Week 31 – Flew the Coop

 

I had two stories to write about for this week. One having to do with chicken. I don’t like chicken and I’m pretty sure I inherited it – from my mother’s two brothers who didn’t find it palatable either. It’s only been the past few years where I could, semi-willingly, eat it. It was a funny story, but not nearly as interesting as the one to follow…

On 11 June 1962, the Anglin brothers John and Clarence, along with Frank Morris, managed to break out of Alcatraz Prison. There has been much written about their disappearance, and the questions surrounding their fate.  While the Anglin’s can’t be found in my family tree, we certainly have our own “birdmen” who “flew the coop.”  It seems as though Western Oklahoma was a hotbed of crime during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Although my uncle Fred Pennington was looked down upon by his wife’s family, the Ditmore’s were certainly not free from turpitude. Mind you, the story you are about to hear is about Ditmore’s from another twig of our family tree, but nonetheless we share the same roots.

In telling this story, we need to step back and look at where this twig branched off.  Henry Alexander Ditmore was my great-grandfather’s first cousin. Being one of the older children in his family, his children were closer to the age of my great-grandfather.  From Henry’s confederate pension, we know he enlisted on 1 June 1861, and was on the roll as late as February 1864, which shows he deserted. However, the Union prisoner of war records state he was captured at Gum Swamp, North Carolina, on 22 May 1863 and exchanged at City Point, Virginia the next week. Additional POW records say he was captured again at Madison County, Tennessee, on 25 October 1863. After being held for more than a year and a half, he was finally released on oath at Fort Delaware on 3 May 1865, and transported to Nashville, Tennessee. Interrogatories from his fellow soldiers state emphatically that he never deserted. His length of time serving in the Confederate Army lasted three years and one month, most of which was spent in prison.  Although not nearly as bad as some of the other prisoner of war camps, Fort Delaware must surely have affected Henry.  Shortly after returning home, he had a son with Mary Jane Coffey, Francis Alexander Ditmore, born in 1866. By 28 January 1869, Henry had “flown the coop” and arrived in Panola County, Texas, where he married Elvira C Matthews. Henry and Elvira then proceeded to have nine children together. I have heard that he simply abandoned Mary Jane and young, Francis, and being presumed dead, that his “other family” was discovered when Mary Jane applied for his Confederate pension. Whether or not this is true, he acknowledged Francis in his will.

My great-grandfather, and Francis, were both born in 1866 and grew up in and around Brasstown, Clay County, North Carolina. They undoubtedly were well acquainted. So much so that when my great-grandfather and his family left North Carolina for Caddo County, Oklahoma, Francis and his family followed closely behind. By this time, Francis and his wife, Mary (nee Young) had eight children. To emphasize how close the Ditmore’s were, several other Ditmore cousins left North Carolina and came to western Oklahoma all about the same time.

Of Francis and Mary’s children, six were boys. Of those six, we know at least four of them served time in prison. All of their troubles seem to have started at the time the 18^th Amendment took effect in 1920, banning the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcohol. In January 1924, brothers Luther (the oldest child) and Zeb (sixteen years his junior) were arrested for “maintaining a public nuisance.” Their bond was set at $1500 each! That was a lot of money back then.  Then in March of that year, both were charged with making bootleg whiskey. For that, they each served 60 days in jail and paid fines of $100. This must have had a whopping effect on Zeb, as his life of crime ends here. As a matter of fact, by 1938, Zeb was the marshal of Eakly, Oklahoma.

Luther’s “rap sheet” lengthens when three years later, on 18 May 1927, federal law enforcement officials raided his 250 gallon still, which also included 48 barrels of mash, 20 sacks of sugar, 50 new kegs…and some whisky. He apparently wasn’t in full production for when his case was finally heard in November, he was fined $100 for possession of mash, and $150 for possession of a still. The charge of manufacturing was dismissed. In October 1928, Luther had brought his youngest brother Bert into the fold, as they were both arrested on manufacturing charges where twelve gallons of bootleg was seized.  This time a chase ensued when Bert and another fellow were fleeing. Shots were fired, but no one was hurt. I’m thinking it may not have taken too much to catch Bert, because eight years before, in January 1920, Bert was horsing around with a gun and shot off a good portion of his right foot (you just have to LOVE old newspapers!).  Then, to the horror of everyone in the area, in January 1929, Luther Ditmore beat a man to death, for which he received life imprisonment at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Bert continued bootlegging whisky and being arrested several times over the next few years, until he graduated to “Grand Theft Auto” for which he served 15 months of a ten-year sentence, in Leavenworth Federal Prison for violation of the Dyer Act. Arrested once more after his release, he jumped bail, “flew the coop” to Oregon, and changed his name to Hubert J. Kimsey. A sharp-eyed reader recognized him from a detective magazine and in August 1939, he was arrested in Vancouver, Washington for charges of assault with intent to kill in Oklahoma City. Bert/Hubert had been on the lam for four years. He was sentenced to five years in McAlester, which he served. After his release, Bert returned to Oregon, where he died in 1978, but he was not the last Ditmore who “flew the coop.”

William Arthur “Ott” was the second oldest son of Francis Alexander Ditmore. He was born on 10 April 1890 in North Carolina. He was a teenager when his family came to western Oklahoma. On 2 November 1909, he married Ruth Cleveland Burnett in Caddo County. Ironically, Ruth was also born in North Carolina, so it is possible that her family migrated west at the same time as the Ditmore’s. Almost immediately they began their family. Blanche was born in 1911, Beaulah in 1912, Gladys in 1915, and William Ray in 1920. They made their home at Swan Lake in Caddo County, which is now at the bottom of Fort Cobb Reservoir. In the 1920 census, Ott is listed as a self-employed farmer. His brother, Luther, and Luther’s wife, Rose, are living with them.  Ott and Ruth’s youngest child, Lola Belle, was born in 1923, in Safford, Arizona.

The events of 20 October 1928 would forever shape the lives of the young family. Earlier that afternoon, Ott had taken a group consisting of Mrs. Prince (from nearby Eakly), and her two daughters: twenty-two-year-old Nora Shelton, and thirteen-year-old Dottie Prince on a joy ride. According to testimony, Ott and the women had spent the day together in nearby Hinton.  That evening, they picked up Homer Johnson to go to a dance which was to have been held at a location out in the country. Upon arriving, there was no dance, but they met up with two men, Jerry Woods and Sam Vickery. They were all drinking whiskey. In two cars, the group drove around until at some point, an altercation between Mrs. Prince and Jerry Woods ensued. At that time, Ott fired a gun shooting Jerry Wood in the neck.  Mr. Woods got out of the car and walked a short distance where he collapsed and died soon afterward.  All those in the group, after ascertaining Woods was dead, drove off.  His body was found later that night by a passerby. While Homer Johnson and Nora Shelton were arrested as material witnesses, Mrs. Prince, Dottie and Ott had fled. A warrant for Ott’s arrest was issued by the Caddo County Sherriff’s office, but it wasn’t until the middle of November when he turned up in Phoenix, Arizona, when he was arrested by the Phoenix Police Department. He was extradited back to Oklahoma where he was held without bond until his trial at the same place where his brother, Luther, was being held for the murder he committed. After a continuance, he was finally brought to trial in September 1929. The charged had been reduced from murder to first degree manslaughter for which he was given ten years. He was transported to the State Penitentiary at McAlester, once again to join his brother.

On 19 October 1931, after serving just a little more than two years of his sentence, Ott Ditmore escaped from “Big Mac.”  Shortly before his escape, he had been made a trusty by Sam Brown, the warden. A petition signed by many Hinton, Oklahoma residents requesting that he not be allowed that privilege was apparently ignored. Ott “flew the coop” once again. Rumor among the family has it that Ott’s wife, Ruth, helped aid in the escape. We definitely know Ott’s family ended up together in Hobbs, New Mexico. On 30 November 1933, a fight broke out between Ott and another man which may have been instigated by cheating at a card game. Ott threw the first punch, but it was returned with a nine-inch Bowie knife through his heart. He died almost instantly. His body was returned to Eakly, Oklahoma for burial.  The governor denied his brother Luther’s request to attend the funeral. Ruth survived him another fifty-two years. She never remarried.

But what of Luther? We would have expected that had died in prison. He did, after all, receive a life sentence for the murder of Ted Fisher. We would be wrong. On 3 April 1942, Luther Ditmore and fellow inmate, Washington Limbocker, escaped from the trusty building at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Newspapers articles from all over Oklahoma alerted citizens to be on the look out for the duo. The last article found regarding Luther was seven years later, on 27 March 1949. At this time, Luther was listed among the top ten “Most Wanted” fugitives in the state. Nothing more was written about him that I’ve found, and wherever he ended up is unknown to this day.

This brings me to the question...Nurture or Nature? All the other Ditmore's I've ever met (and let me qualify that by saying I have met them from every branch of the descendants of John Ditmore and Eliza Hendrickson), are good, honest, hardworking folks. This includes one of Ott's grandchildren. I'm sure there have been quite a few others that may have had minor scrapes with the law, but nothing to compare to the children of Francis Alexander Ditmore. And what about Francis and his wife, Mary? They were married for forty-seven years, until her death in 1934. The family in his photo could be any American family around the turn of the century. What in the world could have happened to send these brothers down such a dark path? It's an age-old question that I often ponder, but one I know I'll never be able to answer.

Photo credit: Ancestry.com-username: perigov