Mayes County District Attonery.
MurderHenry Burris (11470078)
Suggested edit: LOCUST GROVE, Okla. -- When I was growing up, I used to visit a friend at her grandparents’ house on the north side of town. I was in awe of this house: It sat on a hill and looked out over a farm with all the accoutrements—bunkhouse, barns, dairy, work shed. Once she had a slumber party and we spent the night in the bunkhouse.
The house was not huge, but it was elegantly furnished and yet rustic with its native stone exterior. I had no idea that one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the county had happened there.
On the night of June 7, 1952, Henry Lawrence “Jack” Burris, who was the Mayes County District Attorney at the time, was murdered at his home in Locust Grove. He was behind the house working on the air conditioner when someone came up behind him and shot him.
His wife Melba heard the shot but saw no one when she came out and found her husband.
He was killed with a single shot to his face at point blank range with a .12 gauge shotgun.
Theories circulated about the killer or killers and all were investigated through the years, but no one was ever charged, even though a United Wire service story dated a few weeks later quoted the Oklahoma Crime Bureau chief as saying that they had arrested one person and might arrest more.
When I asked my dad, who was a junior at Locust Grove High School in 1952, about the crime, he didn’t have a strong memory of it, but he did remember that there had been a lot of conflict between law enforcement and people in the nearby communities of Spavinaw and Langley, where liquor by the drink was commonly served, even though it was illegal.
Burris had apparently ruffled some feathers by trying to enforce liquor laws, and some feel that his murder was a hit committed or arranged by state mobsters.
A popular attorney and well-liked man in the county, Burris was born in Locust Grove and attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. He served in the Coast Guard during WW II and was elected as county attorney for three consecutive terms and his fourth term was expiring when he was killed.
He was not, however, seeking a fourth term of office, so theories that the killer or killers wanted him out of the county attorney job did not hold up.
Law officer Herman Greathouse commented at the time that it was a “cold-blooded murder” and “obviously a vengeance killing. I guess Jack prosecuted too hard somewhere. Everybody except those he sent to jail loved him.”
Burris was 36 when he was killed. He and his wife had no children, and I couldn’t find a record of what happened to Melba after Burris’s murder, but she apparently moved away soon after. As long as I can remember the house on the hill has belonged to the Koelsch family (my childhood friend’s grandparents), and the road that runs alongside it is called “Joe Koelsch Road.”
Recently, I discovered that Burris had his law office in the upstairs rooms in what is now the VFW in downtown Locust Grove. The upstairs in this building is vacant and fallen into disrepair, but it is easy to walk around in the dark there and listen to the creaking wooden floorboards and see how the rooms could have once been thriving offices and shops at one time.
One of Joe Koelsch’s sons, Jerry, has the door that used to be on Burris’s office, and it has Burris’s nameplate on it. Perhaps one day, if the building is restored, the door could come back there. Perhaps one day, this very, very cold case might even be solved.
Contributor: Shary Mullins (47540806) • [email protected]
ed at his home in Locust grove Ok. Case was never solved
MurderHenry Burris (11470078)
Suggested edit: LOCUST GROVE, Okla. -- When I was growing up, I used to visit a friend at her grandparents’ house on the north side of town. I was in awe of this house: It sat on a hill and looked out over a farm with all the accoutrements—bunkhouse, barns, dairy, work shed. Once she had a slumber party and we spent the night in the bunkhouse.
The house was not huge, but it was elegantly furnished and yet rustic with its native stone exterior. I had no idea that one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the county had happened there.
On the night of June 7, 1952, Henry Lawrence “Jack” Burris, who was the Mayes County District Attorney at the time, was murdered at his home in Locust Grove. He was behind the house working on the air conditioner when someone came up behind him and shot him.
His wife Melba heard the shot but saw no one when she came out and found her husband.
He was killed with a single shot to his face at point blank range with a .12 gauge shotgun.
Theories circulated about the killer or killers and all were investigated through the years, but no one was ever charged, even though a United Wire service story dated a few weeks later quoted the Oklahoma Crime Bureau chief as saying that they had arrested one person and might arrest more.
When I asked my dad, who was a junior at Locust Grove High School in 1952, about the crime, he didn’t have a strong memory of it, but he did remember that there had been a lot of conflict between law enforcement and people in the nearby communities of Spavinaw and Langley, where liquor by the drink was commonly served, even though it was illegal.
Burris had apparently ruffled some feathers by trying to enforce liquor laws, and some feel that his murder was a hit committed or arranged by state mobsters.
A popular attorney and well-liked man in the county, Burris was born in Locust Grove and attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. He served in the Coast Guard during WW II and was elected as county attorney for three consecutive terms and his fourth term was expiring when he was killed.
He was not, however, seeking a fourth term of office, so theories that the killer or killers wanted him out of the county attorney job did not hold up.
Law officer Herman Greathouse commented at the time that it was a “cold-blooded murder” and “obviously a vengeance killing. I guess Jack prosecuted too hard somewhere. Everybody except those he sent to jail loved him.”
Burris was 36 when he was killed. He and his wife had no children, and I couldn’t find a record of what happened to Melba after Burris’s murder, but she apparently moved away soon after. As long as I can remember the house on the hill has belonged to the Koelsch family (my childhood friend’s grandparents), and the road that runs alongside it is called “Joe Koelsch Road.”
Recently, I discovered that Burris had his law office in the upstairs rooms in what is now the VFW in downtown Locust Grove. The upstairs in this building is vacant and fallen into disrepair, but it is easy to walk around in the dark there and listen to the creaking wooden floorboards and see how the rooms could have once been thriving offices and shops at one time.
One of Joe Koelsch’s sons, Jerry, has the door that used to be on Burris’s office, and it has Burris’s nameplate on it. Perhaps one day, if the building is restored, the door could come back there. Perhaps one day, this very, very cold case might even be solved.
Contributor: Shary Mullins (47540806) • [email protected]
ed at his home in Locust grove Ok. Case was never solved
Mayes County District Attonery.
MurderHenry Burris (11470078)
Suggested edit: LOCUST GROVE, Okla. -- When I was growing up, I used to visit a friend at her grandparents’ house on the north side of town. I was in awe of this house: It sat on a hill and looked out over a farm with all the accoutrements—bunkhouse, barns, dairy, work shed. Once she had a slumber party and we spent the night in the bunkhouse.
The house was not huge, but it was elegantly furnished and yet rustic with its native stone exterior. I had no idea that one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the county had happened there.
On the night of June 7, 1952, Henry Lawrence “Jack” Burris, who was the Mayes County District Attorney at the time, was murdered at his home in Locust Grove. He was behind the house working on the air conditioner when someone came up behind him and shot him.
His wife Melba heard the shot but saw no one when she came out and found her husband.
He was killed with a single shot to his face at point blank range with a .12 gauge shotgun.
Theories circulated about the killer or killers and all were investigated through the years, but no one was ever charged, even though a United Wire service story dated a few weeks later quoted the Oklahoma Crime Bureau chief as saying that they had arrested one person and might arrest more.
When I asked my dad, who was a junior at Locust Grove High School in 1952, about the crime, he didn’t have a strong memory of it, but he did remember that there had been a lot of conflict between law enforcement and people in the nearby communities of Spavinaw and Langley, where liquor by the drink was commonly served, even though it was illegal.
Burris had apparently ruffled some feathers by trying to enforce liquor laws, and some feel that his murder was a hit committed or arranged by state mobsters.
A popular attorney and well-liked man in the county, Burris was born in Locust Grove and attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. He served in the Coast Guard during WW II and was elected as county attorney for three consecutive terms and his fourth term was expiring when he was killed.
He was not, however, seeking a fourth term of office, so theories that the killer or killers wanted him out of the county attorney job did not hold up.
Law officer Herman Greathouse commented at the time that it was a “cold-blooded murder” and “obviously a vengeance killing. I guess Jack prosecuted too hard somewhere. Everybody except those he sent to jail loved him.”
Burris was 36 when he was killed. He and his wife had no children, and I couldn’t find a record of what happened to Melba after Burris’s murder, but she apparently moved away soon after. As long as I can remember the house on the hill has belonged to the Koelsch family (my childhood friend’s grandparents), and the road that runs alongside it is called “Joe Koelsch Road.”
Recently, I discovered that Burris had his law office in the upstairs rooms in what is now the VFW in downtown Locust Grove. The upstairs in this building is vacant and fallen into disrepair, but it is easy to walk around in the dark there and listen to the creaking wooden floorboards and see how the rooms could have once been thriving offices and shops at one time.
One of Joe Koelsch’s sons, Jerry, has the door that used to be on Burris’s office, and it has Burris’s nameplate on it. Perhaps one day, if the building is restored, the door could come back there. Perhaps one day, this very, very cold case might even be solved.
Contributor: Shary Mullins (47540806) • [email protected]
ed at his home in Locust grove Ok. Case was never solved
MurderHenry Burris (11470078)
Suggested edit: LOCUST GROVE, Okla. -- When I was growing up, I used to visit a friend at her grandparents’ house on the north side of town. I was in awe of this house: It sat on a hill and looked out over a farm with all the accoutrements—bunkhouse, barns, dairy, work shed. Once she had a slumber party and we spent the night in the bunkhouse.
The house was not huge, but it was elegantly furnished and yet rustic with its native stone exterior. I had no idea that one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the county had happened there.
On the night of June 7, 1952, Henry Lawrence “Jack” Burris, who was the Mayes County District Attorney at the time, was murdered at his home in Locust Grove. He was behind the house working on the air conditioner when someone came up behind him and shot him.
His wife Melba heard the shot but saw no one when she came out and found her husband.
He was killed with a single shot to his face at point blank range with a .12 gauge shotgun.
Theories circulated about the killer or killers and all were investigated through the years, but no one was ever charged, even though a United Wire service story dated a few weeks later quoted the Oklahoma Crime Bureau chief as saying that they had arrested one person and might arrest more.
When I asked my dad, who was a junior at Locust Grove High School in 1952, about the crime, he didn’t have a strong memory of it, but he did remember that there had been a lot of conflict between law enforcement and people in the nearby communities of Spavinaw and Langley, where liquor by the drink was commonly served, even though it was illegal.
Burris had apparently ruffled some feathers by trying to enforce liquor laws, and some feel that his murder was a hit committed or arranged by state mobsters.
A popular attorney and well-liked man in the county, Burris was born in Locust Grove and attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. He served in the Coast Guard during WW II and was elected as county attorney for three consecutive terms and his fourth term was expiring when he was killed.
He was not, however, seeking a fourth term of office, so theories that the killer or killers wanted him out of the county attorney job did not hold up.
Law officer Herman Greathouse commented at the time that it was a “cold-blooded murder” and “obviously a vengeance killing. I guess Jack prosecuted too hard somewhere. Everybody except those he sent to jail loved him.”
Burris was 36 when he was killed. He and his wife had no children, and I couldn’t find a record of what happened to Melba after Burris’s murder, but she apparently moved away soon after. As long as I can remember the house on the hill has belonged to the Koelsch family (my childhood friend’s grandparents), and the road that runs alongside it is called “Joe Koelsch Road.”
Recently, I discovered that Burris had his law office in the upstairs rooms in what is now the VFW in downtown Locust Grove. The upstairs in this building is vacant and fallen into disrepair, but it is easy to walk around in the dark there and listen to the creaking wooden floorboards and see how the rooms could have once been thriving offices and shops at one time.
One of Joe Koelsch’s sons, Jerry, has the door that used to be on Burris’s office, and it has Burris’s nameplate on it. Perhaps one day, if the building is restored, the door could come back there. Perhaps one day, this very, very cold case might even be solved.
Contributor: Shary Mullins (47540806) • [email protected]
ed at his home in Locust grove Ok. Case was never solved
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