Texas and became a policeman in Seminole, Oklahoma. Another brother, William Con, had become a deputy sheriff in Carter County, Oklahoma in about 1918 or 1919. He served under sheriffs Ewing London and Walter Colbert. Con Keirsey became known as “one of the most valuable and active peace officers in the state” and he had a “natural bent for police work.” He was successful in capturing H. L. Darr for the robbery of the bank in Wirt, Oklahoma in 1930. Wirt was a boom town in the oil fields of Carter County.

Con Keirsey was a member of a posse that raided a moonshine still in 1924 and Keirsey was forced to kill one of the moonshiners. On Wednesday, February 20, 1924, deputies Keirsey, Carl Holden, and assistant county attorney E. W. Schenk staged the raid near
Provence, east of Ardmore. Upon the discovery of an unattended 150 gallon still, the officers hid themselves and awaited the return of the operators. Six men returned to the sight of the still: B. A. Lamb, A. J. Stumpf, Otis Stumpf, Walter A. Beckham, Sam Elledge, and Troy Elledge. The officers stepped into the clear and ordered the moonshiners to throw up their hands. Everyone complied with the order except Lamb, who made a movement with his hand. Keirsey suspected Lamb was going for a gun and he fired one round from his shotgun at Lamb. Lamb and A. J. Stumpf were struck with shotgun pellets and Lamb died from his wounds. It was determined that Lamb was unarmed, and subsequently Keirsey was charged with murder. A jury found Keirsey not guilty after only 35 minutes of deliberation.

On December 10th, 1930, Con Keirsey and Undersheriff Vernon D. Cason went to Wirt to check out the report that a stolen car was in the area. The deputies located the stolen car in front of a three room shack. Finding the front door to the shack locked, they walked to the back. Con knocked on the back door and was admitted by an elderly woman. Inside was a young man and Con began questioning him about the car parked outside. Keirsey had failed to observe the form of a person under the covers in the bed in a corner of the room. Hearing a voice say “who wants to know about that car,” Con turned to find another young man armed with two handguns. The first youth also produced a gun and Keirsey was ordered to surrender his weapon. The little room was occupied with several women and children. Con Keirsey made the decision to give up his gun, telling the two gunmen “I’ll lay it on the floor. It might go off and hurt someone.” One of the gunmen began screaming at the deputy. Undersheriff Cason, upon hearing the screaming, rushed in from outside. Both gunmen opened fire on the two lawmen. Cason was shot once, and he returned fire as he fell, getting off four shots, two of them striking the arms of one gunman. Keirsey struggled with the other youth and was shot once, the bullet striking him in the head, travelling through his neck and into a lung. The two gunmen picked up Cason’s gun and left the room.

Momentarily, the outlaws returned to the room where the two wounded officers lay on the floor. Two shots were fired at Cason’s head, missing him but leaving burn marks on each side on his neck. The young girls in the shack pleaded with the two killers to spare the lives of the two deputies. The gunmen got into Keirsey’s car and sped away.

Keirsey was still conscious and was able to drag himself to a nearby shack and call for help. Both officers were taken by ambulance to Dr. Cantrell in nearby Healdton, where they received emergency treatment. They were then taken to Ardmore. Con Keirsey died early the next morning. Cason was expected to recover from his wounds.

The killers were identified as brothers D. I. Davis, age 25, and Colquitt Davis, age 23. The Governor posted rewards of $500 each for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Davis brothers. They were identified by two sisters, Marie and Katherine Fox, who accompanied the Davis brothers to Oklahoma from Texas. Chief of Police Cain of Amarillo, Texas arrived in Ardmore and reported that the outlaw brothers were also wanted for the murder of a groceryman in Amarillo a few days earlier. Cain said “the Davis boys are bad men and I had little hope of arresting them alive.” County Attorney John L. Hodge charged the Davis brothers with the murder of Keirsey. Katherine Fox, Marie Fox, Hugo Alexander, and Henry Fox were held in jail as material witnesses.

The killers appeared first in Ringling at the home of Doctor S. M. Edwards seeking medical attention for bullet wounds. They then appeared in Wichita, Kansas on December 12th. The Davis brothers and a third outlaw went to the office of Doctor H. C. Curtis, apparently not realizing that police headquarters was next door. Dr. Curtis became suspicious when the brothers gave conflicting stories about the bullet wounds. He went to the next room and called police. Wichita police detective Glenn Davis responded to the call but was overpowered by the trio of gunmen. They took his gun and ordered him to lead the way downstairs. Davis broke away from them on the fifth floor and shouted for help from the police station, only a few feet away. Officers encountered the three outlaws as they left the building and made their way to a nearby garage. A gunbattle broke out in which over fifty shots were exchanged. D.I. Davis was shot by an officer and his partners in crime deserted him. Colquitt Davis and a man beleived to be “Cherokee Joe” (alias Chief Bonner) escaped. D. I. Davis died of his wounds.

Colquitt Davis returned to Texas, exhausted from a lack of food and sleep. He abandoned his car near Hereford and set off on foot along the railroad tracks. After spending the night outdoors in freezing weather, he was spotted by police on December 15th, 1930. Davis surrendered without a fight, dropping one gun one the ground. A second gun was found on him. He received a life sentence in prison.

Dillard Con Keirsey, the son of William Con Keirsey, served as a police officer in Austin, Texas for over 23 years. Cliff Keirsey, who began his law enforcement career as a Bryan County jailer in 1914, became the Bryan County Sheriff in 1946. The Keirsey family
experienced first hand the dangers faced by officers of the law as the Indian Territory became the State of Oklahoma.

THE END
Sources
Shotgun for Hire, by Glenn Shirley, University of Oklahoma Press
Seminole Producer, 11-7-29
The Peace Officer, Nov.-Dec. 1947
The Daily Ardmorite, Dec. 1930; Aug. 1906; Feb. 1924
The Daily Oklahoman, Nov. 1929

Hi all,

Dee is correct in his tale of the lawman family Keirsey. Con Keirsey even went after the notrious safe crackers Ray Terrill and Elmer Inman in September of 1926.

Thanks Mike. I was not aware that Con Kiersey had pursued Terrill and Inman. Boy, talk about a "connection"! Terrill and Inman lead off in to so many directions: the Kimes gang, etc.

Up to this point, this topic has explored a chain linking together the following people and events:

Deputy Neil Morrison pursued the Casey gang

Deputy Neil Morrison contacted officer Gus Bobbitt

Bobbitt murdered by Shotgun Jim Miller

Jim Miller had also murdered officer Ben Collins

Collins was the uncle of the Keirsey brothers

Jim Keirsey killed in shootout with Owen Edwards

Con Keirsey pursued Terrill & Inman

Con Keirsey killed in shootout with Davis brothers

Edwards, Terrill, & Inman all had been members of the Kimes gang

(This is not the correct chronological order of events)



This illustrates the "Oklahombres Connections" I was talking about. I hope you will join in with this topic, or, start one of your own. Let's see where these connections can take us.