In hot pursuit of memories of trooper's time on roads

By Bryan Painter

Published: May 25, 2008

HUGO — Alcohol was on the breath of the two Texans. Humidity and tension were in the air along the Oklahoma side of the Red River that night in the early 1940s.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Ed Vandergriff noticed an object in the right hand of one of the men before the handcuffs were placed on.

Vandergriff also noticed that the man's eyes were on Vandergriff's partner, Cecil Snapp.

"We arrested two boys drunk in a car,” Vandergriff said.

One of the men had crossed paths with troopers before. He had been cuffed and appeared as though he would slide into the car without incident.

The other man hadn't been handcuffed and the knife in his right hand said he wasn't going to cooperate. Vandergriff, at 97, is the oldest living retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, vividly remembers what happened.

"I knew what was coming, he was going to cut Snapp down,” he said.

Time has taken an inch or more from his 6-foot-2 slender frame. But you can imagine his presence in his prime, at 62, weighing about 200 pounds.

He was born in Abilene, Texas, but with the exception of serving in World War II, he has lived in Oklahoma since age 4. Vandergriff was in the state trooper class in 1937 held at the University of Oklahoma. He retired from the highway patrol in 1960.

Recently he revisited memories of those early years with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, including that night along the river and the ill-willed Texan.

Sitting in his Hugo home, Vandergriff ran the tip of his bony left index finger along a scar at the base of his right thumb.

"I grabbed his hand with this hand and that's why that hand is messed up,” he said. "He had an open knife, and he cut those tendons there between those fingers. Well, I didn't say nothing. I just held the knife and loaded him and then I got in and drove.”

It was dark, so his partner couldn't see Vandergriff's bloody hand.

The troopers drove the men to the courthouse.

There's more to the story and we'll close with that, but first a manhunt story.

Vandergriff participated in numerous manhunts.

One involved the search for a guy who was said to have killed two men.

"We'd been hunting him for two days,” he said.

That's when another trooper's friend told him that a man had seized a pickup with a woman and child inside and taken them with him.

At some point, the captives escaped or were let out. But the suspect kept going with the other trooper in pursuit.

Finally, the man jumped out of the truck and ran into the woods. The trooper ran after him. Then the murder suspect darted out across a field where a farmer was plowing.

"The trooper run up and jumped up on the tractor and told him ‘Pick up them plows and catch that fella going yonder,'” Vandergriff said. "He run up pretty close to him and this trooper raised up and let him have it.”

"Let him have it,” as in he shot him.

But these moments were the exceptions, Vandergriff said when discussing the early days.

A book titled "Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, Continuing a Tradition,” states that "Armed with warning tickets, two-gallon gas cans and good training, the Patrol built a reputation for service and a friendly manner.”

"After we got them booked in, I asked Snapp to drive,” Vandergriff said. "It was my night to drive. He said, ‘What's the matter with you?'

"I said, ‘That guy cut my hand.' See, he didn't know it until then.”

They bandaged his hand at a local hospital and later Vandergriff went to Oklahoma City where he had surgery.

"He was going to cut Snapp down,” he said. "And he would have me, too, but I held onto that knife.”

The young trooper would be fine. But the same was not true for the knife-wielding Texan.

"He got killed the next week,” Vandergriff said.

Another officer shot him.

Comments