The
crime spree started in Jacksonville on Wednesday night, March 4, when two
police officers recognized an Oklahoma license plate reported to be on a car
used in a hold-up on Feb. 25th.
Officer Wilbur Blizzard was shot, and patrolman H. V. Branch was
clubbed. The bandits fled to the west
and abandoned their car at Lake City.
Early
Thursday morning, they seized a truck in Wellborn, FL, twenty miles west of
Lake City, and took two hostages, father and son, D.C., and J. L.
McDonald. They continued westward with
their hostages two hundred miles to Chipley.
Officers in Chipley had been forewarned by authorities in Live Oak that
the bandits were probably heading their way, and were on the lookout for them.
Nearing
Chipley the bandits were engaged in a gun battle with the local officers badly
wounding Posse man Gillis Malloy, and Deputy D. J. Brock, who were later
transported to a hospital in Dothan, Alabama.
Both eventually recovered, even though Malloy was hit at least 6
times. There were also 40 convicts, and
their guards who were near the shootout and ordered to lie down by the bandits. The quartet seized a car from a motorist and
headed back to the east for seven miles, before taking another car, and
eventually turning back to the west. The
McDonalds got away from them during the gunfight and were not injured. One of the male bandits was using a “riot”
gun, and one of the women was using a small automatic pistol, and Deputy Brock
believed (mistakenly) that he had hit her with one shot.
Reports were coming in from all over with the bandits being spotted heading to
Panama City, Dothan, Ala., and Pensacola.
Later, it was learned that after taking a car from a motorist, the
bandits sped east to Cottondale, turned off on a side road and went north, then
got back on the main road to DeFuniak Springs where they obtained eight gallons
of gasoline and continued on toward Pensacola.
The
bandit car was seen speeding across the Blackwater River bridge into Milton,
and the final pursuit began. Deputy
Sheriff Wade Cobb, Mack Williams, and other citizens, including the Mayor of
Chipley, R. H. Rollins, and Deputy Alex Cooper from Washington County, gave
chase and the bandits turned off the main road at the Rozier farm, and after
three miles on the backroad abandoned their car and went into the marsh on
foot. A perimeter was set up and the
bandits spent the night in the swamp.
Recognizing
the hopelessness of their situation the four surrendered, by Mabel Wertz
shouting, “Don’t shoot, we’re coming out!” As they came out Hayes made a move like he
might be reaching for a gun, but Deputy Cobb had him covered with an automatic
rifle. Wertz had a handbag under her arm
and unsuccessfully tried to prevent the deputies from taking it. Hayes and Oglesby were disarmed and a rifle
was found in the woods. The only wounds
noted on the bandits were a slight cut on Oglesby’s ear probably caused by a
flying piece of glass in the Chipley shoot-out.
Santa
Rosa County Sheriff Henry Mitchell and Escambia County Sheriff Mose Penton
were attending the state Sheriff’s convention at Sarasota. They drove all night Thursday and arrived in
Milton Friday morning. The prisoners
posed for photographs and answered some questions from a Gazette
reporter.
The
prisoners were transported back to Washington County Friday afternoon and
formally charged with highway robbery, assault with intent to murder, and
kidnapping.
A
large crowd had gathered in Chipley when the convoy of three cars arrived, and
it was thought that an attempt would be made against the men who had shot and
wounded the two Washington County posse men. There was no attempt. Sheriff Mitchell and Sheriff Farrior of
Washington County appeared in front of the crowd at the courthouse and talked
to the assembled crowd. Sheriff Mitchell
described the events, and complimented Sheriff Farrior for his assistance, then
appealed for the crowd to go home and let the law take its course. He received a large round of applause.
By
Monday, Sheriff Mitchell received letters, and photographs from Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and Dallas, Texas, and other places.
A detective from Tulsa, Jack Bonham, was particularly interested to know
if Mabel Wertz, who was also known as Dammerel, was still with Oglesby. Bonham said that Wertz was from a nice family
in St. Louis, but had married a criminal named Doc Dammerel, who was now
serving time in the Oklahoma Penitentiary for highway robbery. Oglesby was wanted in Oklahoma for escaping
from the State Prison. According to a
letter found on Wertz, she was the mother of two children. The letter was from her mother, begging her
to give up her association with Oglesby and come home to the children.
Hayes and Oglesby had escaped from jail in Springfield Missouri, by taking a gun from
a jailor and forcing him to open the outside door of the jail. As they escaped the jailor fired a rifle at
the escapees, hitting Hayes and another escapee in the neck, and Oglesby in the
shoulder. Detective Bonham in his
letter, said that Wertz had smuggled in the gun for the jailbreak. A car that was stolen by the escapees
was abandoned in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Sheriff
Marcel Hendrix of Green County, Springfield, Missouri, was anxious to get Hayes
and Oglesby. They were wanted for
numerous robberies in Missouri, and Oklahoma, and for breaking out of jail in
Springfield on January 27th.
Sheriff Mitchell received the following telegram from the Springfield
Sheriff Friday night: “See you have Burt
Oglesby, Tex Hayes, Mabel Dammerel alias Mabel Wertz, and Fay Harris. I am much interested in the capture of these
men as they and four others broke out of jail here January 27th. One of their partners was recaptured and
sentenced to 40 years today, and another got twenty-five years. If you do not have a strong case I am anxious
for these men. Positive they will
receive Ninety-nine here. Will extradite.” Sheriff Mitchell informed the Missouri
officials that the prisoners had already been turned over to Washington County.
Hayes and Oglesby were indicted as principals, Wertz, and Harris as
accessories. All four pled not guilty to
the charges in front of Circuit Court Judge C. D. Jones. States attorney L. V. McRae said all four
would be tried jointly. None of the four
displayed any anxiety over being held for trial.
On
April 2, 1931, after changing their pleas to guilty, Hayes, and Oglesby were
sentenced to 20 years for robbery and 10 years with assault with intent to
commit murder. The sentences were to run
concurrently. The two women were
sentenced to 10 years for being accessories to the robberies, and to five years
for being accessories to the assaults.
Judge Jones denied the couple's request to be married before sending them
to prison.
At
the time of his arrest, Bert Oglesby was on parole from an eight-year sentence
for car theft and burglary in Oklahoma.
Governor Murray revoked the parole upon learning of the Florida crime
spree. C.E.B. Culter, pardon, and parole
attorney said there would be no attempt to return Oglesby to Oklahoma if he was
prosecuted in Florida.
In
October of 1931, Oglesby’s brother Jack, 22, and his sister Zelma M.
Woodmansee, attempted to mail arms, and ammunition to Oglesby at the prison in
Starke, FL. Mrs. J. Young, Postmistress,
at Starke, 12 miles from the prison, testified that she had received a package
containing two pistols mailed from Tulsa.
Oglesby and Woodmansee pleaded not guilty when arraigned and were
released on a $5000 bond. They were later found guilty, and sentenced to prison.
The
two women, known as the “bobbed-hair bandits”, were paroled from the state prison in Raiford on November 27, 1935. They were released on December 22nd,
to the county judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The
length of their parole was six months.
They were eligible for a full pardon after their parole was completed.
Bert Oglesby died in prison of pneumonia and Typhoid on July 2,1932, and his body was shipped back to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mabel Wertz Damrell died in Los Angeles,
California in March of 1952, and is buried in the same North Hollywood cemetery where Curly Joe of Three Stooges fame,
and the wrestler Gorgeous George are buried.
No further information could be found on Tex Hayes or Fay Harris.
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