Crimes of the instances

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

That is merely one man’s perspective from the early twenty first century (first written in 2010). I needed to decide about crimes that occurred at places which can be inside the town right now, however had been outdoors our company limits on the time they occurred. I selected the latter.

Earlier than starting, although, I’ve to cope with three crimes that stand aside: the murders of three cops in Lincoln. I’m not fairly positive find out how to place them in a listing. All of them had large impacts on the neighborhood, and on the police division specifically. As a result of these are my colleagues, I cope with them individually and in chronological order. 

Patrolman Marion Francis Marshall

Shot within the shadow of the brand new Nebraska State Capital, Gov. Charles Bryan got here to his assist and summoned further assist.

Lt. Frank Soukup

Marion Marshall was technically not a Lincoln police officer, so Lt. Soukup was really the primary Lincoln police officer killed on obligation. One in every of his colleagues who was current on the motel and concerned within the gunbattle, Paul Jacobsen, went on to get pleasure from an extended profession and command rank at LPD, influencing many younger expenses (like me) and leaving his mark on the tradition of the company.

Lt. Paul Whitehead

Within the area of some months, three LPD officers died within the line of obligation. Frank Soukup had been murdered, and George Welter had died in a motorbike crash. Paul Whitehead’s associate, Paul Merritt, went on to command rank, and like Paul Jacobsen left an indelible mark at LPD and the neighborhood.

No. 1: Starkweather

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

The topic of a number of thinly disguised film plots and a Springsteen album, the Starkweather murders are clearly essentially the most notorious crime in Lincoln’s historical past — up to now. One of many first mass murderers of the mass media age, six of Charles Starkweather’s 11 victims had been killed inside the town of Lincoln, and the primary was simply on the outskirts of city. I didn’t reside in Lincoln on the time, however my spouse was a first-grader at Riley Elementary College and has vivid recollections of the town gripped by concern within the days between the invention of the Bartlett murders and Starkweather’s seize in Wyoming.

The case brought about fairly an uproar. There was intense criticism of the police division and sheriff’s workplace for not capturing Starkweather earlier within the week after the invention of the Bartletts’ our bodies. Finally, Mayor Bennett Martin and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners retained a retired FBI agent, Harold G. Robinson, to research the efficiency of native legislation enforcement. His report primarily exonerated the native legislation officers and made just a few vanilla suggestions for bettering inter-agency communication and coaching. 

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Now I do know that many readers are mumbling to themselves “how apparent.” Maintain your horses, although. It’s not fairly as apparent as you may assume. I had two experiences that drove this reality residence to me. The primary was a go to by a small group of journalism college students. Just one member of the category had any thought, and her thought was fairly obscure. You want to do not forget that the Starkweather murders had been in 1957 and 1958 — earlier than the mother and father of many faculty college students had been even born.

The second expertise was a go to by a Cub Scout den. I used to be giving the children a tour of the police station one night. We had been within the entrance foyer ready for everybody to reach. As I entertained the boys, I instructed the mothers and dads that they may get pleasure from trying within the nook of the Sheriff’s Workplace show case to see the contents of Starkweather’s pockets — found a few years in the past locked up within the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Workplace protected. After a couple of minutes, one of many confused fathers requested me who Starkweather was, and why it was important.

No. 2: Lincoln Nationwide Financial institution

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

On the morning of Sept. 17, 1930, a darkish blue Buick carrying six males pulled up in entrance of the Lincoln Nationwide Financial institution on the northwest nook of twelfth and O streets. 5 of the boys entered the financial institution, whereas a sixth stood outdoors by the Buick, cradling a machine gun. Observing the weird occasions, a passerby known as the police. The officer who responded, Forrest Shappaugh, was casually instructed by the machine-gun-toting lookout to simply hold going, which he properly did. Returning with reinforcements, he discovered that the robbers had already made good on their getaway, netting $2.7 million in money and negotiable securities.

Finally, three of the six suspects had been arrested. Tommy O’Connor and Howard Lee had been convicted and sentenced. Jack Britt was tried twice however not convicted by a hung jury. Gus Winkeler, a member of Al Capone’s gang, winged a cope with County Lawyer Max Towle to keep away from prosecution in alternate for orchestrating the restoration of $600,000 in bearer bonds. The next 12 months, Winkeler was murdered in Chicago, the sufferer of a gangland slaying. The ultimate two robbers had been by no means recognized.

The Lincoln Nationwide Financial institution theft stood as the biggest money financial institution theft in america for a lot of a long time. It precipitated main modifications on the Lincoln Police Division. Chief Peter Johnstone was quickly “retired” after the theft, the division’s fleet was upgraded so as to add the primary official patrol vehicles, the total drive was armed and a shotgun squad was organized. Forty-four years later after I was employed at LPD, the echo of the Lincoln Nationwide Financial institution theft was nonetheless evident in day by day financial institution opening particulars, and within the Thomspon submachine weapons and Reising rifles that detectives grabbed every time the theft alarm sounded at headquarters.

No. 3: The Final Posse

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

My first inkling about this crime got here after I was the chief deputy sheriff. One in every of my interns, a younger man named Ron Boden (who turned a veteran deputy sheriff), had been doing a little analysis on Lancaster County’s solely recognized lynching, in 1884. I got here throughout a reference within the biography of the sheriff on the time, Sam Melick, to the homicide of the Nebraska Penitentiary warden and subsequent jail break. Melick had been appointed interim warden after the homicide and instituted a number of reforms.

A number of years later, a colleague, Sgt. Geoff Marti, loaned me an important e-book, Gale Christianson’s “Final Posse,” that instructed the story of the 1912 jail break in gory, haunting and superb element.

To make an extended story brief, convict Shorty Grey and his co-conspirators shot and killed Warden James Delahunty, a deputy warden and a guard on Wednesday, March 13, 1912. They then made their break — proper into the tooth of a brutal Nebraska spring blizzard. Over the course to the subsequent few days, a posse pursued. In the course of the pursuit, the escapees carjacked a younger farmer along with his workforce and wagon. Because the posse closed in, a gunfight broke out and the hostage was shot and killed within the alternate, together with two of the three escapees. 

There was loads of anger among the many locals within the Gretna-Springfield neighborhood in regards to the demise of their native son, and an argument raged over the legislation enforcement techniques that led to his demise.  Lancaster County Sheriff Gus Hyers was not unsullied by the inquiry, though it seems from my prospect a century later that the fog of struggle led to the tragedy. 

Christianson, a professor of historical past at Indiana State College who died earlier this 12 months, notes the next on the flyleaf:

“For anybody dwelling west of the Mississippi in 1912, the most important information that fateful 12 months was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary deliberate and carried out by a trio of infamous robbers and protected blowers.”

Greater information on half the continent than the sinking of the Titanic throughout the identical 12 months would definitely qualify this murder-escape as one of the notorious Lincoln crimes in historical past.

No. 4: Rock Island wreck

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

The Aug. 10, 1894, wreck of a Rock Island practice on the southwest outskirts of Lincoln was nearly misplaced within the mist of time till it was resurrected within the public consciousness by writer Joel Williams, who got here throughout the story whereas conducting analysis for his historic novel, “Barrelhouse Boys.”

The wreck was decided to be the results of sabotage to the tracks, maybe an try to derail the practice as a prelude to theft. Eleven individuals died within the crash and ensuing hearth, making this a mass homicide, to make sure. G.W. Davis was arrested and convicted of the crime however later acquired a full pardon. The story was instructed in better element earlier this 12 months by the Lincoln Journal Star.

A historic marker is alongside the Rock Island Path in Wilderness Park, accessible solely by foot or bike from the closest path entry factors a few half-mile away at Previous Cheney Highway on the north, or 14th Road on the south.

Right here’s the large query that continues to be unanswered: Was there actually important proof to show that George Washington Davis dedicated the crime, or was he only a handy scapegoat? The truth that he acquired a gubernatorial pardon 10 years later leads me to imagine that the proof will need to have been unusually weak. If he was railroaded, then my second query is that this: who actually pried free the tracks with the 40-pound crowbar discovered on the scene?

No. 5: Commonwealth

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

On Nov. 1, 1983, the doorways to Nebraska’s largest industrial financial savings and mortgage firm had been closed and Commonwealth was declared bancrupt. The 6,700 depositors with $65 million at stake would by no means be absolutely compensated for his or her loss, in the end receiving about 59 cents on the greenback for his or her deposits, which all of them mistakenly believed had been insured as much as $30,000 by means of the Nebraska Depository Insurance coverage Warranty Company, which was primarily an insurance coverage pool with belongings of solely $3 million.

The case dominated Nebraska information for months. The investigation in the end led to the conviction of three members of the distinguished Lincoln household that owned the establishment, the resignation of the director of the State Division of Banking and the impeachment of the Nebraska legal professional normal and the suspension of his license to apply legislation. State and federal litigation arising from the failure of Commonwealth drug on for years.

On the Lincoln Police Division, the Commonwealth failure led to the formation of a specialised white-collar crime element, now generally known as the Technical Investigations Unit. On the time, municipal police departments in america had just about no capability for investigating monetary crime and fraud of this magnitude, and we shortly turned well-known for our experience on this space. The early expertise served LPD very properly within the making certain years.

No. 6: Candice Harms

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

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Candi Harms by no means got here residence from visiting her boyfriend on Sept. 22, 1992. Her mother and father reported her as a lacking particular person the next morning, and her automobile was discovered deserted in a cornfield north of Lincoln later within the day. Weeks glided by earlier than her stays had been discovered southeast of Lincoln.

Scott Barney and Roger Bjorklund had been convicted in her abduction and homicide. Barney is in jail serving a life time period. Bjorklund died in jail in 2001. Intense media consideration surrounded the prolonged trial of Roger Bjorklund, for which a jury was introduced in from Cheyenne County as an alternative choice to a change of venue. I’ve little doubt that the trial was a life-changing occasion for a gaggle of excellent residents from Sidney, who did their civic obligation.

I used to be the Lancaster County sheriff on the time, concerned each within the investigation and within the trial safety. It was at about this time that the mobile phone was turning into a client product, and I’ve usually thought that this brutal crime most likely spurred a number of purchases. Throughout my profession, that is most likely the second-most-prominent Lincoln crime by way of the sheer quantity of media protection.

No. 7: Jon Simpson and Jacob Surber

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

A mum or dad’s worst nightmare unfolded in September 1975 when these two boys, ages 12 and 13, did not return from the Nebraska State Honest. The boys had been the victims of abduction and homicide. The case was just like a string of different murders of younger boys within the Midwest, and lots of thought that these circumstances had been associated — the work of a serial killer. Though an arrest was made within the case right here in Lincoln, the costs had been finally dismissed. William Guatney was launched and has since died.

No. 8: John Sheedy

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

Saloon and playing home proprietor John Sheedy was gunned down outdoors his residence at 1211 P St. in January 1891. The case of Sheedy, distinguished in Lincoln’s demiworld, turned the speak of the city when his spouse, Mary, and her alleged lover and confederate, Monday McFarland, had been arrested. Each had been acquitted at trial. The Sheedy homicide is chronicled in an important interactive multimedia web site, Gilded Age Plains Metropolis, a web based model that builds upon an article revealed in 2001 by Timothy Mahoney of the College of Nebraska.

No. 9: Patricia McGarry and Catherine Brooks

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

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The our bodies of those two mates had been present in a Northeast Lincoln duplex in August 1977. Their assassin, Robert E. Williams, was the topic of an enormous Midwest manhunt throughout the next week. Earlier than his seize, he dedicated a 3rd homicide in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and raped, shot and left for lifeless a sufferer who survived in Minnesota. He’s the final man to be executed in Nebraska, despatched to the electrical chair in 1997.

No. 10: Choose William M. Morning

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

District Court docket Choose William Morning was murdered in February 1924. He was shot on the bench by an sad litigant in a divorce case. His courtroom reporter, Minor Bacon, was additionally shot, however a pocket book in his breast pocket deflected the bullet and saved his life.

Many different crimes

Up to date
Could 23, 2022

Selecting Lincoln’s 10 most notorious crimes was a problem. Though the highest two had been simple, the image shortly turned clouded. We have a tendency, in fact, to overlook our historical past somewhat shortly. Most of the crimes I felt had been among the many most important are barely remembered right now, if not fully forgotten.

Some readers will take situation with my listing. In selecting 10, listed below are the others I thought of, in no specific order. They’re all murders:

— Mary O’Shea

— Nancy Parker

— Charles Mulholland

— Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner

— Martina McMenamin

— Regina Bos (presumably murdered)

— Patty Webb

— Marianne Mitzner

I additionally thought in regards to the 5 murder-suicides wherein a mom or father killed a number of members of the family earlier than taking their very own life. Although tragic, these crimes didn’t command the identical type of consideration because the others, maybe as a result of there was no prolonged investigation, no tantalizing whodunit, no stranger-killer, nor any of the small print that come out within the protection of a significant trial.