Correctional Officer William Robert Mayfield

William Robert Mayfield

Correctional Officer William Mayfield succumbed to a head wound sustained the previous day when an inmate struck him in the head with a brick at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

The 24-year-old inmate was shot by another guard. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life. In 1928 he was granted a new trial, adjudged insane, and sent to the state insane asylum. When the suspect murdered Correctional Officer Mayfield he was serving a five year sentence for burglary and a additional 27 years for manslaughter for killing his cell mate six months earlier.

Officer Mayfield was superintendent of the penitentiary brick yard. He was survived by his wife and four children. He was survived by another daughter by his first wife who preceded him in death.