It was the first day of hunting season, October 8, 1943. Undersheriff William Macfarlane, custodian Pat Morrison, and nearly everyone else in the courthouse and town were hunting. Even school was dismissed. If any tourists were in town, they were on their own. Hunting season was the most important social event of the year.

In the county jail O. B. and Randall Thronberry awaited trial for murder. About 3:00 p.m. Randall called to the sheriff who was alone in the office. Mrs. F. E. Gaymon was working upstairs in the county superintendent’s office. Randall wanted some writing paper. After placing his gun on a shelf outside the cell, and not seeing O. B. nearby, the sheriff entered the cell to hand Randall the paper. O. B., who had taken off his cowboy boots, silently slipped behind Todd and hit him on the head with a homemade blackjack or maybe a 45. Dazed, Todd turned to battle the assailant. Todd claimed O. B. had a 45 pistol and the two wrestled for control of it. They went to the floor, and Randall stood over them with a table knife. Again Todd was hit on the head and went out.  They dragged him into the holding cell where O. B. jumped on his ribs.

The Pilot is not clear about how the prisoners got a 45. Apparently O. B.’s very pregnant wife showed up and was held until a family member from Texas came up and took her home. It was assumed she smuggled the gun to O. B. This part of the story is so vague it is not certain any of it is true. A 45 was never referred to before or afterward in the story. Why did O. B. use a black jack if he had a gun?  Maybe the sheriff was simply telling a story, attempting to save face.

The sheriff was locked in, and the Thronberry brothers took his money, papers, rationing cards, badge, gun, and car. (The sheriff and undersheriff furnished their own cars and the county supplied the sirens.) O. B. also took Todd’s hat. Leo Conner saw the car heading west out of town but, noting the driver wearing the sheriff’s hat, thought nothing of it.

The sheriff began calling for help. Mrs. Gaymon heard him but didn’t think it was anything more than the prisoners making their usual noise. Judge Cole had the same thought.  At 4:30 Mrs. Morrison brought the evening meal for the prisoners but, not finding the sheriff, left. At 8:00 Town Marshal Cliff Norris stopped by to find out what cells were available for his use that night. Not seeing the sheriff, and hearing loud noises in the cell, he called Mayor Luekens. The two men found Todd locked in his own cell, and the escapees had a five-hour head start. Immediately lawmen in Denver and Salt Lake were alerted.

The Thronberry brothers were on the run. The FBI listed them as Public Enemies Numbers 1 and 2 for the region. While in Tennessee, the brothers used the siren and stopped speeders and collected fines and gas ration stamps. They were doing fine until O. B.’s wife had a baby girl, and the father wanted to see his daughter. So, they dressed as women and crossed the bridge into Texas.

Waco’s Sheriff Homer Casey and Undersheriff Martin Owen were at an FBI school when they received a tip that O. B. was at Farmer, Texas – about 17 miles away on the Dallas road. The sheriff, undersheriff and FBI agents arrived in Farmer just as O. B. was leaving in a stolen car. The car race was on, reaching top speeds of 90 miles per hour. As they pulled up along side O. B., the sheriff took careful aim and shot the fugitive’s hand on the steering wheel.  Using the other hand O. B. pulled over and stopped. Several weapons were found in the car, but O. B. never attempted to use them.

O. B. claimed that Randall, who still had Todd’s car, would never be taken alive. Todd always drove the finest cars, and Randall enjoyed driving fine cars especially ones equipped with a siren. Soon afterwards Randall was caught. It must have been uneventful, because neither the Steamboat Pilot nor Oak Creek Times bothered giving us a blow by blow description.

After catching O. B. and Randall, the FBI went after the brothers’ family for harboring criminals.  From what the newspaper tells us, the boys’ mother committed the biggest crime. She wrote a letter to Texas and federal lawmen in which she used words not becoming a lady and offensive to the law.