THE MASS FOR THE DEAD - Horror Stories

Stephen Dee Richards - A History of His Killings - Non-Fiction







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Story: Stephen Dee Richards - Non-Fiction

*This is a real event that happened.

Stephen Dee Richards, who was hanged on the 26th day of April 1879, at Minden, Nebraska, for the murder of Peter Anderson, was born in the state of Ohio, and came West in 1876, in search of adventure.




Read Part 1: Introduction

Read Part 2: The Confession

Read Part 3: Second Confession



Part4: A HISTORY OF HIS CRIMES AND CONVICTION

The crime for which Richards paid the highest penalty

known to the law, is the murder of Peter Anderson,

the Swede. As stated in the confession, he was

captured at Steubenville, Ohio, and brought to Minden,

where a jury found him guilty within two hours.

When he left the Harlson farm, after murdering

the family, he went East by way of Lincoln. After

taking dinner at Townley's eating house, he went back

to the car, when somebody, talking of the Kearney

County murders, said Richards was on the train.

Richards was standing within six feet of the man,

and said: " If Richards is on the train, he is a d—

m

fool if he don't get off." This disarmed all suspicion, 

and the man looking for Richards paid no more attention

to him. Joe Beatty, passenger conductor, sat in

the seat with him and talked with him concerning

his crimes in Kearney County, and Richards deceived

him, he (Richards) pretending to be a land explorer.

Sheriff Martin, of Adams County, got track of

Richards' whereabouts by a letter sent from Chicago,

signed D. S. Roberts, and directed to Mrs. Cheney,

living near Hastings. Martin telegraphed Gov. Garber,

for a requisition on the Governor of Ohio, and

with Capt. Anderson, Sheriff of Buffalo, made straightway

for Steubenville, Ohio, where he was spending a

few days with friends. Richards was arrested by a

constable, formerly a prison guard at Columbus, in a

field, while in company with two young ladies. He

told the writer that he knew or felt he would be arrested

that day, and made no resistance when the officer

notified him he was his prisoner, and he gave himself

up, saying to the ladies: "You must pardon me

for this unexpected interruption." The Sunday preceding

the execution he sent for your correspondent,

and said he desired to make some minor corrections

in his confession, which he had already furnished The

Journal, and for which they paid him a liberal price.

Among other things he said, that the thirty minutes

in which he butchered the Harlson family was too

short a time; that he could put people on end as lively

as anybody, but that was too quick work; to make

the grave, commit the murder, and bury the family in

that short a time; was too lively jumping around. He

asked if I was to be present at the execution ; I told

him I did not know; perhaps; and I asked if he

thought it was coming off . He said, " I don't know;

the prospects are favorable; I will be on hand." He

complained that the eastern press had him " away up."

They say that I killed fourteen or fifteen people. I

claim that nine is my limit." When reading to him

his own words in the confession of that part pertaining

to the murders, his eyes would glare and glisten

like the waiting panther.



THE CRIME.

The circumstances of the murders committed by

Richards are given in his confessions herewith printed.

From the Hastings Journal, of January 23d, I take

the following account of his trial for the murder of

Peter Anderson.

On Tuesday of last week the court convened at

Minden, the county seat of Kearney county, to witness

the trial of a man who, by his own confession, is

guilty of five murders in one neighborhood. A grand

jury was impaneled; two indictments were found

against Richards, and were served against him in jail

in Kearney. The next morning the prisoner was

taken to Minden, and there tried for the murder of

Peter Anderson. Mr. Scofield, of Hastings, prosecuted,

and Mr. Savage defended. (Richards told me

that he thought Savage took no interest in him, and

that he only visited him once during his imprisonment.)

The prisoner was in good spirits, and his

jovial manner would indicate that he was as little

concerned as to the result as anybody in the courtroom.

The evidence of the witnesses, seven in all, 

was not in any way conflicting, giving the circumstances in

which Anderson was'found. The points of the^evidence

are given in the testimony of the defendant. To

the question of Judge Scofield, the district attorney,

Richards said he was not guilty; yet he stands selfconvicted

by his own evidence.

Richards was put upon the stand, and testified as

follows

:

The trouble arose between Anderson and myself in

talking with regard to what I was to do with him. He

called me a Gr—d d—n liar at the first start. I told

him that if he did that again, I would strike him. He

did repeat it, and I struck him with my fist arid knocked

him down, and asked him if he would take it back.

He said he would not, and I knocked him down a

second time. There was an axe and a hatchet on the

side of the room where Anderson stood, and he started

for one of them. I told him I would kill "him if he

took it; but he started for it, and I struck him with

the hammer that I caught up, and knocked him down.

After I struck him with the hammer, he never got up

again. (Richards, in the dying confession, gives the

particulars of this inhuman outrage.)

I never had any trouble with Anderson; there had

never been any between us before. This occurred on

the 9th of December, 1878, in the daytime between

eleven and one o'clock. He called me a liar and I

knocked him down, and he got up, and I knocked him

down again with a hammer. He started to pick up

an axe. I would not be called a liar by anybody on

earth. After I knocked him down I carried him in

the cellar, and covered him with coal. I killed him

because he called me a liar. I hit him some twice or

three times.

The prosecution here handed him the hammer with

which he killed Anderson, and he identified it.

While waiting for the verdict of the jury, Richards

said: " It's a h—11 of a jury that would take more

than fifteen minutes to find a verdict against me;

takeoff that twelfth man and put me in his place, and

you will have a hanging match in April as sure as

there is a God." In answer to the inquiry of the

judge, after he had been found guilty, if he had anything

to say why sentence should not be passed, he

said " I have nothing to say in regard to the matter;"

and thereupon he was sentenced to be hanged on the

26th of April. He has since maintained a remarkable

silence in regard to all his killings.



Next Part: THE EXECUTION


Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: The Confession

Part3: Second Confession

Part 4: A History of His Killings and Crimes

Part 5: The Execution 

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