Oklahoma Sheriff, Commissioner, Accused Of Discussing Killing A Reporter And Returning To Black Hangings

In south­east Oklahoma, the sher­iff of McCurtain County, one of his inves­ti­ga­tors and a coun­ty com­mis­sion­er are accused by a news­pa­per of dis­cussing killing a local reporter and lament­ing that mod­ern jus­tice no longer includes hang­ing Black peo­ple. The explo­sive accu­sa­tions were pub­lished this week in the McCurtain Gazette-News. According to the news­pa­per, Sheriff Kevin Clardy, inves­ti­ga­tor Alicia Manning and District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings were part of an impromp­tu dis­cus­sion after the March 6 meet­ing of the coun­ty Board of Commissioners. The Gazette report­ed that it is in pos­ses­sion of the full audio record­ing of the dis­cus­sion. The FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office also have copies of the record­ing, accord­ing to the newspaper.

A por­tion of the audio record­ings was released online over the week­end, and while the audio matched some of the quot­ed mate­r­i­al in the sto­ry, The Oklahoman could not iden­ti­fy who the speak­ers were in the record­ings. None of the alleged­ly record­ed indi­vid­u­als could imme­di­ate­ly be reached for com­ment. Chris Willingham is the reporter for the Gazette who was dis­cussed in the record­ings. He is also the author of the arti­cle. Willingham declined to com­ment on the sto­ry, cit­ing ongo­ing lit­i­ga­tion between him­self and the sher­if­f’s office. During the dis­cus­sion, which was record­ed with­out the trio know­ing, the Gazette report­ed Manning say­ing she need­ed to take some pack­ages to a ship­ping cen­ter near the newspaper’s office.

“Oh, you’re talk­ing about you can’t con­trol your­self?” Jennings alleged­ly said. In response, Manning alleged­ly said: “Yeah, I ain’t wor­ried about what he’s gonna do to me. I’m wor­ried about what I might do to him. My papaw would have whipped his ass, would have wiped him and used him for toi­let paper … if my dad­dy hadn’t been run over by a vehi­cle, he would have been down there.” Jennings replied that his 86-year-old father, in response to an opin­ion pub­lished in the news­pa­per, once “start­ed to go down there and just kill him,” accord­ing to the Gazette. “I know where two big, deep holes are here if you ever need them,” Jennings alleged­ly said. Clardy, the sher­iff, alleged­ly said he had the equip­ment. “I’ve got an exca­va­tor,” Clardy is accused of say­ing dur­ing the discussion.

Well, these are already pre-dug,” Jennings alleged­ly said. Jennings alleged­ly talked about know­ing hit­men in Louisiana who could “cut no (exple­tive) mer­cy.” A brief dis­cus­sion about assault­ing local judges fol­lowed, accord­ing to the Gazette. Jennings, the com­mis­sion­er, then dis­cussed how many peo­ple might run for sher­iff, accord­ing to the news­pa­per sto­ry. “They don’t have a god­damn clue what they’re get­ting into,” he said. “Not this day and age. I’m going to tell you some­thing — if it was back in the day, when Alan Marston would take a damned Black guy and whoop their (exple­tive) and throw them in the cell, I’d run for (exple­tive) sher­iff.” Clardy respond­ed by say­ing, “Yeah, it’s not like that no more,” the news­pa­per report­ed. Jennings then said Black peo­ple have more rights than oth­ers, accord­ing to the Gazette.