Volume 17 , Issue 8

100 Years Ago, 2 March 1915

One hundred years ago today, March 2, 1915, Tuesday, The Guthrie Daily Leader had the following frontage headlines which read: "Governor Places Price On Bandit's head, $1000."

Oklahoma City, Okla., March 2 (1915) -- A reward of $1,000 for Henry Starr and other bandits taking part in the daring raid on the State bank of Carney, December 29, 1914, was offered by the state in a proclamation issued Monday by Governor R. L. Williams. A "dead or alive" clause was included in the proclamation.

This was the first reward offered by Governor Williams under the provisions of the recently passed bank robber bill empowering the chief executive to place a price on the heads of bandits, enacted by the legislature after a series of flagrant daylight robberies and successful safe-plowings had left the state agape.

The price of $1,000 was the largest the governor was permitted by the bill to pay in a single case.

The holdup of the carney bank was staged December 29, 1914 and netted the robbers nearly $3,000 in cash. Early in January it was followed by several equally brazen robberies in rapid succession. The whole southwest was shocked, and the Oklahoma legislature was moved quickly to pass the hurriedly drawn bill which carried a $15,000 appropriation to be paid for the capture or death of the highwaymen and safe-blowers. A robbery at Teriton, in which Bob Moore, a deputy sheriff, lost his life, was the fearful climax to the series.
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