The Last Posse: A Jailbreak, a Manhunt, and the End of Hang-'Em-High Justice

by Gale E. Christianson

For anyone living west of the Mississippi in 1912, the biggest news that fateful year was not the sinking of the Titanic . Nor was it Pancho Villa's brazen raid into New Mexico and the killing of several U.S. citizens. Instead, it was a violent escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary planned and carried out by a trio of notorious robbers and safe-blowers.
In the early spring of 1912, two black prisoners undertake an escape from the Nebraska state penitentiary but fail after an informant betrays them. When the deputy warden is stabbed and killed, throwing the prison into chaos, three white convicts carry out their own prison break. With guns of unknown provenance, Charles Morley, John Dowd, and Charles Taylor shoot their way out of Lancaster Prison, killing the warden and wounding his brother in the process.
Hunted by three hundred lawmen across the Nebraska plains through a blinding snowstorm, the outlaws invade homes (demanding food, horses, and silk handkerchiefs) and kidnap a young farmer, to the horror of his pregnant teenage bride. What happens next, who gets shot, and who gets hanged are both tragic and thrilling--and set the stage for a modern American jurisprudence and prison reform, ending forever the era of hang-'em-high justice.

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Gale E. Christianson is retired from Indiana State University, where he served as Distinguished Professor of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Huntington Library Fellow, and the recipient of numerous other grants and awards. Christianson lives in Terre Haute, where he continues to research and write.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe you have to be a Nebraskan to enjoy this book, but it's a good read. The descriptions of Lincoln and the surrounding countryside are enjoyable--people could take a train from Lincoln out to the state pen to visit their loved ones, for example. After the prisoners escape, I really got into the manhunt and capture strategies of the different posses.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent account of the shootout and escape of three convicts in Nebraska that resulted in the death of three prison guards (including the warden) and the manhunt that followed. The book also covers the killing of a deputy warden by a black inmate just before the escape.

[Brian Beerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thrilling true story of three convicts who escaped from the Nebraska State Pen in the middle of a blizzard back in 1912. It all ended the only way it could have... in blood.