Random chance seems to have operated in our favor
Song Lyrics of the Marlow Brothers
A story that the movie "Son's of Katie Elder" was based on. They weren't outlaws in the true sense of the word.
by Marlow Resident Mickey Hoy
In southern Oklahoma, along the Chisholm Trail
Lives a story about a family's pride.
For one hundred years or so, the memory still remains,
The fateful legend of an outlaw ride.
Horse stealin' was the charge against George and Alf and Charlie.
While a shoot-out with a lawman followed Boone.
With no way to prove their innocence, they chose life on the run.
Riding 'neath the Oklahoma moon.
Doc Marlow had five ornery sons, and some folks think its true.
That they were on the lawless side.
And sometimes on an autumn night when the air is clear and cool,
I swear I still can hear those outlaws ride.
Marshall Johnson and his deputies surprised them on Hell Creek
And the Marlow brothers could no longer hide.
They put shackles on their ankles and cuffs upon their hands;
Their freedom ended with a wagon ride.
A jail in Graham, Texas would be the brothers home.
Till a circuit judge could decide their fate.
But the wheels of western justice moved too slow for some in town;
For an angry mob determined not to wait.
That very day the plans were made to move the boys away
To a distant jail until they could be tried.
And on January nineteen of eighteen eighty-nine
The captives took another outlaw ride.
At sundown on that winter eve, a wary band of travelers
Left Graham headed out for safer ground.
While at Dry Creek a gang of cowards waited in the silence,
To have their way and gun the brothers down.
As gunfire pierced the darkness, the Marlow boys took cover,
Down behind the wagon's wooden sides.
And with the guns of lawmen who ran from the lynch mob bullets,
Two brothers took their final outlaw ride.
Alf and Ellie Marlow lay dead there in the moonlight,
While George and Charlie forced the mob to flee.
Bound to their murdered brothers by chains around the ankles,
A Bowie knife was there to cut them free.
The price of freedom on that night, paid by the Marlow Brothers
And the courage that was shown against the odds
Drew praise by Judge McCormick as he cleared them from the charges
And passed sentence on the ruthless, angry mob.