Stephen D. Richards

In the mid-19th century, Nebraska experienced a period of territorial expansion in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which saw the creation of Nebraska and Kansas territories in order to facilitate the construction of the Transcontinental railroad.[17] It was not until 1867 that Nebraska was finally admitted into the Union as the 37th state, two years after the conclusion of the American Civil War.[18][19] Nebraska's newfound statehood led to an influx of settlers, among the growing population and political controversies incited by the state's first governor David Butler, renewed calls for a state constitution were made in 1871.[20] These events in Nebraska's history from 1853 to 1871 occurred during Richards' lifetime, with the criminal law and justice system not yet developed to its fullest extent. At the time of his crime spree and trial Nebraska's law and justice system had only recently been developed, with the state's criminal code only formally being written into state law in 1871.[21] Before the event of Richards' execution, the state had only one recorded execution, which occurred in 1863, four years before its inclusion into the United States.[2]

Stephen D. Richards was born in Wheeling, West Virginia,[lower-alpha 2] on March 18, 1856.[22][23] He was said to have had five sisters and a brother.[24][25][26] When Richards was six, his family relocated to Ohio; first to Monroe County, and then to Noble County.[13][22][23] The family later settled in the Quaker village of Mount Pleasant in Ohio when he was eleven. Richards later described his mother as a devout Methodist, and his father, a farmer,[8][9][23] as having "made no profession of religion".[13] Richards attended school in Mount Pleasant; he claimed that the teachers considered him well behaved. At his mother's insistence, he also attended Sunday school and church regularly.[13][23]

Up until the age of twenty, Richards lived with his parents, working for farmers and other locals in the area. On September 16, 1871, Richards' mother died of an unknown cause.[22][23][27] Several years later, at the age of 20, Richards met and became engaged to a young woman named Anna Millhorne, with whom he regularly corresponded during his later travels, up until his final arrest. Richards also met men whom he described as being of "questionable occupation"; he began passing counterfeit bills which he claimed he had obtained by way of a man in New York. In February 1876, he left Mount Pleasant, heading west to find fame and fortune.[23][28]

For a short time, Richards lived in Iowa, working as a hand at farms in Burlington and Morning Sun. He was later hired as an attendant at the Iowa Lunatic Asylum in Mount Pleasant, Iowa; his job was to bury deceased patients.[28][29][30][31] The New York Times reported that Richards' time working at the asylum was a significant event in his life that shaped his own humanity and his view of the human race.[29] While Richards vehemently denied witnessing any abuse of the asylum's patients, he later reflected that during his tenure of handling and disposing of deceased patients, he became accustomed to viewing people as 'nothing more than meat' to the extent that he began to have little to no regard for humanity.[15][30][32]

Richards left the asylum in October of 1876, and began drifting around the Midwest,[28][29][30] finding intermittent work and occasionally consorting with train robbers. He stayed in Kansas City briefly before moving on to Nebraska, where he passed through Hastings before arriving in Kearney,[33] residing there for a period of two to three weeks before leaving for Cheyenne County.[34] During his stay Richards claimed to have had a part in a number of gunfights, resulting in him shooting each individual, although he admitted to being unaware of their condition after each shooting and whether or not they were killed in the resulting gunfight.[30] During this period of time, Richards went under the alias William Hudson, one of many false names he would use during the span of his life. Richards later discarded this alias once he reached Kansas City.[35]

Richards decided to flee Kearney shortly after murdering Anderson, expecting that the bodies he had concealed would soon be discovered. In the evening, as he was hitching up Anderson's horses and preparing to leave, some of Anderson's neighbors arrived. They had noticed Anderson's absence and questioned Richards about it. He reportedly told them Anderson was inside the house. As Anderson's neighbors entered the dwelling, Richards fled on horseback, riding to Bloomington[63] He traveled east, by horse and train and on foot, passing through Omaha and Chicago.[lower-alpha 5] While on the run, he met up with Jasper Harlson and Harlson's fellow escaped prisoner. The three traveled through Wheeling, West Virginia, and into Ohio, passing through Bridgeport, before arriving in Richards' hometown of Mount Pleasant.[15][29] Nebraska Governor Silas Garber issued an arrest warrant for Richards on December 16, 1878, and promised a reward of $200 for his arrest and conviction.[64]

Richards' trial began on January 16, 1879, in Minden, Nebraska, with Judge William Gaslin presiding. The prosecution was led by a district attorney named Scofield,[76] and Richards' defense was led by a lawyer named Savage.[76] Scofield laid out two indictments for murder in the first degree, for the killings of the Harlson family and Anderson. Richards pled not guilty, arguing that Anderson's killing was in self-defense, and therefore justifiable.[3][65] The prosecution called seven witnesses to the stand.[76] They all testified to the state in which Anderson was found. Richards then was called to testify. When questioned by Scofield, he admitted to killing Anderson with a hammer after a heated argument but reiterated that he had done so in self-defense. Richards said that, although repeatedly warned not to do so, Anderson had reached for a nearby hatchet.[77] The prosecution then entered into evidence the hammer that had been used to kill Anderson. Richards identified it as the murder weapon.[69]

After two hours of deliberation,[3][78] the jury found Richards guilty of the murders of the Harlsons and Anderson. He was sentenced to death by hanging,[13] and his execution date was set for April 26, 1879.[3][65] Richards was described as being "cheerful and indifferent" to both the proceedings and his conviction.[76] The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo reported that, shortly after his conviction, Richards managed to smuggle a knife into his cell, with the intention of using it to kill himself, but the weapon was discovered by the authorities, and confiscated before he could use it.[15] No other newspaper records corroborate this story, however.

Post-mortem photograph of Richards taken shortly after his execution

When Richards was returned to Nebraska, the Omaha Herald reported that he "manifested supreme indifference to his lot, was perfectly willing to be brought direct to Kearney Junction and said he had as soon died one way as another."[32] Shortly after Richards' conviction, Sheriff Martin announced that his execution in Minden would be open to the public, even though Martin feared the attendance of a large number of spectators who could become violent.[79] In an effort to prevent a riot, an enclosure was constructed around the gallows to separate the expected crowd from Richards. However, tickets that allowed admittance into the restricted area were sold. Also, Richards was allowed to invite people; he chose members of the press whom he had befriended while in prison.[15] One such ticket of admittance was recently discovered and is now in the collection of the Nebraska Historical Society.[80]

Spectators at the execution were said to have numbered between 2,000[25] and 25,000.[39] As the crowd became increasingly agitated, the authorities pleaded with them to stay outside the enclosure, but guards were unable to prevent the spectators from beginning to destroy the barrier.[15][39][81] One participant in the incident, a man named Rolf Johnson, recalled that twenty to thirty people in the crowd cut the rope as the authorities tried to stop the agitated crowd. The mob then proceeded to pull the posts out of the ground, attempting to drag the makeshift barrier away while the guards were pulling the rope at the other end in what Johnson described as a "tug of war". The mob succeeded in pulling the rope away from the guards, dragging it onto the prairie before proceeding to destroy the barrier completely, in spite of the authorities' attempts to intervene.[72] At precisely 1:00 p.m.,[39] Richards was led to the gallows by Martin and his deputy; this pacified the crowd. Upon ascending the gallows, Richards launched into an impassioned defense of his actions. He again claimed that the killing of Anderson was in self-defense, and also disavowed any involvement in the murders of the Harlson family,[39] and claimed he was the victim of a "wrongful conviction".[24][26] He then said he had found the Lord, "made [his] peace with God",[15][26] and "had faith in Christ", and asked the crowd to join him in singing the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".[39] One such spectator documenting the events of the execution in his journal, observed that Richards appeared calm and collected during the entire ordeal.[82] Richards' final words were said to have been "Jesus be with me now!"[25][lower-alpha 8] Reverend W. Sanford Gee, who presided over the execution, later telling reporters he hoped Richards' professions of religious salvation were genuine, but allowed that they might not have been.[25]

At 1:17 p.m.[39][lower-alpha 9] on April 26, 1879,[13][83] Richards was hanged. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat said it took fifteen minutes for him to die.[39][lower-alpha 10] Richards was the first person in Nebraska's history to be executed,[2][82] since its incorporation into the United States in 1867.[86] Shortly after his execution, a photographer was able to capture a photograph of Richards' corpse propped inside a coffin.[87]

After his arrest, many people described Richards as charismatic, and noted that he successfully concealed his dark nature under a polite, articulate, and handsome exterior. [89] A friend who accompanied Richards' autobiographer to his interviews said during one visit that Richards did not have the look of a murderer.[90] Contemporary observers remarked that Richards seemed to feel no guilt whatsoever about his crimes.[13][22][91] Numerous times between his arrest and his execution, Richards was asked why he had no empathy towards his victims or remorse for his crimes. Sometimes he simply refused to answer.[92] When he did choose to reply to this question, he gave conflicting responses. He usually cited his associations with people of questionable morals [28] and his time working at the Mount Pleasant Asylum as deleterious influences.[29][30] When The Nebraska State Journal questioned him about his lack of remorse for the heinous murders he had committed, particularly those of the Harlson family, Richards recounted an event from his childhood. He had been tasked to kill a litter of kittens and did so by bashing each of their heads against a tree. After he had killed all the kittens, he found that he felt no guilt about it, and in fact found the killing "fun".[93] Although some outlets, including modern-day author Michael Newton classified Richards as a "thrill killer",[83] in interviews with the press Richards adamantly denied that he enjoyed inflicting pain upon others, claiming that in his younger years, other people had considered him to be kind.[92] Reporters who interviewed him after his arrest were often struck by his calm and collected behavior;[8][9][41] an article in the New York Daily Herald described him as being "carefree and cheerful".[16][51] In an interview for the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Richards said he knew he would be executed for his crimes, but that he was unafraid of death and was "ready to meet it".[30] When the jury sentenced him to death, he was said to have been unconcerned and in good spirits.[3][69] The St. Louis Globe-Democrat (which doubted that he had actually committed nine murders) reported that Richards broke down during his final moments,[39] but this was contradicted by other newspaper accounts of his execution.[25][81]

Criminal psychology and profiling was not used as an investigative technique until the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, nine years after Richards' execution,[94] in 2018, forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland referred to Richards as "The Old West’s Ted Bundy". Both Richards and Bundy used their charisma to manipulate others, and both displayed a complete lack of remorse for their crimes. Ramsland also pointed out differences between the two serial killers, noting that Bundy murdered for the purpose of sexual gratification, whereas Richards had no preferred method of killing or type of victim; furthermore, Bundy fought his execution, while Richards was indifferent to his death sentence. Ramsland also pointed out a possible reason for his violent behavior, citing a severe head injury that he received shortly before the killings started.[95] Richards himself briefly mentioned this injury to the Sedalia Weekly Bazoo, claiming that he received the injury while traveling with several companions in the spring of 1877.[15] When pressed about the circumstances that led to the injury, Richards adamantly refused to divulge additional details on the incident.[92]

Throughout his travels, Richards used various aliases. In an account of his life published in The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo, Richards admitted to having used the false names George Gallagher, F.A. Hoge, and William Hudson. Richards also admitted to corresponding with various acquaintances under the names D.J. Roberts, J. Littleton, and W. A. Littleton.[15][33]

An illustration depicting the execution of Richards published a month after his execution in the National Police Gazette. Note the artist inaccurately depicts Richards as being without a mustache.

At the time of Richards' arrest and execution, it was a popular belief that all criminals were of poor quality and limited education.[96] The horrific nature of his crimes gave Richards some notoriety which increased after his capture due in part to his not fitting with the public's preconception of criminals,[95] with reporters and members of the public often struck by his charisma, good looks, his education, and outspokenness.[15][41][95] Richards was featured in a handful of books and periodicals, the first of these was The Philosophy of Insanity: Richard, the Nebraska Fiend by Dr. John Sanderson Christianson, published on February 9, 1879.[97][98][99] A Nebraska State Journal interview with Richards prior to his execution was published in a trail pamphlet titled Life and Confession of Stephen Dee Richards, the Murderer of Nine Persons Executed at Minden, Nebraska, April 26, 1879. The pamphlet, published on May 1, 1879, five days after Richards' hanging, includes entries on other contemporary criminal cases as well.[100][101] After his execution, interest in Richards dwindled and he subsequently faded from public memory.[95]

In modern times, Richards is now acknowledged as Nebraska's first documented serial killer.[59][95][102] NET Nebraska's documentary Until He Is Dead: A History Of Nebraska's Death Penalty, featured Richards as a prime example of the public spectacle of the state's early executions; the documentary mistakenly mentioned him under his "Samuel Richards" alias.[87] An episode of the SyFy Channel documentary series Paranormal Witness, titled "The Nebraska Fiend", features a family who is purportedly being tormented by Richards' spirit, with an unnamed actor portraying Richards.[102][103][104] In the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2 features the character Edmund Lowry Jr. who was partially based on Richards.[105] Richards was featured in the 2021 novel The Scarlet Pen written by Jennifer Uhlarikand, as a part of the historical crime series True Colors. The novel is a fictionalized version of Richards' interaction with his fiancée, to whom he regularly sent letters. [106]