Deputy U.S. Marshal John Fields

John Fields

Deputy U.S. Marshal John Fields was shot and killed while he and a posse attempted to arrest a man near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, for the murder of Deputy Marshal Dan Maples on May 5th, 1887.

Several attempts had been made to arrest the man during the five years since Deputy Marshal Maples' murder. The man had been barricaded in a fortified cabin and was able to repel the attempts made to arrest him. Three weeks after the murder of Deputy Marshal Fields another attempt was made in which the man was killed.

The suspect was finally killed in a successful raid on the home. The home was riddled with thousands of rounds of gunfire, shot by cannon fire, and then blown up with dynamite.