Chapter Selection: 1 2 3

2.

On February 14th Deputy Marshall Twyman telegraphed from Caddo, in the Chocktaw Nation, via Muskogee, over the Western Union line to the U.S. Marshalls office at Fort Smith;

" Jack Whittington is the name of the murderer of Turner. Henry Turner and three other witnesses"

The next document is the writ requested in Twyman`s letter of the 13th to Rapley.It bears the signature of Almitt, who had evidently returned to Fort Smith by this time and who appears to have been an official of the District Attorneys office:

United States of America, Western District of Arkansas.
I do solemnly swear and believe, from reliable information in my possession, that W.J. Whittington, a white man and not an Indian by Birth, marriage or adoption, did in the Indian country, Western district of Arkansas, on or about the 7th day of February 1875, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, kill and murder Henry Turner, a white man, against the peace and dignity of the United States, and I pray a writ.
W.D. Almitt
17th Feb. 1875

Son Testifies of Murder

On February 26th Turners son was brought before the U.S. Commisioner to make his statement which reads;

Now……..comes the Deft. (defendant) in custody of the marshal, whereupon the following testimony was taken, to wit: Willaim H. Turner duly sworn says;
"Know deft. Knew John Turner, he was my father, he was killed in the Chickasaw Nation on Red River on the 7th of this month. He was a white man."
"I was coming down the road and saw my fathers and deft. Horses on the side of the road loose. I saw deft. Raise up from the ground about 10 or 15 steps from the horses, then he stooped down again, he (deft.) next went to his horse, stopped and picked something up in the road, got on his horse and rode towards me. When he saw me he turned his horse and `broke to run`. I rode after him and caught up with him, asked him how come blood on his hat. Said he had none on his hat, told him to look on his hands and see if there wasn't blood there, he did so and `broke to run` again. I saw blood on his hat and hands before I spoke to him about it. Told him to consider himself my prisoner, when he broke to run, and I shot at him. Before I ran after Deft. I saw my father lying on the ground. I saw his throat had been cut. Saw a club lying on the ground.

I went across the river into Texas and got men and came back to where my father was. I found my fathers pocket-book in his pocket with no money in it. A club was lying near him. Saw the head had marks of being struck with a club. [Last] saw my father [alive] about 11o`clock on the forenoon. He was killed a little before sunset. This murder was committed two miles south of where we lived, towards Red River on the road. My father started for Delaware-Bend in Texas, three miles from where we lived. Deft. Was at my fathers house when I left in the forenoon. I saw deft. Next day in Delaware-Bend, as a prisoner. A hundred dollar bill was given me by his captors, that I recognised to be the one I had given my father a week or so before. The body of my father was at the point where I saw the deft. Bending over. I am twenty-three years old, have known deft. Four years. He lived four miles below us. I started from home to meet my father. The horses when I first saw them were feeding in the prairie. The body lay behind a little mound and I didn't see it when I first saw deft. Raise up. Deft. Crossed river ahead of me. I crossed the ford above him, it was nearer for me. It was about 150 yards above where he crossed. When I got across at the Delaware-Bend I saw Blankenship,Autry,Smith and Otturs. Don't know what bank the 100 dollars was on."