A payoff protection scheme involving Tulsa police and bootleggers was "a strange and disgusting story," U. S. District Attorney B. Hayden Crawford told a 1957 federal court jury. Twenty men, including Police Commissioner Jay Jones, Police Chief Paul Livingston and Tulsa Tribune reporter Nolen Bulloch, were on trial in the scheme that also involved gambling and prostitution. Sixteen were convicted. It was the most important criminal case spawned by Oklahoma's prohibition laws as well as the most important prosecuted by Crawford, who died Jan. 18 at the age of 84. The trial resulted in a reorganized police department that increased its enforcement of liquor laws and may have been a force in the approval by voters two years later of a constitutional amendment that repealed Oklahoma's prohibition laws. Crawford compared the conspiracy to Tennessee Williams' stage play and motion picture, "A Streetcar Named Desire." Instead of a streetcar, he told the jury in his opening statement, "we have a conspiracy named desire and the desire is for money."
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The government alleged that Jones, Livingston, other police and Bulloch shared in payoffs to prevent the arrests of bootleggers and to block bad publicity in the Tribune. He told the jury that "passengers will board and take part in this conspiracy; some will depart, some will stay on; some will get on later" but that the "conductor of this streetcar is a newspaper reporter -- Nolen Bulloch -- who is always on the streetcar." Bulloch and two other defendants were acquitted by Judge Royce H. Savage before the jury began its deliberations. The jury convicted Jones, Livingston, six vice squad detectives, five bootleggers, a Missouri liquor dealer, a bookmaker and a pool hall operator. One person was acquitted by the jury. Some received one-year prison terms, some fines and some both. Crawford received commendation letters from President Dwight Eisenhower and Attorney General William P. Rogers for his handling of the conspiracy case, which Judge Savage called an "outstanding performance by a district attorney." A year after the payoff trial, Crawford was confirmed by the Senate for another four-year term as DA, but he resigned to become chief of the executive office of U.S. Attorneys, a job that put him in charge of all federal DAs. Born in Tulsa, "Bunny" Crawford was educated at the University of Michigan, where he worked in a kitchen peeling potatoes and frying eggs to help pay his expenses. He also joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and developed a life-long love of the Navy. Crawford was called to active duty during World War II as a gunnery officer on a submarine named USS Spot. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in a gunbattle with a Japanese ship. After the end of the war, he became legal officer for the Pacific submarine fleet. He returned to the university to earn his law degree, this time working as a laborer during summers. After establishing a practice in Tulsa, Crawford was appointed as the district attorney by President Eisenhower in 1954 and joined the attorney general's office after the payoff trials. Crawford resigned from his job as a deputy assistant attorney general in Washington to become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Robert S. Kerr in 1960, but he lost in the general election. He tried again two years later but lost to incumbent A.S. (Mike) Monroney. Meanwhile, Crawford continued his service as a Naval Reserve officer and had risen to the two-star rank of vice admiral, the highest rank for a reserve Navy officer, before retiring in 1978. Crawford also was active in civic affairs and was a 2002 Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame inductee. He had served as president of the Tulsa Kiwanis Club, the Navy League and of various military, university and professional organizations. He was a member of the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C.; Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the Beach and Tennis Club in Pebble Beach, Calif.; Southern Hills Country Club and the Summit Club. Like this column? Read all the columns in the Only in Oklahoma series
from the Tulsa World Archive . Only in Oklahoma is a series from the Tulsa World Archive that was written by former Tulsa World Managing Editor Gene Curtis during the Oklahoma Centennial in 2007. The columns told interesting stories from the history of the country’s 46th state. The Tulsa World Archive is home to more than 2.3 million stories, 1.5 million photographs and 55,000 videos. Tulsa World subscribers have full access to all the content in the archive. Not a subscriber? We have a digital subscription special offer of $1 for three months for a limited time at
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