Citizens and Assassins: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and Vigilante Justice

In February 1909, a former United States Deputy Marshal is murdered near Ada, Oklahoma, by a cold-blooded assassin. His murder is one of many that has occurred in a county in which citizens are living among at least twenty assassins for hire. Less than two months after the marshal’s death, four men who have been arrested for his murder are lynched by a mob of citizens. In the middle of the night on April 19, 1909, the mob breaks into the jailhouse in Ada, overpowers the deputies on duty, and binds the prisoners’ hands with baling wire. They then lead the accused to an abandoned livery stable and hang each one from the rafters. Unable to rely upon justice through the government due to a faulty court system and juries afraid to convict, the mob takes on the role as judge, jury, and executioner. If ever there a case deserving of vigilante justice … this is it.