Type of Officer: Deputy Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Trego County
County: Trego
Death Date: 7/14/1962
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death: Gunshot
When Sheriff Chet McAtee of Trego County was informed by a farmer of a suspicious pair of hitchhikers, he asked Claycamp, who was a deputy sheriff as well as a WaKeeney city police officer, to accompany him to investigate. They located the hitchhiking couple, Harry Jack Bloomer and his companion, juvenile Shirley Kay Nixon, and wanting to question the couple, the officers offered to take them to WaKeeney. On the way, Bloomer drew a gun, shot and killed Claycamp and seriously wounded Sheriff McAtee. A posse numbering nearly three hundred on horseback, in vehicles and airplanes, tracked the couple and capture them on July 17th.
Panel: 22