Take it to the Bank

The most vulnerable of us can take a care ride to the mall. We might go for that shopping trip as though it were a normal, everyday trip. On August 31st,1999, Mary Bowles, was a retiree who just wanted to go to Promenade Mall in Tulsa. She was there to do a little shopping and do some walking because it was too hot to walk outside. Our gal, Mary, wanted to get some afternoon walking in, and the Promenade Mall in Tulsa was a good place to go. Benches spread out and good air conditioning along with lots of places to get something cold to drink, she would have a safe time walking in there. If she had only made it inside the mall. The mall often had walkers throughout the day, so this was her way of keeping up with her exercise as a number of seniors did.

Mary Bowles was a retired banker, ok not just a banker she was a former bank president, and an auxiliary president of St. Francis Hospital. That’s some pretty big things to oversee or retire from entirely. Our Gal, Mary, had certainly broken some barriers in her time, after all she was in her seventies and that was the end of the 20th century we are talking about. Mary was a punctual woman and when she didn’t show to lead a tour through St. Francis Hospital, Ms. Farris was more then a little concerned.

Mary didn’t know she was to encounter two felons, who had just that very day robbed two liquor stores and wanted to use her car in another robbery. Lucky her, the two had seen her pull up in the mall parking lot and found her easy prey in the covered parking lot structure. She’d parked there for some shade, unfortunately for her need for shade she gave up her personal security some in the parking garage like structure. No one thinks when they use a parking garage, this kind of thing can happen so easily. Those two were also waiting for someone, she just happened to be the someone they pounced on that very day.

John Hanson and Victor Miller spotted her and kidnapped her before she even got five steps from her car. They had guns and forced her into the back seat of her own car. They drove out to Owasso where they found a site much like an excavation site. The owner of the site, Jerald Thurman was out there getting a load of dirt.

Miller saw Thurman on the dirt road. He grabbed him at his truck, where he shot him. Thurman didn’t die from his injuries right away, he lingered in a hospital bed in a coma until September 14th, 1999. Mary wasn’t even that lucky. Because Hanson shot her several times, and they dumped her body under some brush in the same area where Thurman got his dirt. Her decomposing body wasn’t found until September 7th, 1999.

Jerald Thurman was the owner Thurman Trucking. He was a second generation owner/operator. He had been winding up his day when he had been spotted by the two felons. His son was 19 years old and already a driver and operator of the business by the time of the incident.

Folks, her body wasn’t found until several days later. It was hot! Imagine what the worst meat smells like that had been left so long in the fridge it’s growing mold and changing to a black color. That gross rotting smell of meat gets right after it turns putrid. NOW, multiple that times a factor of a million and that’s a decamping body odor in the heat of summer.

Miller shot Thurman several times and left him for dead by his dump truck at the entrance to the road. The shots drew neighbors. After hiding Mary’s body they fled the scene in Mary’s car.

Hanson and Miller drove Mary’s car to the Oasis motel. A low rent pile of rubble, known for its rent by the day rooms that were barely rentable. The two pulled into the parking lot with the car. They asked how much a room was after asking for tools to work on the car. Apparently, Mary’s car was already getting revenge on these two. The car had decided to give up in the parking lot at the Oasis Motel. I suspect the August heat had gotten to it, and it was the car of an elderly woman, not made for a getaway car.

The two ended up renting a room at the motel. They weren’t seen by the desk clerk after that, not surprisingly because they didn’t stick around too long. IF you had a car that belonged to a dead person, would you stay in the same building by it for very long? It screams, “Right here, I’m right here!”

Folks, they had cold bloodedly killed two people. One for a car they wanted to use in a getaway. A car that wasn’t going to be used for anything, it was left at the Oasis abandoned. Oh, and the clerk didn’t bother to call and get it towed, that might have triggered the plate getting run. Which if run, would definitely gotten the attention of the Tulsa Police department.

Usually, when someone abandons a car in a parking lot of some place, like a motel, the owner will call and have the car towed. Mostly because of limited parking spaces, especially at low rent places like that one. When a car is towed, the tow company has to check with the local Sheriff’s office and Police department to see if it’s on the “hot sheet”. If the plate shows up stolen, or flagged for some reason, then the police get involved.

In this case, the car wasn’t found until after the two idiots who left the car were in custody. A search after the two are arrested due to a tipster, who betrays them, is how the car was found. A series of missed events proved to keep them free a little longer.

They had robbed a credit union a few days before they had robbed the two liquor stores, and kidnapped Mary. Why didn’t the police already have them, it was 1999! Well, cameras weren’t that good at the time. Tech was still coming up in the world, and a number of liquor stores didn’t have working cameras.

Hanson was staying in a car in the back yard of one, Rashad Ali Barnes. This is important because only a day after his crime spree with Miller. He confesses this murder to Barnes. Barnes doesn’t go to the police right away! He’s got his own messes and squabbles with the police. But Hanson definitely gets kicked out of the backyard.

Barnes had bad luck of his own. He testified in the trial in 2001 as to what he was told by Hanson. This testimony was later read into evidence in the next trial. December 26th 2003, Barnes died in a bar fight unrelated to the case. Apparently, the man couldn’t hold his poisons very well, he talked trash, and his life ended because of it.

Miller had his own problems too. Miller was married at the time. His wife wasn’t very happy with him. She found out he was the suspect of the credit union robbery and about 2 am she called in and “anonymous” tip to authorities. She tipped them off the two were staying at the Muskogee Econo lodge. Cliché for the 90’s I must say, a family travel lodge that was a sign of the times. The great migration west. The family vacations of the past. The ones the movies make fun of..

The FBI and the Muskogee Police took Miller into custody after he surrendered, without much incident at the motel. Mind you, the building was surrounded. But Hanson refused to surrender. He had to have tear gas popped on him in the room to run him out.

The two were originally tried together and found guilty. On appeal, both got new trials and both were found guilty again. The first time around they received death sentences, which they received again. On the second appeals, Miller’s Death sentences were commuted to life in prison. Where he still sits today, in maximum security. Hanson, however, met the fate of the executioner’s hand. He was shuffled off his mortal coil on June 12, 2025.