Eugene Mervin Sides

Serial Killer

Eugene Mervin Sides: Convicted Double Murderer and Suspected Serial Killer

Background

Eugene Mervin Sides is an American convicted murderer who has been described as a suspected or self-confessed serial killer because he reportedly admitted responsibility for additional killings beyond the two murders for which he was prosecuted. Court records firmly establish his involvement in the 1989 robbery and murders of Joseph Edward "Buck" Cheshewalla and Gloria Maude "Maudie" Cheshewalla near Pawhuska, Oklahoma. However, the identities and circumstances of the additional people Sides claimed to have killed have not been publicly established with the same certainty. Sides reportedly had a substantial criminal history before the Cheshewalla murders. His record included serious property and violent offenses, and later court proceedings portrayed him as an experienced and dangerous offender. A federal appellate decision concerning his imprisonment stated that he had admitted committing four additional murders and more than 70 robberies. Those admissions caused authorities to regard him as a possible serial murderer, but no publicly documented convictions connected him to those additional deaths. Some secondary accounts have attributed a much larger number of possible victims to Sides, occasionally suggesting that he may have killed as many as 17 people in Oklahoma, Montana, and other locations. These higher totals remain unverified. Only the murders of Buck and Maude Cheshewalla are supported by convictions and detailed federal court records. For that reason, Sides is more accurately described as a convicted double murderer and suspected serial killer rather than a man proven in court to have committed a long series of murders.

The Victims

• Joseph Edward "Buck" Cheshewalla, 69 February 25, 1989 rural Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma: Buck Cheshewalla was attacked inside the home he shared with his wife on their approximately 400-acre ranch. He was restrained, blindfolded, robbed, and shot twice in the head. Ballistic evidence indicated that one wound was caused by a .22-caliber bullet and the other was probably caused by a .38-caliber bullet.
• Gloria Maude "Maudie" Cheshewalla, 60 February 25, 1989 rural Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma: Maude Cheshewalla was blindfolded during the robbery and shot twice in the head with a .22-caliber firearm. She was a respected Osage historian, craftswoman, educator, lecturer, and curator associated with the Osage Tribal Museum.

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Confirmed Victims: (2)

Joseph Cheshewalla Age: (69), Date of Death: 1989-02-25

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