The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-09-27
DEPUTY KILLED
ONLOOKER DYING
POLICEMAN HURT
hode Up on Officials as They Were
Destroying confiscated Liquor in
the Notorious Strip"

Bartlesyille. Okla, Sept. l9.-R Lee
Bowman. a federal enforcement Off
Ger from Tulsa, was killed; J. Mccall
OF Caney, Kans., was fatally wounded
and ". R. Mayberry, city marshal of
Lenapah, Okla. was shot in the arm
and shoulder late this afternoon by
five men who rode up in a motor car
while the officers were destroying
liquor just a short distance south of
Caney, Kans. The men in the car
lopened fire before their intentions
could be foreseen by the officers and
rode rapidly on, taking with them after
the shooting the motor car which Bow
man and his companions used to ride
out to the place where the liquor was
being destroyed.
The shooting occurred Just south of
the so-called neutral strip" for ter
ritory lying between Oklahoma and
Kansas, where there has been a con.
stant warfare between state and fed.
eral officers on one side and the boot
leggers on the other for more than
twenty-five years.
Bowman went to Caney early in the
morning and with Mayberry captured
four or. five wagons filled with liquor.
With this liquor the two drove into
Oklahoma, about two miles south of
Caney, and were proceeding to de-
stroy it by breaking the bottles. The
| drivers of the wagons confiscated are
said to have hurried back to Caney
and told several bootleggers of the Of
ficers' plans. The bootleggers took a
motor car and followed Bowman, Bow
man was bending over the car handing
the liquor to Mayberry when the mur-
derers came up. Mccall had merely
gone QUITO watch the booze party"
Mayberry said the five men in the
motor car opened fire before the Off
GERS had any intimation that they were
other than an ordinary motoring party.
Bowman, struck in the head, fell dead
at the first fire. Mayberry drew his
revolver and emptied it at the fleeing
party. He believes he must have
struck one, because he saw one drop
to the floor of the car. Two of the men
had shotguns and the three others re-
YoVers. Two shots struck Mayberry
In the right arm and one in the left
shoulder.
Bowman was A years old and an
old federal officer Re was deputy |
in the Usage nation, and has served !
on the police force of Tulsa. He is
survived by a widow and three chill !
dren. He was very popular at Tulsa.
Walter Duckett deputy United
States marshal at Tulsa, said tonight |
that every country road and railroad /
right of way entering and leaving
Caney is heavily guarded and he be-
lived the murderers will be caught be-
fore morning. Posses are securing the
country Fred Behring'S of Caney and
a chauffeur named Baughman. of
Caney are believed to have been with
the party
The strip near which the killing oc-
CURED is notorious for the bar on
wheels it used to have years ago
The saloon where the bar wah oper-
ated was built on the state line. When
officers from Oklahoma appeared the
bar was rolled across the line into
Kansas, and back into Oklahoma when
Kansas officers appeared 1t finally
was broken up when Kansas and Ok
ahoma officers by agreement made
raid at the same time.
Many state officers have been shot
while on duty in the neighborhood.
and many bad man has been killed
n the strip. Bowman, however. is
he first federal enforcement officer TO
'e killed by bootleggers. The strip
$ regarded as the worst part of the
whole district of Oklahoma. as far as
'ootlegging is concerned.