In February 1911, a young Oklahoma man named Walter Davis was wanted for violating liquor laws when Sheriff Cal Edmonds and Deputy Sheriff Dale finally arrested him in Holdenville. The arrest itself appears to have gone smoothly enough.
The trouble began when they tried to put him behind bars.
As the officers unlocked the jail door, Davis suddenly ran.
Four shots were fired after him, but not one found its mark. Davis vanished long enough to let the searchers scatter, then slipped away to collect his team from a local livery stable. From there, he headed to the farmhouse where he had been staying, about five miles west of town.
The deputies tracked him down and arrested him again.
Then he escaped again.
And then again.
By the time the strange chase was over, Davis had broken loose from officers multiple times, dodged bullets in Holdenville and Wewoka, and repeatedly returned to the same farmhouse as though daring the law to come find him.
Each capture seemed certain to be the last, and each trip to the jail seemed to end the same way, with Davis bolting for freedom before the officers could stop him.
Dodged Bullets All Day Long
HOLDENVILLE, Oklahoma. — Walter Davis, a young man wanted for violation of the liquor law, was arrested here Monday afternoon by Sheriff Cal Edmonds and Deputy Sheriff Dale.
When the officers commenced to unlock the jail door, the prisoner ran. Four shots were fires at him without effect.
After hiding in an outbuilding until the pursuers had dispersed, he secured his team at a local livery stable and went to a farm house where he was stopping, five miles west of here. Two deputy sheriffs, in pursuit, recaptured him.
He was brought to the jail door and as it was being opened, broke for liberty and escaped. Two shots were aimed at him by the deputies. He returned to the farm house again and was preparing to go to bed, thinking the officers would not again look for him there, when deputy sheriffs from Wewoka, who had been notified by telephone, captured him again and securely handcuffed him.
Upon a pretext of putting on his coat, the handcuffs were removed from one of his hands and he again broke from his captors and escaped five shots from the officers’ guns. The officers at Wewoka were on the lookout for the fugitive and at an early hour this morning, he was seen to enter that town.
The officers drew their guns and compelled him to approach. The officers put their guns in their scabbards and proceeded to jail with the thrice-escaped prisoner. As they neared the jail door, he again made his escape by his fleetness of foot before the officers could draw their guns.
Source: The Daily Ardmoreite. Ardmore, Okla. February 9, 1911.
