Murder at the Lincoln Hotel: The Irvine-Montgomery Case
The trial of William H. Irvine for the murder of Charles E. Montgomery in October of 1892 in Lancaster County District Court captured statewide (and ...
Crime
What We Found
Mystery Grave in Boyd County
The Boyd County skull, showing what appears to be a bullet hole in the forehead.
Like something out of detective fiction, a crew digging a trench found an unmarked ...
John T. Bell’s Shorthand in the Courtroom
Historian John T. Bell was also one of Nebraska’s earliest court stenographers. NSHS RG2411-384-a
Before the invention of recording and dictation machines, ...
Flashback Friday: Why Cowboy Gun Battles Were Often Shots in the Dark
Sidney, Nebraska, circa late 1870s. NSHS RG3315-40
Associate Editor and black powder enthusiast Jim Potter wrote this blog post. One staple of TV or movie ...
A Funny Post-Election Poem…and the Grisly Story Behind It
A bit of post-election humor has a dark backstory unrelated to politics. How did this piece of paper become part of History Nebraska's collections?
History ...
Crime on Streetcars
According to the Omaha Daily Bee in September 1875, robbing a street car was a two-step process. 1. Run the car off the track. 2. "Gobble the money box."
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Louise Vinciquerra, Nebraska’s Bootlegger Queen
“Queen Louise” thumbed her nose at the law throughout the Prohibition era, usually avoiding punishment despite frequent arrests across the state. Her story provides new ...
One Leg in the Grave!
Omaha police officer James MacDonald spent a decade with one leg literally in the grave.
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Did the Sheriff Commit the Crime?
Thousands of dollars are missing in Kearney, but who is the thief? Is it the trusted postal clerk, or his good friend the former sheriff? This story of betrayal includes ...
Who killed South Omaha’s mayor? Anti-Catholicism in Omaha in 1892
Though it looked like a suicide, an organization called the American Protective Association was convinced that the death of South Omaha’s mayor was a Catholic plot. The ...
Seward County Crime
Jerrald K. Pfabe's study of two twentieth-century time periods explores Seward County's most common forms of crime and examples of each.
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“Cocaine fiends” in Omaha, 1907
Advertisement for medicinal drops to relieve toothache, Lloyd Manufacturing Co., 1885. Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Cocaine was once touted for its ...
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