Town note
Choctaw Native Americans began arriving in the 1830s, removed from the American South and forced into the area.
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FILE 60 / 7 March 2018 / 148 MIN / full
James says they are heading to Phillips, Oklahoma, in the south central part of the state, and that it is in Coal County. about 0:06:13
Choctaw Native Americans began arriving in the 1830s, removed from the American South and forced into the area.
about 0:09:00Coal County was carved mostly from what is now Atoka County and the Pushmataha district, Indian territory.
about 0:10:20Coal mining and agriculture were the main sources of employment.
about 0:10:55Mining picked up in the 1870s and attracted large numbers of Eastern European immigrants.
about 0:10:58Choctaw Native Americans began arriving in the 1830s, removed from the American South and forced into the area.
about 0:09:00Coal County was carved mostly from what is now Atoka County and the Pushmataha district, Indian territory.
about 0:10:20Coal mining and agriculture were the main sources of employment.
about 0:10:55Mining picked up in the 1870s and attracted large numbers of Eastern European immigrants.
about 0:10:58Mine permits cost five dollars annually, paid to the Choctaw Nation.
about 0:11:06Coal mines opened in Lehigh and Colgate in the 1880s.
about 0:11:55Railroads were built to serve the mines, and Centrahoma and other towns began as railroad stops.
about 0:11:59The town is named for Henry L. Phillips, who opened a store and operated a coal mine.
about 0:12:23When the post office opened in 1892, Henry L. Phillips became the first postmaster.
about 0:12:28Oklahoma became a state in 1907 and Coal County was organised then, with 15,585 residents.
about 0:13:03Boon Williams of Lehigh, a Democratic representative, persuaded the first state legislature to select Lehigh as county seat.
about 0:13:11A special election in 1908 chose Colgate over Lehigh and Centrahoma, but more people voted than were registered and the courts refused to hear the case.
about 0:13:29The first courthouse was built in 1909.
about 0:14:07Mining peaked between 1910 and 1916, with thousands of men working in the mines.
about 0:14:15Italian, French, Mexican and Slovakian immigrants came in during the mining boom.
about 0:14:34Strip mining companies came after the First World War, but the mines declined and closed in 1921.
about 0:16:15The county population fell from 18,406 in 1920 to 11,521 in 1930.
about 0:16:42The mines reopened during the Second World War and closed completely by 1958.
about 0:17:14In 1910 there were only about 1,100 farms, and by the turn of the 21st century only 586 were left.
about 0:19:03The post office closed in 1927.
about 0:19:09In 1956 the school closed and was annexed to Colgate.
about 0:20:17The Clear Boggy and Muddy Boggy rivers run through the area.
about 0:20:53In April 2005 Coal County commissioners voted unanimously to ask Sheriff Roy Deck to resign over allegations that he sexually harassed an 18-year-old female dispatcher; he refused.
about 0:21:1066%
Biggest faith: Catholic, 0.0%
about 0:24:48White 63% · Black 0.0% · Asian 0.0% · Hispanic about five percent
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
exactly average
Violent crime
▲ about 50% higher
Two-bedroom, one-bath, 820 square foot house
about 0:29:49Three-bedroom, one-bath, 1,200 square foot brick house
about 0:29:56Three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,000 square foot house
about 0:30:01"exactly average"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2018 about 0:31:02
"about 50% higher"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2018 about 0:31:04
"129"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:21:57
"19,972"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:22:08
"down 20%"
Comparison: "161 people in 1990". Direction: below.
As told in 2018 about 0:22:16
"42.5"
Comparison: "about five years older than the average". Direction: above.
As told in 2018 about 0:22:32
"about 55%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:22:39
"about 47%"
Comparison: "normally 50-50". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:23:12
"25%"
Comparison: "usually 11%". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:23:36
"33%"
Comparison: "usually about 10%". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:23:42
"63%"
Comparison: "average of 62%". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:10
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:17
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:17
"16%"
Comparison: "average of 0.66%". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:23
"about five percent"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:27
"66%"
Comparison: "50% is the average". Direction: above.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:48
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:24:57
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:25:09
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:25:17
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:25:17
"73%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:25:29
"27%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:25:29
"over nine percent"
Direction: above.
As told in 2018 about 0:26:06
"$32,500"
Comparison: "about $21,000 less than the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2018 about 0:26:11
"21%"
Comparison: "usually four percent". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:26:23
"82"
Comparison: "100 is average". Direction: below.
As told in 2018 about 0:26:40
"$65,000"
Comparison: "national average $185,800". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:26:56
"about 47%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:27:34
"about $658"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:29:30
"$54,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:29:49
"$84,999"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:29:56
"$145,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:30:01
"15,585"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:13:07
"18,406"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:16:42
"11,521"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:16:47
"six thousand"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:17:26
"$5 annually"
Comparison: "paid to the Choctaw Nation". No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 0:11:06
"$525 a month"
No direction stated.
As told in 2018 about 1:18:12
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Phillips, in Coal County in south-central Oklahoma, is a town of 129 people about two hours from Oklahoma City and two hours and ten minutes from Dallas. It was built on coal, and the story that brought James there began with a family that had been poor and violent for generations. Marie had been raped at thirteen in West Virginia and had her first child, Eugene, in 1933; she had a third-grade education, drank heavily and beat her children. He left school in the fifth grade, had an IQ of 81, and spent time in juvenile hall for burglary and car theft. In 1973, barely eighteen, he married a fifteen-year-old, Margaret Helen Jaws, in Mexico. In 1976 he was in a motorcycle accident in Portersville, California. In 1978 he met Janelle Moore, then twenty-four, in a cafe in Calvin, Oklahoma. A gunshot wound to his lower left hip in January 1983 could not be repaired, and the bullet stayed in him, causing back pain and numbness in his left leg.
Marie died of cancer in Colgate on 26 January 1986. Janelle divorced him soon afterwards.
She moved to Tupelo in 1988 and married Eugene Mayo on 7 May 1988 at Debbie Smith's house. In August 1991 Mayo left her and moved in with his parents.
Judy disappeared on 5 September 1991. The next day Judy's body was found floating in a small pond next to the lake, shot in the head and neck and wrapped in a quilt and mattress pad. On 16 October 1991 a Choctaw County volunteer fireman, Brian Wilkins, found Melissa's remains in woods off a trail near the Clear Boggy River north of Boswell. She had been stabbed, and her remains had lain there for weeks. Melissa was buried at Lehigh Cemetery on 22 November 1991.
The women pulled the body into the cellar, cleaned the blood, and locked Melissa in a back room. They took the couch to a bridge near Centrahoma and threw it off.
September 1991 / the house in Phillips, Oklahoma, and Atoka Lake
As told in the episode, on 7 March 2018.
Accused
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
body found
about 1:21:18body found
about 1:21:59body found
about 1:24:33other
about 1:27:36business
about 1:23:43police
about 1:21:09hospital
about 0:52:04hospital
about 1:07:14hospital
about 0:48:54hospital
about 0:49:00home
about 0:59:21home
about 1:16:47home
about 1:20:37landmark
about 1:48:01business
about 2:09:54business
about 1:52:02business
about 0:30:24other
about 2:11:10