Beckham County, OK - Deaths: Dan B. Roach, 1925
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Submitted by: delma25@pldi.net (Delma Tindell)

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ROACH, DAN B.
(Oct 1925, Thursday, Elk City News Democrat, Elk City, Beckham Co, OK):
Taken to Clinton Hospital Where he Died Without Revealing Cause of the Wound.
(Butler Herald):  Late Thursday evening about dusk two men drove to the
home of Bud Warden and asked him to call a doctor for Dan Roach, that he
was dying.  The man quickly turned their car around and left in the
direction of Butler.  Mr. Warden called Dr. Basinger.
The Roach family are neighbors of Warden, so he and his son Dewey went to
the Roach home, asked Mrs. Roach what was the matter with Dan.  She told
them Dan left home that morning to go to Mrs. Renison's place and she had
heard nothing about him being hurt.
Mr. Warden accompanied Mrs. Roach and the children to the section corner a
quarter of a mile north of the Roach home where they met Dr. Basinger. 
They drove to the Renison place in search of Dan.  Arriving there they
found Dan lying on the porch.  Examination proved that he was suffering
from a knife wound.  The knife entered the thigh about four inches below
the left hip joint a little to the front, ranging inward missing the
abdominal cavity by one half inch, severing two large muscles and the
artery and vein that supply the leg.
Mrs. Roach and those who came with her tried in vain to obtain from Roach
the cause of the wound, but he would evade all questions by asking for
water.
An operation being necessary the injured man was placed in the rear seat
of Dr. Basinger's car, made as comfortable as possible, and was rushed to
Clinton hospital, where again the doctors tried to obtain from him the
cause of the injury.  Failing to obtain a confession Roach was placed on
the operating table about 11:30 p.m. and died about an hour later.  He had
lost so much blood and had bled inwardly until he could not survive the
shock.
Besides Mrs. Renison there were four or five men at her home when medical
aid came.  Their version of the affair was than Roach was slicing bread
with a long butcher knife, when he stepped off the porch and fell on the
knife.  Mrs. Mable Renison, wife of Russ Renison was arrested charged with
the crime.  Her preliminary trial was held at Arapaho Tuesday.  At the
trial it developed that Mable Renison, Russ Renison, Mrs. Addie Renison
and Dan Roach were in the house at the time Roach was stabbed.  John
Williams, Jay Wolfe and Willie Renison were outside in a car.  Mrs. Fannie
Renison, owner of the farm and her daughter, Irene, were at the barn
milking cows.
Dan Roach made his home with the Renison's for a number of years and was
an orphan boy, he looked upon Mrs. Fannie Renison as a foster mother. 
Thus, he always felt at home there.  The testimony at the trial was that
Roach with his little boy had been out to the car with the other men above
named.  His little boy was hungry and wanted something to eat.  Roach took
the boy to the house and went directly to the cupboard and was getting
something for the boy to eat.  Mrs. Mable Renison, according to the
testimony, did not like Roach because he drank and gave liquor to her
husband.  She ordered him away from the cupboard.  He paid no attention to
her and she ordered him out of the house.  He told her, according to the
witness, that he was there years before she came and "would still be there
when she was dead and gone to hell."  This angered Mable and she grabbed a
long knife, a Farmer-Stockman butcher knife, and struck him with results
above stated.
Roach ran from the house and fell off the porch into the yard.  He was
picked up and placed on the porch where Dr. Bassinger (sic) found him.
Mable Renison was bound over to the District Court under a bond of $2000
which was made and she returned home.  She is charged with manslaughter, a
charge of murder not being applicable, since she had ordered him to leave
the premises before committing the crime.

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