Looking for the Man that Shot My Paw

December 29, 2013

Main Street Duke Oklahoma

So I walked into a bank in downtown Duke, OK and told the ladies, my grandmother and I are looking for the man that shot my Paw. Ok, it didn't really go down like that, but we did end up in a bank, asking questions about a murder that occurred 88 years ago.

Family history has always taught that my great grandfather was murdered, but until this Christmas visit, I didn't have the full scoop. An off hand suggestion to go to the site of the murder led to a family history adventure that couldn't have been bought.

Thomas Burnes Criswell and Family (Great Great Grandfather and Infant Great Grandfather)

Sitting in the family room at my grandparent's home in Oklahoma City this conversation came up as family history has a habit of coming up between generations. Although I knew my great grandfather had been shot, the new nugget of information was that a man's throat had been cut that day. In addition, it turns out my great great grandfather was killed that day in the same incident. My grandmother went to find the newspaper articles from that time. Below is the original article (misspellings and all)....

Altus Plain, Sept 29, 1925

FATHER AND SON KILLED AT DUKE

Tom Creswell and his son, Henry Creswell, farmers living near Duke, were killed at 11:30 a. m. Saturday by E. W. West, farmer who lives near Duke, and West was cut in the throat. in the Darby grocery store at Duke, R.F. Goodloe, deputy sheriff said. West was in the store when Henry Creswell entered and they had passed a few words, however no one else heard the conversation, according to Goodloe. West shot Crewel and he ran about 50 feet down the street before he fell dead. Tom Creswell then entered the store, cut West's throat, and West killed him with a 25 automatic six shooter. Trouble had been in progress between them for several days, however the direct cause of the killing is not known. West is in the City hospital, but is not in a critical condition.

Henry Jackson Criswell at Right - Great Grandfather

So, words were had, a man was shot, a man's throat was cut and another man was shot dead. The second man shot dead was my great-great grandfather. As to the "trouble in progress between them," there are a couple of theories. My father has always been told that it was a disagreement over turkey. Another story from my grandmother is that it was a disagreement over a cow in a corn field eating the crops. So, all in all, we don't know. The drama and gore ends there, but the intrigue continues.

At the time of this shooting, Ina Criswell (my great grandmother) was 4 months pregnant with her son. Now a young widow in a middle of nowhere town, her brother and his wife came to the rescue from the Oklahoma City area. This is a 2.5 hour drive today, but in 1925 this was carried out by Melvin and Maudie Tucker with a horse and wagon. No one has the details on the time this took, but the trip runs about 150 miles over modern routes. They brought her to the "city" where her son, my grandfather, was born. That is how family of Criswell's started life in Oklahoma City.

So what happened to E.W. West, the man that shot both men? He was tried for "wrongfully and feloniously causing the death of Henry J. Criswell by making an assault in and upon him with a revolver." The verdict, not guilty by a jury of his peers.

So what other adventures unfolded that day? We looked for the oldest man we could find in town and came across a 91 year old native. He didn't have any new details, but did mention that there were 3 notorious shootings in the 20s in Duke and numerous knife fights. Alas, he had heard about it as a kid, but nothing he considered beyond that. We went to the bank to look at the old newspaper articles framed on the walls, but they mostly covered the 1978 fire that dramatically impacted the downtown buildings where the murders occurred. After roaming town and taking photos in front of the storefront where it occurred, we traveled to the cemetery to see the gravesites. Off in the corner of the Prairie Hill cemetery were two gravestones, father and son, at rest. I'm not sure my grandfather fully grasped the experience, but I'm so very thankful that we were able to go as a family before all the memories slip away.