Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-07-25
SUSPECTED OF OTHER GRIMES
He Was Known to DO Bisamist and
Was Suspected of Having Killed at
Least One Wife-story Of His Re-
voting Crime in Oregon Recalls tho
Murder of tho Tumons at Musoatins.
Special to Times r epublican.

| murdered the Tumons, an aged couple
who lived near the river In this city.
4 The crime was one of the worst in the
history of the city and as Williams
disappeared the night the crime was
committed, suspicion has always rested
upon him. Williams criminal Instinct,
however, finally brought him to the
gal1ows. and he was hung for another
double murder committed In Oregon.
Thee crime for which Williams was
hung was most atrocious and his car
eer Of crime was in'human to say the
least
Tho Nesbit Murder.
Mrs. L. j. Nesbit, of Omaha. Neh.,
and her daugher Alma were murder
ed near Hood River, Ore. The motive
of the crime was the desire Of Williams
to secure homestead adjoining his
own in the Hood River country, upon
which Alma Nesbtt had located at his
| instigation. Williams had married AL
ma Nesbit In order to inherit her prop
erty as next Of KIN.
Williams two haplcss victims were
both from Omaha, while the murderer
| himself was q Nebraskan with an
| atrocious record In that state. After
serving four years in the state peni-
Tertiary Of Nebraska for criminal aus
sauH on a neighbor's wife, he Grim
| tnally assaulted and attempted to mur-
| der his sister in-law at Chadron, Neb,
This latter crime was fully as atroci-
Gus in conception as the slaughter Of
the Nesbit women. He threw the girl
into we'll. and after giving her time
enough to drown set up an alarm. The
girls dress had caught on a snag, how
ever, and the rescuers found her head
just above water. Williams served
eight years for that. In addition he
had wife in Nebraska when he mar
ried Miss Nesbit. and another wife
died In Bellingham, Wash, under sus-
picious circumstances.
Lured Women to Death.
The tale of lost mother and daugh-
ter of the tireless detective work of a
Of tragedy the glastMness of whose
working out is scarcely paralleled in
Oregon annuls, is interviewer In this
Nebraska drama. Williams went to
Hood River, Ore, from Omaha, early
III LoVV, lOSuliiiS5 SGCulOIl near
Mt. Hood. in the remote, little popu-
lated Hood river valley Going back
to Omaha. he returned In May Of the
same year, taking with him Alma
Nesbit, who announced prior to her
departure her enga cement to Will
Jams. June 10. 1899. Miss Nesbit filed
on a homestead adjoining that of
Williams. In October of that year her
mother came from Omaha.
March s. 1900, Williams lured the
two women from Portland to Hood
River. and on a dark, stormy night
the trio started in a carriage on the
long drive to the homestead The two
women were never seen again. Will
Jams said they had gone back to
Omaha.
In June, 1900, Williams presented a
REIMBURSEMENT of Miss Nesbitt's claim.
Some months later letter came from
Omaha relatives inquiring the where
abouts Of the women. 1t went to The
Dalles land office. Rendered doubly
suspicious by the smoldering gossip in
the Hood river valley, the register had
the REIMBURSEMENT returned from
Washington. 1t was found forgery,
and October 20, 1908, federal grand
Jury at Portland, indicted Norman
Williams for forging Alma Nesbitt's
name to homestead REIMBURSEMENT.
Uncovers Terrible Crime.
In Omaha George Nesbitt, brother
Of Alma, read of the indictment, and
early in the winter of 1904, a silent
man, who disclosed his identity and
his business to no one, stepped off the
Overland at Hood River and began a
quiet investigation. Never did blood
hound work harder than this man
| Nesbitt to settle the blood fued be-
tween Williams and himself With
Bert Stranahan, a liveryman, he pen
etrated the foothills where Williams
| homestead had been. Studying every
| inch of the premises like a Sherlock
| Holmes, he at last found under hen
house depression that showed an ex-
| cavation had been made there some
time. He and Stranahan commenced
! to dig. Seven feet down they struck
| 1. plank Under the plank were found
| few. tangled gray hairs, few clotted
black hairs and some bloody gunny-
sacks. Mrs. L. j. Nesbitt's hair was
| gray, Alma Nesbitt's hair was black.
| From this evidence was worked out
! Williams doom. Circumstantlal facts
went to show that after Staying the
wretched females in the Isolated foot
hill country, he had thrust their bod
| les into a rude grave, and burned the
bodies on heaps of brush. 1t was
plot as cleverly conceived as 1T was
horrible, but deep down in the grave
was left enough to give the blood
hound brother scent that led him to
| his quarry.
Meanwhile, the murderer, made ap-
| prehensive by the gathering cloud of
suspicion in the Hood river country
had goDe to British Columbia, and
later to Bellingham, Wash. his arrest
taking place February 8, 1905. at the
latter place. The best criminal talent
in the northwest failed to shake the
| impression of guilt in the jury's mind.
| A hard fight was put UP by the appeals
for trial h11t all in