Edgar Pew's house, the murder of O.W. Leonard, and the hi-jacking murder of Homer Nida. The first incident began on October 29, 1917 when the Tulsan home of J. Edgar Pew, the vice president of the Carter Oil Company, a major subsidiary of Standard Oil, was bombed. The Tulsa World, one of the city's three main white newspapers accused the IWW of the attack as an attempt to destroy the oil companies" property and its leaders" residences. The World suggested Tulsans to take vigilante action on the anti-war IWW. The World was outraged that the Tulsa IWW office was a local of the Oil Field Workers" Union (OFWU), and it had reportedly organized 300 oil workers in Tulsa under the IWW standard. Tulsa police raided the IWW hall and arrested a total of twelve men under vagrancy charges although no incriminating evidence was found. The twelve men were found guilty and were sentenced to jail along with their five witnesses. En route to the jail, the "Knights of Liberty" captured the 17 men and took them to a secluded area, where they were whipped, hot tarred and feathered, and told to leave town. The police did not even try to intervene or protect the prisoners. This conflict showed how catastrophic the consequences could be when an influential newspaper the city government enforced the power. .
The second incident took place on March 17, 1919. Two armed men approached a white ironworker named O.W. Leonard on the street. They shot Leonard when he refused to raise his arms. Before he died, Leonard identified his assailants as two black men. Three black men were arrested and rumors were soon spread that they were to be lynched. On the way home from a meeting, three black policeman were held up and fired at by two white man as they drove by. The two injured men were later accused of being part of a crime ring. Unlike the IWW prisoners, the three black men were not subjected to the press and vigilante violence.