In Memoriam

Clifford Nelson

Deputy

End of Watch: October 23, 1928

On October 21, 1928, a citizen by the name of William Hyatt, who was 18 years old, set off on a hunting trip in the Oracle area. On October 22, when he failed to return home, his mother called the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff James McDonald sent a posse of deputies and volunteers to search the area but they found nothing.

The next day, four men, including Deputy Clifford Nelson, boarded a small airplane and circled the Oracle area to continue searching for Hyatt. Observers on the ground that day said the plane seemed to just suddenly plunge to the earth. All four men aboard the plane died in the crash.

William Hyatt’s body was found later that day, a victim of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputy Clifford Nelson was survived by his wife, Anna Mae and two daughters, Betty and Joan.

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