Hunicutt gives up-surrenders to Sheriff Floyd

25 Years Ago

—Medicare and Medicaid payments to Sequoyah Memorial Hospital in Sallisaw are about $700,000 in arrears, but Hospital Administrator Ruth Ann Roark believes the payments will be made.

“This is something every hospital in the nation is going through,” Roark said.

Sequoyah Memorial is not in extreme financial distress yet. Roark said, but she added, “We are watching it. We’re monitoring it all the time.”

Roark said she has faith the federallyfunded Medicare program will eventually catch up with payments also. “We expect them to get caught up soon,” Roark concluded.

50 Years Ago

—Members of the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce heard county sanitarian Homer Pace outline the need for a new county health department building at their noon meeting Tuesday at Marrs Restaurant.

Pace described the health department’s mission as one of preventative medicine saying that they do not treat disease but instead try to hold disease down through immunization and public education programs.

75 Years Ago

—Johnnie William Hunicutt, 17-yearold Muskogee boy who escaped from the Sequoyah County jail during a thunderstorm early Thursday morning, May 18, surrendered quietly to Sheriff E.W. Floyd at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

He is bring held on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon after a running gun battle with Highway Patrolmen Jack Larmour recently. His companion, who was driving the stolen car they were in, was James Roosevelt Payne, 18, of Muskogee. Payne is now being held in Muskogee County on auto theft charges.

—Betty Russell, 18, Sallisaw High School senior, holds the 1950 shorthand speed record at the high school, having successfully passed the five minute, 140 words per minute Gregg dictation test, according to Miss Helen Leake, shorthand and typing instructor.

—Two county men were hospitalized and two others were charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in two different cutting scrapes in the early morning hours Sunday, according to County Attorney Fred Campbell Jr.

100 Years Ago

—Chute Hicks of Gans was placed under arrest Monday by Postal Inspector Hammond of Muskogee, charged with robbing a mail pouch at Gans several months ago. The pouch contained first class and registered mail. It is said the sack netted the alleged looter approximately $85 in currency. At the preliminary hearing one witness testified that the day previous to the stealing of the mail pouch Hicks was broke, but following the mail sack disappearance, it was claimed the defendant had plenty of money. The postal inspector assisted by Sheriff C.M. Gay, has been working on the case and finally collected sufficient evidence to warrant an arrest. Hicks served one term in the Oklahoma penitentiary for robbery, it is claimed. He was convicted on a charge of holding up a poker and dice game near Gans several years ago, after he had been “cleaned.”

—The periodical short change artist appeared in Sallisaw yesterday and paid a hurried visit to the American National Bank. He entered the bank about 10:00 a.m. and presented a twenty-dollar bill to Thos. J. Delaney, assistant cashier, and started through the usual maneuvers and quick change actions, but quickly found that he had met his match. Tom J. had encountered his kind before and without giving the gent any warning, turned to the phone and called for an officer. The artist grabbed his money from the counter, ran from the bank, entered his car and drove east. Roy Cheek started in pursuit and overtook the car near the Boatright place and brought the man back to town. He was searched and questioned closely and gave his home as Hennessey, Oklahoma. The bank at Hennessey stated that he had always been looked upon as OK. And had never before been in trouble, and County Attorney Harry Pitchford concluded that in view of this, that no charge had best be filed. It is a foregone conclusion that the gent will pass Sallisaw by, the next time that he desires to try his sleight of hand performance.