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Non-Fiction: ORLANDO CASLER
Published in 1879
Orlando Oasler is sentenced to be hanged at Seward,
Nebraska, on the 26th of May, 1879, for the murder
of George L. Monroe. Casler was a farmer, living near Beaver Crossing, in Seward county, bearing
anything but an enviable reputation among his neighbors.
Monroe resided in Arkansas City, Kansas, where
his family still live. He came to Nebraska in June,
1878, looking for a new home, and naturally drifted
to the fertile prairies of Seward county. At Beaver
Crossing, on the 6th of July he met Casler, and went
home with him to spend the night. At eleven o'clock
the next morning (Sunday), they left Casler's house
with Monroe's team, for Seward City. They arrived
there in the afternoon, and towards evening drove two
miles from town and camped on the banks of the
Blue river. Other parties came along and camped
near by them, and Casler on pretense of avoiding the
mosquitoes, persuaded Monroe to move farther up
the river. This is the last time any one; save his murderer,
saw Monroe living. On Monday, Casler arrived
at his farm alone with Monroe's team, satchel,
and revolver. Subsequently deeds belonging to the
murdered man were found hidden between the ticks
of Casler's bed. As he was known to be without
money to purchase this property, which he claimed
to be the case, suspicions that Monroe had been foully
dealt with arose in the minds of his neighbors days
before the accidental discovery of the body.
On the afternoon of the 11th of July, Mr. Cowden,
of Seward, with his little son, were fishing in the
Blue, near the place where Casler and Monroe had
camped five days before. The little boy, walking
along the bank, discovered the corpse floating near the
opposite shore. The coroner was summoned, and an
inquest was held immediately. After hearing the testimony
of the men who camped near them on the night
of the 7th of July, and of others who met Oasler the
morning after the murder, with bloody pants and wet
clothes, and heard his contradictory stories as to the
disappearance of Monroe, the jury returned a verdict
that George L. Monroe came to his death by a shot
through the heart from a pistol in the hands of Orlando
Oasler, and that his victim's dead body was consigned
to the waters of the beautiful Blue river, by
Oasler, with the hope of hiding his awful crime.
He was tried and convicted, and there is no hope of
reprieve in his case. Three weeks before the day of
execution he was interviewed and said: " I am innocent,
and pubiic prejudice has convicted me. People
think that because I was in prison for horse-stealing,
I am guilty of murder." In reply to the question
whether he had any hope of being reprieved he said:
"While there is life there is hope; but if God has ordained
that I shall die at the end of a rope, it will
have to be so, and I will die like a man. I am preparing
an address to be read on the scaffold. I propose
to give the people h—1. I think it would suit me
best to have a public execution. It might be too
select were it private as the law provides."
Finish