Elsie Adams

In the small farming community of Delaware, Oklahoma, on the verge of an oil boom, 15-year-old Elsie Adams was navigating a perilous situation. In 1909, her family had briefly lived in a boarding house run by Columbus Lee “Lum” Harkins, a wealthy and well-known local veterinarian. The arrangement led to a dark and dangerous relationship. For three years, Harkins, a man in his late 40s, groomed and sexually abused the young girl. By early 1912, Elsie had confided in friends that she did not care for Harkins but stayed with him because she feared him and he had threatened her. Her life was further complicated by a secret: she was pregnant with his child.

Elsie had found allies in her neighbors, Arvie and Safrania “Fronie” Hurst, who, along with Elsie’s older brother, Will “Bill” Adams, disapproved of the relationship and were trying to protect the girl. Bill had confronted Harkins and tried to persuade his sister to leave the man, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Harkins himself would later testify that if Bill Adams had not “caused trouble,” Elsie would still be alive. That trouble came to a horrific end on the cold night of Saturday, February 3, 1912.

That evening, Harkins attended a prayer meeting with Elsie. Witnesses saw them together around 8:30 p.m. Harkins later claimed he left Elsie at the Hurst residence at 9:30 p.m. with Arvie and Safrania. Around 10:30 p.m., a neighbor, Anna Grissom, who had just moved in nearby, noticed a bright light and discovered the Hurst’s small, two-room house was ablaze. She fired a gun into the air to sound the alarm. Despite the efforts of neighbors and the arrival of a hose cart, the fire, which appeared to have started in the east end of the house, was intense.

After the flames were extinguished, a gruesome discovery was made in the west end of the home. Firefighters found the badly burned bodies of Elsie Adams, Arvie Hurst, and Safrania Hurst. The condition of the remains made it clear this was no ordinary fire. An investigation began, led by officials from Nowata County. The autopsies revealed a sinister plot: all three victims had been poisoned with a substance believed to be morphine or potassium cyanide. Evidence at the scene indicated their bodies were then doused with coal oil to accelerate the fire. The examination of Elsie’s body confirmed she was four to five weeks pregnant.

Suspicion quickly fell upon C.L. Harkins. He was the last person known to have seen Elsie alive, possessed medical knowledge of poisons, and had a clear motive: to silence Elsie and eliminate those who were interfering in his control over her. He was arrested and charged with three counts of murder and one count of arson. The community was outraged, and reports from the time suggest a lynch mob was barely thwarted on the night of the murders.

Harkins was tried for the triple homicide, but the proceedings ended in a hung jury. While out on bail awaiting a second trial, the 48-year-old shocked the community by marrying a 22-year-old woman. The second trial, like the first, also resulted in a hung jury, and C.L. Harkins was never convicted of the murders of Elsie Adams and the Hurst couple. The case stalled and remains officially unsolved.

Though he escaped conviction for murder, Harkins’s predatory behavior continued. In 1915, he was charged with the rape of an 11-year-old girl. During that trial, prosecutors brought up his history, including the unresolved accusations in the Adams and Hurst murders. This time, the jury found him guilty, and a judge sentenced him to 50 years in prison. His reign of terror ended on July 30, 1920, when he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary during a dispute over a poker game. While justice was never formally served for Elsie, Arvie, and Safrania, their case stands as a chilling chapter in Oklahoma's history, a story of innocence lost and a crime that, in the eyes of the law, remains without a conclusion.