East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-07-21

The Dalles, Ore, July 21.-Daniel
Norman Williams. the alleged multi
murderer. whose crimes extend from
Iowa to oregon, and who for so many
years escaped the penalty of his acts,
was hanged in the county Jail here
today.
williams went to the gallows
promptly at sos o'clock this morn
ing, without a tremor or faltering In
the least, and met the end with the
same sulkey !mpassive stolidity that
has characterized his conduct and
speech for months past. He refused
to the end to talk. He was pronounce
ed dead 10 minutes after the trap
sprung.
williams was hanged for one of the
most atrocious crimes in the history
Of Oregon, the cold-blooded and bru-
tai murder of Miss Alma Nesbitt on
the night Of March s. 1900, on his
homestead ranch about 90 miles from
Hood River. At the same time he
killed her mother. Mrs. Louise Jane
Nesbitt. for the purpose of securing
possession of a homestead claim taken
up by Miss Nesbitt adjoining his, and
to cover up other crimes which he is
alleged to have committed against
Miss Nesbitt. Back of this is series
of crimes in Iowa with which he was
connected.
williams knew the Nesbitts in Ne
braska and induced them to come
west He then persuaded Alma to
take up a homestead, which she did
in 1899. A short time after this he
induced her to marry him, although
he had a wife living at that time in
Iowa and was the father of several
children, who are now of an adult
age.
But a short time after this mar
riage, which was a secret one, per-
formed at Vancouver, Wash, in July,
1899, Williams is supposed to have
learned that his wife could not hold
her homestead, which is believed to
have been the object of the marriage.
On March s, 1900. Williams, Alma
Nesbitt and her mother left Portland
for Hood River. They arrived there
late in the evening and started to
drive to the claim of Williams, a dis
tance Of 90 miles, although the night
was dirk and stormy. That was the
last seen of the two women in life.
williams returned to Hood River the
following morning without them
The evidence. which was clrcuni-
stantlal, showed that Williams took
the tWn women out In a buggy and
murdered both with an Az horribly
mutilating them. The crime was
committed only after bitter strug-
gle in which the women evidently
resisted to their utmost their grue-
some fate. He then buried their bodies
in a huge brush pile and burned
them.
Williams built his plans careful
lv and even went so far as to con-
struct a henhouse over the graves of
the unfortunate women. He endeav-
ored to account for their absence by
declaring that they had gone to Wash
ington. and asserted that Alma had
entered on a fast life He wrote such
a story of her to her sister, who is
a resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
and to other friends Of the murder
ed woman in the east.
Sometime after George Nesbitt, of
Iowa, endeavored to trace the where
abouts of his mother and sister and
became convinced that williams had
murdered them. The graves where
the victims had first been placed was
opened. The murderer had failed to
remove all traces of his crime. A
norton of Mrs. Nesbitt's scalp. with
long gray tresses attached thereto,
and some bloodstained gunnysacks
were found. The bodies of the two
women have never been found.
Expert testimony showed that a
portion of the hair and scalp had
been torn from the head of Mrs Will