John R. Thomas (1846-1914), Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois (1885), moved to Oklahoma to practice law after serving 10 years in congress. In a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, on January 20, 1914, MWB Thomas elected to meet with a client in the warden's office of the Oklahoma state prison in McAlester to discuss a case. At the same moment, three convicts who had obtained a gun made an escape attempt, but first headed for the warden's office to confront a parole officer. Brother Thomas was the first to die in the botched plot that ultimately saw the three convicts, the deputy warden and two other prison officials killed.
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