FRED FORBES TELLS OF .
TRAGIC SCENE AT FARM
Fred Forbes likely was the first man in Dalhart that knew
of the tragedy occurring at the J.W. Gunnells place, 5 miles south
of the city early Saturday afternoon. Headed south on Main street, passing
in front of the J.C. Penney company were the words "Fred! Fred!" startled
him and he looked around to see a closed car grinding to a stop. Forbes
crawled across two cars that were so closely parked he could not walk between
them, and stepped to the door of the car. Deputy Sheriff Harvey D. Foust,
hero of the gun battle which took the lives of George W. Alexander, sheriff,
and Lon and Orrell Dellinger, sat behind the wheel deathly pale and so
broken with grief he could hardly talk.
"Fred!" was all he could say.
"What is it?"
He thought Foust was hurt, Mr. Forbes said later.
Foust, speaking jerkily, said "Sheriff Alex and two others
shot at Gunnells' ranch. Get all the doctors you can and get out there
as quick as possible ."
"Dr. Artis and the ambulance are at the Peeples Home; go by
there." Foust shot away in his car and Mr. Forbes, an elderly man, ran
the block and a half to the Trans-Canadian Clinic where he is employed.
Out of breath he explained between gasps the situation and aided Dr. K.W.
Pieratt and Dr. G.W. Dawson gather up bandages and medicine. They left
the office in Dr. Pieratt's Dodge sedan and drove by the Peeples Funeral
Home where indications were that all speed possible was being made and
that the ambulance was nearly ready to leave. Mr. Forbes had planned to
stop there but decided not to when he saw the progress being made and inasmuch
as the three were on their way to the scene of the shooting.
Driving at breakneck speed the two doctors and Mr. Forbes
arrived at the scene of the tragedy, only to find two men sitting on the
front porch whittling. "We thought we'd come to the wrong place," one of
the trio said Sunday morning.
"Come here a minute," Dr. Dawson said to the two men on the
porch. They strolled toward him.
"Who are you three fellows?" they asked.
"We're the doctors, we were told to come out here."
"Well, we need an undertaker, we've got three dead men and
a women lying in there hurt . "
Entering the house the doctors found Lon huddled on the floor
at the foot of the bed. Mrs. Lon Dellinger was stretched out on the bed
with her head at the foot toward the south. She was groaning considerably
and seemed to be in a good deal of pain, it was said.
Orrell was stretched out across the bed at the feet of Mrs.
Dellinger. His feet were hanging off the bed and at intervals he would
raise his head sideways and look at the doctors.
"It was quite a number of minutes before anybody else except
those living there were on the scene." said Mr. Forbes.
Not knowing how bad Orrell was hurt the doctors searched him
as completely as possible for a gun, and also looked under him, but found
nothing .
"Do you have a gun, Orrell?" some one asked him.
"No; I don't have none."
So far as is known this was all Orrell said during the entire
time the doctors were at the house. Orrell said nothing nor offered any
resistance when emergency treatment was administered so he could be moved,
it is said.
He was placed in the rear seat of Pieratt's car and brought to Loretto
hospital by Forbes and Dr. Pieratt. Dr. Dawson coming back in another
car. All the way back to the city Orrell was silent and remained with sealed
lips while he was transferred to his white cot in the hospital.
Sheriff George W. Alexander, mortally wounded and unconscious,
was lying on his back in the sun on the ground near the south stoop of
the little house where the shooting occurred. A larger house hard by was
the one apparently occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Gunnells, G.P. Evans and
Joe F. Denney and on the porch of which the two men were, when the doctors
arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Gunnells are said to have been in the house at that
time.
Doctor Dawson moved the sheriff enough that Forbes removed
his pistol from its holster.
"It had never been fired," Mr. Forbes said. "It was on safety.
This was the same gun I carried last year during the Chrysanthemum Carnival
and on different other occasions during my deputyship under Mr. Alexander."
Mr. Forbes does not know all of those helping bring Alexander
inside the same little room where the one dead and the two wounded were.
He was laid on the floor as made as comfortable as possible. Doctors worked
over him almost constantly during the 45 minutes he lived after they arrived.
Some one was at his side all the time fanning him while the doctors
worked.
He did not regain consciouss.
While the doctors worked over the sheriff Mr. Forbes with
the sheriff's gun, kept watch over Orrell. There was no indication just
how bad he was hurtt and it was feared he might attempt more violence on
someone in the room. Mr. Forbes kept him covered with the gun until officers
arrived.
Mrs. Dellinger was also examined for weapons, a cold chisel
being found under her. Evidently it had been thrown there carelessly and
she had been laid on it by some one.
The doctors were at the Gunnells home several minutes before
the ambulance arrived as it had gone out Highway 51 toward Nara Visa and
Tucumcari and did not turn back until it arrived at Rehm. The Gunnells
home is five miles south of Dalhart on the middle canyon road, past the
Dalhart Golf Club links .
"What kind of gun did Mr. Alexander have?" Mr. Forbes was
asked.
"I don't know what caliber it is although I have carried it,
eleven days at a stretch one time. It is a heavy gun, nickle-plated with
a pearl handle . "
When the doctors and Mr. Forbes discovered Lon lying at the
foot of the bed there was an open suitcase by him which appeared, it is
said, as if it had been ransacked by somebody looking for something.
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