Osage county Oklahoma is a special place, its history is full of cowboys, Indians, oil fortunes and murder. In a way Osage county, Oklahoma has a more interesting history than Lincoln county, New Mexico where Billy the Kid once roamed. Osage county has or had some ranches that were over one hundred thousand acres. Most of the big ranches also had income from oil wells, wealth came in abundance for several families in Osage county.
The recent hit movie Killers of the Flower Moon is about a string of murders that transpired in Osage County, Oklahoma back during the oil boom of the 1920s. Osage county and the Osage Indian reservation are geographically the same. Before all the hub-bub about the movie, Osage county was also famous for another murder on one of the really big ranches in the county.
In the 1970s Osage county made front page news across the world once again. This time for the unsolved murder of EC Mullendore, heir/owner of the famed Mullendore ranch. State Senator Gene Stipe represented the Mullendore family during the tumultuous times after the murder. There was a $15,000,000 (fifteen million dollar) life insurance policy on EC Mullendore when he died. Rumors of mafia involvement, family squabbles and love affairs were rampant after the fateful night he was murdered. Only one person was inside the house when the murder happened, that person was Chub Anderson. Chub was both ranch hand and body guard for EC Mullendore. Not long after the murder, Chub Anderson disappeared. His absence only stoked the conspiracy theories surrounding the murder.
I lived in Washington county for a few years. Washington county is just to the east of Osage county. While living there I made several friends that knew people from the Mullendore ranch, one in particular was an older gentleman, Wolf Shipley.
Wolf was quite a bit older than me, I’d say he was born in the 1930s or 1940s. He liked to hunt, fish and trade. He always had a gun, boat motor or fishing pole for sale or trade. He’d come out and watch us rope, we even went fishing a time or two.
At some point around 2004 or 2005 word broke throughout northeast Oklahoma that Chub Anderson had came out from hiding. He had cancer and was discovered in Kansas when he tried to obtain treatment. The cancer he had was terminal, so the district attorney opted not to prosecute him, partly because he was dying, but also so the state wouldn’t have to pay for his cancer treatments if he was put in prison. The way it was explained to me the state opted for the cheaper version, let him die on his own without the state getting stuck paying his medical bills.
Wolf had a way of getting a twinkle in his eye when buying and selling stuff. That twinkle would also show up occasionally when telling a big hunting or fishing story. One day after the news about Chub Anderson broke Wolf told me he knew Chub Anderson and had went to visit with him.
Wolf mentioned Chub was suspected of killing EC Mullendore and that’s why he went to Montana and hid out all of those years. He only came home when he found out he had cancer. He lived under someone else’s name for decades, until the doctors in Kansas figured out he wasn’t who he said he was. Wolf never said if Chub admitted to shooting EC Mullendore, but his eyes sure twinkled while he was telling about visiting the infamous outlaw.
I never visited the Mullendore ranch or met any of the Mullendore family. I only know it was huge, tens of thousands of acres. The Mullendore ranch produced some good roping horses and became exceptionally famous for the tragic death of heir apparent to the family fortune.
Over the Christmas holidays I purchased a couple of books about the murder of EC Mullendore. One is titled the Mullendore Murder Case and the other is titled Footprints in the Dew, it specifically looks at Chub Anderson as the prime suspect. I’m sure I will enjoy reading them. Osage county is a special place, its history never ceases to amaze……
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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