The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-27
ED LO(KHART
 LAST OF BIC 3,
 DIES FIGHTING Famous Bandit Of Osage
 Hills Cornered By
 Six Deputies WAS GANG LEADER WHEN SPENCER DIED
 ------.------- sfss Youth Had Freed Him After He Jumped Wall toms Parole
tLsssss wlssI ss rAs Ass. .nsrsls,


 SHERRY oklay March 26~-Ea Lockhart, train robber and ruthless bandit of the Osage Hills. went to his death Wednesday, defiant of the lay to the end.
 Surrounded by Sheriff Bob Sanford and six deputies in the farmhouse of Fred Walker, six miles west of here, the outlaw had his choice between peaceful surrender which g meant q stretch" in prison or an attempt to escape, and if this failed death.
 He chose the latter.
 A few moments after the farmhouse had been surrounded Mont Grady of Muskogee, deputy, knocked on the front door. It swung open and Lock hart coveredn Grady and forced him inside. Jack Quast, another deputy, entered from the rear, and he, too, was held prisoner.
 { Then the Osage bandit made his break for liberty. Using the two depu- ties as shields against the rifle fire of Sheriff Sanford and. his posse. Lock- hart fled to the timberhnds.
 Here the three were encircled by the officers and the firing began. Sud- denly Grady, whose revolver had been taken by Lockhart, made grab for the outlaws belt, and without pulling the gun from it's holster fired. My God, man, you've killed me I" Lockhart cried out, and fell forward on his face.
 Thus marked the passing of the last of s'the biz three Henry Starr, Al Spencer and Ed Lockhart--who added q Spectacular tinse to early Ok laho1na bnnditry.
 Starr was shot down bys citizens in Harrison, Ark, in February, 1921, after an unsuccessful attempt at bank robbery. Spencer was killed by a posse headed by AIva Mcdonald, U. S. marshal for western Oklohoma, in a raid early this year.
 In Starr Gang
 Spencer embarked on q life of crime through the theft of horses after sud denly tiring of menial Iaborss on his farm. He was convicted hut managed to escape from jail. Soon astsrward his |nemeWas being linked with the Henry Starrg gang, whose sensational bank thefts and dozen holdups thrilled the entire country. ' s
 When the wild west was Ut it's wild est, Starr was jailed. On his promise to setoTln he was raroled. But crime hksf5i.S& fn i5izn aat ia axsa ;z1 ki.: nzx< aiipbe hq died with his boots on, as he had desired 1t.
 Spencer who had become Stars right hand man, then toDk up the lead ership of the gang. The frontier trenl- bled at the mention of Spencer's name. Alter a short period of mourning for the dead chieftnin, the Starr gang" began it's plunderings again.
 Banks were robbed, payrolls stolen, daring holdups staged, but with the oc- casiOnal loss of q man or two, Spen- cer's bandits ruled the Osage apparent ly living under q '1ncky star"
 Spencer Trapped
 Then came the Katy train holdup in the wilds of the Osage hills last No yembers Suspicion was immediately fastened upon Spencer, and one of the greatest man hunts in the southwest got underway. 1t ended when Spencer. was trapped by Marshall Mcdonald and posse on lonely road near Bat tlesvtlle. Okla, and in the ensuing gun battle died as did Starr -with his boots
 Lockhart, who had been with the. Starr raiding party when that leader vas AAAtcu, tueA VAcAcu up Cuc TeluS OI lawlessness and directed the few re- maining bandit followers. More sus- picious than his predccessor and not risking the fate of Spencer, who, it was runiored was turned Tn" by one of his own gang, the new chief surrounded himself with men of his own choosing.
 Never Game Back
 Lockhart was faroled from the state penitentiary, where he was sentenced for robbing q bank in Coro, Okla., in 1922, by Gov. 'JacA" Walton. He was supposed to be, gone for only few days on a pretext of visiting his wife who was i'll. He never returned to the prison and later turned up in Jay, Okla., where he was jailed.
 A daring "captufe' of the prison by . 17-year-Old member of his band freed Lockhart. Governor Trapp, who sue ceeded Walton as governor after the latter had been impeached, fevoked the parole and search was instituted again for Lockhart.
 EA A 'l.