Detective Ben Johnston

Ben Johnston

Detective Johnston and Detective Sylvester Cormack were shot and killed while attempting to arrest two suspects wanted for questioning in the murder of Officer Jerry St. Clair ten days earlier. They were also wanted for the murder of a night watchman in Seneca, Missouri, a day earlier and a hit and run accident in which a man was killed a week earlier in Vincennes, Indiana.

The detectives stopped the two suspects on Frisco Avenue but were immediately fired upon. Detective Cormack succumbed to his wounds at the scene and Detective Johnston succumbed to his wounds three months later. One of the suspects was apprehended at the scene and the second was later apprehended in Idaho.

On Febuary 3, 1947, both suspects escaped from the Tulsa County Jail. One was captured a short time later. Two hours later the other suspect was shot and killed in a gun battle with three state troopers 40 miles east of Tulsa.

The suspect who murdered Officer St. Clair was apprehended in California. He was convicted of first degree murder and executed in the electric chair on November 17, 1949.