Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt demanded four racist McCurtain County officials resign after a newspaper released partial audio of the officials discussing lynching two Black journalists.
“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County,” Stitt said in a released statement, according to the Associated Press. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office.”
Bruce Willingham, an established McCurtain Gazette-News publisher, attended a county commissioner’s meeting on March 6 and left his tape recorder, hoping to catch the officials violating Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act, which prohibits conclaves regarding county business.
Willingham returned to retrieve his device, capturing an abhorrent and racist conversation among four state officials: McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, sheriff’s Capt. Alicia Manning, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix.
The McCurtain Gazette only released a portion of the recording but plans on publishing the full audio later.
In the recording, officials complained about two journalists, Bruce and Chris Willingham — a father and son. Jennings had his racist moment when he admitted he would and wanted to lynch Black people.
“If it was back in the day, when…Alan Marston would take a damn Black guy and whoop their ass and throw him in the cell? I’d run for f**king sheriff,” Jennings proudly said with white supremacy pride dripping from his mouth.
Clardy told Jennings that times aren’t like that anymore, and the racist commissioner stated, “I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.”
Manning cut in with, “They are insignificant in my life, really.”
Jennings then got to plotting their murders, saying, “I know where two big deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” with Clardy jumping in with, “I’ve got an excavator.”
Jennings was obviously serious because he admitted to knowing “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding, “They’re very quiet guys.”
Manning asked, “If a hair on his wife’s head, Chris Willingham’s head, or any of those people that really were behind that…if any hair on their head got touched by anybody, who would be the bad guy?”
The name Alan Marston mentioned earlier belonged to a former McCurtain County Sheriff in the 1980s, which begs the question, what was Marston doing as a sheriff that has Jenning’s looking to him as inspiration?
Bruce Willingham provided the audio records to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office. He said he talked with several federal investigators about the matter.
As for his theories on why the officials were angry, he presumed the sheriff’s office was furious about the stories the newspaper ran that harmed the sheriff’s office’s reputation.
One of the stories covered the death of Bobby Barrick, an Oklahoma man who died in a hospital in March 2022 after the county deputies deployed and fired a stun gun. The newspaper attempted to get body cam footage regarding the death and had to take matters to court.
The sheriff’s office submitted a statement Tuesday on Facebook.
“The last 72 hours have been amongst the most difficult and disruptive in recent memory,” the statement read. “This is a very complex situation and one we regret having to address. There is and has been an ongoing investigation into multiple, significant violation of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act, Title 13, Chapters 176.3 and 176.4, which states that it is illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties. There is a significant number of victims of this criminal activity, and it has taken significant effort and time to identify them and corroborate evidence.”
The statement continued, “Many of these recordings, like the one published by media outlets on Friday, have yet to be duly authenticated or validated. Our preliminary information indicates that the media-released audio recording has, in fact, been altered. The motivation for doing so remains unclear at this point. That matter is actively being investigated.”
“In addition to being illegally obtained, the audio does not match the ‘transcription’ of that audio and is not precisely consistent with what has been put into print,” the sheriff’s office concluded in the unapologetic statement. “Multiple agencies are assisting in this ongoing investigation. As a result of the press release that went out on Friday, a large number of threats of violence, including death threats, have been made against county employees and officials, their families and friends. There will be continued press releases from this agency as the investigation comes to a close and findings are forwarded to the appropriate authorities for felony charges to be filed on those involved.”
Bruce said he spoke with attorneys to ensure he wasn’t doing anything illegal.
It’s no surprise that Oklahoma officials plotted to kill Black journalists when it’s the same state where the Universal Aryan Brotherhood resides. The Aryan Brotherhood is an active white supremacist prison gang.
Furthermore, McCurtain is seated in the southeastern part of Oklahoma, known as “Little Dixie.” In the mid-1830s, the southeast part of Oklahoma was known as Indian Territory. Two Indian tribes, Choctaw and Chickasaw, joined forces with the Confederates during the Civil War, engaging in white supremacy behavior, like owning slaves.
As the years progressed, the area became predominantly white, and the culture aligned with Southern culture. So, confederates (people who were pro-slavery) infested southeast Oklahoma and still do. The pro-slavery mentality currently resides in that area, and this audio proves it. Jennings was way too comfortable and excited talking about lynching Black people.
He wants to be called “massa.”
And the sheriff’s department issuing a statement defending themselves instead of apologizing shows none of those people should be in power.
No one has resigned yet.
