County officials were allegedly caught in an audio recording talking about assassinating a journalist and lynching Black people in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. (Listen to audio below, posted by Heartland Signal).
Publisher of the McCurtain Gazette newspaper, Bruce Willingham, had purposely left behind an audio recorder to prove that secret meetings were taking place, according to Tulsa's Newson6, only to later listen in horror as he played back a conversation in which Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Commissioner Mark Jennings, and Investigator Alicia Manning allegedly talked about killing the publisher and his son, Chris Willingham, who is also a journalist.
The officials — who are now under Federal investigation and are being called to resign — also bemoaned the fact that you can't hang Black people anymore.
Some of the conversation from the audio below, taken from a transcript supplied by Newson6, includes:
Jennings: If it was back in the day, when that when Alan Marshton would take a damn Black guy and whoop their ass and throw him in the cell? I'd run for fucking sheriff.
Sheriff: Yeah. Well, It's not like that no more.
Jennings: I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can't do that anymore. They got more rights than we got. …
Jennings: I've known, I've known two or three hit men, they're very quiet guys… And would cut no fucking mercy … In Louisiana, 'cause this is all Mafia around here.
Manning: Yeah, but here's the reality. If a hair on his wife's head, Chris Willingham's head, or any of those people that really were behind that, if any hair on their head got touched by anybody, who would be the bad guy?
Manning: They are insignificant in my life, really. …
Sheriff: The old saying is, what goes around goes around. It will. I told you it will.
Jennings: I know where two big deep holes are here if you ever need them.
Sheriff: I've got an excavator.
Jennings: Well, these are already pre-dug.
