Tulsa Bureau

17 Nov. 1984 - JAY

Elmer and Lorene Youngblood were eating supper Saturday when a man smashed a hole in a picture window with a tire tool and thrust a pistol through.

"If he’d have went to any other farmhouse in the valley he’d have killed ‘em all," Youngblood said.

But the man he had chosen as his victim was a retired U.S. Army Ranger with World War II combat experience in the South Pacific jungles.

"The only thing that run through my mind was, ‘He came here to kill me’. So the only thing to do was run him back," Youngblood said Monday

"I figured if I was going to die it would be in my own house. It wasn’t going to be in the trunk of a ----- automobile."

As his wife took cover under the table, Youngblood charged the gunman. Thus began a harrowing shootout that ended with the arrest Sunday morning of Cory Hollingsworth, 27, Langley. Hollingsworth was heing held In lieu of $50,000 bail Monday on two counts of shooting with intent to kilI, and on $5,000 bail on a count of possessing a stolen vehicle.

With .32 caliber bullets whizzing past him, Youngblood ran to within 14 feet of the attacker, then veered into a bedroom where his .30-06 semi-automatic rifle lay, loaded and waiting.

"I sleep with a loaded gun. I keep loaded guns all over the house," Youngblood said. "I just had more, firepower. That's all that saved us."

Youngblood said as he ducked into the bedroom, the gunman began firing at his wife. Mrs. Youngblood took cover behind a refrigerator. Her husband fired through the window. The attacker fell.

"I thought I'd killed him." he said.

But it waen't over yet. Youngblood said he peered through the picture window and saw the man hiding around the corner of the house, apparently hoping to ambush him if he came outside.

"I could see his feet", he said. " I tried to guess where his head would be, and fired through the wall".

The bullet missed, but sent the gunman scrambling.

Youngblood said the man ran to the back door and tried in kick it in. Youngblood wheeled and fired through the door. Mrs. Youngblood, meantime, ran to the bedroom and called the sheriff. Youngblood said the man heard her voice, walked around the house and fired through the bedroom window, lodging three slugs above her head. She dropped to the floor and grabbed a loaded 16 gauge automatic shotgun. By that time, Youngblood said, he had emptied his rifle’s five-round clip. He said he took the shotgun and gave Mrs. Youngblood the rifle to reload.

Youngblood figures the attacker decided he was outgunned and fled.

A short time later, Delaware County Sheriff, Bob Hughes and his men arrived. Hughes said Grove and Jay police joined his deputies and reserve officers, along with state game rangers and Mayes County authorities, in the search for the attacker.

Youngblood said he and his brother-in-law, George Brixey, also a World War II veteran, patroled around his home. About 6:30 a.m., he said, they heard a noise inside a 14 foot trailer next to his home. He said they ordered the man to come out.

"He said that he’d thrown his gun up by the door, that there had been enough shooting," Youngblood said. "But he was lying. He still had the gun and he was sitting in there waiting for us to come in, so he could shoot us. When the sheriff got here, he really did throw out his gun."

Hughes said Hollingsworth surrendered without a struggle.

The sheriff said Hollingsworth told lawmen he was being pursued by the Mafia because he witnessed a gangland killing more than 10 years ago in Las Vegas, Nev.

"He thought I was the Mafia, at first," Hughes said. "We have him locked up by himself. We’re watching him real close."

But Youngblood doesn’t think the attacker was mentally ill.

"At no time did I ever see him act crazy," he said. "That S.O.B. done the smoothest job of trying to kill somebody that I ever saw."

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When I visited Elmer and Lorene several months later, the front door of their home was still riddled with bullet holes. - dq

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