Volume 17 , Issue 31

NW Okie's Journey

Last week we brought you the 1956 mysterious death of a young married woman, Mildred Ann Reynolds, who was found burned beyond identification on a rural road a couple of miles east of the community of Avard, in Northwest Oklahoma.

This week we bring you the first homicide of 9 November 1910, three years after statehood (1907), that brought considerable excitement with mob mentality buzzing through the government square of Alva, Oklahoma. [Image on left is a 1903 photo of Nelson L. Miller, Justice of Peace, of Alva, Oklahoma.]

As we began Chapter 1, of this epic murder mystery in the "Old Opera House," we asked, "What does 1910, Old Opera House, Law Enforcement League, Black Hand Letters, Alva, Oklahoma, Mabel Oakes and Justice of Peace Nelson L. Miller have in common?"

As to the women, morals and virtue of the 1910 era, it was a time when female purity was regarded as a virtue to be protected and chaproned. Social standards and dress were according to what was expected, morally correct in society. Unchaproned woman was considered immoral. Bootleggers and Beer were also sins of the times. Women's rights were slowly being protested by some, but in the heartlands of the prairie men ruled over women.

Women still wore the tight fitting, laced corsets, but there was a change, debate in the air as to if it was a healthy, safe garment for women to wear, confining, restricting their upper torsos. The skirts were to the ground; the coats were below the knees; and the blouses necklines were up around the neck.

The "Law Enforcement League" was established, funded for the purpose of enforcing local moral standards, whether they dealt with booze, kissing in motion pictures, separation of races, or investigating backgrounds of newcomers to be sure they were morally acceptable to ruling town fathers.

We found during our research that during the Summer 1911, Carrie Oakes had typhoid fever. George Oakes was asked under oath concerning what his wife said when she was sick with typhoid fever during the Summer of 1911:

• Mr. Wilson asked Mr. Oakes, "Well this summer, didn't she (Carrie) say to you on that occasion. 'George, I know that you killed Mabel and if you will confess it I will have no less respect for you than I do now.'? Didn't she say that to you in substance?"
• Mr. Oakes answered, "No sir. Not concerning Mabel, there was no conversation of the kind."
• Mr. Wilson asked Mr. Oakes, "Isn't it a fact that after you suspected that Mabel was pregnant that you said that you intended to kill her if she didn't get rid of the child?"
• Mr. Oakes testified, "No sir, I never did." Mr. Wilson then asks, "State whether or not you ever shot at Mabel?"
• Mr. Oakes answered, "No sir, I didn't."
• Mr. Wilson then asks, "State whether or if you ever shot at Mabel through the door, or partitions or walls of that office?"
• Mr. Oakes replied, "No sir. I never did."
• Mr. Wilson then asks Oakes, "Now Mr. Oakes I will give you to refresh your memory, and state whether Mabel did not say in the presence of you and Miller at Miller's office that Miller was not responsible for her condition?"
• Mr. Oakes testified that he couldn't remember Mabel saying that to him.

We find that Rachel B. Miller, Nelson's wife, died 9 August 1934, Woods County, Oklahoma. Her four children were: Eva Hofer (widow), living in Los Angeles, California; Minta L. Couch (husband, Morrison R. Couch), living in Longview, Washington; Bert L. "Lavern" Miller, (wife, Elvira Miller) living in Los Angeles, California; and George A. Miller (wife, Jennette Miller) living in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Most of the history of this 1910 murder case was taken from the transcripts, with thousands of pages of testimony, which can be read through the links on the front page of Old Opera House Mystery of the trial of N. L. Miller vs State of Oklahoma.

According to Carrie Oakes delirious typhoid fever mutterings of August, 1911, could George Oakes have beat, killed his daughter in the Old Opera House, blaming it on N. L. Miller? How did Mabel Oakes receive her broken arms and black eye? Was Nelson Miller innocent in the death of Mabel Oakes? Did Mabel Oakes commit suicide instead? If Miller was not the reason for Mabel's pregnancy, who was?

Good Night! Good Luck!
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