The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, August 13, 1911
pg. 2

G.C. FREEMAN MURDERED
The Body Was Found In The Woods Near Armstrong, Oklahoma - Had Been There Since Tuesday - Many Theories as to Murder, but All Agree It Was Robbery

G.C. Freeman, general secretary of the Y.M.C.A., was murdered just north of Armstrong in the woods and near the lakes where the young people go every year to enjoy an outing.  There are 2 lakes, one east and the other west of the Katy tracks a short distance.  There is a chain of lakes formed by the overflow of the Blue.  The writer has camped there a number of times and it is a beautiful and romantic section to pass a few days.  In previous years the chain of lakes were the home of the black bass, crappie, and other game fish.  The woods are dense and furnish fine shade from the Caddo prairie to the border of the lakes.  The distance from Denison is about 25 miles.  The trains stop at Armstrong tank for water and sometimes people get off there to fish and hunt.  The place where Mr. Freeman was murdered is about 3 and a half miles north of Durant.  When the body was discovered, it was decomposed and in such a frightful condition that it was hardly recognizable.
There are a great many theories as to the cause of the murder, but they all agree that the incentive was robbery.
Mr. Freeman left Denison last Tuesday morning to attend the funeral of his brother-in-law at Coffeyville, Kansas.  He stopped off at Armstrong to examine the country around to locate a summer camp for the junior class of the Y.M.C.A.  His intention was to resume his journey to Coffeyville on the afternoon train, which passes Armstrong about 5 o'clock.  When he left Denison he had a sum of money believed to be between $200 and $250 on his person and when the undertaker examined the body there was found only 10c.
It is the opinion that the murderer or murderers were passengers on the train from Denison.  When Mr. Freeman alighted from the train, two men also got off.  One is described as thick set, and dark complexion, while the other was very slim and dressed in a light suit.  That is the statement of some campers who were on the west side of the Katy track.  Freeman left the track and had been gone only a few minutes when 2 shots in rapid succession were heard.  The campers paid no attention to the incident, thinking it was a party of hunters who frequent the woods quite often.  Another statement is that the portly man was seen on the track walking very rapidly in the direction of Durant.  Another statement is that 2 young men who had been camping in the woods near the west lake had disappeared, but this statement is denied by Mr. Blain of Durant, who was here Monday and was present on the ground when the murder was committed.  He had hunted in the woods at the lake and saw no such camp.
The trainmen's stories are conflicting, and they are not certain as to whether one or two men got off the train when Freeman did.
The Gazetteer has a theory which is this:  A great many hard characters (strangers) frequent the reading rooms of the Y.M.C.A., as an officer declared Monday; they get out of box cars and go there to clean up.  Freeman was so tender-hearted that he would refuse no poor man or hobo a bath.  The going away of Mr. Freeman was discussed, and some person in the room overheard the frequent conversation, and followed and murdered him, knowing that he was to get off at Armstrong and that he had money on his person.  That is our theory.
Mr. Freeman was shot twice, each shot being deadly.  At Durant, Oklahoma, where the coroner's inquest was held, 2 bullet holes were discovered.  One hole was near the right nipple, the bullet ranging downward and coming out under the shoulder blade.  The other bullet entered the body just below the navel and traveled straight through the body.
Sheriff Lee McAfee went to the scene of the murder last Sunday.  In a case of this kind McAfee cannot be surpassed, and we have strong hopes at this writing that the murderer or murderers will be brought to justice.
No man who has ever lived in Denison was more highly esteemed than G.C. Freeman.  For the past 20 years his life has been spent in doing good. He has been the directing factor of the Y.M.C.A. for a number of years.  He came here about 25 years ago; for 18 years he had been associated with the Y.M.C.A.  As in life the people loved him because he was loving and true, they now cherish his memory because he maintained unbroken every thread in the line of doing good.  His career illustrates that he was always faithful to every Christian duty.  Thousands will mourn his sad death and pay tribute to his memory. At the time of death he was 59 years of age and unmarried.
Since the above was written, additional facts have come to light.  There were a party of campers from Tishomingo in camp near where Freeman was killed, and they complained of a bad smell that pervaded the woods.  The campers are relatives of Mr. Swan of the firm of Boldrick & Swan.  After the killing the body had evidently been dragged a short distance.  A very singular thing is the fact that a gold watch and chain and umbrella were not disturbed, and his eye glasses were on his face.  The attaches of the Y.M.C.A. do not know how much money he had on his person.
The sheriff holds to the Gazetteer theory that he was murdered by some person who was a visitor to the Y.M.C.A. rooms.  The object was purely robbery and the murderer had sense enough to leave the watch and chain which might have resulted in his capture.
Mr. Freeman had one brother and several married sisters.  O.G. Freeman of Coffeeville, Kansas, a nephew of the dead man, arrived in Denison Sunday afternoon and accompanied the remains north.  He was appointed temporary administrator by County Judge J.Q. Adamson of Sherman and has taken charge of the estate, which is rather extensive, consisting of several hundred acres of land in Red River and Bowie counties.
At one time Mr. Freeman was engaged in the photograph business, the firm name being Freeman & Swartz.  Before Denison was on the map he was engaged in missionary work among the Indians.  The funeral took place from the Presbyterian church of which the deceased was a member.  He was very prominent in the recent controversy in regard to the retention or dismissal of the pastor.  He told the writer that the ambition of his life was to see the erection of a new Y.M.C.A. edifice on the property acquired on Main street.  When the funeral was in progress, the business houses on Main street closed.
Mayor Acheson thinks nobody went from Denison and killed Freeman.  It has since developed that the dense woods is frequented by bootleggers who visit Armstrong and receive their goods from Denison.  It was probably one of that class that murdered him.  Denison hunters have frequently met strange men in these woods.  Another supposition is that some bootleggers thought Freeman a spy.



The Evening News
Ada, Oklahoma
Monday, August 14, 1911

NEGRO BURNED AT DURANT
Assaulted White Woman - Pursued and Shot to Death.  Body Burned

Durant, Oklahoma, August 13 - A Negro whose identity has not yet been ascertained, was shot and killed near Platter, southeast of Durant, about 1 o'clock this morning after a running fight of more than 2 hours' duration, with a posse led by Deputy Sheriff W.M. McFatridge and Constable Jeff Easley, both of this city.
The Negro's body was literally riddled with bullets.  None of the posse was injured.  The body was brought to this city, and after being identified by Mrs. L.R. Campbell as the body of the Negro who yesterday outraged and shot at her home north of this city, it was taken by a mob of angry citizens and burned on a vacant lot near the business center of this city.
The officers were powerless to do anything with the mob, and it was only after considerable persuasion that they were induced to refrain from burning the body as soon as it had been viewed by Mrs. Campbell and others who saw the Negro who assaulted the woman.
An automobile bearing the body and officers arrived here about...o'clock this morning.  The body was immediately taken from the officers by the mob, which had thronged the streets all night with the avowed intention of burning the Negro as soon as he was brought to the jail in this city.  Feeling was almost equally as intense at Caddo and other places in the county.  After the mob had been persuaded to not immediately dispose of the body it was taken to the jail yard and there remained until about 9 o'clock when it was taken before the stricken woman, who readily identified it.  Then the mob took up the cry, "burn him, burn him" and with a rush made off for the nearest vacant lot, where the fire was quickly kindled.
The burning was witnessed by several thousand people, but after the first rush all seemed to be orderly and quiet.
The assault upon Mrs. Campbell stirred the county as nothing of the kind has ever aroused it before.  It is estimated that fully 1,000 men joined in the chase after the black brute and from the start his escape was regarded as almost an impossibility.  As far north as Wapanucka posses were on the lookout, while men from Denison, Texas advanced as far north as Red River and guarded ever passage.
Small parties scoured every section of the county.  Officers report that scarcely a family within a radius of 15 miles of the scene of the crime slept until the Negro was run down, the men and boys all joining in the hunt.  Several hundred went out from the city.
The Negro seems to have been crime-crazed.  Previous to the assault upon Mrs. Campbell, he held up and threatened to shoot a Negro laborer, who was doing flag duty for a construction crew on the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf railroad north of Durant.
He robbed this Negro of his dinner, beat him over the head with his revolver, knocked him down an embankment and compelled him to go with him nearly a mile through the woods.  The railroad Negro escaped when he was about a mile from the Campbell home.  This occurrence took place less than an hour previous to the assault on Mrs. Campbell.
After leaving the Campbell home, the unidentified Negro went southwest and at Barwick's store he held up the son and daughter of the proprietor, who were in charge of the store, demanding money.  When told by them the proprietor had just departed for home, taking with him the day's receipts, the Negro with an oath declared he would go there for the money.  The son by a short cut beat the Negro to the home and confronted him with a shotgun when he arrived but allowed the man to escape.
Near Platter the Negro entered a farm house while the occupants were at church and ransacked the place before being driven away.  It was near this place the posse first gained sight of him.
He was pursued for more than a mile through the timber, all the while keeping up a running fire with the posse.  He was finally surrounded in the head of a ravine and allowed to remain there until the moon rose high enough for him to be located.  In a rapid exchange of shots with the posse, he was killed.  A 41-caliber revolver and some cartridges and a bar of soap were the only things found on his person.  He had thrown away his coat and hat before being overtaken by the posse, and there garments are now being sought with the hope of thus establishing some clew to his identity.  The Negro is said to have been around Caddo for the last week or 10 days, and came from that direction Saturday morning.
He appeared in Caddo one week ago Tuesday, the day on which G.C. Freeman, secretary of the Denison, Texas Y.M.C.A., was killed near Armstrong, 7 miles south of Caddo.  As the Negro appeared to be well supplied with money it is thought that he was the man who shot Freeman, who was known to have considerable money on his person just previous to the time he disappeared.  When Freeman's body was found the following Saturday only 10c was found in his pockets.
Soon after the mob formed in the streets of Durant last night a crowd of more than 100 men and boys visited the various residences in the city where  Negro domestics are employed and warned them to leave the city.  A general exodus of Negroes followed this morning.
Demonstrations were made this morning at several residences where Negroes remained.