Wilbur Underhill Jr. (March 16, 1901 – January 6, 1934), often called "Mad Dog" or the "Tri-State Terror", was an American criminal, burglar, bank robber and Depression-era outlaw.
His three older brothers Earl, George and Ernest all became career criminals, though none gained the notoriety of Wilbur, while his three sisters led law-abiding lives.
[1] Underhill was released on parole in late 1926, and on Christmas Day he and Ike "Skeet" Akins robbed a drug store in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
Underhill and Akins were still awaiting trial when they decided to escape from the Okmulgee jailhouse on January 30 with fellow inmates Red Gann and Duff Kennedy using smuggled hacksaws.
Underhill was finally caught in Panama on March 20 and taken to Okmulgee where he was convicted of the Fee murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 3, 1927.
[1] Three days after the Kingfisher robbery, Bailey was visiting Robert Shannon, father-in-law of Machine Gun Kelly, at his Texas ranch and safehouse when police and federal agents raided the property.
Bailey had been passed ransom money from Kelly's kidnapping of oil tycoon Charles Urschel and wrongly convicted in the plot two months later.
He had been called "Mad Dog" or the "Tri-State Terror" by several newspapers, one even dubbing him The Southwest Executioner, while authorities made efforts to go after them almost immediately following the Okmulgee heist.
On November 18, while the task force was still in Cookson Hills, Underhill presented himself at the courthouse in nearby Coalgate and applied for a marriage license under his own name.
[1] FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, reportedly frustrated with the lack of progress from Oklahoma authorities, assigned agent R.H. Colvin to the Underhill case.
Colvin soon discovered that Underhill had given his wife's address in Oklahoma City to the minister who married them in order to receive their marriage certificate.
[1] On December 26, 1933, Wilbur and Hazel Underhill were celebrating their honeymoon with Ralph Roe and his girlfriend Eva May Nichols at a rented cottage in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
[1] Eva Nichols, an innocent woman, was killed in the gunfight and Underhill, barefoot and still in his underwear, ran from the house attempting to escape.
This accomplished little, especially with Underhill's death a week later, and the incident was used by newspapers to turn public opinion against the gang and within months Bradshaw and the others had been killed or apprehended.