Volume 7 , Issue 36

1920 - Did Clara Smith Hamon Shoot Jake Hamon...

Taken from Renfrew's Record, Alva, OK, Friday, December 3, 1920 -- Dallas, Texas, Dec. 1. (1920) -- E. W. Sallis, Dallas chauffeur, today stated that he had, a week ago yesterday, driven from Dallas to Cisco, Texas, a woman who said she was Mrs. Clara Smith Hamon, wanted in connection with the recent death of Jake Hamon, millionaire oil man and Republican national committeeman for Oklahoma, at Ardmore, Oklahoma. Sallis, in repeating to newspaper men the story he previously had told to Dallas policemen, said the woman purchased a railroad ticket to El Paso. Sallis said the woman told him that she had shot Mr. Hamon because of a misunderstanding that arose over certain things Mr. Hamon wanted her to do.
????? Sallis said that the woman went to the union station at Dallas to board a train for El Paso, but saw a policeman standing at the head of the stairway leading to the train shed, became frightened and decided to leave Dallas by motor car. he said the woman apparently was greatly confused and that she wore a pari of horn-rimmed glasses as a disguise.
????? Sallis said he was interviewed last Sunday by Russell R. Brown, county attorney of Ardmore. Charles C. Cunning, Dallas chief of detectives, said he had been informed by Sallis that he had driven the woman from Dallas, to Cisco, but that he did not think Sallis consciously broke the law, and that he was not placed under arrest.
????? "I first saw her on the evening of Tuesday, November 23, (1920)," Sallis declared, "when she approached my car and asked to be driven to an aeroplane field where she might charter a plane."
????? "I drove her to a field in East Dallas and we located a plane, but were unable to get an aviator at once. Soon she became restless because of the delay and got back into my car, asking me to drive her to San Antonio. I started to San Antonio, but she changed her mind and said that she wanted to go to Cisco instead. It was on the way to Cisco that she told me that she was Mrs. Hamon."
????? "At Cisco she left my car and bought a ticket to El Paso. She told me that she had never been inside a railway train since leaving Ardmore, but had traveled entirely by motorcar."
????? "She didn't have any jewels with her but she had lots of money -- apparently about $10,000, all in bills. She was expensively dressed and wore a heavy veil. She told me that she had made a will three months ago."
????? Sallis said that he believed the woman was today within thirty-six hours journey from Dallas.

Ardmore, OK, Dec. 1. (1920) -- Russell R. Brown, county attorney of Carter county was absent from his office this afternoon and no confirmation could be secured of dispatches from Dallas stating that a motor car dirver named E. W. Sallis had been interviewed by Mr. Brown in Dallas relative to the appearance in that city a week ago yesterday of Clara Smith Hamon, wanted here in connection with the death of Jake L. Hamon, Republican National committeeman.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---