Image from Pixabay under Pixabay License
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