A grand jury indicted George Henry for murder Feb. 23, 1897, the same day he bashed in jailer Floyd Coberly’s head with a length of cordwood.

The 35-year-old Little Elm man had been a jailer for Denton County only 10 days, and he made the mistake of not ensuring the cell door was properly shut before he walked upstairs to collect dishes from the three inmates on the upper tier.

Henry was 19 when he slammed the wood into Coberly, threw him down the stairs and then hit him several more times before he and his friends ran out the door.

They were free only 30 minutes before being apprehended, and Henry was hanged for the brutal slaying.

Coberly became the first law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty in Denton County.

Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Lee Howell recounted the story to a group of listeners Friday at a meeting hosted by the Denton County Museums. The talk was one of several events this week commemorating National Police Week.

Six law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty in Denton County, and each year a ceremony honors them and the dedication of all officers and their willingness to die to protect those they serve.

Howell’s talk was broadcast over the Commissioners Court Web site as well.

He took the stories from newspaper accounts and a book written by local historian Nita Thurman and former Sheriff Weldon Lucas.

It was 28 years before another Denton County officer lost his life in the line of duty. Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Bruce Parsons, 59, had a reputation for cleaning out bootleggers in Sherman and Frisco when he came to work in 1925.

He’d been on the job three months when he lost a gunfight to W.A. Martin, part of the Story Gang that operated out of Story Ranch near Argyle.

Martin emptied two guns into Parsons during the fight on East Hickory Street, and witnesses said Martin waved his gun around and bragged to passers-by.

Fifty law enforcement officers from several counties went looking for the Story Gang and found them in a house on Elm Street. They set up machine guns on the lawn of the College of Industrial Arts, now Texas Woman’s University, Howell said. They fired more than 2,000 rounds but hit no one.

Finally, 11 men walked out of the house with their hands up and were jailed on numerous charges.

Martin drew a 99-year prison sentence for the murder.

In 1934, Sheriff’s Deputy Carl “Red” Garrett died in the City Cafe in Justin, where men were illegally drinking alcohol. He and another officer were trying to preserve the empty beer bottles scattered around the tables when the owner pulled a gun. The other deputy struggled with the owner over the gun. The owner fired, and the bullet hit Garrett in the throat.

Howell told the listeners that the other deputy then drew his own gun and shot the owner just above the right eye. The man died three days later.

Texas Ranger Bobby Paul Doherty died Feb. 20, 1978, during a drug raid on a house near Argyle. University of North Texas student Greg Ott had sold 40 pounds of marijuana to an undercover officer earlier that day, and Doherty went with several sheriffs’ deputies to arrest him.

Ott fired a shot through the front door of his house, striking Doherty in the head.

Ott was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 2004.

The day after Christmas in 1980, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Hollis Lacy, 24, was pursuing a traffic violator about 1:50 p.m. in the southbound exit road for FM407 off Interstate 35W.

Lacy went through the FM407 intersection with sirens and lights flashing, and a van traveling west on FM407 crashed into the trooper’s patrol car.

“The vehicle rolled three times, landing on Lacy. Eight bystanders ran to the smashed car and found him lying partially out of the vehicle with the roof support on top of his heart,” Howell told the listeners.

But he was dead.

Lacy was the first black trooper killed in Texas in the line of duty.

Six years later, sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Thurston was on his way to a call in Pilot Point when a teenage driver ran a stop sign at FM428 and U.S. Highway 377.

The impact trapped Thurston in his vehicle for 20 minutes before he could be freed. He died four days later.

Each of these six men swore an oath to uphold the law, Howell said. Each assumed the responsibility of protecting their neighbors and communities.

“Each has earned a place of honor in our hearts, and we thank them for their service,” he said. “When they take the oath and put on the badge, whether they are a police officer on patrol, a jailer overseeing inmates, a deputy serving a warrant or one of our bailiffs on duty at the county courthouse, their job is to keep order, enforce the law and keep you and me safe in our community.”

DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com.