Yearly Archives: 2013

Thanks for staying with me as time goes by…….

                      Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back. As today is the first day of spring, I am reflecting on just how fast time goes by, especially when you’re traveling. Just in this past month alone, I have taken you to a professional basketball game in Oklahoma City and introduced you to Kevin Durant. I covered two Oklahoma State ball games in Stillwater that I hope were interesting reading along with interviews with Travis Ford and a previously little known freshman, Marcus Smart. By all accounts Smart will probably be the second or third pick in this year’s NBA draft if he decides to go pro.

I’ve also brought you some stories about murder this month. These stories always seem to generate the most feedback from readers, especially the true ones! Time is a precious thing. A man I truly admire, Waite Phillips, once said that “the only things we keep permanently are the ones we give away!” That quote which is just one of dozens of epigrams that Waite kept in his pocket everyday expresses the fleeting nature of life and it is the starting place for this week’s column.

I was fortunate enough to play a small role in the photo workshop which Jerry Poppenhouse organized last June at the Express UUBar in New Mexico.  Jerry and several professors from the photography program at OSU-IT led the workshop and it was a huge success. After the workshop Jerry organized an exhibit of the photos that the participants had taken and published their work in a popular coffee table book. The workshop was so successful that  a second one is planned for June 13-15.

This is where Waite Phillips’ quote comes in. Already known as a generous supporter of worthy causes around the world, the present owner of the UUBar is clearly following in Waite’s footsteps. This week on behalf of Bob Funk, I was proud to present the first Express UUBar Ranch scholarship to Ricky Cuellar. Ricky was selected by his teachers at Bartlesville High School and he will receive an all expenses paid trip to the ranch to attend the workshop. Ricky will also tour Philmont Museum and get a chance to hang out with the hundreds of scouts who come there every summer from all over the country. He’ll hike the high country and see elk, deer and bear. At night he’ll learn about the important role that the Cimarron area played in the development of the west. Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and the killer Clay Allison were all guests at the nearby St. James Hotel. I’m sure after he hears these stories that dreams of their legendary exploits will fill his head when sleep catches up with him. It will be a great trip for a young man and without the help of people like Waite and Bob it would never have happened.

Jerry tells me there’s room for a few more people on this trip so if you’re interested call the UUBar at (575) 376-2035 and ask for Kathy.

Another story that I wrote about a few years ago had to do with the medical procedure known as “colonoscopy.” I personally had one done when I turned 50 and followed up with another at 54 and then that was it. Well now at 61 I’m overdue and I bet many of you are too.

Dr. Gopi Vasudevan told me it’s easy to forget about this procedure because you don’t have it done frequently but he warns that this is still a very important test. I remembered that the stuff you drink before the procedure didn’t taste very good and that you couldn’t eat much except clear liquids for a day or two. I also remembered that the procedure itself was painless and it only took about half an hour. Once home I slept like a baby. So why had I put mine off? Being busy or afraid is no excuse. +No, I’ve faced much more danger in the wilds. Money? No most insurance companies cover colonoscopies and there’s even a special program to help if you’re uninsured and can’t afford it. For some reason it’s just an easy thing to put off but I’m not doing that any longer and you shouldn’t either. Call Dr. Vasudevan or get a referral from your primary care doctor, it might just save your life.

I’ll end this week with another of Waite’s epigrams and till next week I’ll see ya down the road…

“Real philanthropy consists of helping others outside of our own family circle, from whom no thanks is expected.”

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A bad end for smugglers…..

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 This week I’d like to start things off a little differently and give you the scoop first. I was in Stillwater for Saturday’s men basketball game when OSU played Kansas State and I got to witness a team in action that I think has a shot at greatness this year. Look for the Pokes to go far in the NCAA tournament.

With that said, welcome back to part two of “a tale of murder.” The disappearance of the two young smugglers from Mexico who were just passing through wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen. The risk of arrest and/or death was just part of the business. Greed was common among the lower ranks of the smuggling trade and it was not unusual for mules to steal loads of pot from their employers.

Back in the late 1970s there were lots of American men with money looking to score some weed along the border. This story is about one of them. Although highly successful with legitimate businesses, he was drawn into the smuggling life by the challenge and excitement of operating outside the law. The two murdered smugglers might have been linked to him but given the size of his enterprise and the vast number of pot smugglers running the Mexican border during this period they could have just as easily been working for someone else.

His dad was a New York City banker who had made millions and raised his son with the best of everything. He attended private schools and a chauffer would pick him up every day and take him home. The boy was a gifted student and his father made sure he was also tutored in areas such as manners and etiquette that would prepare him for the privileged world he was expected to live in.  As the family’s wealth grew trusts were established that ensured financial security for the boy and future heirs as well.

By the time the boy was in his thirties he was successful businessman in his own right and had also received quite a bit of money and other assets held by the trusts. His father had died and his mother was just barely hanging on in an assisted living facility in Manhattan.  Like many other free spirits in the 1960s he ended up in Tucson, Arizona, looking for a different way of life. He fit right in there and after buying a showcase home for himself, he opened a construction company which bought and remodeled high end older homes and then re-sold them. Next, he set-up a travel agency specializing in high end tours for wealthy people. He created the itineraries himself and they always reflected his own wealth and taste. He purchased a steel company and a fleet of trucks to haul product back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.  This acquisition was followed by the purchase of several smaller affiliated businesses. His travels often included trips to New York, Denver and Mexico and anywhere in-between that his growing empire seemed to take him. He flew on his own private Beechcraft King Air or his back up plane, a 1972 Cessna 421B.

Eventually his business interests took him to Santa Fe, New Mexico and then to Albuquerque. In Albuquerque he started a string of upscale restaurants and turned an empty warehouse into the hottest nightspot in town. For seven years his clubwas the undisputed king of night clubs in a city known for wild nightlife and for seven years he bought anything that caught his eye. From Tucson to Santa Fe, if he saw a house or a piece of land he liked he bought it. Every home was furnished with expensive antiques and fancy cars were parked in every garage.

He was also developing a strip mall near Albuquerque and had also bought out a Santa Fe film company so most of his time was spent on the move from home to home. It was around this time, in 1984, that the two men were killed in Washington county over a few pounds of pot.  Their deaths wouldn’t have made a blip on the radar screen of this very successful man.

As the years went by his success in business was followed by two kids and a marriage that ended in divorce. Money was never a problem and he was always running in the fast lane until the summer of 2005. Then came a day that changed his life forever as well as the lives of twenty-one of his most trusted employees around the country. The authorities simultaneously arrested accomplices in New York City, Columbus, Ohio, Denver and Tucson including a man on a motorcycle who was carrying over a million dollars in cash and a nineteen year old girl who was intercepted on a commercial flight with close to two million dollars and jewelry in a large carry on suitcase.

It was the culmination of a four year federal drug investigation. When he was brought before a judge for a hearing after his arrest, the agents presented their case.  Millions of dollars were being sent to various storage houses.  His “employees” who ranged from motorcycle gang members to street hippies were estimated to be selling tons of marijuana. The task force had already confiscated 49 million dollars and expected to find more. There would be no bail bond and he would face a long trial.

After three years of haggling in a plea bargain he was sentenced to seventeen years in federal prison and he lost everything except the trust funds his father had set up for him years before. Today he sits in prison hoping for an early parole date. Now in his late sixties, 2023 would be his earliest possible release date. As for the people the police called his “gang”, most were jailed, some were released early when they cooperated with authorities and some like the two young smugglers, were never found.

Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road…..

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Dead men do tell some tales….

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.   This week I’m bringing you a tale of murder. Out in the country thirty years of weather can change the earth’s surface dramatically. Grass, weeds, livestock, wildlife and even man play a role in shaping the condition of the ground.  The fate of the two men whose unmarked graves lie peacefully somewhere in this ever changing landscape was unknown until now. This is part of their story.

Born into poverty in Mexico, the two were first recruited as “mules” to carry marijuana across the Mexican border with the United States near Tucson, AZ.  The job did have its risks but always being paid in cash by American drug buyers was quite lucrative. There were usually six or seven other Mexican men in good physical condition working with them.  Each man would carry thirty to forty pounds of compressed marijuana in brick form that was stuffed into gunny sacks. With only a canteen of water, these men had ten hours to cover about eighteen miles in the dark of night, drop off their load to an American in a waiting car and get back over the border by sun up. This was a trip the two young men who were just in their twenties made several times a week. Many times the Mexican men would be accompanied by a couple of the American pot buyers who would also carry a load if need be. The job was harder than most Americans were prepared for and mules often made extra money by sharing their loads and making sure they got delivered.

Over several years different agreements were made and many mules were entrusted with more responsibility, expanding from running pot across the border on foot to delivering it in cars with built in secret compartments. Good drivers were given routes to New York City where pot sold for big money. Other routes included college towns in Oklahoma where quality product was in high demand, making the shorter routes sometimes even more profitable. The less time spent on the highway the better because two young Mexican men speaking little English and carrying a load of contraband were just trouble waiting to happen.

On their last trip alive everything had started out as usual. They had met with their Mexican employer about fifty miles outside of Nogales at a commonly used smugglers’ crossing. There were three or four other cars there, all with secret shipments headed for the states but they didn’t know where the other cars were going and they didn’t ask. They were told which car to take and given a map, an address and expense money. Then they were pointed down the dried up creek bed which crossed a road about a quarter of a mile away. From there a right turn would take them across open ground. This was a border patrol road and the men didn’t want to spend much time on it. At night lights along the road could be seen from miles away but they had no choice- headlights were a necessity in order to stay on this goat path of a road which had deep ravines on either side, This trip was almost routine for the pair who by now had made it many times before. Something else was becoming routine as well. On their first night on the road they would steal a little of each shipment for themselves. They figured that a pound or two out of a couple of hundred wouldn’t be missed and at first it wasn’t. The two would hide their stash somewhere along their three day drive, often under things behind hotel rooms, knowing that they would be back to pick it up in a few days. There was a real demand on the Mexican side of Nogales where tourists wanted to buy small 1 oz. bags of pot. This trade was even more profitable for the two young men than their cross country drives and they thought it was a lot safer.

As frequently happens they got greedy as their earnings grew and after several successful trips to Oklahoma, their pilfering increased from one or two pounds to five or ten pounds.

This last trip became a one way delivery when they found out the hard way they had crossed a pair of men who lived by a prison code. One of the rules was that they didn’t tolerate stealing among themselves and when thieves were caught the consequences were harsh. A witness to the killings called them brutal. The pair was already dead when the girlfriend of one of the killers came home unexpectedly. She found her boyfriend in the midst of cutting the men up on a large piece of plastic and putting them into fifty-five gallon metal drums. Their lives were over and all that’s left is this story.

Next week: the boss. He was born to a wealthy family in New York City. A college educated man, at 6’4” with an athletic build, he had the goods and charm to be successful and he was. He owned several profitable businesses including a film company, a trucking firm as well as restaurants and night clubs. He also bought and sold dozens of homes, paying cash at the drop of a hat. There was also one other line of business that few knew about until recently. He sold pot. He was not part of the Mafia or a Mexican cartel; he just did it for fun. Till then I’ll see ya down the road…

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I was fortunate to have the opportunity to catch a recent Thunder game….

                      Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.   The date was September 2, 2008 when big time professional basketball in Oklahoma was born.  The Ford Center in Oklahoma City had been completed in 2002 so with a new home constructed to NBA standards already in place; the former Seattle Supersonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder. The following year, after negotiations with Ford over the naming rights broke down, Chesapeake Energy stepped up and the Center was renamed the Chesapeake Energy Arena in a 12 year multi-million dollar deal.

I visited the arena on Sunday to watch the Thunder play the Chicago Bulls.  Before the game started I had time to take a tour and I learned that the arena seats 19,675 for an NBA game and includes 3,380 club seats, 7 party suites and 46 private suites. From top to bottom I didn’t see a seat I wouldn’t be happy with. I also found out that if you’re short of cash there’s still a way to go to a game. Two hours before every home game the Thunder gives away 50 pairs of tickets. You have to line up, write your name on a piece of paper and then wait to see if they draw it. I checked things out and discovered that at most only around 200 people brave the elements and wait. Seems like good odds to me and the pre-game party atmosphere outside where they hold the drawing was also a lot of fun.

Through my research I also found that Flintco was the contractor for the arena and that it took 3 years to build at a cost of 89.2 million dollars. That’s 115 million in today’s money and worth every penny in my estimation. Oklahoma City owns the facility which was built as the anchor of the extremely successful downtown revitalization project known as MAPS.

As for Sunday’s game with the Chicago Bulls, the Bulls couldn’t stop the 6’3” 187 pound Russell Westbrook on this night. You throw in 6’9”, 235 pound, NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant and a big handful of other talented guys; mix them up and the Bulls were toast by the end of the third quarter.

During TV timeouts and half time, the Thunder’s entertainment crew kept the sold out crowd enthused with all kinds of crowd pleasing activities. One of my favorites was the multi barrel T shirt shooting machine gun that sprayed hundreds of T shirts into the crowd, even up to the highest seats. The Thunder mascot, acrobats and their cheerleaders were also on hand to keep things lively. There was also plenty of food and drink available with choices ranging from full service restaurants to a wide variety of food vendors. This is where I discovered a Bartlesville connection to the Thunder.

Sunday’s game was nationally televised and between local TV sportscasters, ESPN crews and a national feed, there was dozens of high tech camera men on the scene. Yes Kevin Durant, Kendrick Perkins, Russell Westbrook and the rest of the Thunder team are NBA superstars but the people working behind the scenes to bring the games to you are also superstars in their own field. I ran into two Bartlesville graduates who were filming for Fox Sports on Sunday. 1981 Col High alum, Monte Seaborn has been operating a hand held video camera professionally since 1995 and he is much in demand with networks like Fox and ESPN. Some of you may remember his dad, Richard Seaborn, who coached wrestling in the 1970s.

I also got the chance to visit with John Neptune who was operating out of Fox’s control truck which all of the video was streaming through. A 1970 grad like me, John had a long career at Phillips Petroleum which took him all over the world. Then he was offered a deal which led him to sports television. The job is called “video operator” and apparently John is one of the best. With free lance contracts for the big networks, John works out a semi sized mobile unit holding literally hundreds of video monitors. From football games to hockey, and of course basketball, John’s job is making sure that all of us watching at home see every play.

Here’s the scoop: You definitely want to catch the Thunder in action and don’t forget to look for Monte and John. Till next week I’ll see ya down the road……

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I recently had the good fortune to catch the OU-OSU bedlam game in Stillwater where I have some good college memories…….

Welcome back.   The date was February 16, 2013 and the time was 12:45 PM as T. Boone Pickens along with 13,611 ticketed seat holders and another 400 or so standing in the walkways at Gallagher IBA Arena saw the good old rowdy days of basketball from Stillwater’s past return.

This week with basketball on so many people’s minds, including mine I’ve got to start off my column there. The Oklahoma State Cowboys, under fifth year head coach Travis Ford now are the leaders of the Big 12 Conference and will be playing powerhouse Kansas tonight in Stillwater.

Win or lose OSU will get invited to what sports writers call “March Madness.”  I had the opportunity to talk with Coach Ford Saturday afternoon and at least off the court he seems like one of the nicest and most down to earth guys I’ve ever met. He has worked his way up the ranks and history has shown that given a little time he can transform loosing programs into winning ones and that’s what he’s done in Stillwater. I’m sure OSU won’t be his last turnaround story. Yes, one day Travis Ford will one day soon move up the coaching ladder but until then I see nothing but great things in OSU’s basketball future.

Now on to a couple of guys who play for Travis that you may not know too much about yet. Although all of the OSU Cowboys are playing great team ball, 6’7” 230 lb. sophomore Le Bryan Nash out of Dallas, Texas is special. Nash is quick of foot with lots of spring in his legs and his every with the ball seems like some sort of circus shoot that goes in most of the time. One of two McDonald’s All Stars on the team, the honors he earned last year alone would fill a trophy case. He’s a swell kid and making an important difference to the team.

The other player I want to bring up I expect will also be moving up in baksetball before long, although I hope later rather than sooner. The opportunity to see him play is another good reason to get to an OSU as soon as you can. Number 33 6’4” 225 lb. freshman Marcus Smart from Flower Mound, Texas has NBA written all over him. After being named a McDonald’s All American, his high school achievements on the court brought him scholarships offers from North Carolina to Kansas and everywhere in between. He is living up to all the expectations of greatness and I discovered during a postgame interview he is also very personable and mature. With all that said here’s this week’s scoop.

You long time readers know that I have predicted the last three NCAA tournament winners so here it is: I look for OSU to go far. A Cinderella team with the rowdiest fans in the country, this bunch will definitely still be playing when many other teams have gone home. After tonight there are two more games before the tournament starts. On Saturday March 2^nd the Cowboys will play Texas at 3PM and on Saturday March 9^th they will face Kansas State at 12:30PM. Also after the games be sure to check out Eskimo Joe’s as my traveling partner and photographer daughter Loretta and I did. A BHS senior, she was recently accepted at OSU so you know a meal there was a must. If you go be sure you have some time. A two and ½ hour wait is not unusual but what fun!

If you want to see some photos of the game visit Photography by Loretta Lewis on Facebook.

Next week its still basketball as Loretta and I join 19,675 other enthusiastic Thunder fans on Sunday night when they take on the Chicago Bulls at the Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City. This is my first visit to the Center and we also plan to tour the bar and restaurant in the new Devon Energy Tower nearby. I’ll be bringing you a full report next Wednesday.

Till then I’ll see ya down the road…….

             I received some strong responses to last week’s article…..

                        Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.   Polygraph test: it’s the subject of the story I wrote last week and I thought it was interesting for sure but I had no idea of the controversy surrounding this procedure. I have been contacted by people from as far away as New England who don’t believe that polygraph works. I would like to add a note of caution that whenever in doubt about legal issues, including whether or not to take a lie detector test, it is wise to consult an attorney. And with the mention of the word attorney I know that many of you long time Bartians were sad to hear of the death of Alan Carlson.

Many of you may have known him much better than I either socially or through business or legal dealings. I met Alan on the basketball court when he first came to town in 1974.  He was a sought after player in the industrial leagues around the area and he and I played together several times on a Dunlap Construction team. He was just as driven on the court as in his profession and you quickly realized you would much rather play with him than against him if you didn’t want to get beat. Noon hour pick up games at Y were the same. A hard working, talented lawyer, Mr. Alan Carlson was a man who will not soon be forgotten.

Now with that said, my story about the polygraph machine continues. There is a tie-in between this story and the one I wrote before it regarding the search for two dead Mexicans. The tie-in is immunity. I’m no lawyer but according to thefreedictionary.com:

“State and federal statutes may grant witnesses immunity from prosecution for the use of their testimony in court or before a grand jury. Sometimes, the testimony of one witness is so valuable to the goals of crime prevention and justice that the promise of allowing that witness to go unpunished is a fair trade…. Although the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants witnesses a Privilege against Self-Incrimination, the U.S. Supreme Court has permitted prosecutors to overcome this privilege by granting witnesses immunity.”

Would any D.A. in the United States give immunity to a two time convicted murderer in order for that person to agree to lead authorities to the graves of two more murder victims? And allow the informant to avoid punishment? I don’t think so. Not even if Jimmy Hoffa was buried here. Many of you are asking, what’s next now?  I’ll try to answer that.

Washington County investigators have a tremendous work load, investigating dozens of more recent crimes. Deputies are plenty busy but the case is moving forward.

As for the two dead men, who had gotten mixed up with the wrong people during a drug smuggling operation, well they have been buried together for close to thirty years and it looks like they may have to wait just a little longer for the end of their story to be told.

On a lighter note; basketball fever is here and with that comes the college season’s March Madness playoffs. On Saturday February 16^th OSU will be playing OU at 12 PM in Gallagher-IBA Arena and I’ll be there. This is their annual Bedlam game and with both team on winning streaks and a chance for both to go to the tournament it should be a great one. It’s only a two hour drive and tickets are cheap so check it out!

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road….

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  Since this story ran I have received a lot of comments from people questioning the validity of polygraph testing. Look for more on this, and the case of the two dead Mexicans, in upcoming posts.

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.   To all the bad guys: the term polygraph or lie detector test means trouble for you. Today’s new technology has a 93% accuracy rate so most liars don’t want anything to with it and seldom show up for scheduled tests. Last Friday with nothing to hide I expected my experience with a polygraph test to be entertaining and it was. I hope you think so too.

Polygraphs have been around since the 1920s. Back in the early day, the basis of the testing was measurement of blood pressure, heart rates and breathing patterns which is still in effect today and is now tabulated by computer. With a properly trained examiner the computer can also determine if a subject is on drugs.

Oklahoma is one of 28 states that require polygraph examiners to be licensed. I learned that this is a lengthy process which is overseen by a 5 person State Board governed by Oklahoma’s Attorney General. After licensing, examiners are required to take continuing education classes to keep their skills up to date. There are only a few people who can comply with the rigorous standards of this profession and Roy Clugston out of Tulsa is one of them.

At the start of his career Roy spent fourteen years as a detective with Tulsa’s robbery and homicide units. It was during this time that he first got into the truth and deception business. Since then he has been involved with a range of criminal investigations, from the kidnapping and murder of two women of means in 1977 by Larry Chaney which took place in south Tulsa County to the rape and murder of kindergartener Tammy Michael Moody by a school janitor.

Roy has been a polygraph examiner for thirty-three years and he has performed literally thousands of these tests.  These are some of the things I found particularly interesting about his profession:

Most of his work is done on cases concerning divorce, child molestation and sexual assaults. The assaults are committed against wives but not always.

Defense attorneys use polygraph tests a lot and one myth is that the results are not admissible in court. They are.

In order to perform a test accurately the trained examiner has to know all the facts of a case. He uses this information to build rapport with the subject of the test. The examiner has to establish a relationship with this person way before anything can be hooked up.

All the questions are reviewed before the test begins and there are no tricks or games played to confuse the person who is being tested. Basically the examiner has to understand any slang or cultural idioms a subject might use and be able to use those words in his own speech.  Being a man who idolizes Will Rogers and who always tries to tell the truth, I ain’t scared but I can tell you its very intelligent stuff and way over my head.

Roy told me that the atmosphere in the room where the test is done is also important. His office has several comfortable leather chairs and a very calming environment. You also have to bring any medications you are taking with you and the test costs $500. That might seem like a lot but with the machine costing up to $16,000 and the years of training and continuing education required, it sounded cheap to me to find out the truth of someone’s accusations.

As he put the wires and gadgets around me, Roy told me that he graduated in the first class at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.  He said President Nixon had signed his graduation certificate. With all his experience if I had anything to lie about I think I would just give it up without the machine.

Roy won’t test children under 14, people with pacemakers or who have recently had heart attacks, or the insane. Another interesting fact is that anyone in law enforcement or who is governed by CLEET regulations can be forced to take a lie detector test. CLEET is the state licensing authority for guards and private investigators. Elected government officials are exempt as are most other citizens of the United States because the bottom line is that most polygraph tests can only be performed if the subjects volunteer.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road….

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 My thoughts about a decade that brought  big changes around the world. Also a search for buried bodies begins……………….

Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale

 Welcome back.   The early years of the 1980s brought many significant historical events. The use of personal computers exploded around the world and changed all of our lives forever. Canada gained its independence and Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of England. An El Nino weather pattern was also causing natural disasters around the globe. At the same time, a worldwide economic recession was going on.

In the United States Ronald Reagan was elected to his first term as President in 1980 and later that same year John Hinkley shot and killed John Lennon. In 1981 President Reagan was also shot (but fortunately survived) and Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated.

It was also in the early 80s that Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston became famous. On the big screen Chariots of Fire, Gandi and Terms of Endearment brought in millions at the movies. MTV was launched during this period, introducing music videos to the general public.

Another big story happened in Washington State when Mt. St. Helens erupted, killing 57 people.

Across the nation the use of drugs, especially cocaine, was becoming a major problem. The hippie days of peace, love and pot smoking was over, replaced by drug smuggling gangs and turf wars.

The local scene was no different when Washington County made history. The biggest pot growing bust in Oklahoma history began when Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs agents Jerry Harris and John Guy were contacted by a young Dewey boy who said he knew where there was a large area of cultivated marijuana. He said he could lead the agents to it and wanted to know if he could claim a reward. After striking a deal with the two agents for $250, the boy took them to the field where the bust was made.

The cultivated area was so large that county surveyor Richard Quitter was called in to determine the size of the crop. His estimate of 10 to 12 tons of pot caused every newspaper in the state to send reporters to cover the story. With all the publicity it wasn’t long before local contractor Ernie Milligan was called in to dig a huge hole to put the weed in and when the crop was set on fire you could see the smoke for miles and I imagine the local stores sold out of twinkies.

Growing their own wasn’t the only way for the 80s crowd of pot smokers to get their high. In those days Mexican nationals were becoming regulars in the area, bringing weed from border towns in Texas and New Mexico to Oklahoma.

This is where I left off last week with the two dead men buried in a pair of 50 gallon oil drums. I had heard this story a few years ago but I didn’t give it much thought until I was recently contacted by a convicted murderer who said he had some information about the killing. After he gave me details about these murders he sent me several aerial maps of the property where he said the bodies might be found. With all this said, I have become convinced that this crime did happen. After contacting the authorities, the property owner and several experienced men with metal detectors, the hunt is on and I’ll keep you informed.

Till next time I’ll see ya down the road…….