POLICE BREAK VANDAL, BURGLARY RING

Henryetta Police Detective Greg Allen, working with Patrolman Jess Watson, has broken a major case of vandalism and burglary. “The case began coming together about Thursday,” Allen said. “We worked on it the next two days, it’s been a busy two days.”

Four area people have been charged with burglary and two of them have charges filed against them.

Joe Shannon Corkerin, 19, Schulter and Tiffany Withrow, 20, Henryetta, have been charged with second degree burglary. James Benear, 18, Schulter and a 16 year old Henryetta juvenile have been charged with second degree burglary and vandalism.

Others are expected to be charged with vandalism at a later date.

According to police reports, an auto owned by the juvenile, was driven behind True Value Hardware. It was parked behind the Anderson Apartments, according to a signed statement.

The juvenile, Larry Beanear, and Shannon Corkerin went to True Value. Benear gave the juvenile a key to the building. They tried two doors before getting the key to work, according to one report.

They went into the shop and took the money bag. Signed statements allege that one suspect had taken several people into the shop and had taken money previous to this incident.

After this activity, Withrow drove the car to Arkansas where they spent the night in a motel room. According to the reports, they went to a tattoo parlor the next day and spent the money on tattoos. They arrived back in Henryetta late that evening.

One signed statement said that “Tiffany was the main pusher in wanting this done. There was a lot of people who knew where the money was because (an un-named suspect) had let lots of people in the store after hours. He also had taken money from the bag.”

The vandalism to business and autos in Henryetta occurred on Dec. 15, 1995. Okmulgee Police Department had also reported similar incidents there. Okmulgee County officers reported vandalism to mailboxes north of Henryetta on the Wilson road leading to Okmulgee.

According to police reports, both people charged with vandalism admitted having participated in shooting at the windows and the mailbox incidents. Reports state that Okmulgee P.D. had witnesses who reported a bluish/silver Bronco II type vehicle at the time of the incidents. A suspect was allegedly “on a rampage because he and his roommate had a fight.” The suspect drives a bluish/silver Blazer (small).

SHERIFF TRACKS SCAM

Okmulgee County Sheriff Dayle James is investigating the report of someone conducting a telephone fundraiser for the DARE program. The caller said they were representing the Oklahoma Reserve Officers Association. Ironically, the caller unknowingly called one of the actual Okmulgee DARE program fundraisers.

“The chairman of our DARE golf tournament got the call Tuesday evening,” James said. “The caller told her they were trying to raise money for the county’s DARE program….and she said she thought that was her job. That’s when they hung up on her!”

The sheriff stresses that his department is not conducting a fund drive for the DARE at this time. He wants to hear from someone lately claiming to be raising money for DARE. The sheriff ’s office phone number is 756-4311.

50 YEARS AGO – 1973

BANDSMAN, FATHER COME TO BLOWS

Henryetta band director Dee Hood is nursing an injured ear and glassworker Clifford Porter is $20 poorer as the result of a fracas over a fight at the band room in which Porter’s daughter was involved.

Hood filed a complaint at the Henryetta Police Department December 22 charging Porter with disturbing the peace by fighting. At the municipal court hearing Thursday, Porter failed to appear and forfeited a $20 bond. Judge Turner Kindred presided.

Hood told Judge Kindred that Porter hit him in the ear in front of Burnett’s Hardware on Main Street during a discussion concerning an incident at the high school band room. Porter’s daughter, Felicia, along with two other girls and a boy, were involved in a fight in the band room.

High school principal Vere Brown said he punished the boy, Eddie Hudson, and turned the girls, junior high school students, over to junior high principal Noel Lackey. Lackey said he told Hood to handle the situation.

Felicia Porter, a ninth grader, said Hood told her she must either submit to a paddling or quit the band. “My mom told me not to take the punishment because it wasn’t our fault,” she said. Porter went to Hood’s home to talk to him about the fight, but he was gone. Then, he saw the band director downtown and stopped to talk to him.

Hood, contacted today, said: “All Felicia did was ask this boy why he jumped on those other girls. He jumped on her, and there was some pretty dirty language used,” Porter said. “This was the first fight she’s ever had in her life,” he said.

He said his daughter would have to quit band, even though he had just bought her a new $240 instrument. The incident in the band room reportedly occurred when two girls arrived early for band, locked the door and wouldn’t let Hudson inside.

When he finally got inside, a scuffle ensued during which one of the girls, Belinda Mahan, was beaten on the head with a bass drum mallet and had some hair pulled out of her head, while the boy suffered scratches to his face.

MULE RESPOND

Tom Denney is the legitimate and proper owner of a certain black mule. Do not confound this with a white mule, for there seems to be no relation. Tom must have offended the black mule, for it ran away from him.

Tom sent an advertisement to the Free-Lance concerning the runaway donkey, and immediately the mule came home – of its own accord, and just as soon as the paper was out that evening. This mule may not have any pride of ancestry or hope of prosperity, but it has the good sense to know the value of advertising in the Free-Lance.

NOT THE RIGHT MEN

The four men arrested at the Shelby rooms several days ago, after having been for ten days under police surveillance, and taken to the county jail by the sheriff, have been turned loose, the Okmulgee officials having been unable to in any way connect them with the killing of Police Captain Homer Spaulding. The fingerprints of the men made by Chief Stormont, were sent to the identification bureau at Leavenworth but it was found there were no records of the men there. Two men arrested last night in Tulsa are believed to be the men wanted, according to a report from the officers at Okmulgee.

75 YEARS AGO – 1948

CASE OF BURGLARY

Some person or persons broke into the building of the Boerstler Wholesale Grocery Company last night but got away with nothing. At least nothing has been missed. A lot of cigarettes and other small articles had been piled on the floor preparatory to being taken off but the burglar or burglars had evidently been frightened away.

DEPUTY SHERIFF'S FUND

According to the Okmulgee Times the fund from which deputy sheriffs are paid has been exhausted and the commissioners find no fund from which money can be transferred to this one, so the deputies will have to quit work or wait until after July 1, for their pay.

FIRE IN POST OFFICE

Last night about eight persons in the Odd Fellow building noticed a blaze in the rear end of the post office and turned in an alarm. The firemen found a pile of trash on the cement floor burning. They put out the fire with a chemical and no damage resulted. The chief did not learn how the fire originated.

100 YEARS AGO – 1923

K. K. K. BANQUET FRIDAY

The King Koal Karnival banquet, to be given next Friday night January 10, is already assuming proportions going to show that it will be one of the most interesting affairs of the kind ever undertaken in the city. It is intended as the beginning of the vast work to be done in preparation for the next annual Oklahoma State Coal Exposition and King Koal Karnival, an event thoroughly established and readily acknowledged to be the greatest of its kind ever promoted in the entire state.

The committee has determined to make of this banquet an opportunity to briefly review former accomplishments and predict and outline the coming explosion and carnival. Larger things will be undertaken this year, even when what was accomplished last year was a surprise to the state at large and readily acknowledged, as the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce always described it, “big town stuff.”

This banquet is being arraigned along lines in keeping with the greatness of the organization. There will be speakers from out of the city, splendid music will be furnished and the banquet proper will be one of the kind of which Henryetta is always able to boast.

Ben C. Eastin, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, said yesterday they had invited Ed J. Keist, editor of the Dallas Times-Herald, and president of the Dallas State Fair, to be present and deliver an address. Mr. Keist advised him yesterday that he will try to come and that he will give him a definite answer Monday morning. Mr. Keist is one of the leading editors and publishers of the Lone Star state and has won more than a national reputation as president of the great Texas fair, of which he made the most remarkable business success.

Attendance upon this banquet must necessarily be limited to the number taking tickets in order that proper arrangements be made for perfect accommodation and pleasure to all and to this end Secretary Eastin said it is also absolutely necessary that they know by Tuesday the exact number to be present.

It is an event in the progress of Henryetta. It marks the beginning of the city’s greatest undertaking, one in which not a single citizen can afford to have the word failure written when it is all over, but that it shall be crowned with success, as was that of last year and to this end it is well that every business man in the city lend his presence at this initial banquet.

NOTIFIES THE JURORS

NOT TO COME TO COURT

In the superior court, a jury had been called for last Monday, January 3, and the jury civil docket set to begin at that time, but in a telegram received by Clerk Hugh J. Connor last Sunday, from Judge Christopher, the latter instructed him to dismiss the jury for a week and to push the docket forward for that time. Most of the jurors appeared last Monday and were instructed to go home and return tomorrow.

Yesterday, acting on the presumption that there would be no judge here tomorrow morning to open court, Clerk Connor advised the jurors not to appear. He also advised the lawyers, litigants and all others interested in the trial of the cases set down on the jury civil docket that it would be unnecessary to attend.

Mr. Connor said he was doing this in an effort to save trouble for the people and money for the county; that should the jurors who have been summoned all appear it would only place an unnecessary burden on the tax payers.

At the time he sent out the notices he had received no word as to the whereabouts of Judge Christopher, even had the latter intended to appear here tomorrow, which was considered not at all likely.

There are many cases on the jury civil docket which had been set for trial, some of them involving matters of much importance to the litigants.

Attorneys continue to file cases in this court and process is issuing as usual. One case in which a writ of injunction is sought and which had been filed in the court, was left with a motion for dismissal on file and a new suit instituted in the district court, where a writ of injunction might be obtained.

“THE MESSIAH” MAY BE HEARD IN HENRYETTA

It is rumored that Henryetta people may prepare and render “The Messiah” for the visiting multitudes at the King Koal Karnival.

This is, so far as we can learn nebulous just now, but once it gets under way, it will be done.

There is little doubt but that Henryetta people can do it, and that they will do it. In fact these Henryetta people have not fallen down on anything they undertook, and should be able to stage this great oratorio if they undertake it – and they will.

That would be a very interesting attraction, and added to all the other features provided, will make the K. K. K. festival absolutely compelling to the public as far as it is possible for them to come to Henryetta on June 12.

THE LUNCHEON

The Chamber of Commerce had thirty-four members at today’s luncheon, despite the bad weather.

The crowd was in good spirits, and the reports made by Secretary Eastin were good, and were received with satisfaction by the men present. President Morgan explained the efforts toward securing a big hotel, and while the man and the methods are not yet in sight, no slacking of endeavor will be permitted.

It was said that as many as five hundred people were practically homeless here, and facilities for caring for these transients are apparently out of the question immediately. Ultimately, of course, this problem can and shall be solved, but just how it seems hopeless.

Warning was issued against advertising schemes from outside people, and all men are agreed to requite the written endorsement of the business men’s association by Secretary William Seymour before even giving ear to these fellows.