Case File: Charles Reuter

Locations

• 220 Wisconsin Ave, Peoria, Illinois - home of Charles with his first wife Mina, she kept it in the divorce.
• 624 N. Boston Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma - home of Guy McKenzie
• 625 N. Cheyenne Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma - home of Charles Reuter, murder location
• 630 N. Cheyenne Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma - home of H. W. Stover where Mrs. Reuter spent the night after the murder

People

Name	(Born-Died)	Description
Baker, Joseph "Joe"
Bellew, Grover "Bud"		Chauffeur of McKenzie
Breckinridge, M. A.		Superior Court Judge
Brodie, Dr.		Attended Mrs. Reuter and the murder
Bruner, Billy		"an Indian", traded with McKenzie for a revolver owned by Reuter
Egan, Ed		Detective
Grosshart, Dr.		Attended Mrs. Reuter and the murder
Hanson, Charles		Assist. Chief of Police, arrested Bellew
Johnson, Ralph		witness, post office clerk
Malloy		County Attorney
McCullough, William		Sheriff on the murder case
McKenzie, Guy D.		a driller for water
McKenzie, Stella		sister to Guy, "warm personal friend" to Laura
Malloy		County Attorney
Pence, L. B.		Administrator of the estate of Charles Reuter
Reuter, Charles T.	1869-1912	The victim. A prominent lawyer and defense attorney
Reuter, John Charles	1909-?	son of Charles and Laura, age 3
Reuter, Laura M.	1885-?	Wife of Charles Reuter, and suspect
Reuter, Marcella Deener	1905-?	daughter of Charles and Laura, age 7
Rossland, Ed		Assistant County Attorney, acting in the absence of County Attorney Malloy
Stover, H. W.		Neighbor where Mrs. Reuter spent the night
Yoder, Ed		Chief of Police

Documentation

Burials

• Find-a-Grave: Charles T. Reuter (1869-1912), in Peoria, Illinois

Census Records

• 1880 US Federal Census: Peoria, Illinois - Charles, age 11, with parents and siblings.
• 1910 US Federal Census: Peoria, Illinois - Charles, 32, with first wife Mina in the home of his mother and sister.
• 1910 US Federal Census: Tulsa, Oklahoma - Charles, Laura, and their two children "Marzella" (age 4), and John (age 1)

Court Records

• 1912-1914: Probate of Charles T. Reuter, #1203 (114 pages); Laura M. Reuter petitions for a settlement and partition of the estate. Commissioners W. A. Brownlee, G. N. Wright, and W. P. Moore are appointed to view and appraise the estate. Mrs. Reuter is allowed $40 per month for the maintenance of herself and the children during the process of the settlement of the estate (6 Jun 1912). They find that four parcels of real estate are worth a total value of $7050. The judge finds that Mrs. Reuter and the two children each hold a one-third interest in the estate. Pence receives $359.19 in commission and expenses as administrator of the estate.
  • Testimony of Mrs. Reuter: marriage date, births of children.
  • Undertakers Receipt: Mewbray Undertaking Co, $247 for casket, hearse, ambulance, shaving, embalming, and permit.
  • Rolls File: Note on male child, 1/16 degree Cherokee, in probate by mistake? #1143, age 11 when enrolled 1 Sep 1902, Census Card #370
  • Receipt: adenoid operation (tonsils) for Johnie, $25
  • Accounting: Allowances, Advancements and Taxes for Laura Reuter, total $1185.29

Newspaper Articles

• 3 Feb 1899 (Freeport Daily Bulletin) - How Charles Reuter moved from being a barber to a lawyer
• 10 Jul 1903 (Weekly Pantagraph) - Charles make new record for clearing 150 judgements in half a day as a township judge in Peoria.
• 8 Nov 1904 (The Inter Ocean) - marriage license for "Charles Renter" of Peoria, Ill (35) and Mary McKeon (20)
• 24 Feb 1907 (Tulsa World) - Charles T. Reuter returns to Peoria after a few days stay in Tulsa, he will come back with his family and practice law.
• 26 Apr 1907 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles Reuter purchases his residence on North Cheyenne Ave.
• 13 Nov 1907 (Tulsa World) - Charles has two greyhounds
• 21 Nov 1907 (Collinsville News) - Charles is attorney for Olive Oil Company of Tulsa, with great confidence in the "Baker oil field"
• 25 Nov 1908 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is elected 2nd Vice-President of the new "Jefferson-Jackson Club" in Tulsa
• 5 Dec 1908 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is elected Secretary of the North West Improvement Association of Tulsa
• 10 Dec 1908 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles represents Mrs. Cora Tate in divorce, reports that husband is "a habitual drunkard" and physically and verbally abusive to her and the children.
• 9 Aug 1909 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is acting city attorney, is prosecution in a case against eight gamblers
• 25 Aug 1909 (Muskogee Daily Phoenix) - Miss Louise Martin, 16, attempts suicide, is office girl to Charles Reuter
• 21 Dec 1909 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is seriously ill at home with grip and malaria.
• 21 Jan 1910 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is quickly on the road to recovery from Typhoid Fever.
• 24 Jan 1910 (Tulsa Tribune) - further recovery from typhoid fever, but leaking much weaker than before.
• 29 Mar 1910 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles represents the city in a case of patrolman Grant Pilkington against C. P. Kline and son who slashed Pilkington across the cheek with a knife (held by the elder), the Kline's filed a counter suit for a receiving a head wound by an officer or officers on the way to the police station.
• 7 Jul 1910 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles is assaulted by James Pilkington (brother of Grant Pilkington), proprietor of a grocery store after Reuter caused the grocery store to be attached for an alleged debt.
• 11 Mar 1911 (Tulsa Tribune) - Charles files to be on the ballot for Mayor of Tulsa.
• 5 May 1912 (Tulsa World) - First local article, Charles T. Reuter killed by a robber, wife distraught.
• 6 May 1912 (Tulsa Tribune) - "No Kisses from Her Lips", "I Knew It Was Coming to Papa"
• 7 May 1912 (Tulsa World) - Two Arrests
• 20 Sep 1912 (Washington County Sentinel and the Weekly Enterprise) - Trial of Guy D. McKenzie, Mrs. Laura M. Reuter, Bud Bellew, and Joe Baker is set for 5 Oct 1912 according to the plans of County Attorney Malloy. McKenzie, Baker, and Bellew are in County jail while Mrs. Reuter is at liberty on her own recognizance. Trial set by Superior Judge M. A. Breckinridge.
• 22 Jun 1914 (Tulsa World) - rumors that Mrs. Reuter has remarried, or intends to, to a "young and good looking" stenographer that has been keeping company with her for several months. He was away from work on vacation while Mrs. Reuter left the city "for some little time" to visit her children at a boarding house in Fort Smith, Arkansas - she has been staying at the Hotel Tulsa. She has her home on North Cheyenne on lease for 1 year.

Vital Records

• 1904: Marriage of Charles Reuter and "Mary McKeon" in Chicago
• 1905: Birth of "Marcella Dean Reuter" in Peoria, Illinois