Oklahoma Lawmen & Outlaws  O. T. & I. T.

Clipping

Sallisaw, Dec. 30-This county is aflame over an act of outlawry committed Tuesday morning near Sadie, a post office in Sequoyah county, where Larry Berna, was set upon by a gang of night riders, dragged to a strip of woods near his home and given an unmerciful lashing.

Berna has informed the county authorities that there were about a dozen men in the band, and says he can identify two or three of them. He says they called him to the door before daylight telling him they had an important message from a sick relative. When he opened the door he was immediately seized and subjected to torture.

Berna's offense appears to be that he is the tenant of R. W. Hines, formerly engaged in the banking business in Sallisaw, and they told him they expected to administer a similar beating to little Bob Hines, a nephew of the owner of the farm leased by Berna.

Dangerous Organization

The night riders are thought to be members of the Working Class Union which was introduced into eastern Oklahoma from Arkansas, and partakes of the nature of the International Workers of the World, with sabotaging as their principal program. They gave out the edict that the Hines farm was not to be worked the coming year, and Berna has received several warning to quit the farm.

The sheriff is working on the case and wholesale arrests are expected in a few days.

It is said the recent outrages in Pontotoc county, the burning of barns and threatened dynamiting of the Ada New office, are chargeable to members of this same organization which has become a serious menace to life and property in this part of the state.

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