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