A Gruesome Crime
A friend of mine forwarded a newspaper article to me recently. It depicts, in detail, a crime that took place in Purcell Oklahoma on August 24th, 1911.
Apparently, a man attacked a farmer’s wife, beat her, and then covered her with an old mattress and set it on fire. The attacker escaped but was eventually caught and a mob mentality over took the town of Purcell. The entire town took part in gathering up brush and made a pile around a telephone pole. They then soaked the pole and brush pile with flammables. Once they tied the attacker to the pole alive, they set the pile on fire. This was all done on main street in Purcell. The news article says that women and children ‘stood up in cars’ to watch the man die.
The mob had apparently locked the sheriff and under sheriff in the court-house while this all took place.
My friend brought this to my attention wondering if this would be something that would be worth investigating, paranormally speaking. I honestly have reservations about it and can’t decide.
For one thing, this act took place on main street. How would we introduce control factors? It’s completely open to the elements and passer-by’s. Also, I haven’t been able to come across any reports of paranormal activity. I also don’t believe anyone has ever investigated this site before.
My other reservation is, this was a gruesome act carried out by vigilantes. The man killed was never given a proper trial. The police never had a chance to conduct a proper investigation, therefore, the man killed might have been innocent. The woman attacked said that the man was her attacker, according to the article, but it also states the woman who was attacked was hit on the head several times with a pipe. Doesn’t it make sense that she might not have had all of her faculties when she pointed this guy out? The man she accused used to work for her husband on their farm. Couldn’t there have been some animosity there between the farmer and his wife and the ex-farm hand?
Lastly, why should I bring back attention to this horrific act that took place back in 1911 by doing an investigation? Should I just let ‘sleeping dogs lay’? I would like other peoples insight into this because I’m on the fence. What do you, my readers, think I should do?
