Volume 17 , Issue 31

(1911) Killed Ottawa Girl

The murderer of Mabel Oakes gets life imprisonment sentence in Alva, Oklahoma. Mabel, the victim, was a stenographer, found dead in office of her employer. The Evening Herald, out of Ottawa, Kansas, 14 September 1911, Thursday, page 1, reported headlines: "Killed Ottawa Girl." Finger prints were allegedly reported on Mabel's neck which led to arrest of Lawyer Miller and he would pay penalty.

Found on Newspapers.com

Alva, Okla., Sept. 14 (1911) -- The case of the state against N. L. Miller charged with the murder of Miss Mabel Oakes, committed in this city (Alva) on the 9th of last November 1910, and which had been on trial at Woodward for the past week, terminated in a verdict of guilty yesterday (13 September 1911) and the punishment was fixed at imprisonment for Life, by the jury.

The case was one of the hardest fought legal battles ever tried in this part of the state, the trial lasting seven days. The jury was out only thirty minutes after the case was turned over to them, the case going to the jury about 3 o'clock.

One of the main features of the case was the argument of Conty Attorney Vigg, which lasted two hours and a half and was highly complimented by all who heard it.

Miss Mabel Oakes lived near Ottawa several years ago (before (1910) with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Oakes. She had moved to Oklahoma where she went to school at Alva. She was in the employ of a lawyer, N. L. Miller as a stenographer in his office in the opera house building which Miller owned.

On the afternoon of M+NO ember 9, 1910, Miller called her father and told him that he had found her dead in his private office, off the business office. The father found her lying dead on the floor where she had apparently died in peace. But a closer examination disclosed finger marks upon her neck and Miller was arrested. The officers had difficulty in keeping a mob from lynching Miller.

The murderer had a wife whom he had betrayed and from whom he had told friends he was going to secure a divorce so he could marry Miss Oakes.

The victim of the murder was a niece of Jacob Oakes of North Ottawa and a grand niece of Abram Oakes on Ninth and Mulberry streets.
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