Exhibits
Wanted: Dead or Alive
What: The Chisholm Trail Museum will host Wanted: Dead or Alive, August 28 – October 30, 2020. This traveling exhibit from the Oklahoma History Center features images of some of Oklahoma’s most infamous criminals. Images from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections, the National Archives, and the Oklahoma Historical Society include mugshots, crime scene locations and group shots with criminals, and law enforcement officers. They span more than 70 years, starting before statehood in 1907 and reaching into the late 1950s.
While there may be a few familiar names, such as the Doolin and Dalton Gangs and Ma Barker, the exhibit showcases stories that might not be as well known. Visitors will learn about whiskey towns, the Tulsa Central Park Gang, Spencer State Bank, Wanda Bartram, Ralph Roe, and many more. Many of the people featured were born and raised in Oklahoma or moved here and began their lives of crime. Sometimes the stories are as much about the location as the individual. Although many of the tales feature truly despicable characters, others tell of people who temporarily went astray. Some of the accounts include strange twists and turns, and there is even an unsolved mystery.
When: August 28 - October 30, 2020
What: The Chisholm Trail Museum will host Wanted: Dead or Alive, August 28 – October 30, 2020. This traveling exhibit from the Oklahoma History Center features images of some of Oklahoma’s most infamous criminals. Images from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections, the National Archives, and the Oklahoma Historical Society include mugshots, crime scene locations and group shots with criminals, and law enforcement officers. They span more than 70 years, starting before statehood in 1907 and reaching into the late 1950s.
While there may be a few familiar names, such as the Doolin and Dalton Gangs and Ma Barker, the exhibit showcases stories that might not be as well known. Visitors will learn about whiskey towns, the Tulsa Central Park Gang, Spencer State Bank, Wanda Bartram, Ralph Roe, and many more. Many of the people featured were born and raised in Oklahoma or moved here and began their lives of crime. Sometimes the stories are as much about the location as the individual. Although many of the tales feature truly despicable characters, others tell of people who temporarily went astray. Some of the accounts include strange twists and turns, and there is even an unsolved mystery.
When: August 28 - October 30, 2020
Ralph Roe was an Oklahoma bank robber, captured in 1933 after a shootout with local police. As a known escape risk, Roe was transferred to Alcatraz where he would gain his notoriety. Roe, alongside fellow prisoner Ted Cole, was part of only the second escape attempt from Alcatraz. Roe and Cole disappeared while working in the tire repair shop at the prison in 1937. They escaped through a window and were never seen again. Though believed to have drowned in San Francisco Bay, Roe and Cole’s remains were never found and conspiracies around their survival persisted for decades.