Ada

And about...

My senior year, toward the end of my career, a coach came in to where I was going to school at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

Dennis Darnell became the head football coach, and he gave a kid a chance.

He just gave me an opportunity to be the strength coach.

So new staff, you got fired.

Wasn't the first time you get fired for change of coaching staff.

But I reevaluated myself at that time because I had gone back to Oklahoma where my folks were in Ada at East Central.

See, my folks lived there where East Central was in that town.

It included, um, three universities.

Oklahoma State was the, the lead university, and then we also had a professor from, um, East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma-

Mm-hmm

... that, uh, was also involved in the project.

Myron, what would you think if I told you East Central beat Arkansas Tech 58-56, Myron? I think, where is East Central? You know what, Myron? I'm glad you asked.

East Central is in Ada, Oklahoma.

Have you ever been to Ada, Oklahoma? I haven't been, but I have a friend who is from there.

Really? Legit.

Okay, here's East Central.

I think it's Ida.

Oklahoma, actually.

Well, why is it not Ada? It's A-D-A.

[dramatic music]

At 9:00 on the evening of May 27th, 1947, Jasper Leach, operator of an independent service station in Ada, Oklahoma, was preparing to shut down for the night.

Suddenly, two men in a green convertible pulled into the service island of his station.

[humming] Closed for the night, fellas.

[siren blaring] KDX to all units.

KDX to all units.

Oklahoma State Police advised that about 9:00 PM of 5/27, gas station attendant in Ada, Oklahoma, was robbed and beaten to death with tire iron.

Subjects tentatively identified as, number one, Joe Gordon, average size, eyes blue, hair blond, complexion fair.

Love it.

Um, but I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma there on what is our tribal, um, headquarters area and the traditional boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation around Ada, Oklahoma.

Um, cut my teeth in enterprise IT there for our tribe, so PC building, servers, data centers, networking, voice over IP for a while.

Um, and then I found myself with a fancy new bachelor's degree in computer science and, um, six-ish years of experience in the industry there from the tribe, and was looking for a new gig and, and found an internship with our office on Capitol Hill in DC.

So now I'm going to read Grisham's introduction to this really remarkable book, Champions of Innocence.

In 1985, in the small town of Ada, Oklahoma, Tommy Ward was arrested for the abduction, rape, and murder of a young woman he had never met.

The following year, he was convicted and sentenced to death.

Oklahoma wanted desperately to execute him, but the gung-ho local authorities botched the prosecution so thoroughly that the appellate court reversed the conviction, something that rarely happens in Oklahoma.

Tommy was retried, reconvicted, and sentenced to life.

40 years later, Tommy is still locked away, still proclaiming his innocence, and still fighting in court.

In the 1980s, wrongful convictions were common in Ada.

There were at least six of them, probably more, from 1982 to 1988.

Case for tonight, The Trigger Men.

At 9 o'clock on the evening of May 27th, 1947, Jasper Leach, operator of an independent service station in Ada, Oklahoma, was preparing to shut down for the night.

Suddenly, two men in a green convertible pulled into the service island of his station.

Closed for the night, fellas.

KDX8 all units.

KDX8 all units.

Oklahoma State Police advised that about 9 p.m. of 5-27, gas station attendant in Ada, Oklahoma was robbed and beaten to death with tire iron.

Subjects tentatively identified as number one, Joe Gordon, average size, eyes blue, hair blonde, complexion fair.

Yeah.

Now, that 90s country got me too, by the way, and I always talk about that because I lived in southeast Oklahoma, where Blake Shelton's from, in Ada, Oklahoma, for about 20 years.

And my first wife was from there, and so we got married, and everybody was listening to that.

And I grew up playing music in the 80s, like Madonna and REO Speedwagon and Journey and all those great groups in Chicago and all that stuff that was big in the 80s.

I don't think I heard about that one.

Cameron Adams wrote the piece for, uh, Daily Beast.

Donald Trump's devoted 35-year-old aide, Natalie Harp.

By the way, I mean, maybe this is a f- the f- the whole Friday is gonna be complaints about weird stuff about the way people are discussing these things, but I've run into, like more than once, been, like, scolded by people for referring to Natalie Harp as being young or relatively young.