Okie's NW Corner
Last Friday's snowfall brought maybe two or three inches on the ground up in Northwest Oklahoma, but I hear it didn't last long. More of a soaker, I guess, and we needed that. After Saturday, the Spring-like weather has been shining across the state with promise of rain showers to come in Thursday. Those showers didn't amount to much in the Northwest.
Friday, Valentines Day brought more spring-like temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. That's our NW Corner Weather report for the week as we move on to some more Okie Tidbits.
July, 1933 Kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel -- Wednesday night a local news station had a piece on Machine Gun's lost loot: search continues for gangster's ransom money. It was July 22, 1933 that Machine Gun Kelly and and his gang kidnapped Charles Urschel at the oil tycoon's home in Oklahoma City, in Heritage Hills. The FBI uncovered over half of the $200,000 ransom money, but it is alleged that $90,000 was never found and is assumed buried someplace in the hills near Oklahoma City and all-points west. Whatever happened to Machine Gun's wife, Kathryn, after she was released from prison in 1958? Did she know where the money was buried?
Here is the article, "....On Jan. 17, 1954, his birthday, Machine-Gun Kelly died of a heart attack in the federal prison at Leavenworth. In 1958, Kathryn Kelly's trial was reopened. Her attorney contended that during the first trial, she was not allowed to bring in her own handwriting expert to counter the prosecution's virtuoso, who testified she had written threatening notes to the Urschels after their arrest. When the Justice Department declined to turn over its files from the original trial, Kathryn was freed on bond. The second trial never came off. Kathryn lived under a stream of false identifications and vanished into nothingness. Her contribution to history was that she invented Machine-Gun Kelly, an enormously profitable Hollywood commodity. Once the case was closed, Jones and his men concentrated their efforts on finding the $200,000 ransom money, which had been divided, scattered and buried around the hills of Oklahoma City and all-points west. They found some of it, but, according to Division of Investigation records, some $100,000 is still buried somewhere. Kelly also robbed banks throughout Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. Some $38,000 taken from the Citizen's Bank in Tupelo is thought to be buried just outside of town..... The Treasure: A large number of caches, most notably, $100,000 in $20 bills from the kidnapping and another $38,000 from the Tupelo, Miss., bank robbery." -- Of Mice and G-Men by Ralph Michael, from pg. 50 of the January issue of Treasure Cache magazine. - losttreasure.com
Finding the Treasure -- They report that much of the loot from Kelly's many robberies is probably buried near the site of the crimes. You can contact the Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma City Public Library, both located in Oklahoma City, for more information on Machine Gun Kelly's activities.
More 1904 Alva, O. T. Tidbits -- Maybe some of these little tidbits will jog some more memories out there. We love hearing and sharing your Okie memories in our free weekly Okie Legacy newsletter. Keep them coming!
The first death in Alva was that of Mrs. Susan Little, aged 28 years, Sept. 26, 1893; buried near the river and afterward moved to the AOUW Cemetery -- Hon. D. T. Flynn's first visit to Alva after the opening, was on Nov. 12, 1893 -- February, 1894, The Alva Pioneer was urging everybody to make a preparations for planting trees. -- The Alva Pioneer building, size 20x40 feet, the first new two-story house in Alva. The Pioneer printing plant was moved into the upper rooms in October, 1893 just as soon as a roof was on the building, and G. W. Drake and wife from Hazelton, Ks., opened a restaurant in the lower rooms. The Pioneer was published for 10 years in this building and grew from a small weekly to a healthy daily paper.
A Galaxy of Great Names -- "A case tried in one of our local NW Oklahoma courts here in an early 1900s, presents an interesting meeting of notables as follows; The judge who presided was Franklin Pierce Alexander, the plaintiff was Daniel Webster Artley, the defendant Benjamin Franklin Goff; two of the witnesses were Ulysses Grant Goff and Andrew Jackson; counsel for the defendant were Walter Scott Prickett and George Washington Vickers, while the plaintiff was represented by Jesse James Dunn."
Maybe some of you have noticed that the NW OK Marriages has moved to two pages because of the overload.
Too much to share with you all this weekend, so before I overload your memory circuits and mailboxes -- I am out of here to enjoy the St. Valentines weekend. See Y'all next week around the same time.
Happy St. Valentines Day Weekend!
~~ Linda "Okie" ~~
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