Volume 11 , Issue 22

1936 - Murder Trial of Emma Willis

It was December 21, 1935, that an abused young girl from Eakly, Caddo County, Oklahoma, fired a 12-gauge shotgun at her sleeping father, Iddis Henry Willis, a share-cropper near Eakly, Oklahoma. The Iddis Henry & Zona Willis family has lived on the 160-acre farm for a year since coming here from Idaho. Willis formerly lived near Hugo where Miss Willis said she was born. Emma Willis (18 years) was a sophomore at Sickles Union Grade and highschool near Eakly. Her sisters were Leona (13 years), Lena (12 years). Her brothers were Dee (8 years) and Danny (6 years).

Zona Willis was the second wife of Iddis Henry Willis. It was reported in news articles during the trial that Iddis Willis drove his first wife away from their four children and his first wife went crazy. It was reported that she was in an asylum in Vinita, Oklahoma.

Iddis Henry Willis, age 53 years, was a share-cropper near Eakly, Oklahoma, 32 miles northwest of Anadarko, Oklahoma at the time of his death. The family dwelling was a 3-room house near Eakly, Oklahoma.

Emma Willis told officers that she was tired of the abuse that her father did against her mother, herself and her siblings.

Emma Willis stated, "When I awoke this morning in the bedroom with my two little brothers and two younger sisters, I decided to stop his abuse. Mother was in the kitchen getting breakfast. I got the shotgun out of a closet in our room and went in and shot him. Then I waited for officers to come."

Miss Willis also stated, "See this scar on my forehead? He hit me there with a stick a long time ago. He wold strike at us with the first thing he could get his hands on. I think I was justified. I guess they'll hang me or put me in jail for life."

The family substantiated Miss Willis's claim that her father was abusive, Haskell Pugh, assistant county attorney said.

The Oklahoman, dated December 22, 1935, on page 13, with headlines that read: "I'd Do It Again, Says State Farm Girl, Held For Slaying of Father,"Staff Correspondent, Phil Edwards, wrote Anadarko, OK, Dec. 21, 1935 -- "An 18 year old Caddo county high school girl who faces murder charges for the shotgun slaying of her farmer father said in the county jail here Saturday night that her act was justified because he made me and the rest of the family suffer."

Emma Willis, admitted shooting her father at their home near Eakly, 32 miles northwest of Andarko, Oklahoma. Emma sat dry-eyed and said that she would do it again if there was no other way to stop him mistreating us.

Emma said, "Ever since I can remember he has abused and struck mother and me and the other children. Mother told me after this happened what they might do to me, but it was the only way I saw to stop it after all these years. I couldn't leave home and leave the rest of the family there."

The newspaper reported that the climax came Friday night when her father, Iddis H. Willis, refused to permit her to go on a date with a neighbor youth and also told the family he would not permit it to spend Christmas holidays with relatives in Hugo, Oklahoma.

On December 26, 1935, Emma Willis was arraigned, as she pleaded Innocent In murder hearing. The preliminary hearing of Emma Willis was set for January 9, 1936 after she pleaded innocent at arraignment on Thursday.

On January 10, 1936, The Oklahoman reported on page 18, with headlines that read, "Farm Girl Is Held Over In Slaying Case" and "Emma Willis Trial Likely To be in February." On January 9, 1936 eighteen year old Emma Willis was bound over to district court on a murder charge Thursday night without a word of testimony in her defense. Her defense attorney, W. H. Cooper, chose to withhold testimony until her trial, which county attorney Amos Stoval said would come in the next jury term of district court, probably in February.

Both defense and the state waived argument and the crowded courtroom heard only technical testimony of two officers at the January 9th preliminary hearing. Cooper indicated before the hearing he would fight the murder charge with a defense of temporary insanity, brought on by years of brutal treatment.

Sheriff Elmer Finley and Deputy Sheriff Joe Harp were the only witnesses called by the State. Both officers said Miss Willis had calmly admitted shooting her father as he lay asleep in the Willis farm home in the Eakly community. With that same calm, Emma Willis, the accused sophomore high school girl listened to the proceedings.

Emma was still attired in the plain dress she wore when she was placed sobbing in a jail cell, except that it (the dress) had been newly washed and ironed. The paper that day reported, "There was no chance that the young farm girl would have her wish fulfilled to quit the jail so she could go home and help her mother."

February 16, 1936, another news article in The Oklahoman reported that the trial of Emma Willis probably will be delayed until Friday, as it was learned on in Anadarko on Saturday.

Emma was scheduled to face a jury Wednesday, but the criminal docket was two days behind time as reported by Marvin Methvin, deputy court clerk. Emma Willis was expected to plead paternal abuse and persecution culminating in temporary insanity. Her mother, four brothers and sisters are expected to testify.

In The Oklahoman dated February 17, 1936, it was reported that Emma Willis feared the spotlight of publicity far more than she did the jury as she sat in her jail cell waiting for her trial on a murder charge in the slaying of her share-cropper father.

Emma was reported as saying as she sat and listened to a radio which friends had sent to her cell, "I do not dread the outcome. I feel that justice will be done. I do dread the crowds. I dread having to face a courtroom full of curious spectators. I am not a mean girl. I have a heart full of love and kindness. I haven't been disobedient, and I have always submitted to the will of my parents."

Since Miss Willis was brought to a jail cell after telling Sheriff Elmer Finley that she shot her father, she has received gifts from all over the nation. Included are five bibles, which she reportedly read frequently.

The story goes on to state, "The state will contend that the girl took a shotgun from a closet before dawn of the morning of December 21, 1935, went into a bedroom in the three-room farm home near Eakly and shot her father, Iddis Henry Willis, 53 years of age.

The Oklahoman dated Feb. 18, 1936, page 17, with headlines that read: "Emma Willis Case Is Up Wednesday, Caddo Docket Cleared For Patricide Trial." The newspaper reported that the Caddo county district court disposed of all the cases on its Monday docket so that the Willis vs. State murder case could start.

The next day, February 19, 1936, the headlines read, "Mother Will Help Girl In Murder Trial" and "State to Demand Life For Farm Girl," as written by Bill Kent.

Anadarko, Feb. 18, 1936 -- "A sordid tale of her share cropper father's cruelty will be told by Emma Willis, 18-year-old Caddo county high school girl." Emma made her first visit to a district court session to be the chief witness in her own defense which was temporary insanity brought on by the father's brutality.

Emma's mother Mrs. Zona Willis, a shy, thin little woman, followed her daughter tot he stand to corroborate Emma's testimony of the 53-year-old father's cruelty to his family. Zona Willis whispered that same afternoon as she sat next to her daughter in Cooper's office, "He beat me like he beat the children."

Emma's younger sister, Leona Willis, 14-years-old, and Emma's two small brothers, Dan (8 years) and Dee, 6 years old, had been subpenaed by Cooper and would testify, also. Mark Hubert, 21 years of age and a private at Fort Sill, and Emma's suitor would also testify for the defense.

Others to testify to Willis's alleged sadism practiced on his family while they lived in Hominy several years ago were Clint Shores, Bob Carol and Allen Gilhard.

Meanwhile, Amos Stoval, a young Caddo county attorney, had earlier announced he would not seek the death penalty for the girl, declining to explain his decision. He was recommending Life imprisonment.

On February 21, 1936, following selections of 10 farmers, a real estate salesman and dealer in patent medicines Friday afternoon as a jury to try Emma Willis on a charge of murdering her father, Will Linn, district judge, adjourned court until the following Monday.

The venire of 35 talesmen were exhausted when W. H. Cooper, defense attorney, passed the twelfth man, P. B. Gathers, of Lookeba, on his last premptory challenge. Amos Stovall, county attorney, waived the last two challenges allowed him.

It was also reported that the father's kin aided Emma Willis and Mrs. Zona Willis was seated at the defense table. Also seated at defense table was a cousin (Mrs. J. M. Gibson) of the slain man, Iddis Willis. Mrs. Gibson, Alfalfa, was nervously twisting the hem of her coat as she testified that Willis had driven his first wife insane. Mrs. Zona Willis was his second wife. Mrs. Gibson, stated, "He ran her away from her four children, and she went crazy. The last we heard of her she was in the asylum at Vinita." Her testimony was corrobrated by that of Trence Shores, Hominy, a nephew of Willis.

On February 25, 1936, experts testified in Emma's case. Amos Stovall, Caddo county attorney sought to impeach Emma's testimony and that of her slow spoken mother.

It was reported that Emma's mother, Zona Willis, testified, "One time when Emma was pumping water and wanted to quit in time to go to school, he hit her over the eye with a piece of stove wood. It cut a three-cornered gash over her left eye, and knocked her unconscious for two hours."

The mother went on to state, "About six months later when she was doing dishes and he wanted her to open the gate for him, he hit her with a heavy stove poker because she didn't drop the dishes and get out there fast enough. Because she wouldn't go down to the watering trough and chase a big bull away, he knocked her down with a club another time."

On Emma's return to the witness stand Stovall asked her why she hadn't obeyed her father, and the girl replied that she was afraid of the bull. Emma stated, "I was afraid of him. I tried to reason with my father, but he wouldn't listen."

Mrs Willis said that the spring of 1935 the slain man again hit his daughter over the left eye, and that Emma was unable to see for nearly two weeks.

Stovall and Pugh in cross examination attempted to show by her testimony that Miss Willis disobeyed her father, providing justification for the punishment he administered. All attempts of the prosecution to shake the mother and daughter from their story that immediately after the slaying, December 21, 1935, the girl was unable to speak or recognize anybody failed, as they stoutly stuck to their previous testimony.

When Stovall brought out that Mrs. Willis had never reported to authorities the brutalities she testified about, Cooper seized on the chance to ask her why she hadn't. Mrs. Willis replied, "I didn't file any charges because I was afraid to and I didn't tell anybody in the neighborhood because I was afraid he'd find out about it and kill us."

Trence Shores of Hominy, Oklahoma and a nephew of the slain share-cropper, testified he had seen his uncle administer severe whippings to his children, with a big switch.

On February 25, 1936, final arguments in the murder trial of Emma Willis were two-thirds completed late in the afternoon when Will Linn, district Judge, surprised a crowded courtroom by adjourning court until the next morning. His action came after Haskell Pugh, assistant county attorney, had demanded that the jury give the murderer the limit. W. H. Cooper, defense attorney had countered with an impassioned appeal for the girl's acquittal which had women in the audience sobbing and left some of the jurors moist-eyed.

Shortly before the arguments began Cooper asked Judge Linn for a directed verdict of not guilty, asserting that there was no evidence in the record to prove that the 18 year old girl had fired the shotgun shell which ended her father's life December 21, 1935. The motion was denied, but during his long speech to the jury, Cooper asserted that "only by inference" was any testimony introduced to prove the slaying was an act o of Miss Willis.

In The Oklahoman dated Feb. 26, 1936, the headlines read: "Sent to Hospital by Jury, Girl Soon to Ask Release" and "Emma Willis Freed of Murder Charge But Is Gloomy About Asylum Life." The news story stated, "Declared insane by the jury which freed her WEdnesday of a charge of murdering her father, Emma Willis viewed her incarceration in the hospital for the insane with foreboding."

Emma's happiness at the acquittal voted by ten farmers and two Anadarko business men, evaporated swiftly as her mother, Mrs. Zona Willis, and other members of the family, bade her goodby in her cell to return to their rented farm near Eakly, Oklahoma.

Elmer Finley, Caddo county sheriff, received commitment papers for the girl after the trial from Will Linn, district judge, and told her he would take her to Western Oklahoma hospital at Supply Thursday morning, which was 180 miles northwest of Anadarko.

It was Emma's attorney, W. H. Cooper, who convinced the jury that Miss Willis was insane at the time she shot and killed her father, Iddis Henry Willis, December 21, 1935. Cooper was planning to file a writ of habeas corpus petition soon afterwards and force an insanity examination. Amos Stovall, county attorney, felt she should be confined at least until her adolescent period was over, or until such time as it appears she will not be likely to endanger society.
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