New spread across the country about the tough and thuggish settlers on the open planes fighting
over land and water and cattle and women.
Cops could be as unruly as criminals.
Governor Albinus Nance told the state legislature in 1881, frequent deeds of violence demand
more active measures for the arrest and punishment of criminals.
Nance refused to interfere with the state's first legal hanging in Minden.
Hangings, unfortunately, were something of a circus event or a community celebration
with what we might now call concession stands and large crowds who were vocal.
In Minden, the sheriff issued tickets to the execution of Samuel Richards, guaranteeing
eager spectators a choice spot.
After the hanging of photographers snapped a photo of Richards laid out in a rough wooden
coffin.
He had beaten a farmhand to death with a hammer and confessed to killing an entire family
in Kansas, according to Johnson's history of Nebraska in 1879.
Richards, although but 23 years of age at the time of his execution, was one of the
most hardened criminals and fiendish humans of the age.
Hangings were unsettling events.
Pioneer photographer Solomon Butcher set up his camera at the execution of Albert Hounstein.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse in broken bow.
Parents brought small children.
The gallows had been hidden by a tall fence, but the crowd ripped it down.
At exactly two minutes before one o'clock, the trap was sprung.
The strain of the shock was too much for the rope, which parted like a thread.
The rope broke, and he landed on his feet still alive, so they hauled him back up, tied
the rope together, and they had to hang him basically twice before they got the job done.
The second fall broke his neck, and in 13 minutes he was pronounced dead by the physicians
in attendance.
I think it was understood it was a problem, and public expressions of glee or joy at the
death of another human being were thought a bit undignified.
The Nebraska Supreme Court threw out half of the state's death penalty cases by the
turn of the last century.
Some and again, the court ruled that trials had been conducted improperly, or the punishment
did not match the crime.
That kind of legal nuance didn't sit well in some towns in need of quick justice.
A survey of court clerks compiled by the state included this chilling summary for Motto County.
One hung by sheriff, another by mob.
Some of the earliest lynchings in Nebraska really adopted some of the trappings of a
formal court session, even though they had no legal authority to do that.
