Deputy Sheriff Oscar L. Honea

Oscar L. Honea

Deputy Sheriff Oscar Honea was shot and killed as he, the sheriff, and a constable attempted to arrest a Faulkner County jail escapee.

They had gone to the man's home near Mayflower and learned that the subject was nearby. As they searched for him the man set up an ambush in a thicket approximately three miles west of Mayflower. As Deputy Honea entered the thicket the man opened fire with a shotgun, killing him.

The man was eventually arrested, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to 20 years at the state prison farm. In January 1917 the man escaped from the farm three times over the course of the month. In March 1917 he and an accomplice robbed a bank in Collinston, Louisiana, in which he shot and killed the town mayor. He was shot five times by a pursuing posse and subsequently died of his wounds.