Submitted by 
Marti Graham

Convict's Story Causes Arrests
Believed Facts in Heavener Murder Mystery Are Coming To Light
Three Men Are Held
Bud Terry Disappeared in 1907; Nothing Thought Of It Then

Fort Smith, Ark., Nov 22 (Special) The confession Wednesday of a convict...in the state penitentiary of Oklahoma resulted in the arrest of the third person in the disappearance of Bud Terry case of Heavener, Okla., which remained a mystery for four years. The convict is Sam Swider, and William Vaught is the third person to be arrested charged with killing Terry. Vaught was arrested at  Mena, Ark. today. W. L. Bates, a prominent merchant of Heavener, was arrested yesterday. The day before Will Stiles of Ratliffe, Ark., was arrested charged with the crime.

The three men are being kept separated...Wright [at] Wilburton...Stiles and Bates confined... [at] Poteau.

Terry a resident of Caulksville, Ark., and an employee of Bates' sawmill near Hontubby, disappeared about August 15, 1907, after he and Bates, Stiles, Swider, Vaught and a fifth man...left in two wagons for Mena to attend a street fair. Terry never returned. He had quit his job at the sawmill the day previous.... October of the same year, the skeleton of a man was found on a hill four miles southeast of Heavener...clothes looked like victim was a tramp.

...convicts declared skeleton was that of Bud Terry. Swider says Terry and another man became engaged in a quarrel over a woman...third man struck Terry on the hear with a scantling, the blow killed Terry.

...Terry's body was removed to the Bates' sawmill where his clothes were changed for older ones. The body was then taken to the hill where it was found....

Swider says the fight started about sundown. The body was not placed on the hill until late at night...[Swider] says members of the party threatened him with death...

Terry's body was buried as that of a tramp. After the burial...he [Swider] stole a horse at Heavener... He was caught four days after the theft with the horse at Wilberton. He was placed on trial...at Poteau...sentenced to two years...

The Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
November 28, 1911
page 3

Poteau, Okla. Nov 27 (Special) Following their preliminary hearing here Monday, in which Sam Swider, a convict...confessed that he was in a party which murdered Bud Terry here in 1907, E. L. Bates, Miller Vaughn andWill Stiles were held without bail for causing the death of Swider (sic). It is probable their trial will be held in the near future.

...the testimony of Sam Swider, Louis McKibben, and Mrs. Julia Cox of Caulksville, Ark., the latter an aunt of Terry... He [Swider] said on August 17, 1907, he, with McKibben, Terry, Stiles, Vaughn and Bates, were returning from Heavener to Bates' sawmill, some miles from Heavener, when Bates accused Terry of talking about his wife... Jack Slater of Braden, Okla. testified that three years ago he stayed with Swider one night. He overheard Swider's wife plead with her husband to expose Terry's murderer. Swider, he said, told his wife he would be killed if he told. Slater told M. Wyatt of Poteau about the conversation. Wyatt had been working on the case for some time for the Odd Fellows lodge of which he and Terry were members...

[Note: article is very lengthy and descriptive of the murder.]

The Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
April 28, 1912 p 11

Bud Terry Case Is Nearing Trial

Poteau, Okla. April 27 - ...one of the great murder trials heard in eastern Oklahoma in years...defendants Will Stilles of Caulksville, Ark., Millard Vaught of Mena, Ark., and W. L. Bates, a merchant of Heavener, Okla...accused of killing Bud Terry of Caulksville, near Hearener...

Another murder case to be heard is that of Rice Rogers and Nathaniel Williams, negroes of Spiro, accused of killing Charles Folsom, a negro, with strychnine. Folsom's daughter and widow are also accused of complicity, but having confessed may not be tried.

The Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
May 16, 1912 p 3

Terry Jury Is Unable To Agree

Poteau, Okla. May 15 (Special) After deliberating since 9 o'clock Tuesday morning the jury in the Bud Terry murder case at 9 o'clock Wednesday night reported to Judge Brown in the district court that it was hopelessly divided and was discharged. The jury stood 10 to 2 for acquittal. The bonds of the defendants, W. L. Bates of Heaver, Millard Vaught of Mena, Ark. and Will Styles of Ratcliff, Ark., were deduced to $2,000 by Judge Brown, but they had not given bail Wednesday night.

The Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
November 3, 1912 p 6

Six Murder Cases On Poteau Docket

Poteau, Okla. - District court will open at Poteau, November 6 with sixty-three criminal cases on the docket, including six murder cases, the most important of which are W. S. Bates, a merchant of Heavener, Millard Vaught, of Mena, Ark., and Will Stiles of Ratliffe, Ark., who are charged with killing Bud Terry near Heavener in 1907...

Other murder charges are again Man Hawkins, Wilson LeFlore, and A. S. Williams. Another interesting case is expected to be that of Jake Goins, G. W. Adkins, Daniel Terrell and J. N. Hembree charged with opening a grave...

The Daily Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
December 26, 1912 p 1

Skeleton Buried; Mystery Unsolved

Fort Smith, Ark., Dec. 25 (Special) The skeleton of Bud Terry, of Caulkesville, Ark., found on a mountain top near Heavener, Okla. in 1907 after he had been murdered, according to the charge made by the state in the trials of W. S. Bates, of Heavener, Richard Stilles of Ratcliffe, Ark., and Millard Vaught of Mena, Ark., who were recently acquitted at Poteau, Okla. was buried at Ozark yesterday under the auspices of the I.O.O.F lodge which was instrumental in identifying the skeleton and exposing Terry's death.

Information posted as courtesy to researchers.