The city says it has possibly found two more men who died in what’s been deemed one of the worst instances of racial violence in the country.
At a City Hall press conference, Mayor Monroe Nichols said the remains of George Melvin Gillispie and James Goings have been found or have possibly been found in Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery.
Gillispie’s remains were identified through genetic genealogy, but the city says the context of his death is unknown. Lack of detectable trauma does not preclude victimhood, officials said, because the approximately 100 years that’ve passed since the death could make determination difficult.
The grave of C.L. Daniel was first found last year in the search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre burials. Daniel also had no signs of trauma but was positively identified through documents as a victim of the attack that destroyed the prosperous segregated neighborhood known as Black Wall Street.
Gillispie, born in 1881, was one of 13 siblings and was married at the time of his death, according to documents provided by the city.
A second man, James Goings, has been definitively identified through documents as a massacre victim, though it’s unclear if he is one of the four sets of remains unearthed from Oaklawn in 2024. In total, six sets of remains arousing suspicion have been located so far.
Alison Wilde, genealogy case manager with Intermountain Forensics, said the research team heard stories from family members about Goings, and from those stories were able to locate documents declaring him a victim.
In a 1921 letter to the federal government, a Hugh King, Jr. from Tulsa asks if Private 1st Class James Goings, “killed in the recent disturbance here,” had life insurance that could be claimed by surviving family.
A response from the United States Veterans Bureau says “there are no benefits under the War Risk Insurance Act payable in this case.”
Wilde said in tracing relatives related to a certain Oaklawn burial, the surname of Goings came up, and so the team suspects that burial is the missing man.
To put more pieces together in both cases, the city asks anyone with knowledge of either man to contact the genealogy team.
The city has also released a 2024 field season summary and a full report will soon follow.
At the press conference, Nichols said the team will keep working in Oaklawn because the discoveries indicate researchers are “in the right spot."
“We’re getting closer and closer to the truth,” he said.
