June 5, 2000

Joe Allen Gamble, Jr. - Correctional Officer, Oklahoma State Reformatory

On June 5, 2000, Sergeant Joe Allen Gamble was assigned to D Unit at the Oklahoma State Reformatory.  At 8:15 a.m., Sergeant Gamble heard the call for help from Officer William Callaway.  Sergeant Gamble immediately left the area he was counting and went through the unit control room to D-1 pod.  When he arrived at D-1 pod, he did not know Officer Callaway had escaped the day room.  Thinking only of his friend's call for help and without regard for his own personal safety, Sergeant Joe Allen Gamble entered the day room to save his fellow correctional officer.  An inmate armed with two homemade knives ambushed Sergeant Gamble as he entered the day room.   Sergeant Gamble was able to escape and ran immediately to medical for treatment.   Sergeant Gamble was taken by ambulance to Jackson County Memorial Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Nov. 13, 1998

Gay Carter - Correctional Food Supervisor, R. B. "Dick" Connor Correctional Facility

Inmate Grant stabbed Ms. Carter in the upper body several times with a homemade knife. Ms. Carter was supervising the cleaning of the dining hall after breakfast. Inmate Grant attacked her in the mop closet of the dining hall.

Aug. 3, 1989

Kenneth Denton - Correctional Officer, Oklahoma State Reformatory

At about 9:30 a.m., Officer Denton was transporting five inmate road workers in a Department of Corrections van. On Highway 9 about six miles east of Granite, Oklahoma, Officer Denton suffered a heart attack while driving, causing him to lose control of the vehicle which struck a bridge abutment and turned over. Officer Denton was pronounced dead at the scene and five inmates received minor injuries.

July 28, 1989

Eugene Young - Corrections Officer, Probation and Parole

On the afternoon of July 28, 1989, at the Oklahoma City probation and parole office, parolee Huey Don Turner was being arrested during his visit to the office preparatory to have his parole revoked. Turner resisted violently, and Officer Young was one of five corrections officers called to subdue him. A short time later, Officer Young suffered a heart attack and died at Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City.

Sept. 1, 1981

Rex J. Thompson - Corrections Officer, Lexington Corrections Center

On August 31, at about 7 p.m., the prison's officers were in the process of locking all of the inmates in their cells as part of a general lock-down because of a previous fight. Inmate Michael Slazenger attacked Officer Thompson near his station in the control center. Officer Thompson died from severe head injuries the next day.

March 5, 1977

Albert J. Cox - Prison Farm Supervisor, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

At 9:30 a.m., on March 5, 1977 inmate Edward Lyle Hall and employee Albert Cox were discovered missing from the state prison. At 5 p.m., Mr. Cox's body was found in a chicken coop on the prison farm hidden under feed sacks. His throat had been slashed, and he had multiple stab wounds from a homemade knife. The pick-up Mr. Cox had left in that morning to make his rounds was missing. It was located abandoned in Johnston County.

Aug. 4, 1948

W. H. Aston - Officer, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

On July 30, Officer Aston was on duty on the fourth floor of the west cellblock that was the solitary confinement area. Officer Aston saw a mirror, prohibited in solitary confinement, extended from Thomas Woods' cell and went to check on it. When he opened the cell door, Woods sprang upon him and began beating Aston's head on the floor, wall, and against the cell bars.

When other officers came to his rescue, Aston was still conscious, and his injuries did not appear to be serious. He was taken to a local hospital but did not want to be admitted. He was examined and sent home, but the next day, his condition worsened. Taken to a hospital in Holdenville, he was diagnosed as suffering from a fractured skull and intra-cranial bleeding. Officer Aston died of his injuries on August 4.

Dec. 13, 1943

W. H. "Pat" Riley - Chief Sergeant, Oklahoma State Reformatory

On December 13, prisoner L. C. Smalley told Sergeant Riley that he had been robbed of a watch and $30 by two other prisoners. Smalley told Riley that the men who robbed him were Mose Johnson and Staley Steen. About 3:15 p.m., Sergeant Riley located both suspects in the boiler room where they worked. As he questioned them about the robbery, Johnson hit Riley over the head with a piece of pipe, and Steen stabbed him in the face and back with a knife. Leaving the officer on the floor, the two inmates then ran to the canteen where Smalley worked behind the counter. When the two ran in the canteen, the other inmates ran out before Johnson killed Smalley with an ice pick. Other officers arrested the two in the canteen but not in time to save Smalley.

Aug. 11, 1941

William R. Benningfield - Supervisor, State Prison Farm

James David Parrish, a trusty serving time for Grand Larceny, complained of feeling ill. Mr. Benningfield, an unarmed supervisor, was transporting him to the doctor in Atoka, but they never arrived. The car was found abandoned near Wewoka with the gears stripped. Parrish was arrested that night while hitchhiking near Shawnee, Oklahoma, on Highway 270. Confessing to Benningfield's murder, he led officers to the body in a ditch 14 miles north of Durant. Benningfield had been beaten to death with a claw hammer.

Aug. 10, 1941

Jess Dunn - Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

On the morning of August 10, 1941, Warden Dunn was touring the prison with an electrical engineer, planning a new communications system. About 10:45 a.m., prisoners Roy McGee, Bill Anderson, Claude Beaver, and Hiram Prather, armed with homemade knives, tried to break out of the prison. Anderson and Beaver had both been involved in a previous escape attempt that cost the life of Charles Powell four years earlier.

The inmates took Warden Dunn and the engineer hostage and began marching them out in the yard, using them as shields from the officers. Threatening to kill their hostages, the prisoners managed to disarm the officers in the front guard tower. Now armed with guns, they forced their hostages out to the front gate. In the meantime, officers had called the Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office for assistance. Deputy Sheriff Bill Alexander was the only officer on duty, but Deputy William A. Ford was also at the Sheriff's Office although he was off duty. Both deputies had formerly been officers at the prison. The deputies quickly drove to the prison and using their car as a roadblock, about three blocks north of the prison, blocked the exit of the car containing the inmates and hostages. During his time as an officer at the prison, Deputy Alexander had discussed with Warden Dunn how an attempted jailbreak should be handled if hostages were involved. Dunn had told Alexander that if prisoners took him hostage, they would obviously have him order the officers to let them pass and not to shoot. Also obviously, he would give the orders as they told him. However, Dunn told Alexander that the officers should ignore his orders under those circumstances and not let them pass. He also told him that "even if I tell you not to shoot, you shoot."

Claude Beaver was driving with Warden Dunn and the engineer in the front seat of the car with the other three escapees in the rear seat holding them at gunpoint. As expected, the prisoners told Dunn to give the deputies the orders to let them pass. Deputy Alexander told the Warden he could pass but that the other men would not be allowed to leave. One of the prisoners then fired a rifle shot, hitting Deputy Ford in the head. Another prisoner then shot Warden Dunn twice in the back of the head, and Deputy Alexander began returning their fire.

Warden Dunn and Claude Beaver were dead at the scene. Deputy Ford died a few hours later. Bill Anderson died from his wounds two days later. Hiram Prather, also wounded, was the only one of the prisoners to survive. He was charged with Jess Dunn's murder, convicted, and sentenced to die in "Old Sparky," the prison's electric chair.

May 11, 1936

Charles D. Powell - Brickyard Foreman, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

About noon on May 11, 1936, the prisoners were being fed lunch in the brickyard when a jail break occurred. Twenty-four men charged at four officers, including Mr. Powell, with prison-made dirks. Powell attempted to escape from them but was struck on the head with a piece of pipe. The four hostage officers, Powell, Tuck Cope, W.W. Gossett, and Victor Conn, were then forced toward the nearest guard tower. When the prisoners demanded that the two tower officers throw down their guns, the officers complied. The now armed inmates forced their captives to a nearby car and fourteen of the escapees crammed themselves into and on the car. As the car began moving, other officers opened fire on the car. Tuck Cope was wounded in the neck, Gossett in the stomach, but Powell was fatally hit in the head. In the resulting melee, ten of the inmates were wounded and six were rapidly recaptured. Eight escaped for periods ranging from a few hours to several weeks, but all were subsequently recaptured.

Feb. 17, 1935

James Payton "Pate" Jones - Security Officer, Oklahoma State Reformatory

On February 17, 1935, Officer Jones was on duty in the main entrance tower. Shortly after 2 p.m., two inmates, Malloy Kuykendall and Henry Stewart led a mass escape attempt with two guns that had been smuggled in to them. Unfortunately, a group of women and children were taking a tour of the prison at the same time and the prisoners took them hostage. As the group approached the main tower where Officer Jones was on duty, one of the inmates shot him fatally with a shotgun. Officer Jones' wife was standing on the front porch of the officers' barracks a short distance away and saw her husband shot down.

Jan. 20, 1926

William R. Mayfield - Brickyard Supervisor, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

On January 19, 1926, In the course of an escape attempt, prisoner George McCall threw a brick at brickyard supervisor Bill Mayfield. The brick fractured Mayfield's skull, but an officer shot McCall stopping his McCall's escape plans. Mayfield died from his injury the next morning.

Jan. 19, 1914

D.C. "Pat" Oates - Deputy Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

Fred C. Godfrey - Day Sergeant, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

Herman H. Drover - Bertillon Officer, Oklahoma State Penitentiary

At 4:20 p.m., January 19, 1914, three prisoners, (Tom Lane, Chiney Reed, and Charles Kuntz) were making their way through the maximum-security prison's front corridor, ostensibly to see parole officer, Frank Rice. Tom Lane was concealing a handgun that had been smuggled into the prison for him.

As Turnkey J. W. Martin let the inmates through the door, Lane pulled the gun on him and demanded the keys. Martin, alone and unarmed, jumped Lane and struggled with him until Lane shot him in the cheek. The inmates then took the keys and ran down the corridor to the office of Deputy Warden D. C. Oates, intending to take a hostage to help protect their escape from the armed officers in the towers outside.

Turnkey Martin raised the alarm and Deputy Warden Oates came out of his office, drew his handgun and emptied it at the inmates, wounding Kuntz in the chest. Tom Lane returned fire. H. H. Drover was just exiting another room from developing photographs and was fatally hit by one of Lane's shots. Oates ran down the hall to get another gun or more ammunition.

As the inmates burst into the deputy warden's office, they confronted stenographer, Mary Foster; day sergeant F. C. Godfrey; parole officer, Frank Rice; and attorney, John H. Thomas; who was at the prison to see a client. As the inmates told everyone to raise their hands, the elderly Thomas moved too slow to suit them, and Lane shot him fatally. Sergeant Godfrey, who was facing a wall with his hands raised, then attacked Lane, who shot him in the head, killing him instantly. The inmates then took Foster and Rice as hostages, and, shielding themselves behind their hostages, moved out of the office. Deputy Warden Oates, who had rearmed himself with a shotgun, met them in the corridor. Oates ordered Lane to drop his gun, and Lane shot Oates, killing him. Subsequently, all three inmates were killed during the escape attempt.