This Month in Infamy: December 1945

Dec. 8 — Joyriders on the Lam

Above: Four of the prisoners after their capture in Kansas, flanked by the sheriff and a deputy. (Wichita Eagle photo)

WICHITA, KAN. — Six men who sawed their way out of an Oklahoma City jail may have set a record during their brief taste of freedom.

They made a circuitous dash north to Wichita, Kansas, by way of Tulsa, stealing seven cars along the route. In Tulsa, they swiped two vehicles—apparently weary of squeezing six men into one.

They reached Wichita early on December 9 and camped near the Arkansas River. A fisherman spotted the “tough-looking customers” and tipped off police. After a six-hour manhunt, officers rounded up the escapees.

The prisoners ranged in age from 17 to 32. A seventh youth had declined to join the trip—perhaps there really wasn’t room—and he, too, was soon recaptured.

Dec. 10 – “Witch of Delray” Freed

Rose Veres, Hungarian immigrant as she appeared in her 1931 murder trial in Detroit

DETROIT, MICH. — When a jury acquitted 67-year-old Rose Veres of first-degree murder, the first thing she did was faint.

The Hungarian immigrant, who spoke little English, thought the jury foreman had said “guilty” instead of “not guilty.”

“My God, I thought they were going to send me back again,” she said once she came to her senses.

Veres had spent 14 years in prison for the death of Steve Mak, a lodger at the boarding house she ran in Detroit’s Delray district. He had fallen from an attic window, and witnesses claimed she pushed him.

Eleven other tenants had died over the previous seven years—including one whom Veres had married. Neighbors dubbed her the “Witch of Delray.”

It didn’t help that police discovered she had taken out 75 insurance policies on her lodgers, including Mak—though witnesses said the practice was common in the 1930s.

Veres won a retrial due to procedural errors, and after eight hours of deliberation, jurors set her free.

Dec. 14 – Mother Finds Her Son

OKLAHOMA CITY — After more than a year of searching, Los Angeles mother Mabel Watson finally located her missing son John — only to learn he had forgotten her.

Her ex-husband, Ira Watson, had taken the boy from California to Oklahoma City, where he ran a café. A private investigator trailed Ira from the café to a nearby house where a woman, “Aunt Sally,” was caring for the child.

Mrs. Watson went to court to enforce the California custody decree. The judge ruled in her favor but allowed the boy visits with the father—accompanied by a deputy sheriff.

December 17 – Legal Legend Dies

Moman Pruiett

1872 to 1945

On his last day on Earth, acclaimed Oklahoma defense lawyer Moman Pruiett asked for his hat, walking cane, and overcoat, and declared: “I’m going to try to die like I lived.”

Pruiett, 73, succumbed to pneumonia in an Oklahoma City hospital.

Over a 50-year career, he defended 343 murder suspects and won acquittals for 303. Only one client received a death sentence—and Pruiett went to Washington himself to persuade President Warren Harding to grant clemency.

Before becoming a lawyer, Pruiett served two years in a Texas prison for a robbery he insisted he didn’t commit.

He said he never asked clients if they were guilty. “It was none of my business.”