|
Posts:
1
Registered:
5/30/09
|
|
(16 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
May 30, 2009 1:47 AM
|
|
I would like to reply to your message about Bert Lana and the Hallmark case of 1964. You don't even have the correct date. So before you start bashing my family maybe you would like to get some fact's correct.Fact #1 Miss Tama Hallmark was attacked on Jan 6, 1964. Fact #2 she did not even know Bert Lana personally. Fact #3 Bert Lana was acquitted. ( in the United States that means NOT GUILTY!) this case was Permanently closed in 1966 so it can NEVER be reopen and the real killer will never be found.I feel sorry for this woman and what it has done to her life. SO in conclusion i want to point out that most Criminologist say this is a crime of passion. Stabbing someone in the head over 50 times is not something someone does to a stranger. If you read her own testimony she says that she did not know Bert personally. Most Criminologist say it would have been a lover or family member. (PSSSSS go look at the list of suspects guess who's there! her boyfriend and brother hmmmmm............) There were several other suspects, plenty of witness and evidence. My cousin was still found not guilty. So please get your facts straight before you go on a website and misalign my family!
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
11/5/08
|
|
(15 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Nov 5, 2008 10:15 PM
|
Thought of this case today and was surprised to find it online. Bert Lana was my Little League coach in the late 1960's and my junior high gym teacher in 1970. He was stern, but probably not much different than other coaches at that time. I'm really too young to know anything, but I remember the adults talking about it. In college I worked several summers at Halliburton. One summer I worked in the machine shop with a guy from the Hallmark girls class. He said that he had skipped school that day and was grilled severely by the police. He felt like her brother was guilty. He said that she would get really agitated when they showed a picture of her brother or he was in a lineup.
I remember the adults talking about another case in Duncan. It involved a Chiropractor that was charged with murdering his wife. Apparently Mr Sullivan got him off claiming that she suffocated herself with her own pillow. Don't know more than that and it may be a faulty recollection.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
8/11/08
|
|
(14 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Aug 11, 2008 2:03 PM
|
|
I remember being in elementary school, Mark Twain, at the time, and my friend Jimmy Weeden was interviewed by the police since he saw someone walking along the same road as he and Tama Hallmark lived. I also remember Bert Lana, a guy that NO ONE messed with. He also taught wrestling....
|
|
|
Posts:
2
From:
Edmond OK
Registered:
7/23/08
|
|
(13 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Jul 23, 2008 2:52 PM
|
|
Not 1962!!! She was a Freshman or sophmore. I still have a newspaper clipping somewhere. I will try to find it and post it.
|
|
|
Posts:
2
From:
Edmond OK
Registered:
7/23/08
|
|
(12 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Jul 23, 2008 2:44 PM
|
First Bert Lana was the Shop Teacher and a Football coach. Not a Gym teacher. Lana would not have had any one else do his paddling (He enjoyed it too much) You have him confused with Dick Dozier (Mechanical Drawing and Basketball Coach.
Second, Before I graduated and went to the service I knew all of the families very well. Tama was a brat and she and her brother were constantly fighting. It sometimes became very physical. I have NO eveidence But if I were a betting man, the brother did it.
He had the same Letter Jacket, The same build and coloring and similiar features. The description fit several boys including a close friend of mine. All those boys were rounded up and sweated for hours and alibi's checked. The Lana boy had no verifiable alibi.
Problem noone questioned the brother. I think they were fighting of the use of the car they shared.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
From:
Beaufort, SC
Registered:
3/23/08
|
|
(11 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Mar 23, 2008 10:36 PM
|
Boy do I remember this case. But I think it happened in the summer of 66, not 63. I had Mr. Lana for a teacher at the time this case was going on in the courts. He was a bad man. He was the typical stern gym teacher, however, he had a real mean streak. I remember once he asked ME to paddle some kids in class for misbehaving. Imagine today a teacher asking a student to paddle other students in a classroom setting which I did reluctantly.
I have been facinated with this case ever since it happened. Does anyone know how to get hold of the old newspaper articles. If I remember correctly, when Tama Hallmark came out of her coma, she identified Lana as the attacker. Due to her questionable credibility as a witness Lana was apparently aquitted. I always thought someone would write a book on this case, or it would appear on 48 hours mystery. It would be a good one.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
From:
Windsor, CT
Registered:
10/28/07
|
|
(10 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Oct 28, 2007 5:37 PM
|
|
My parents continued to talk about this case years after it occurred. Tamara, according to my mother and father was beautiful and intelligent. It's a shame this case is still unsolved 45 years later. Does anyone remember a murder that happened in rural Velma in the early 80's? If I recall correctly, there were three people shot to death. Has that one ever been resolved? Also, wasn't there a guy ran down on old Highway 7 in the late 90s?
|
|
|
Posts:
1
From:
comanche, oklahoma
Registered:
10/15/07
|
|
(9 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Oct 15, 2007 10:25 PM
|
this is not the only unsolved crime in Stephens County oklahoma. i still live in the county and there has been numerous crimes went unsolved or bungled, and completely ignored. growing up i always heard if you wanted to commit a major crime and get away with it just come to duncan, oklahoma. i remember one rumor of a dead waitress being found in the trunk of a county sheriffs cruiser! no one knew how she got there. and that was back in the fifties! in recent years there was the morgan girl in comanche that was brutally murdered, no arrests, another girl in duncan found in marlow dead in the trunk of her car. no arrests. then clellon lyons who supposedly committed suicide in his club. i knew him well. he had a lot going for him, he even left kind of a legacy with some of his renovations while being a real esate broker. suicide? i don't think so.
as for the hallmark case? we all can only assume as on any unsolved crime. the last i knew is i believe they were transfered back to tulsa. after that no one knows. i read part of a research paper a lady published and her belief is that tama is now deceased and possibly buried in a private grave in kansas with only the hallmark name inscribed. and as for the lana's. they stayed in duncan for awhile. the dad still taught at the junior high and coached basketball. i never had him for a teacher or coach. after high school graduation in 1970 i never heard anymore.
|
|
|
Posts:
4
Registered:
11/22/06
|
|
(8 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Nov 23, 2006 9:43 AM
|
Anyone willing to bet this Bert Michael Lana has committed more crimes since then?
A leopard doesn't change its spots. Anyone have access to nationwide court records?
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
11/20/06
|
|
(7 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Nov 20, 2006 11:51 AM
|
For reasons I cannot explain this event has been on my mind recently. So it seems very strange to read recent posts about it from others.
I have nothing to add other than Coach Lana was around for a few years after the incident as he was at the Junior High when I was attending there in '67, '68, & 69. I graduated from DHS in '72 and don't recall anything about him or the Hallmarks moving during that time period.
My recollection is that Coach Lana's son was planning to go into the ministry but that may be just a legend.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
From:
Las Vegas, NV
Registered:
11/19/06
|
|
(6 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Nov 19, 2006 11:29 PM
|
This case has been haunting since the very beginning.
Tamara was actually stabbed an estimated 61 times with a small knife just outside Duncan, OK.
I was just a small kid at the time, but my dad worked at Sunray Refinery with Tamara's dad, so I heard alot about the case from my dad.
The accused was the son of Coach Lana at Duncan High School, with alot of local influence!
The lawyer, old man Sullivan, the best around at the time.
The trial was actually an OJ farce.
There was evidence found in Lana's locker at school, bloody clothes, but no DNA at that time, unfortunately.
Tamara was ripped apart on the stand by Sullivan, no mercy whatso ever. She could barely speak...she did point to Lana as the assailent, but, Coach Lana's son couldn't be guilty, he came from an affluent family background according to the jury, remember OJ?
After the trial Coach Lana's family left Duncan, probably changed their names. Also, Tamara's family also left town.
For those of you who want to get the true details, you can get it from The Duncan Banner on line at...
www.TheDuncanBanner.com
|
|
|
Posts:
1
From:
Oklahoma
Registered:
11/5/06
|
|
(5 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Nov 5, 2006 1:31 AM
|
IIRC, Tama *did* identify her attacker. From reading the newspaper accounts, it seemed that because of her inability to communicate well, she just did not make a convincing witness in court. Pleasant Foster, who was detective at the time in the case, was interviewed a few years ago and he indicated that all the case files have been lost.
It was a very haunting case. Had the crimescene technology we have today been available, it would have surely been solved.
Is Tama still living?
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
10/31/06
|
|
(4 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Oct 31, 2006 1:02 PM
|
|
Just curious if anyone knows of a book or article that was written by Robert Wade on this story?
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
8/19/06
|
|
(3 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Aug 19, 2006 10:47 PM
|
This crime occurred when I was only in the first grade, but I clearly remember the evening we learned about Tama's near-murder. Tama was my father's first cousin.
I also remember Tama coming to my grandmother's house in OK City some years later. As I remember, she didn't communicate too much and needed a lot of help.
Not sure why, but the memory I have is that some local law enforcement officer's son was connected to the case.
Tama was a senior in high school that year if I remember right and she had been homecoming queen. These memories may not be correct as that was a very long time ago.
|
|
|
Posts:
1
Registered:
6/25/06
|
|
(2 of 16)
Re: who battered Tama Hallmark in 1962?
Jun 26, 2006 11:25 PM
|
|
I remember this happening when I was a child. I read all the newspaper accounts and heard all the adults talking about it. Wasn't there something about a lot of evidence disappearing? And I remember hearing that Tama later identified her assailant as Lana, but double jeopardy prevailed?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
