Fabrienne Margot  "Sam" VanArsdell - Officer

Tulsa Police Department

Fabrienne Margot Amtmann was born June 21, 1954, in Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida to John C. and Juanita Flora (Baggett) Amtmann. Fabrienne grew up in Hialeah, Florida before her family moved to Norman, Oklahoma in 1971. Fabrienne graduated high school in Norman and briefly attended college at the University of Oklahoma. Fabrienne’s first law enforcement job was as a “meter maid” for the Norman Police Department. In 1976 Fabrienne, 22, joined the Tulsa Police Department. Officer Fabrienne Van Arsdell’s fellow officers early on had nicknamed her “Sam” because of the difficulty in pronouncing her first name.  While serving as a Tulsa Police Officer Fabrienne Van Arsdell met and fell in love with one of the local Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers, Sam Van Arsdell.  After a courtship, the two married and there became two Sam Van Arsdells enforcing the law in the Tulsa area.

At approximately 3:00 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, July 25, 1981, Officer Fabrienne Van Arsdell, made a routine traffic stop which would turn out to be her last.

Officer Fabrienne Van Arsdell stopped a pickup for changing lanes without signaling.  After obtaining the driver’s identification, she returned to her patrol car. The driver, Glen Ferguson, 20, went back to her patrol car and while standing by the driver’s door, asked the officer if she wanted him to get in the car with her. Officer Van Arsdell told him she did not.  At that moment, Glen Ferguson saw a vehicle approaching them and heading right for the rear of the patrol car. The collision knocked the patrol car into Glen Ferguson’s pickup, ramming it one hundred feet down the street and completely turning the patrol car around.

Officer Fabrienne Van Arsdell’s police vehicle immediately burst into flames, quickly becoming totally involved in the fire.  Glen Ferguson tried to rescue the female officer, but the doors were locked, and the flames were spreading too fast.  

Responding Tulsa officers also tried to rescue their fellow officer, but to no avail.

State Trooper Sam Van Arsdell was one of the first officers on the scene of the accident, unaware that his wife was the officer in the burning patrol car.  As soon as the other officers realized this, they hurried him away from the area as quickly as possible.  

The driver of the other vehicle, Stephen Mills, 32, was arrested at the scene for driving under the influence of alcohol, tried for manslaughter, and was later sentenced to seven years in prison but only served three of the seven years.

Fabrienne Van Arsdell is buried in Floral Haven Memorial Gardens, Broken Arrow, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

Fabrienne Van Arsdell was the first female police officer to be killed in the line of duty in Oklahoma.

OLEM – 2N-1-16    NLEOM – 63W16

February 9, 2023

Danny Ray Vanderpool - Officer

Moore Police Department

Moore Police Chief Don Tiffin hired Danny Vanderpool as a police officer when he was eighteen years old to work undercover narcotics. Officer Vanderpool never worked as a patrol officer. Officer Vanderpool was extraordinarily successful, and his efforts lead to the largest number of arrests of drug dealers in Moore. After these arrest Officer Vanderpool could no longer work undercover in Moore.

In the late 1970’s, it was common for smaller agencies to swap officers to work undercover. Arrangements were made for Officer Vanderpool to work for the Edmond Police Department to pose as a high school student, working as an undercover narcotics officer.  Edmond Officer Bob Easterly was loaned to the Moore Police Department to work undercover.

Early the morning of Friday, May 18, 1979, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Officer Danny Vanderpool, now 20, was on duty working on a narcotic assignment. He had drugs on him from a case. It is believed he was in route to the OSBI lab on his motorcycle to drop the drugs in the night drop as was his practice.

Two miles west of Highway 77, on Seward Road, west of Guthrie, Officer Danny Vanderpool lost control of his motorcycle at a speed near seventy miles per hour and was thrown one hundred and twenty-five feet. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a Guthrie hospital.

Kathy Rhodes, 19, was a passenger on the motorcycle was also severely injured. A passerby found Kathy Rhodes wandering on the road. Kathy Rhodes took her rescuers to the scene of the motorcycle accident.

The previous December, thirty-nine people had been arrested for sixty-three separate violations based upon Vanderpool’s evidence. Danny Vanderpool had won several trophies for racing motorcycles.  

Danny Vanderpool was the first Moore police officer to die in the line of duty and was survived by his mother Louise Vanderpool.

Danny Vanderpool is buried in Resthaven Gardens Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Cleveland County, Oklahoma.

OLEM – 2N-1-7    NLEOM – 53W7

May 17, 2021

Christopher Michael VanKrevelen - State Trooper

Oklahoma Highway Patrol

Shortly after going on duty at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28, 2002, Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen, 29, responded to a car-train accident call. While north bound on U.S. 81 in route to the acident, Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen, who stood six foot six inches tall, started into the curve of an overpass near North Enid. Trooper Van Krevelen lost control of his Chevrolet Camero patrol car. The Camero struck the overpass guardrail and burst into flames. Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen died at the scene.

Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen had joined the Oklahoma Highway Patrol three and a half years before his death and had served with the Enid Police Department prior to that.

Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen left behind his wife Jessica to whom he had only been married eight and a half months.

Trooper Christopher Van Krevelen is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Enid, Garfield County, Oklahoma.

OLEM – 4S-3-1               NLEOM – 22W23

February 9, 2023

John Henry Vier -  Deputy U.S. Marshal

U.S. Marshal Service

In 1903, John Vier was appointed a Deputy U.S. Marshal on the recommendation of Deputy U.S. Marshal Ike Gilstrap. Deputy Marshal John Vier hired Tom Dial as his posse and they worked together for the next year and a half.  They made numerous arrests and were considered an efficient team.

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 21, 1905, the two lawmen arrived at the log cabin of a man named Hogshooter to serve a warrant on a man believed to be at the log cabin. Posse Tom Dial was left outside to watch for anyone trying to escape while Deputy Marshal John Vier entered the cabin.  Deputy Marshal Vier arrested the man in the back room of the cabin, and then walked with his prisoner into the hallway.  Unknown to Deputy Marshal John Vier, two of the most dangerous outlaws in the Indian Territory, John and Charlie Wickliffe, were hiding in the cabin.  Before Deputy Marshal John Vier had a chance to draw his weapon, the Wickliffes opened fire hitting Vier and knocking him to the floor.  The Wickliffes then fled the cabin and seeing Posse Tom Dial, opened fire on him. Posse Dial returned fire and fifteen shots were fired back and forth until the Wickliffes were able to run into the woods.

Posse Dial entered the cabin and found his partner on the floor.  Several Deputy Marshals from Tahlequah were summoned and upon their arrival found Deputy Marshal John Vier deceased.  The search began for the Wickliffe brothers.  The search continued for the next year until on March 12, 1906, the Wickliffes were located hiding at one of their uncle’s homes.  During the attempted arrest that followed Deputy U.S. Marshal Ike Gilstrap was killed and Deputy U.S. Marshal Dick Terry wounded.  Again, the Wickliffes escaped.

Two years later March 29, 1908, Charlie Wickliffe was killed by his brother Tom during an argument. Two months later Tom and John Wickliffe surrendered to the Cherokee County Sheriff.  Tom and John Wickliffe were tried, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, stating there was not enough evidence presented implicating either defendant in the killing of Deputy U.S. Marshal John Vier.

John Vier is buried in Adair Cemetery, Adair, Mayes County, Oklahoma.

OLEM – 5N-4-21    NLEOM – 49W17

February 21, 2022

Jim Villines – Deputy Sheriff

Seminole County Sheriff’s Office

Jim Villines also served as the Constable for the town of Bowlegs.

About 8 p.m. the evening of Thursday, October 13, 1927, two men and a woman who had been drinking pulled into a filling station in Bowlegs. They asked the filling station attendant to fix a flat tire for them. When the attendant wasn’t fix the flat tire fast enough to suit them, one of the men drew a gun on him to encourage him to work faster. While the man was holding the gun on the attendant two Seminole County Deputy Sheriffs, Jim Villines and J. L. Corbin, pulled into the filling station. The armed man immediately disarmed Deputy Villines and took him hostage. Another Deputy Sheriff, Ben Barrick, arrived on the scene, and tried to talk the armed man into releasing Deputy Villines but the man refused. During the whole time the armed man struck Deputy Villines several times in the head with the gun. The armed man then ordered one of the deputies to drive their car down the road a short distance and leave it. The man then marched Deputy Villines down the road toward the car using Villines as a shield from the other deputies.

Once they reached the car the man gave Deputy Villins back his gun and drove off into the night.

Deputy Villines was hospitalized for his severe head injuries but did survive his wounds.

 Two days late, three men held up a store west of Seminole and the store owner shot one of the robbers in the shoulder with a shotgun before they escaped. The wounded robber hijacked a taxicab and forced the driver to take him to Tulsa.

 On October 16, Tulsa officers arrested Roy Hensley, 30, Blaine Hensley, 27, and R. G. McCoy, 24. Roy Hensley was identified as the armed man who had assaulted Deputy Sheriff Villines three days before.

Jim Villines did not die in the line of duty as a law enforcement officer.

OLEM – 3S-3-11

February 1, 2023

Edward Wilhelm Johann “Ed” Von Holten,- Officer

Tulsa Police Department

Edward Von Holten was born April 24, 1876, in Champaign, Champaign County, Illinois, to Christoph and Caroline Von Holten. Edward Von Holten moved to Tulsa shortly after the turn of the century. Edward Von Holten married twenty-one-year-old Jennie Armstrong in 1901. Edward Von Holten had worked in the grocery and café business until joining the Tulsa Police force in 1932.

Shortly before 11 p.m. the night of Wednesday, March 24, 1937, Officer Edward Von Holten was preparing to go on duty from Tulsa Police Headquarters. Officer Von Holten had agreed to give Mrs. Stella M. Geise, a Tulsa Police Department jail matron who was just getting off duty, a ride home in his patrol car. Mrs. Geise had just seated herself in the front passenger seat as Officer Von Holten was placing his department issued double-barrel sawed-off shotgun into the back seat. As Officer Von Holten was placing the shotgun in the back seat one of the hammers of the weapon caught on the seat. The weapon discharged wounding Mrs. Geise in the hip. The discharge startled Officer Von Holten who dropped the shotgun which discharged again when it struck the floorboard of the police car. The second shotgun blast struck Officer Edward Von Holten in his lower left side causing his death.

Mrs. Stella Geise recovered from her shot gun wound.

Officer Edward Von Holten was almost sixty-one years old and was survived by his wife Jennie and two adult sons, James, 35, and Earl, 20.

Officer Edward Von Holten is buried in Rose Hill Memorial Park Cemetery, Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

OLEM – 8S-4-6 (Van Holten)         NLEOM – 54W5

January 24, 2022