Rachel Whitney, Curator, Sapulpa Historical Museum
Monday, June 1st, 3 am, in Sapulpa where the weather is fair and warm, and quiet. Families safely tucked in bed dreaming, workers sleeping, relaxing their aching bodies, and everyone getting ready to start the new business week in the morning. Patrol cars driving up and down the streets to make sure everything and everyone is safe and sound.
In 1931, on nearly every other corner and street had a family-owned grocery store. It was no different on the corner of West McKinley and South Hickory. At 407 West McKinley, the Hotchkiss Grocery was closed for the night. Except it wasn’t empty; nor was it quiet, safe, and sound.
The Hotchkiss Grocery store was robbed by two men.
Three officers responded to the break-in, and the chase was on. Officers Frank Vest, E.O. Edwards, and Fred Archer sped down the street, “rushing to the Jay P. Hotchkiss Grocery.” Jay Hotchkiss, owner of the grocery store, called in the robbery.
“Archer was thrown from the car while it was traveling at a high rate of speed. He was riding on the side of the car and was thrown to the pavement as the auto hit a rough place in the road.” The other officers did not stop, but proceeded to the store in time to see one of the robbers run out of the store and jump into a waiting automobile.
“Archer was injured when he fell from the patrol car, answering a burglary report which later developed into a gun fray with two robbers who escaped after a wild chase through the city.” As he was thrown out of the car, he broke his nose, injured his kneecap, and “was cut and bruised considerably. His right arm was also painfully hurt.”
Vest and Edwards “opened fire on the man who ran out of the store.” However, this did not stop the car chase that followed. “The chase led them from Hickory south to Taft, and from there back the same way to McKinley with the officers just back of the bandits’ car.”
It was not determined if Archer was unconscious or immobile, but he was able to recover enough to witness the burglars’ vehicle approaching once again. “Meanwhile, Archer had recovered enough to meet the robber’s car at the corner and fired several shots, which are believed to have taken effect. However, the officers lost sight of the auto and the chase ended.”
It was reported that around 15 shots were fired by the local police. “No arrests have been made.”
Hotchkiss Grocery “was robbed only a few weeks ago when a large amount of stock was taken.” This time around, the burglars did not steal a large amount of goods.
The only thing taken from the store was a few cigars and five pieces of bacon.
This would not be the last car chase and shoot-out for Archer that year. That fall in October, Archer chased “a new Chevrolet sedan that was abandoned by a man who was being pursued.” The man also left their gun in the seat of the car. “The gun is a Colt of an old model.”
It seemed the “local police department is an automobile and a gun ahead today following a wild chase by an officer across Sapulpa.”
The pursued man had stopped in Bristow at a gas station. The man did not pay for the gas, however. “Bristow officers called here to have a man picked up who drove off. When the car came through here, the police gave chase that led over the entire city. Four shots were fired by Archer who commanded the man to stop.”
Then a foot race began. “After abandoning the car, the two continued their race on foot. The man was not apprehended but officers are holding the car at the police station.”
In 1931, Sapulpa officers, like Archer, were chasing cars, bullets, and robbers.
(Sapulpa Herald, June 1, 1931, October 22, 1931; Democrat News, February 13, 1931, June 4, 1931)
