Captain Homer R. Spaulding

Homer R. Spaulding

Captain Homer Spaulding succumbed to gunshot wounds received ten days earlier when he and two other officers were engaged in a shootout with two other men.

The officers had stopped to assist six men who were working on a stalled car at 3:30 a.m. Two of the men suddenly pulled out handguns and opened fire, mortally wounding Captain Spaulding and wounding one of the other officers. One suspect was also shot and killed.

The suspects were believed to be associates of a gang involved in 16 other police-shootings, the Barker/Karpis gang, between 1918-1939.

Captain Spaulding had been employed with the Okmulgee Police Department for nine years. He was survived by his wife and son. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Green Hill Cemetery, Muskogee, Oklahoma.