Deputy Coral A. Hickman

End of Watch

March 14, 1930

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Deputy Hickman served under Kiowa County Sheriff Walter P. Mayne.

On March 14, 1930, three men robbed the Manter State bank taking approximately $4,000. Deputy Hickman spotted the suspect vehicle and proceeded to follow it. The vehicle turned a corner, sped up, and stopped two miles east of Eads. Deputy Hickman caught up with the suspect vehicle and stopped, the three suspects (Clyde Ray, Andrew Halliday and John Walker) approached his vehicle with rifles and shotguns and opened fire, striking Deputy Hickman six times.

The suspects then fled to Cheyenne County, Colorado, where they shot and wounded the sheriff and a deputy. They then fled back to Kansas where they were apprehended.

Ed Hickman, age 63, a former cow puncher and brother of slain deputy, was the first witness for the State. He told of finding his brother lying face down in the road after the fatal encounter with the three men. Deputy Hickman was still alive when Ed Hickman found him. Ed Hickman testified that  Coral Hickman faced the gun when first shot and he had been shot after he fell to the ground.

The scene of the shooting was investigated by Sheriff Walter P. Mayne and Deputy Floyd Anderson of the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office.

District Judge Samuel D. Trimble presided over the trial of the three men who murdered Deputy Hickman: Clyde Ray, Andrew Halliday and John Walker. The District Attorney, J. Arthur Phelps, demanded the death penalty for all three of the men. District Attorney Phelps requested that the jury send the three men to the gallows. On January 30, 1931, the three men were hung at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado.

(Source: Kiowa County Press.)