True Crime Chronicles: A premeditated murder with several witnesses in 1912 resulted in a lifetime prison sentence

The night of February 13, 1912, began with a separation.

Rex Ray, known to most as Virgil, had married Lizzie Odom only weeks earlier. The couple lived in a small log house in the Hisaw neighborhood of Haskell County, in the rolling country near the junction of the Canadian and Arkansas rivers. That afternoon, Rex and Lizzie parted ways at her father Dick Odom’s place.

Rex gathered a few belongings and left on foot with Dink Dukes, another farm hand. They planned to cross the river and leave the area.

Rile Odom, Lizzie’s brother, encountered them on the road and invited them to stay the night if they could not ford the river. Later that evening, Rex and Dink arrived at Rile’s modest two-room log house on the west bank of the Arkansas. The group settled in for the night: Rex and Dink shared a bed with Rile, while Rile’s wife Mary and their children occupied another, and Emma Odom slept on a pallet nearby.

Around midnight, a voice called out from the front of the house. Rile lit a lamp and opened the door. Bob Hisaw and his relative Bill Hisaw stepped inside. Bob, a farmer and stock raiser who lived in the same neighborhood and had employed Rex at times, walked directly to the bed where Rex slept.

He pulled back the covers, spoke briefly, and began firing a pistol into Rex’s chest. Five shots struck the sleeping man. As Rex stirred and protested, Bob stepped back, reloaded, and fired once more into his head.

According to testimony from those present, Bob then turned the pistol on the others in the room and warned them to stay silent. He ordered Dink Dukes, Bill Hisaw, and Rile Odom to help dress the body in the clothes Rex had worn earlier that day: a dark coat, blue shirt, trousers, and overalls.

They wrapped it in a blanket and quilt, carried it outside, and loaded it onto a horse. Bill and Dink took the body a short distance into a field and left it in a gap, later covered with brush.

The next morning, Rile Odom and his family went to Dick Odom’s house. Word of Rex’s disappearance spread slowly through the community. Months passed before rumors of foul play surfaced.

On June 28, 1912, Dink Dukes walked into the county seat at Stigler and told authorities what had happened. Officers accompanied him to the site, recovered the badly decomposed remains, and noted the bullet wound near the nose. Complaints were filed against Bob Hisaw and Bill Hisaw.

Bill Hisaw soon surrendered and was later acquitted. Bob remained at large for more than two years. He was finally arrested in October 1914 in McCurtain County, living under the name R.A. Johnson. His trial took place in December 1914 in the Haskell County District Court.

Prosecution witnesses, including members of the Odom family, described a history of tension between Bob Hisaw and Rex Ray. Disagreements over a hog and threats Rex allegedly made against Bob’s property and family fueled the conflict.

On the night of the killing, Bob had visited the elder Odoms’ home earlier, asking about Rex and offering whiskey while drinking himself.

Bob Hisaw maintained his innocence. He claimed an alibi, stating he had remained at home all night tending to a sick child, supported by testimony from his wife and several friends and relatives. The jury rejected this account and convicted him of murder. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Hisaw appealed to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. In a decision issued on June 9, 1917, the court affirmed the conviction. The opinion addressed procedural challenges, including the appointment of a special prosecutor and jury selection issues, but found no errors that deprived the defendant of a fair trial.

The court described the killing as cold-blooded, noting that Rex had been shot while asleep, defenseless, and without warning.