Beckham County, OK - Deaths: Oliver T. Roberts, 1924
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Submitted by: delma25@pldi.net (Delma Tindell)

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ROBERTS, OLIVER T.
(5 Jun 1924, Sayre Journal, Sayre, Beckham Co, OK):
O. T. Roberts, who has a farm home near the mouth of Sweetwater creek,
committed suicide at the farm home of J. R. Watson, seven miles southwest
of Sayre, Wednesday morning about eight o'clock.
Roberts and his wife were visiting his brother-in-law, Walter Wolf, and
Wednesday morning the men started out, accompanied by two other men in the
community for a fish on the creek.  They stopped to shoot at a rabbit. 
After the other men had shot at the rabbit, Roberts ask (ed) for the gun,
a 22 target.  Roberts shot once at the rabbit, then remarked he could do
better on the ground.  He alighted from the car and placed the muzzle of
the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.  The gun failed to fire and
then he turned the gun toward members of the party and snapped it several
times.  He then started across the country, coming to the farm home of J.
R. Watson, he entered the home and ask (ed) Mrs. Watson for the gun.  She
refused.  He then said he would take it and picked up the shot gun.  Mrs.
Watson became frightened and ran from the house, as she passed through the
yard she picked up her small child and led the older one, and before she
was any distance from the house, she heard two shots.  Soon two more shots
rang out and then the fifth shot.
Roberts was a total stranger to Mrs. Watson and to most of the people in
the neighborhood.  A wife and two children survive him.
County Judge Speed and the sheriff's force drove out to the scene of the
suicide as soon as notified.  They thoroughly investigated the premises
and viewed the body.  There wasn't a doubt but the man had committed
suicide.
Relatives said some fourteen years ago he was adjudged insane and was in
the state hospital for sometime and that he had been acting strangely for
the past few weeks.
The body was removed to Erick, where it was prepared for burial. 
(Mayfield Cemetery, Beckham Co, Okla.)
(5 Jun 1924, Thursday, Erick Democrat, Erick, Beckham Co, OK):
Wednesday morning in company with G. W. Stephens, Walter Wolf and Fletcher
Pigg, O. C. (sic) Roberts, a prosperous farmer of the Friendship community
started on a fishing trip, in apparently good health.
On their road to the fishing place a rabbit was sighted and one of the men
took a shot at it with a winchester rifle and missed.  Mr. Roberts
requested that they let him try his marksmanship.  He secured the rifle
and fired one shot at the rabbit, and jumped from the car, put the muzzle
of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger two or three times, but the
gun failed to go off.  The men who were with him seeing that he meant self
destruction rushed toward him, he backed to the fence and turned the gun
upon them, and swore that he would kill them all if they moved.  He
finally got over the fence and went to a farm house near by where he
secured a shot-gun, placed the muzzle in his mouth and pulled both
triggers.  The top of his head was blowed off.
He leaves a wife and two children to mourn his loss, who have the sympathy
of all our people in this sad hour.

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