Multnomah-Washington County OR Archives News.....Oakman Murder Trail November 28, 1904
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Sheron Faynor nitwittwin@hotmail.com January 30, 2008, 7:41 pm

Morning Oregonian November 28, 1904
Hillsboro,Or.Nov 27-(Special)- Circuit Court for the November term will 
convene in this city tomorrow,with Judge T.A.McBride of Oregon City on the 
bench.The civil docket is light, but a number of criminal cases will be 
tried.Chirf of these is the case of State vs. Bert Oakman,formerly of 
Monmouth,Ill., charged with the muder of Frank Bennett the night of 
Saturday,August 27.
Oakman and Bennett had been working together for some months prior to the 
killing and the two were paying attentions to the sisters, the Misses Alta and 
Vesta Leford. There was trouble between the two men because Bennett had told 
Miss Alta Ledford that Oakman was a married man and had a wife and child back 
in Monmouth. While it is whispered that there was other trouble between 
them,it is upon this ground that the state supplied a motive for the alleged 
murder.
Oakman and Bennett met in front of the post office on the night of the killing 
and agreed to meet at the Southworth saloon and settle their difficulties. 
They met by appointment,went out the rear of the saloon, exchanged blows and 
Oakman plunged a knife into Bennett's neck, the wounded man dying in a few 
minutes.Oakman fled and was caught a few days later at Warrendale,on the 
Columbia River, between Portland and The Dalles.
The defense,it is understood, will allege justifiable homicide.
E.L. Craig,formerly of Knapp,Wis., is to be tried as accessory after the fact 
as he was with Oakman when the fatal blow was struck and ran with Oakman from 
the scene of the crime.
John Bonando, of Tualitin, will answer a charge of attempt to rape, and Claude 
jackson,of Scholls, is under bond to answer for statutory rape, while David 
J.Porter, the Gaston blacksmith at whom his divorced wife has shot several 
times, is in jail awaiting trial on the charge of rape,preferred by his ex 
wife.
George hays, of Sherwood, will answer for throwing the hatchet and butcher 
knife at a Sherwood sallon keeper.

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