A driverless horse and wagon wandered aimlessly in the prairie
between Fort Gibson and Tahlequah in Indian Territory on December 3, 1883. Jim
Merrill heard the wagon come up to his front gate and went out to investigate.
In the bed of the wagon, he found the body of Arch Casey with a large bullet
hole in his left breast.
The wagon tracks were clearly visible in the dirt. They
followed a meandering route, sometimes on the road, sometimes off. Then, at one
point, they stuck to the road as if someone had guided the wagon to that spot
and then abandoned it. The tracks led back to the house of Mrs. Mary Matoy,
about a hundred yards north of the road to Tahlequah.
Mrs. Matoy was a widow who had "...born the reputation of being loose in character—a hard case—shrewd, bold and dangerous." Her son Jimmie (age reported
variously 12-15) also had a bad reputation. They claimed to have no knowledge of the murder, but the
Indian Police searched the house and found blood stains under a bed and a splotch
of blood where the wagon had stood. The day before, Jimmie had borrowed a
large-bore gun and four cartridges from a neighbor. He returned it the next morning,
having shot two of the cartridges.
Captain Sam Sixkiller of the Indian Police was convinced of their
guilt. He arrested them both and conveyed them to Muskogee. From there, they
were taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas to await trial in the U.S. District Court.
Arch Casey was an Irishman who came to Fort Gibson in 1866
with the 19th Regiment of the U.S. Infantry. After discharge, he remained
in the district. He married a native woman and had three children. Casey was
described as industrious and peaceable but sometimes drank too much. His wife
died several years earlier, and he began a relationship with Mary Matoy. He
lived, off and on, at her house during the last three years.
While in jail in Fort Smith, Mary Matoy had her four-year-old
daughter in the cell with her. They lived that way for the next six months
until her trial the following June.
Both Mary and Jimmie persistently denied all knowledge of
the killing until a few days before their trial, when they acknowledged the
crime but claimed self-defense. On the witness stand, Mary explained what
happened:
Casey came to my house shortly after dinner time, and alighting
from his wagon came in and began to abuse me. I went out in the yard. He
followed and pushed me down over a pile of rocks. Jimmie ran into the house and
got a gun. When he came out, Casey chased him around behind the house with an
ax-handle. I then heard the gunshot, and going around there saw Casey lying on
the ground. He died almost instantly. We were scared, and concluded the best
thing we could do was to conceal the crime; so we dragged the body into the
house, and taking the bedding from the slats laid Casey on them, and then put
the bedding back on top of him. We did this to prevent anyone from seeing him
who might chance to pass during the evening. After dark, we dragged the body to
the wagon in the yard, and placed it in such a way as to make it appear that he
had been shot in the wagon, and fallen off the seat. We then got in the wagon,
taking my little girl along, and drove in a round-about way to where the team
was found next morning, sometimes driving out of the road to make it appear
that the team had got there without any driver. After abandoning the team we walked
back home through the woods, a distance of nine miles, arriving there about daylight,
carrying my little girl all the way back.
The Matoys had been charged with murder, but Mary’s explanation
was enough to convince the jury to find them guilty of the lesser charge of
manslaughter. The judge gave them the maximum sentence—ten years in prison and
a $1,000 fine.
Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal C.M. Barnes took Mary and Jimmie,
along with nine other convicts, to the House of Correction in Detroit, Michigan.
Mary was not allowed to take her little daughter to prison with her. They had
an emotional farewell in Arkansas before leaving. The girl was adopted by a
family in Fort Smith.
Sources:
“[Capt John A,”
Cherokee Advocate, December 14, 1883.
“[Casey; Fort Gibson; Mrs,”
Cherokee Advocate, December 7, 1883.
“[Matoy; Casey],”
Cherokee Advocate, December 14, 1883.
“Arrested for Murder,”
Rockford Daily Register., December 19, 1883.
“Capt.Hyde,”
Indian chieftain., December 28, 1883.
“Mother and Child Acting as Murderers,”
National Police Gazette, July 26, 1884.
“Mother And Child Take a Sad Farewell, the Former Leaving for a Prison Cell,”
Daily Arkansas Gazette, July 23, 1884.
“Mother and Son Sentenced,”
Fort Worth daily gazette., June 20, 1884.
“Woman Convicted of Murder,”
Rockford Daily Register., June 20, 1884.
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