Pill machine stolen from courthouse
— Sequoyah County Times Jan. 8, 1976
From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times
25 years ago
(From the Jan. 7, 2001, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Vian town officials as well as Vian residents are anticipating the completion of the town’s new sewer system, which has been delayed by the ice storm which struck Sequoyah County Christmas day.
Officials are still looking at the possibility of a March opening date if weather permits, Scott Neel with Douglas P. Harvell & Associates said.
Neel said the plant building has been completed and workers are now installing equipment. Construction of the plant began in July.
The plant cost the town over $1 million. Officials also applied for a bank loan $800,000 to cover other expenses and were awarded the loan.
50 Years Ago
(From the Jan. 8, 1976, 1975, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —A 1,200-pound machine used to make pills was stolen from the lobby of the county courthouse either late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning according to Robert Bean, a special agent for the district attorney’s office.
The machine had been confiscated in a deserted home near the Sallisaw High School Oct. 1.
Bean said the machine, capable of turning out 1,180 tablets a minute, was rolled out of the lobby and out a side door into the back of a pickup truck.
Bill Dimwiddie, a prisoner in the county jail said he didn’t hear anything unusual during the night, except at about midnight when there was a loud noise like the slamming a tailgate.
The Colton Model 216 pill making machine was chained to the banister of the stairway in the lobby of the courthouse.
The lock on the 60-pound chain had been cut.
75 Years Ago
(From the Jan. 12, 1951, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Federal and state bureau of investigation agents were in Sallisaw Wednesday checking on the possibility that William E. Cook, wanted for the murder of the five members of the Carl Mosser family of Atwood, Ill., passed through the county shortly before the bloodstained and bulletpocked Mosser car was found abandoned near Tulsa.
Some paper wrappers from White Dairy Ice Cream products manufactured in Fort Smith, Ark., were found in the car, said Deputy Sheriff Tom Stites. As the products are distributed within a 50-mile radius of Fort Smith, Stites said the investigators had reason to believe the car passed through that area.
—Mrs. Lola May McGowan of Sallisaw was “Queen for a Day” Thursday, according to Obie Glover, who phoned Your TIMES Thursday morning that he had just “heard it on the radio.”
Mrs. McGowan, he said, won several thousand dollars worth of prizes on the program, which is sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes and originates in Hollywood, California. Her husband is an oil well driller in California.
100 years ago
(From the Jan. 8, 1926, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Joe Fisher, city marshal at Muldrow and former deputy sheriff for Sequoyah County, was found guilty of conspiring to violate the national prohibition laws with William Fugett and Albert Allen, Muldrow farmers, by a jury in federal court Monday night.
The officer was found guilty on all four counts of the indictment returned by a federal grand jury in December. The indictment charged a conspiracy to violate the “dry” laws manufactured for intoxicating liquor, possession of intoxicating liquor and possession of a distilling plant.
—The E.L. Moore undertaking firm this week completed several improvements in their business house, with a view to increased service to their patrons. A large section of the store room flooring was torn out and replaced with concrete floor and partitions are being built and an undertaking parlor fitted up that will amply care for the needs of the firm in future.
—C.M. Taylor, age 29, of Scott City, Kansas and Joe Fowler, age 25, of Woodward Oklahoma, lie in the county jail this week awaiting preliminary trial upon a charge of robbery following their capture Tuesday evening by Deputy Sheriff J.A. Brownfield of Redland, who but recently moved to Redland from Greenwood Junction.
The two men are alleged to have entered the lobby of the Bonham Hotel early Tuesday morning, before daylight, and stolen a fur coat belonging to Mrs. Harls, a guest.
