Date: 03-21-1926

Case Style:

United States of America v. William K. Hale and John Ramsey

Case Number: 25 F.2d 430 (1928)

Judge: Not Available

Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (Logan County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Roy St. Lewis, U. S. Atty., of Oklahoma City, Okl. (O. R. Luhring, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Oliver E. Pagan, Edwin Brown, T. J. Leahy, Horace L. Dyer, and Paul B. Bailey, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., on the brief), for the United States.

Defendant's Attorney: John I. Williamson, of Kansas City, Mo., and J. I. Howard, of Pawhuska, Okl. (William S. Hamilton and Edward C. Gross, both of Pawhuska, Okl., on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

Description: Guthrie, Oklahoma criminal defense lawyers represented Defendants charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Indian Country.

William K. Hale was indicted, tried, and convicted for aiding and abetting one John Ramsey in the murder of Henry Roan, a full-blood Osage Indian. The murder is alleged to have been committed February 6, 1923, in Osage county, Okl., upon a restricted allotment of one Rose Little Star, a member of the Osage Tribe of Indians. The federal jurisdiction was based upon this locus in quo. Ramsey was indicted and convicted jointly with Hale. The direct testimony connecting Ramsey and Hale with the murder was given by one Ernest Burkhart, a nephew of Hale, now serving a life sentence for complicity in the murder of one W. E. Smith and members of his family. The motive assigned for the murder was, in effect, that plaintiff in error had procured the taking out of a policy of insurance in the sum of $25,000 upon the life of Roan; his claimed interest being an indebtedness of Roan to him for that amount, as evidenced *432 by a promissory note dated in January, 1921, but claimed by the government to have been made in June of that year, about the time the policy was issued. There was testimony to the effect that Roan had theretofore attempted suicide, and that, when the policy was written, plaintiff in error had displayed interest as to the date on which the policy would become indefeasible on the ground of suicide, fraud in representations made, or for any other cause. He was advised that after one year the policy would be incontestable. He paid two premiums on the policy, whereby it was kept in force for a period of more than one year prior to Roan's death.

The government introduced evidence to the effect that the defendant John Ramsey made certain statements to the officers of the United States and others, to the effect that he, the said Ramsey, did fire the shot which caused the death of the said Henry Roan, and that this defendant, William K. Hale, procured him so to do, paid him for so doing, and otherwise aided and abetted him in the commission of said offense.

It will also be remembered that this case had been tried once before, in which all the facts tending to connect plaintiff in error with the murder had been developed. It may be added that plaintiff in error filed no demurrer upon this ground nor made application for a bill of particulars. At the outset of the prosecution, a demurrer was filed upon the single ground that the federal court was without jurisdiction, for the reason that the locus of the crime was not Indian country within the meaning of section 2145 of the Revised Statutes (25 USCA § 217). This demurrer was sustained by the District Court; that judgment was reversed by the Supreme Court. United States v. Ramsey et al., 271 U.S. 467, 46 S. Ct. 559, 70 L. Ed. 1039. No further attack upon the indictment was made. Furthermore, if demurrer or motion had been filed and overruled, "it would not avail the defendant, in error proceedings, unless it appeared that the substantial rights of the accused were prejudiced by the refusal to require a more specific statement of the particular mode in which the offense charged was committed." Armour Packing Co. v. United States, 209 U.S. 56, 84, 28 S. Ct. 428, 436 (52 L. Ed. 681); Ledbetter v. United States, 170 U.S. 606, 612, 18 S. Ct. 774, 42 L. Ed. 1162; Connors v. United States, 158 U.S. 408, 411, 15 S. Ct. 951, 39 L. Ed. 1033; Rev. Stat. U. S. § 1025 (18 USCA § 556).

n effort was made by the defense to show that a party other than Ramsey, to wit, one Roy Bunch, might have committed the crime. The court admitted the testimony of a number of witnesses to the effect that undue intimacy existed between Bunch and Roan's wife; that hostility existed between these men for this reason; that within 60 days after Roan's death Bunch and Roan's widow were married. In further support of this defense, one Sam W. Tulk, chief of police at Ponca City, Okl., was called as a witness to establish that one night, a short time before the death of Roan, a person thought to be Bunch was seen with a companion standing near a window of Roan's home. The witness was asked what these men did when they saw the officers and whether any shots were fired by either of the parties or the officers. This tendered testimony, upon objection, was excluded.


This case was the subject of David Grann's book "Killers of the Flower Moon."

Outcome: The Defendants were found guilty and were sentenced to life in prison.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Ramsey_(1926) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hale_(cattleman)