A BLOT IN HISTORY: Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Citizens gunned down on city streets, low flying planes dropping incendiary devices and passengers firing at people fleeing on the streets, and a community demolished.   A scene from some action film of WW2?  A fantasy of some unimaginable time of madness?  No, the year is 1921 and the place a prosperous area of the greater Tulsa area known as Greenwood, and by some as the "Black Wallstreet." Today it is known simply as "The Tulsa Race Riot."

The events of May 31-June 1 of 1921 was the result of a collision of bubbling racism from southerners who had settled in the northeastern part of Oklahoma, jealousy over the economic achievements and prosperity of "those" races (the African American and Native American), fear, and plan old greed.   As a result, many people died, were arrested, beaten, frightened, and an entire section of an American city was destroyed due to the vile evil of racism.

How many died? Official counts have always been low, and due to the wholesale racism at play, highly suspect.  Conservative figures are at around 300 but some suggest it might be closer to the four digit count.  Mass burials and no records create a fog over the truth of the matter.

What is needed is wide spread archaeological work to locate mass grave sites in the area and discover once and for all just how horrific the event really was.  It is already the worst race riot of American history but few knew that until the 2001 report of the event was made public.  It never made it into history books so others might learn about the depths of evil to which people can sink when they are ruled by fear, hatred, jealousy and greed.  Today, impressive development is renewing this area by acknowledging the past but moving into a positive future.

Racism is a cancer of society....let's all work together to find a cure.

Patterns

Recently, in a discussion with some researchers, an interesting question was raised about the timeline of terrorism . The researcher had asked, "were there 'dry-runs' before 911?" Initially, no one could see any pattern between the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center and the successful attack on September 11, 2001.

The First Timeline:

• 1993 World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Youseff and Sheikh Abdul Rahmon of Egypt , truck bomb, killed 5 people. 
• Aug 1998: Almost simultaneously, truck bombs blow up the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing more than 220 people. 
• October 12, 2000, suicide boat with 400-600 pounds of explosive formed into a shaped charge, rammed into the side of the U.S.S. Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, and killed 17 people. 
• September 11, 2001, suicide terrorist hijack four airplanes and crash them into the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field (thought to have been destined for the White House or Capital). Minimally 2985 died. 

Then we began to consider other possibilities, conspiracies, etc. As a result, the second timeline went like this:

• 1993 World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Youseff and Sheikh Abdul Rahmon of Egypt , truck bomb, killed 5 people. 
• April 19, 1995 OKC, attack by at least one individual Timothy McVeigh, although eye witnesses place another man or additional men with him. Truck bomb killed 168 people. 
• Aug 1998: Almost simultaneously, truck bombs blow up the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing more than 220. 
• October 12, 2000, suicide boat with 400-600 pounds of explosive formed into a shaped charge, rammed into the side of the U.S.S. Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, and killed 17 people. 
• September 11, 2001, suicide terrorist hijack four airplanes and crash them into the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field (thought to have been destined for the White House or Capital). Minimally 2985 died. 

A rough pattern 1-3 years began to emerge....circumstantial? Coincidental?  Additional research may show the pattern a mere accident of the clustering of any data. Interesting though, whatever the reasoning, and adds to the ongoing aura of mystery and conspiracy such events always attract.

DEATH ALONG THE SALT FORK RIVER

In the post-Christmas cold of early Dec. 28, 1930, two bodies were found along theroad near the Salt Fork River near Tonkawa, Oklahoma.  

Two sisters, Jessie (24) and Xexia (36) Griffith, school teachers in Norman, had met their end along the road near the cold water. They had come north to the home of their parents for the holidays and were headed home when a deadly fate stepped in. The bodies were found by a local furniture mover, C.C. Wood,  and his two sons later that day .

A killer had lead them there or followed them and shot both. It came to light he had "attacked" the younger sister Jessie before death.  Her sister was not assaulted but her body, with gunshot wounds was found nearly frozen near her sister.

Once the bodies were found, immediate suspicion fell on a local man, Earl Quinn aka Earl Howard,  who had a reputation for trouble of one kind or another.  He had once been a convict in a Missouri prison and now, local Kay County officials focused their eyes on them.  His wife Jean Quinn was quickly arrested but was released and later simply disappeared.

It was quickly learned the younger girl feared someone and felt she was being "shadowed."   Alarm was sent all the way to Chicago and down to Norman. Quinn was caught and for nearly three years the case went on  and he languished on Death Row. Then, almost three years to the day, he was electrocuted for the killings at McAlester.

Court evidence includes the testimony of a Miss Ruby Heard, of Three Sands, that Quinn had forced her from her own car a mere hour before the other girls were killed. Others testified he had been drunk, unruly and brandishing a weapon earlier that day.

Although quickly apprehended, Quinn created fear and righteous indignation in the hearts of people from Norman to Chicago for the senseless brutal killing of two school teachers heading home to start a new semester.

Questions remain after examining the information.  There was a button found in the girl's car police tried to tie to Quinn but his rooming house landlady denied it was his.  His wife, it was noted, had bought shells.  Yet, the weapon witnesses saw with the man was a .38 and it is not clear if the weapon, shells, and the wounds support each other.  His wife is another interesting element; Quinn accused her of working with the Kansas City underworld to get him and it was clear some witnesses were not above embellishing some aspects of their stories.