Sunday, January 8, 2012

Monday, January 8, 1934

Went to school today. I rode the street car. It snowed today. I went out sleigh riding.

Picture
Wilbur Underhill, Jr. ((March 16, 1901 – January 6, 1934)
AKA "Mad Dog" or "The Tri-State Terror"

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Underhill was was an American criminal, burglar, bank robber and
Depression-era outlaw. He was one of the most wanted bandits in Oklahoma during the 1920s
 and 30s and co-led a gang with Harvey Bailey that included many fellow Cookson Hills outlaws.

After escaping from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1931 and the Lansing (KS) state prison
in 1933, Underhill was wrongly named as one of the participants in the Kansas City Massacre
(see June 17, 1933). With a special task force that included armored cars in hot pursuit,
Underhill went on a crime spree throughout Oklahoma and Kansas. He applied for a wedding
license under his own name, and as a wedding present for Hazel Jarrett Hudson (sister of the
outlaw Jarrett brothers), Underhill and several other gangsters robbed a bank in Frankfort, Kentucky.

On December 30, 1933, a 24-man strike force including federal agents, state troopers and local police
caught up with Underhill, his wife, and a couple of friends who were staying in a rented cottage in
Shawnee, Oklahoma. The group was led by R.H. Colvin and Frank Smith, the latter a survivor of the
Kansas City Massacre. When called on to surrender, Underhill began firing resulting in the task
 force returning fire. With one friend killed and another wounded, Underhill, barefoot and still
in his underwear, ran from the house attempting to escape. He was hit five times before leaving the
yard but ran for another 16 blocks before breaking into a furniture store and collapsing on
 one of the beds. His wounded friend and his wife were taken into custody and Underhill was
taken to McAlester where he remained, handcuffed in his bed, at the prison hospital until
his death on January 6, 1934. His last words were "Tell the boys I'm coming home"

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