Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-22
HANGS FOR DOUBLE MURDER
Norman Williams Pays Penalty fOr Killing
Two Omaha Women.
SON AND BROTHER RUNS DOWN CRIMINAL
In Addition to This Murder williams
Has n Criminal Career in Ne
braska Before Going
TO Oregon.

THE DALLES, Ore. July I.-(special
Telegram. )-Norman Williams was hanged
here today for the murder Of Alma Nesbitt
and her mother on March s. 1900. The only
statement made by the murderer was: My
lips are sealed to the world"
Williams two hapless victims were both
from. Omaha, while the murderer himself
was Nebraskan with an atrocious record
in that state. After serving four years
in the state pcnitentiary of Nebraska for
criminal assault on a neighbor's wife, he
criminally assaulted and attempted to muir
der his sister -in-law at Chadron, Neb.
This latter crime was fully as atrocious
in conception as the slaughter OF
the Nesbitt women. He threw the
girl into a well, and after Civ
ing her time enough TO drown, set up an
alarm. The girls dress had caught on
snag, however. and the rescuers found
her head just above water. Williams
| served eight years for that. In addition
he had a wife in Nebraska when he mar
ried Miss Neshitt and another wife died
in Bellingham, Wash, under suspicious
circumstances.
The tale of a lost mother and daughter
of the tireless detective work of a son
! and brother, vengeance intent. and OF a
tragedy the ghastliness of whose working
is interviewer in this Nebraska drama.
Williams came to Hood River. Ore. from
Omaha early in 1893. located a quarter sec
| tion near Mt. Hood, in the remote, little
/ populated upper Hood River valley. Co
| ing back to Omaha, he returned in May
/ Of the same year, bringing with him Alma
! Nesbitt, who announced prior to departure
her engagement to Williams. June TO- 1899,
\ Miss Nesbitt filed on homestead adjoin-
/ ing that Of Williams. In October of that
year her mother came from Omaha.
Lures Women from Home.
| March g. 1900. Williams lured the two wo-
men from Portland to Hood River and on a
dark. stormy night, the trio started in a
! carriage on the long drive to the home
stead. The two women were never seen
again. williams said they had gone back
! TO Omaha.
| In June, 1900. williams presented re-
llnquishment for Miss Nesbitt's claim.
Some months later letter came from
/ Omaha relatives inquiring the whereabouts
OF the women. 1t came to The Dalles land
office. Rendered doubly suspicious by the
smouldering gossip in the Hood River val
ley, the register had the REIMBURSEMENT re-
turned from Washington. 1t was found a
forgery. and October %, 1903, a federal
grand jury at Portland indicted Norman
Williams for forging Alma Nesbitts name
to a homestead REIMBURSEMENT.
In Omaha George Nesbitt. brother OF
| Alma, read OF the indictment and early IN
the " inter Of 1904 silent man, who dis
closed his identity and his business to nc
one, stepped of the Overland at Hood
River and began a quiet investigation
Never did bloodhound work harder thar
this man Nesbitt to settle the blood feud
u
stranahan, liveryman. he penetrated the
foothills where Williams homestead had
been. Studying every inch of the premises
like a Sherlock Holmes, he at last found
under a henhouse depression that showed
an excavation had been made there some
time He and Stranahan commenced tC
dig. Seven feet down they struck plank
Under the plank were a few tangled gray
hairs, a few clotted black hairs and somt
bloody gunny sacks. Mrs. L. ]. Nesbitt'i
hair was gray; Alma Nesbitt's hair wal
black.
Deceived Another Woman.
From this evidence was worked out VII
liams' doom Circumstantial facts wen
to show that after Staying the wretcheC
females in the isolated foothill country
he had thrust their bodies into a rud'
grave, and some weeks later had opened
| the grave and burned the bodies on heap
} OF brush. II was a plot cleverly con
ceived as it was horrible, but deep dow
in the grave was left enough to give tn
brother a scent that led him to his quarry
Meanwhile the murderer, made appre
| hensive by the gathering cloud OF sus
picion in the Hood River country, had gon
to British Columbia, and later to Bel
bingham, Wash, his arrest taking plac
February s, 1906 at the latter place. Tn
! best criminal talent in the northwest faile
TO shake the impression of guilt in III
jury's mind. A hard fight was put u
by appeals and motions for a new tria
but ali in vain.
williams was married to one wife 1
| Omaha November Is, 1895. She nol
= claims that she was trapped into a moe
marriage by play" minister whom WI
liams brought to her invalid fathers hous'
Some years previous a wife died in Oman
from Strychnine poisoning; in Decembe
=. 1909 a wife died at Bellingham from I'll
! same cause. A secret marriage with Mis-
( Nesbitt at Vancouver, Wash, in 1899, wa
70 brought out at the trial With the crime
r for which he has served sentence, III
crimes for which he was hanged today, an
( the crimes Of which he is suspected, bl
. which have never been brought home, Wi
= uams stands out as colossus in the erin
inal world.
; GASOLINE IN AUTO EXPLODE