Older residents in the small Logan County town of Magazine still mourn the loss of town marshal, Marvin Richie, who was tragically killed in the line of duty on June 29, 1977.
Marshal Richie, who had served in both the US Navy and Air Force and was a WWII veteran, encountered two men with a flat tire while on patrol. Unbeknownst to him, these men were escapees from an Oklahoma prison, having already committed multiple murders during their escape after tunneling under a wall.
The suspects, Paul Ruiz and Earl Van Denton, kidnapped Richie, handcuffing him in the back seat of his patrol car. They then used the patrol car to stop a truck driven by two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rangers. After kidnapping Richie, the suspects shot him in the head, killing him instantly.
The crime spree continued as the suspects abducted one of the rangers, Opal James, and later murdered him execution-style. The other ranger, who was shot in the chest, miraculously survived.
Ruiz and Van Denton were notorious criminals with a history of violent offenses even before their infamous crime spree in 1977.
Paul Ruiz was serving a life sentence for armed robbery while Earl Van Denton was also serving a life sentence, but for murder. On June 23, 1977, they escaped from an Oklahoma prison and embarked on a two-week crime spree that spanned multiple states, including Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
During their escape, they were suspected of killing seven people including Richie and James.
Ruiz and Van Denton were initially sentenced to die by electrocution. However, they were ultimately executed by lethal injection on January 8, 1997, bringing a sense of closure to the community after nearly 18 years of legal battles and free housing, food and free medical care for the miscreants.
Marshal Richie was 49 years old when he was murdered and was survived by his wife. He was buried in the Ellington Cemetery in Magazine with military honors..
