True Crime Chronicles: A night of dining and drinking turned deadly on a cold February night at the Harrison town square

In the small town of Harrison on the cold night of February 2, 1922, longtime friends Oscar Colbert and Arthur Coker stepped into the Wilson restaurant at the southwest corner of the square after sharing drinks. What began as a casual evening between acquaintances ended in gunfire and tragedy, leaving one man dead and the other fighting for his freedom in a classic tale of alcohol, anger, and alleged self-defense that played out across Boone County.

Oscar Colbert, a man of about 40 years with a wife and eight children, had known Arthur Coker for several years. Coker, a resident of nearby Alpena, was married and the father of three young children. According to accounts that emerged after the incident, the two men had been drinking liquor together that evening.

A quarrel erupted inside the Wilson restaurant around 10:30 p.m. Witnesses and Colbert stated that Coker drew his revolver first. Colbert responded by firing, striking Coker seven times in the hand, arm, and body, particularly the breast. Arthur Coker was taken to the Park Hotel, where physicians attended him.

He died early the next morning on February 3, 1922.

News of the shooting spread quickly through the tight-knit community. The grand jury in Harrison quickly indicted Oscar Colbert for second-degree murder. Colbert posted a $5,000 bond and was released while awaiting trial. Coker’s funeral was held in Alpena that Saturday, drawing mourners from the surrounding Ozark hills as family and friends laid the young father to rest.

Arthur Coker was born on November 6, 1895, in Batavia, Boone County, the son of James Monroe Coker and Rosa Laura Bell Kiddy. He married and settled in the Alpena area, where he and his wife raised three children before his untimely death at age 26. He was buried in Coker Cemetery in ,Boone County

The Colbert and Coker families were both established in the Boone County area, reflecting the pioneer and post-Civil War settlement patterns common in the Arkansas Ozarks. Oscar Colbert was born around 1882. He and his wife raised a large family of eight children, typical of rural farm families of the era. Census records place the Colbert household in or near Harrison, where Oscar worked various labor and farming jobs. His descendants remained in northern Arkansas.

The case highlighted the volatile mix of alcohol and firearms that was all too common in rural Arkansas during the early 1920s. Boone County, like much of the region, was still adjusting to the realities of Prohibition-era tensions, where illegal liquor often fueled disputes that turned deadly. Colbert’s claim that he acted in self-defense after Coker drew a pistol first became the central issue.

Further details from court and newspaper records show that the legal proceedings ultimately resolved in Colbert’s favor. After the initial indictment and bonding out, the case did not result in a conviction. Self-defense arguments in such shootings frequently succeeded in local courts of the time. No reports of a prison sentence or further appeals appeared in subsequent coverage, indicating that Oscar Colbert was acquitted or the charges against him were dropped.

The shooting left a lasting mark on both families. Arthur Coker was survived by his wife and three children, who faced the difficult road of raising a family without their young father. Oscar Colbert returned to his own large family amid the shadow of the tragedy.

This 1922 Boone County case stands as a stark reminder of how quickly a night of drinking among friends could spiral into irreversible violence in the early 20th-century Arkansas Ozarks.

The Harrison restaurant shooting remains a footnote in local true crime history, illustrating the raw realities of frontier justice, p

ersonal honor, and the heavy cost of alcohol-fueled disputes in small-town

America.