Ripper Letter from the White Caps

Stiles, Not Styles,
Once More to the Front.

That Lineal Descendant of Annaias in his favorite role.
RULE OR RUIN.

Appears to be the policy of the Consumate Cowards whose dirty dispatches are ruining Oklahoma City.
Read and reflect over the following.

Special to the St. Louis Republic.
OKLAHOMA, I.T., Sept. 23. - Furious with rage at the interference of the military and their failure to hold a charter election Saturday last, the rebellious Kickapoos are vowing summary vengeance on Provost Marshall Stiles, Mayor Couch, City Attorney Guthrie and other prominent officials of the city. This morning the following was discovered placard upon the front of the Post Office building:

NOTICE - As an organized society, called the White Caps, we arise and with one voice swear that the leaders of that mob on the 21st must die, namely: Couch, Stiles and Guthrie. We do not take you unawares. You are doomed men and shall be met by the "Jack the Ripper." [Signed] W.C. -

At the bottom of the placard was a cartoon representing a scaffold with a body dangling therefrom.
At first it was supposed that the warning was posted simply as a scare, but a prominent military official informed The Republic correspondent tonight that it had been discovered today that a White Cap organization was formed in this city last night, that the members have duly obligated themselves and that it was agreed to purchase 200 Winchesters and carry out their plans by force despite the military. The troops at
Guthrie are held in readiness for immediate action and can be transported to this place in an hour's time, if necessary while the thousands of soldiers now at Arkansas City, Kansas, can be concentrated here in three hours time. The revolutionists have a deadly hatred for Mayor Couch and Captain Stiles, and it needs but a spark to kindle the fires of civil strife.
Hundreds of people who have heretofore sympathized with the Kickapoos are now condemning them, and, should an outbreak occur, the conflict will be short but decisive.
The following dispatch was today sent to United States Marshal Needles:

OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 23. - Hon. Thomas B. Needles, United States Marshal, Muskogee, I.T.
SIR - The presence here of Deputy United States Marshal George E. Thorton cannot be tolerated any longer. His unwarrantable interference with myself and the United States Commissioners is the cause of much trouble. I have had to put one of his posse men out of town as a thug and another was arrested Saturday after the election riot and is now under bond. Thornton's conduct today is unaccountable. I refer you to commissioners
Sommer, Harney and Cramer, and to Deputy Marshals Bickford and East. He sides with the disturbing element in this city and should be removed at once. Cannot you come here at once.
[Signed] D.F. STILES,
Captain United States Army, Commanding.

The same dispatch was also forwarded to Richard L. Walker, United States Marshal, Topeka, Kan. The additional arrest of three of Saturday's election conspirators was made today and warrants for several more are out."
Of all the dirty, low, damnable lies, ever sent from Oklahoma City, the above is unequalled, and will give the people some idea how far the accused lying gang will go to carry their point. In the above, they have expressed all their venom, and hatred, for nine tenths of the citizens of Oklahoma City, and this is especially true, in regard to the dispatch sent to General Needles by Stiles, and we do not hesitate to say that it is a deliberate lie of whole cloth.
It is not only a lie, it is an outrage to think that any man who is as low and villainous as Stiles, should be allowed to hold such a responsible position. Marshal Thornton has never been in the councils of the so-called "Revolutionists," and has never assisted them personally or otherwise unless it was in the discharge of his duty, and we are satisfied that if an expression could be had today as to the conduct of Marshal Thornton, that nine-tenths of the people
of Oklahoma City would say that his course has always been honorable and satisfactory. What little time we have known Mr. Thornton, we have never known him to swerve from what he believed to be his duty. He has always conducted himself as a gentleman, and has been a terror to evil doers, and it is to him instead of Stiles that the credit is due for the peaceful condition of affairs here. The only trouble is - as we believe - they could not use him to do their
dirty work, hence their villianous attempts to have him removed. Marshal Thornton was not in the city the day that Stiles brutally maltreated the people, and his deputies took no part in the election in any manner, and Stiles knew it, and knew that he lied in a deliberate manner when he charged any misconduct to Marshal Thornton. How honest men can be in sympathy, and uphold men who will send such reports from Oklahoma City, is more than we can understand.

Source: Oklahoma City Daily Times (Oklahoma City, Indian Terr.), Vol. 1, No. 77, Ed. 1, Friday September 27, 1889