In what has been described as the darkest day in the annals of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, three troopers were slain on May 26, 1978, in two separate shootouts with two escaped Oklahoma State Prison convicts in the Caddo-Kenefic area of Bryan County.
The three troopers killed in the tragedy were Trooper Houston F. "Pappy" Summers, 62, and Trooper Billy G. Young, 50, both members of the Motor Inspection Division who had been assigned to assist in tracing down the felons, and Lt. Pat Grimes, 36, who with his partner, Lt. Hoyt Hughes, internal Affairs Division, also had drawn an assignment to search for the escapees. Hughes was injured in the gunfire exchange, but recovered from his wounds.
Trooper Summers and Young were found slain on a lonely county road near Kenefic following a shootout with the two OSP escapees, who earlier had stolen a Bryan County farmer's pickup truck and weapons, later encountering the two troopers as they searched the area for the two felons.
Following an exchange of gunfire which mortally wounded both Summers and Young, the escapees sped in the stolen pickup truck into the small village of Caddo, setting up an ambush point in a brushy area in a residential sector.
As Lt. Grimes and Lt. Hughes cruised through the residential area seeking the convicts, they were fired upon from the pair's ambush, with Lt. Grimes suffering fatal wounds. Lt. Hughes was hit in the shoulder and arm.
Lt. Hughes exited his cruiser and fired point-blank at the hidden escapees. Despite his wounds he was able to put an end to one of the two convicts. A few seconds later, Lt. Mike Williams of the Durant detachment, fatally wounded the second convict, bringing an end to a 34-day trail of terror which the two had sought in a a six-state circuitous flight to Alabama and back to Oklahoma following their tunneling out of state prison at McAlester.
In addition to the three OHP troopers, five people were killed by the escaped convicts and three others wounded as the pair blazed a murderous trail from their prison confines in search of freedom.
Summers was a 32-year OHP veteran, stationed with the MVI Division at Enid. Young, attached to the Woodward MVI detachment, had been with the Patrol for 25 years, while Lt. Grimes was rounding out 12 years of OHP trooper service.
