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It Was Morley |
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| McAlester News |
| January 15, 1903 |
The bandit, who, when mortally wounded, lifted himself up and killed Deputy Sorrells, in the desperate fight on a train near Spiro a few days ago, turns out to have been Samuel L. Morley, the Oklahoma desperado who, while making his escape from Sheriff Jacob Hartman last March, killed the officer. Sheriff George Smith and District Attorney B. F. Wolf, of Norman, Oklahoma, passed through here Monday night from Spiro, where they had been to look at the remains. The bandit had been buried but the corpse was exhumed. The identification was clear and without doubt. Before the body was exhumed Mr. Wolf who had prosecuted Morley, and who knew all about him, gave an accurate description. He told of the shape of the dead man’s fingernails, of his toes and described all the scars on him. One scar was on the man’s head, inflicted by the daughter of a man that Morely was robbing.
Mr. Wolf talked about Morley. He said:
“He was probably the most dangerous man in Oklahoma. I do not believe that anyone could have taken him alive. He would have refused to surrender had 25 men covered him with Winchesters. It was no surprise to me when I heard of the desperate manner of his death. I understand that when Scargil covered him with a revolver and with one hand on his shoulder told hi to throw up his hands, that he threw up his left hand and shot the officer under it with his right. It was lucky for him that the officer’s pistol snapped but he did not know that it would snap. He simply took his chances. After he had two mortal wounds in his chest he raised himself and fired the shot, which killed Sorrells.
“The man who was with him answers the description of Dick Mason, who was with him at El Reno, when he made his escape from the officers. He is only 24 years old, has sandy hair and light mustache, is of spare build. I presume that the government will offer a heavy reward for his capture.”
Morley murdered a man at Chickasha a few years ago but before his trial the chief witnesses against him disappeared or died. He killed a butcher at San Antonio, Texas, before that. When he lay in his blood after the fight at Spiro a bystander recognized him as the murderer of the Texas butcher. He told the crowd that if he was the man he bore across his chest a long mark made by a dagger. His shirt was opened and the long mar was discovered. Counting the Chickasha man, the Oklahoma sheriff and the unfortunate Sorrells Morley had killed four men. The reward is very large. It is not know whether it will go to Scargil, or whether it will be divided, half of it going to the widow of Sorrells.
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