It was a terrible day — the saddest in the history of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
On May 26, 1978, three troopers were killed in gunbattles with a pair of prison escapees.
Veteran Troopers Houston F. "Pappy" Summers and Billy G. Young were killed in a shootout with escapees Claude Dennis, 35, and Michael Lancaster, 25, on a lonely dirt road southeast of nearby Kenefic.
A short while later in Caddo, OHP 2nd Lt. James Pat Grimes was killed and his partner, Lt. Hoyt Hughes, wounded in a gunbattle with the same pair.
The volley of bullets also left Dennis and Lancaster dead at the scene.
Haynie, now 67, retired from the patrol 10 years ago and now works for the state Fire Marshal's Office in Durant.
He lives at Kenefic and drives almost daily along the road where Young and Summers were killed.
"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it," he said.
And, as he recounted the events of May 26, 1978, Haynie paused, and then through a crackle in his voice said, "There's tears in my eyes."
Path of death
A month earlier, Dennis and Lancaster had tunneled their way out of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester.
They broke into the home of a prison guard, terrorized his wife and fled with the family car and three weapons.
That began a 34-day odyssey of mayhem and murder by the two, who earned the moniker of "thrill killers."
Dennis grew up in Bristow but also had lived in Bryan County. He was serving a prison sentence for three murders, including those of a Stephens County couple.
Lancaster, of Manhattan, Kan., was serving a sentence for robbery.
Authorities believe the pair may have been responsible for 11 deaths while on the lam, although only five could be pinned on them.
Officials said the two killed four men in north Texas; wounded a Butler, Ala., police officer in a shootout; and killed a 68-year-old school teacher at nearby Cuba, Ala.
Police said the teacher, Stacy Beavers, had returned from a church social on the night of May 22, 1978, when her throat was cut and her station wagon was stolen.
Her car was found two days later on the night of May 24 near Fort Washita, located east of Madill, between Tishomingo and Durant.
The discovery of her car brought hundreds of lawmen, including FBI agents, Texas rangers and sheriff's deputies from Texas and Oklahoma to man roadblocks and help search for the inmates.
Highway Patrol troopers from all over the state also were brought in for the dragnet, which stretched across the countryside from Ardmore to Durant.
Among them were Grimes, 36, of Moore and Hughes, 46, of Edmond, both of whom worked for the patrol's internal affairs division. Also brought in for the manhunt were Summers, 62, of Enid and Young, 50, of Woodward. Both worked for the OHP's motor vehicle inspections division.
Summers and Young were the first to die.
Around 10 a.m. May 26, a Kenefic rancher reported that two men had tied him up and a ranch hand and had stolen his blue pickup.
Shortly thereafter, Summers and Young apparently encountered the pair in the stolen truck on a dirt road two miles southeast of Kenefic.
They soon found themselves in a shootout with the escapees. One of the troopers managed to get on his radio and call out "... we've been hit ...," although he did not give their location.
OHP troopers flying in a search airplane near the area heard the call and soon after saw a blue pickup traveling at a high rate of speed toward Caddo, a few miles away.
Troopers on the plane followed and relayed the truck's direction to other troopers on the ground in an effort to head off the escapees.
Grimes was killed at the scene. Hughes, badly wounded in the arm, managed to kill Lancaster in the battle.
A supervisor, OHP Lt. Mike Williams, fatally shot Dennis as the convict was raising his weapon to fire on other surrounding troopers.
The bodies of Summers and Young were found after the shootout at Caddo.
Haynie was the supervisor at the Kenefic scene and still remembers the difficulty he and other troopers had working that bloody crime scene.
"We had quite a few troopers there," Haynie said. "But we did what we were trained to do. We protected crime scene and went about diagramming things."
They broke into the home of a prison guard, terrorized his wife and fled with the family car and three weapons.
That began a 34-day odyssey of mayhem and murder by the two, who earned the moniker of "thrill killers."
Dennis grew up in Bristow but also had lived in Bryan County. He was serving a prison sentence for three murders, including those of a Stephens County couple.
Lancaster, of Manhattan, Kan., was serving a sentence for robbery.
Authorities believe the pair may have been responsible for 11 deaths while on the lam, although only five could be pinned on them.
Officials said the two killed four men in north Texas; wounded a Butler, Ala., police officer in a shootout; and killed a 68-year-old school teacher at nearby Cuba, Ala.
Police said the teacher, Stacy Beavers, had returned from a church social on the night of May 22, 1978, when her throat was cut and her station wagon was stolen.
Her car was found two days later on the night of May 24 near Fort Washita, located east of Madill, between Tishomingo and Durant.
The discovery of her car brought hundreds of lawmen, including FBI agents, Texas rangers and sheriff's deputies from Texas and Oklahoma to man roadblocks and help search for the inmates.
Highway Patrol troopers from all over the state also were brought in for the dragnet, which stretched across the countryside from Ardmore to Durant.
Among them were Grimes, 36, of Moore and Hughes, 46, of Edmond, both of whom worked for the patrol's internal affairs division. Also brought in for the manhunt were Summers, 62, of Enid and Young, 50, of Woodward. Both worked for the OHP's motor vehicle inspections division.
Summers and Young were the first to die.
Around 10 a.m. May 26, a Kenefic rancher reported that two men had tied him up and a ranch hand and had stolen his blue pickup.
Shortly thereafter, Summers and Young apparently encountered the pair in the stolen truck on a dirt road two miles southeast of Kenefic.
They soon found themselves in a shootout with the escapees. One of the troopers managed to get on his radio and call out "... we've been hit ...," although he did not give their location.
OHP troopers flying in a search airplane near the area heard the call and soon after saw a blue pickup traveling at a high rate of speed toward Caddo, a few miles away.
Troopers on the plane followed and relayed the truck's direction to other troopers on the ground in an effort to head off the escapees.
Violent end
An unmarked Highway Patrol car came screeching to a halt in Caddo and gunfire erupted.Grimes was killed at the scene. Hughes, badly wounded in the arm, managed to kill Lancaster in the battle.
A supervisor, OHP Lt. Mike Williams, fatally shot Dennis as the convict was raising his weapon to fire on other surrounding troopers.
The bodies of Summers and Young were found after the shootout at Caddo.
Haynie was the supervisor at the Kenefic scene and still remembers the difficulty he and other troopers had working that bloody crime scene.
"We had quite a few troopers there," Haynie said. "But we did what we were trained to do. We protected crime scene and went about diagramming things."
Copyright Tulsa World 2008. All rights reserved. Format differs from original publication.
Note: Tulsa Police Captain Travis Yates made the trip to Caddo and represented the Tulsa Police Department at this ceremony.
Recent Comments