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Real Grandfield OUTLAWS!

THE CUNNINGHAM BROTHERS

~ an editorial by Charles T. Witt, Jr. 2018
One of the stories that was very fascinating to me as a young boy was about the Cunningham brothers, who my Dad (Charles Tillman Witt, Sr.) and my uncles knew fairly well. Like any young boy, stories of bank robbers, lawmen, cowboys and Indians, etc., were really exciting, much better than just reading about them in a Zane Gray novel. My Granddad raised his family on farm four miles west of Grandfield. Granddad had bought land near Snyder when that area opened for settlement but sold that land and moved to land he obtained in the lottery in 1907 when the Big Pasture opened. My Dad was born April 2, 2008
There were several families that lived close to them, about five miles west of Grandfield. One family, by the name of Arthur and Minnie Cunningham lived just down the road. A brother of Arthur’s, Burrell and Addie lived south and west of Arthur. Burrell and Addie had four boys; Forrest (called “Doc”), John, Emanuel (called “Skinny”) and Jess (called “Jake”). The boys attended Spring Valley School and Forrest graduated from Grandfield in 1925. (Wyatt, Robert Lee III, “Grandfield, Hub of the Big Pasture”. Vol.1. p. 245 and 223). Burrell and Addie and family moved to Levelland, Texas in 1925 and back to Stephens County in Oklahoma by 1927. Since Dad and my uncles knew the boys fairly well before they moved to Levelland, they did not see much of them after that time. My Uncle Jess dated Ruth Cunningham a couple of times before the family moved. The only time they saw them after that was when they came to visit Arthur and Minnie. They claimed that the brothers always drove the latest model cars and always seemed to have money which most folks back then did not have. Dad said that they should have been more suspicious of them because they always had quite a number of guns in the trunk of whatever car they were driving but all of the brothers loved to hunt and always claimed that was why they carried the guns with them. However, it was not until the brothers were killed or captured in a shootout west of Duncan that any of the family learned about their illegal activities.
James Cavner, who was about 20 years old and worked at a service station in Comanche, writes of his memories of the Cunningham brothers as follows:
“Among the customers of the service station was four brothers, who lived with their parents on a farm a few miles out of town. Their last name was Cunningham, but I have forgotten their first names. They were young men ranging from 18 to 25 years of age or possibly a little more. They were vey nice and personable and always dressed real good. They were clean cut and drove a nice car. On several occasions they would come by early in the morning to fill up with gasoline on their way home. They would buy soft drinks and always took time for conversation. You could tell by their appearance that they had been out all night and had driven several miles. I became well acquainted with them, but never learned what they did to earn their money. I had supposed that they were gamblers, and good at it because they always had plenty of money. Since they did not talk about what they did, I never asked them about it.”
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To begin with, as best we could learn, the boys concentrated on robbing service stations and committed over 142 such robberies as well as a number of banks. On July 30, 1928, they robbed the bank at Hastings (in Jefferson County) stealing over $1500. On December 21, 1928, they robbed the bank in Manitou (Tillman County) again getting over $1500. On Feb 24, 1929, they kidnapped Harold Johnson and Mayre Chancellor to get Harold’s new car, later changing cars and releasing both. On July 26, 1929, they robbed the First National Bank of Hooker, Oklahoma taking over $10,000. On May 12, 1930, they robbed the Checkerboard service station in Lawton, taking a carton of Camel cigarettes, a box of cigars, sack of meal, Tinsley chewing tobacco, 11 gallons of gas, 4 quarts of oil, a box of pistol cartridges and only taking a small amount of the owner’s cash because he had a family and not much money.

 
Just after midnight on Tuesday, May 13, 1930, Sheriff Williams, Undersheriff Ed Sumrill, Duncan Chief of Police Irvin Gossett, Assistant Chief Charles Coke and night policeman, W. F. McKinzey received word of the robbery in Lawton and stopped a black Buick that “looked brand new” south bound on Highway 81, just south of the Highway 7 intersection, about 4 miles north of Duncan. The lawmen were looking for a Buick of this description containing four men wanted in connection with the armed robbery of the service station in Lawton a few hours before. The Cunningham brothers, it was later learned, had stated they would “never be taken alive”. Not aware of this, the officers approached the Buick as its occupants were getting out and a gunfight broke out. When it was over, Sheriff Williams was wounded in the stomach, chest and leg and died at 2:30 that afternoon. Chief Gossett was wounded in the stomach. Forrest Cunningham was dead, John was wounded in the arm and stomach; Emanuel was shot in the spine and paralyzed for life and Jess had escaped in the dark by crawling down the road ditch and running into a heavily wooded mesquite pasture. Jess was later captured in Colorado and all three surviving brothers pled guilty to the Sheriff’s murder and were given life sentences. Emanuel died several year later in prison still confined to a wheel chair. Jess escaped but was later recaptured. The other two brothers also died in prison. A large granite monument was erected to honor the police officers at the Y-intersection of Highways 7 (formerly 29) and 81. I remember stopping and reading the inscription several times, but the configuration of that intersection has been changed and the monument moved, and its current location is unknown.
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Jim Witt, a state-senator from Walters, visited Jess (Jake) Cunningham at the prison (they were the same age) several times and said that Jess “still didn’t talk much”. According to my Dad and my uncles, Doc and Jake never talked much when they lived near them in Grandfield, but the two middle brothers, John and Skinny would “talk your leg off”.
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JOHN CUNNINGHAM DIES IN THE PENITENTIARY
(News Article- Grandfield Enterprise, August 11, 1932)
John B. Cunningham, one of three brothers, former residents of Grandfield community serving life terms in the state penitentary at McAlester for murder of W. A. Williams, formerly sherriff of Stephens county, died Friday July 29 in the state penitentiary at McAlester, it has been learned here.
Williams was shot to death in a gun battle on the highway north of Duncan as the three former Grandfield men fled from Lawton after a filling station robbery there.
After their arrest the boys admitted participation in several other robberies.
First news of his death was revealed in Duncan a week ago when Sheriff E. R. Young of Stephens County was appealed to in behalf of Cunningham's relative. The Inquirer wished to know if the body could be returned to that county from McAlester and buried at county expense.
The body was brought to Duncan last Saturday morning and services were held at the funeral home chapel at 3:00 o'clock Sunday afternoon, conducted by the Rev. Lyle Smith pastor of the Christian Church at Waurika. Burial was made at the Duncan cemetery.
John Cunningham was one of the four brothers who made a spectacular gun fight for freedom about six miles north of Duncan on the night of May 12, 1930, which resulted in the slaying of Sheriff W. A. Williams and killing of Forrest Cunningham. John was shot in the kidney and his brother Manuel, In the spine. A younger brother, Jess, escaped but was captured later at Gunnison Colorado.
Relatives were surprised to learn of the death. They had believed John Cunningham, while seriously wounded, would eventually recover.
The basis for this belief probably was the fact that his brother Manuel, who was shot in the spine, was considered the more seriously injured of the two. Manuel was paralyzed while in jail at Duncan and probably will be the rest of his life as the result of the bullet injury to his spine.
John died of an intestinal obstruction which developed from the kidney wound received more than two years ago in the gun battle.
The W. A. Williams slaying together with the wounding of Police Chief I. B. Gossett, caused the greatest manhunt in this country in years. Sheriff Williams died the morning after the shooting, Gossett lingered between life and death and after a long fight, recovered.
One of the boys, Forrest Cunningham, and leader, was killed on the spot. The wounded were treated in hospitals at Duncan and then in jail. When Jess was captured in Colorado and brought back, all three decided to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences. They did on June 28, 1930, Manuel being wheeled into district court on a cot. John who died Friday Morning was able to walk into court for his sentence.
The brothers confessed to a series of bank robberies in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas after the shooting ended their active career.

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