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The Murder That Shocked Lincoln · Nebraska History Podcast

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The following episode features a historic article from the
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Nebraska History magazine. This article may reflect the
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language and attitudes of its time and while it offers
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valuable insight into the past, may contend expressions or
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viewpoints that are outdated or offensive by today's standards.
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Any outdated terms do not reflect the current views or
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perspectives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
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Welcome to the Nebraska History podcast.
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I'm your host, Chris Goforth. Each episode we explore articles
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written and published in Nebraska History Magazine.
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The trial of Mary Sheedy, an alleged Co conspirator Monday
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McFarland for the murder of Mary's husband John Sheedy
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caused an uproar. How could a middle class woman
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of the Victorian era commit adultery and murder in Lincoln,
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NE? Today we return to the scene of
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the crime in this 2001 Nebraska History Magazine article titled
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The Great Sheedy Murder Trial and the Booster Ethos of the
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Gilded Age in Lincoln written by Timothy R Mahoney.
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Just before 8:00 on Sunday evening, January 11th, 1891,
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John Sheedy, a Lincoln, NE real estate developer, hotel owner,
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noted booster and sporting man stepped out of the front door of
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his house on the southeast corner of 12th and P streets to
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go 2 blocks over to his gambling establishment in the Uptown
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district. Suddenly, out of the shadows, a
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man charged toward him, striking him on the side of the head with
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a leather covered steel cane. Staggering, Sheedy drew a pistol
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and fired several shots, but missed his assailant, who
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disappeared down 12th St. into the dark.
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Sheedy's wife rushed from the house to help her husband back
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into the parlor, then called for a doctor and the police.
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As neighbors, including another doctor, gathered, Dr. CS Hart
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and the chief of police, Marshall Samuel Melek, soon
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arrived, and as the two doctors dressed Sheedy's head wound and
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helped him to bed, Malik questioned him about the
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attacker. The doctors administered pain
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relievers, and Mary Sheedy gave her husband sleeping powders in
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a cup of coffee. In the middle of the night,
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Sheedy was stricken with paralysis.
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He fell into a coma the next morning, and the doctors ruled
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out surgery. He died about 10:00 Monday
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night, 26 hours after the attack.
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From the moment that word of Sheedy's murder spread, through
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the arrest, arraignment, and trial of his alleged assailants
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to the final verdict in May of 1891 and beyond, the great
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Sheedy murder case absorbed Lincoln's attention and elicited
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greater excitement than any other previous case in the
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city's history. Lincoln residents were shocked
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and horrified by a crime considered so heinous that one
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booster proclaimed it quote, one of the most sensational in the
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annals of American crime. End Quote.
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Local and regional newspapers provided unprecedented coverage,
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and the subject dominated conversation for months.
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Almost every important Lincoln lawyer was involved and
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thousands of spectators, at first mainly men, but by the end
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of the trial included many middle class and elite women.
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They crushed into the impressive new Lancaster County Courthouse
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at 10th and K streets to watch the proceedings.
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The intense reaction made it clear the case was much more
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than simply a sensational murder.
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Alarmed and shocked by the identity of the victim and the
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alleged assailants, many Lincolnites interpreted it as an
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indication that tensions roiling beneath the surface for years
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had reached a boiling point. Many also suspected it was a
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politically motivated act, representing A deepening
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struggle for control of the underlying values and standards
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that would dominate Lincoln's future political and economic
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development. In addition, procedural
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irregularities in the conduct of the case and the disposition of
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Sheedy's estate, the involvement of certain individuals in the
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prosecution, and questionable trial tactics by both the
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prosecution and the defense touched off rumor, innuendo, and
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speculation that beneath the public melodrama lurked a story
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that could compromise the integrity of Lincoln's political
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and legal communities, undermine the moral foundations of its
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middle class, and threaten its future as a progressive city.
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Such concerns reflected a pervasive feeling in the early
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1890s that the structure and dynamics of the nation's
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economy, political system, society, and culture were
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undergoing profound transformations.
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People felt the forces of change sweep away much that was
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familiar, and a pervasive sense of crisis permeated nearly every
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aspect of American life. It seemed to many that all the
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rules had changed. Like noteworthy crimes and other
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times and places, the Sheedy case opens a window into the
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crisis of the 1890s in Lincoln and in urban America in general.
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On January 12th, as Sheedy lay dying, Marshall Melek and
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Detective James Malone spread word of the assault across
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Lincoln's Demimont, a concentration of salons,
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gambling halls and bordellos along O&P streets, interrogating
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residents and patrons in search of witnesses and information.
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Official reaction to the murder was unusual almost from the
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first moment it became public knowledge.
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On Monday night, when word of Sheedy's death reached the
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county coroner, Dr. HL Holyoke, he rushed to the Sheedy
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residents, signed the death certificate, and had the body
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transported to the courthouse for a coroner's inquest.
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The following morning, as Lincoln woke to the news of the
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murder, Holyoke impaneled an inquest jury assembled from men
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already gathering at the courthouse.
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At 9:00 the following morning, January 14th, an unprecedented
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number of reporters, policemen, lawyers and politicians,
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including Mayor Robert B Graham, crowded the jury room as the
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inquest began. A member of the jury, Robert
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McReynolds, A prominent reform businessman, moved that the
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inquest be held in secret and invited the press to leave.
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Suspicious and infuriated reporters called the
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unprecedented closed inquest. An illegitimate Star Chamber
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eavesdropped through the transform and tried to force
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their way into the room. Holyoke moved the inquest to a
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small, unheeded meeting room on the third floor.
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Though some jury members apparently doubted the blow
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could have caused Sheedy's death, the inquest concluded
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that he had been murdered, death resulting from internal bleeding
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caused by a blow to the head. The questions remaining then
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were who struck the blow and why?
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Malik and Malone continued to comb the P St.
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Dives, and within hours they found witnesses who, like Mary
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Sheedy herself, claimed to have seen a black man of middle
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height and build near the Sheedy house about the time of the
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murder. To the boys of P St., the
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description fit William Monday McFarland, a popular patron of
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the area's bars and clubs and a Barber at Crampton's Barber Shop
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below the stairs of 930 P St. on the north side, adjacent to
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Sheedy's Mac Hotel. Later that day, McFarlane was
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said to have been seen on an extended spree on P St. and a
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group of rowdy white men went in search of him, apparently intent
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on taking the law into their own hands.
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Two days later, after Malone and Melek tracked McFarlane down and
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arrested him in a bar on O Street, taking him to police
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headquarters and the loathsome city jail on the southeast
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corner of Haymarket Square for questioning, Melek and Malone,
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accompanied by Mayor Graham, apparently locked McFarland in a
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dark, airless sweat box, removing him occasionally to see
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if he was willing to talk. Finally, allegedly coerced by
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threats to deliver him to the angry mom, McFarland confessed
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to the murder, believing that they had their man.
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The police and the County Attorney, Novia Snell, now
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needed a motive. McFarland obliged, telling his
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astonishing inquisitors, quote, who could hardly believe their
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ears and quote, that he had been coerced into the murder by Mary
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Sheedy. About a year before, he said,
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John Sheedy, his benefactor, friend and regular at Crampton's
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barbershop, had asked him to come to the Sheedy's house to do
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Mary's hair. McFarland, a handsome,
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personable man, scheduled weekly house calls.
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Soon, McFarland and Mary Sheedy were on friendly terms.
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On one visit, said McFarland, she seemed distraught, blurting
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out that her eight-year marriage was a sham.
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Then she recounted her story. She arrived in Lincoln from
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central Illinois in 1879 as Molly Merrill with her second
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husband, George Merrill, the Carpenter and teamster.
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Previously, Mary had been married to a man named Mccool,
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who was sent to prison. They patronize the dance halls,
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salons and gaming establishments on P St. including a notorious
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gambling den at 10th and P St. operated by John Sheedy.
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Records of the Merrill divorce hearing in 1882 do not make it
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clear whether Mary had met Sheedy before she and Merrill
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separated on November of 1880. But about that time, Merrill was
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said to have seized Mary in an angry manner, explaining that he
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would, quote, not live with such a damned whore.
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End Quote. He locked her out of the house,
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sold the furniture, and returned to Illinois, leaving her quote
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uncared for in the city. End Quote.
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She went to work as a servant girl at the Arlington Hotel and
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was dependent on the charity of neighbors.
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In 1881 George returned, and after a brief cohabitation with
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Mary, during which he apparently spent all his money on gambling
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and provided her no support, he left her again.
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He briefly moved in with a woman of ill repute, then left Lincoln
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for good. Again thrown upon her own
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resources, Mary continued working at the Arlington and
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patronizing the P St. Salons.
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In 1881, Mary, then about 25, met Sheedy, then in his late
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40s, who boarded at the elegant New Arlington.
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Swept away by Sheedy's flamboyant style, popularity and
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power, Mary took up residence with him, first at the Arlington
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and then in an apartment over Tunis P Quick Saloon at 10th and
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P streets, where Sheedy's casino was located.
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In February 1882, Mary sued Meryl for divorce, and later
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that year she and Sheedy were married.
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The Sheedy's tried to present a respectable front, first moving
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into a small house at 132 N 10th Street, where they lived for two
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years, then into the new house at 12:11 P St.
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Nevertheless, Mary told McFarland, marriage suited
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neither of them. John was increasingly involved
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in gambling in his rooms over quick saloon, he resumed life as
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an all around sport and he had a series of liaisons with other
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women. Mary complained about his
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absences but he was unwilling to brook any criticism and they
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often quarreled. MacFarlane told police that in
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the intimacy created by Mary's lurid tale, they embraced and
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their friendship deepened. McFarland said Mary had
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described how in 1890, in Buffalo, NY, where she was being
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treated for a disease peculiar to women, she and John had a
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particularly angry quarrel, and he returned to Lincoln alone in
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search of solace. Mary fell in love with a young
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dude, a machinist and traveling salesman named Andrew Harry
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Wahlstrom, who followed her to Lincoln, living first at a
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downtown hotel and then in an apartment in the new heater
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block at 15th and O streets. Other witnesses told Melek and
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Malone that Mary visited Wahlstrom, sometimes disguised
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as a man but later behaving more like a Cyprian rather than a
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middle class woman. She also was observed taking him
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gifts, including a diamond ring, staying in his residences for
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considerable periods, and openly strolling with him in public.
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As the affair continued, Mary talked of divorce and John,
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thrown into a jealous rage, allegedly treated her badly,
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threatening to kill her, and placed her under surveillance,
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nearly imprisoning her in the house.
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Mary continued telling McFarland about her ongoing affair with
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Wahlstrom and complaining about her husband.
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At some point, when McFarland again comforted the distraught
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woman, their embrace led to kisses and sexual intimacy.
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He showed police a Locket containing a lock of her hair as
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evidence of their relationship, but claimed he had been
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reluctant to engage in such a criminal relationship.
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Nevertheless, he was unable to fend off her advances, and the
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affair went on for months, even as she continued her
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increasingly reckless relationship with Wahlstrom.
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Eventually, McFarlane said, Mary formulated a plan for him to
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murder her husband, offering to pay him $20,000 from Sheedy's
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estate, which she said was worth $200,000.
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He balked, but when she threatened to reveal their
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affair to her husband and the police if he refused, a threat
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whose implications he clearly understood in the racialized
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environment of the 1890s, McFarland agreed to cooperate.
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He made two attempts to kill Sheedy, but failed both times.
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Mary decided to ensure the success of the third attempt, he
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claimed, by slipping poison into her stricken husband's coffee.
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Sheedy's body was exhumed and an autopsy indicated internal
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bleeding and the presence of poison, apparently confirming
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Mcfarland's story. Mary was arrested and, because
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there was no facilities for women in the county jail, was
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held at Melek's residence at 25th and P streets.
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Harry Wahlstrom was arrested as an accessory and held under
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guard at the Capitol Hotel at 11th and P Streets.
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A coroner's jury concluded that the case against Mary Sheedy,
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McFarland, and Wahlstrom was sufficient to charge them.
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On January 26th, 1891, Mary Sheedy and McFarland were
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arraigned and charged with three counts each of first degree
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murder and one count each of accessory to murder.
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Wahlstrom was charged with four counts of accessory to murder.
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Later, the charges against him were dropped for lack of
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evidence. As the alleged facts of the
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case, established by Mcfarlane's confession and supported by
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testimony at the coroner's inquest, became public,
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Lincoln's society was thrown into a frenzy.
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Why did this case strike a response strong enough to
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trigger a general crisis of confidence?
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First, the murder itself shocked Lincoln and raised fears that
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crime was on the rise. Having managed to avoid the
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disorder, crime and violence so common across the urban
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frontier, Lincoln had established A reputation as an
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orderly city. Indeed, since its founding in
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1867, there had been few murders and only one Lincoln man had
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been executed. Second, the identity of the
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alleged assailants and Mcfarland's lurid confession
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sent waves of concern and panic through the Lincoln's middle
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class and Mary Sheedy's story race profound worries about the
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integrity of the class, gender, and racial systems that had
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sustained Lincoln society for a generation.
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For years, John and Mary Sheedy had been moving on the edges of
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Lincoln's genteel society. Although a known gambler, John
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was praised for his civic mindedness in downtown
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development, his active interest in the affairs of the booster
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ethos, his donations to local charities and institutions, and
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his magnanimity towards friends among the city's elite.
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Mary patronized genteel stores, established A genteel house, and
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made a foray or two into Lincoln's middle class social
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circles. The possibility that she had
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hidden two previous marriages and possibly had committed
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adultery, miscegenation, conspiracy, extortion and murder
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was a shocking breach of middle class decorum and raised deep
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fears that other hosers and charlatans might be living among
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them. Such corruption undermined the
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middle class sense of ordering, called into question its image
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of itself as having been built on strong moral character
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cultivated through self-discipline, hard work,
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marriage, genteel living and civic involvement.
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It also eroded middle class's confidence that it could police
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itself and maintain a moral social order.
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Moreover, to those who viewed her as a corrupted perpetrator,
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Mary compromised A fundamental bourgeois tenet of female purity
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and incorruptibility. Worse still was the possibility
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that she had not been corrupted but had deliberately used her
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sexuality to pursue her own self-interest.
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Although many middle class women might have sympathized privately
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with her rebellion against the stricters of Victorian gender
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roles, the image of Mary Sheedy as an agent of female
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empowerment and advocacy might have touched already deep
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insecurities among Lincoln men and elicited a wave of
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misogynistic anxiety. On the other hand, viewing Mary
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as a victim rather than a perpetrator offered little
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comfort. Her seduction by several men
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seemed to confirm growing fears of a predatory threat to moral
18:51
middle class women posed by sporting men or dudes of the
18:55
male subculture along P St. By 1890, John Sheedy was a well
19:00
known figure in the District and in the minds of many
19:04
Lincolnites. He stood for the gambling,
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drinking, illicit sex and interracial socializing that
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many feared was corrupting urban society.
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Monday, Macfarlane's involvement further rationalized those fears
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and conflated them with rising racial tensions that accompanied
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the growth of Lincoln's small black community in the 1890s.
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Middle class people in Lincoln and throughout the northern
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United States increasingly believe that interracial mixing
19:31
threatened American social order.
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Though most townspeople seem to believe Mcfarlane's confession,
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he did, after all, repeat it three times, and most thought
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Mary was guilty. The aggressiveness of the
19:44
prosecution raised concern and generated sympathy for her.
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To many, it appeared that she was not only a victim of male
19:53
predatory sexual behavior, but also of male vengeance, greed,
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professional ambition and public corruption.
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Those who believed that Mary was innocent were even more
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convinced that she was the victim of a corrupt conspiracy
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among greedy police officials, boosters, businessmen and
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lawyers who wanted control of John Sheedy's estate, whether
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through loyalty to Sheedy or a desire to settle past scores.
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Whichever way one took it, her story and the murder case itself
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undermined the integrity of the booster ethos, shook middle
20:30
class confidence, and exposed deep racial, gender, sexual,
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moral and psychological tensions that threatened social order in
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Lincoln's complacent post frontier society.
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Above all, Sheedy himself, his reputation, and his twenty year
20:47
involvement in city affairs raised the prospect that the
20:50
murder was a political act carried out in the context of an
20:54
ongoing political struggle. That prospect elevated the
20:58
reaction to events surrounding his death to genuine shock about
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the state of urban life in Lincoln.
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Since his arrival from Council Bluffs, IA in 1869, Sheedy had
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been a central figure in a personalized, predominantly male
21:14
commercial booster ethos that was willing to tolerate
21:17
virtually any business, including the shady and in some
21:21
cases outright illegal enterprises of the Uptown
21:25
district, as long as they continued to fill the city
21:28
coffers and remained confined to a specific part of town.
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By the late 1880s, Sheedy had become the focal point of a re
21:37
energized effort by reformers to clean up the city.
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Every time he evaded the reformers, they escalated their
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efforts to get him, using increasingly aggressive tactics
21:49
that skirted closer to the margins of legality and
21:52
morality. Meanwhile, he also gained
21:55
enemies among his competitors, clients, and employees in the
21:59
Demimon. Although his murder threw the
22:03
city into an uproar, it is striking that it elicited so few
22:07
expressions of surprise, sorrow, or even regret.
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Most Lincoln Nights apparently did not believe the murder was a
22:14
random event, and most apparently considered it the
22:18
just desserts of a corrupt, immoral player in the ongoing
22:22
struggle between good and evil. But the self congratulatory tone
22:26
that usually accompanies the triumph of good was notably
22:30
absent, perhaps suggesting some concern about the methods
22:34
employed. In this case.
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Such concern reflected A deeper fear that beneath the public
22:40
face of events lay corruption and conspiracy that reflected A
22:44
deepening political and cultural crisis.
22:47
By 1891, a gradual shift in the ethical climate of public
22:51
affairs, underway for years, seemed poised to breakthrough.
22:57
Increasingly, the traditional business as usual city politics
23:01
dominated by a small booster elite making use of insider
23:06
information, personal influence, patronage, and even vigilantism,
23:10
was being stigmatized as corrupt and immoral from the start.
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Comments in the press on irregularities, inconsistencies,
23:20
and unexpected turns in the case focused on the actions of
23:24
certain individuals involved in the arrest and prosecution of
23:27
Mary Sheedy and McFarland. Concerns about undue influence
23:31
first surfaced when John Sheedy's brother, Dennis Sheedy,
23:35
A merchant businessman and vice president of the Colorado
23:38
National Bank of Denver, arrived in Lincoln to make sure the
23:41
murderer was prosecuted. He brought 2 Pinkerton
23:45
detectives, offered a $500 reward for the capture of his
23:49
brother's murderer, and sought to no avail to prevent an
23:52
inquest from being held. Concerns about a broader
23:57
conspiracy were raised when Dennis Sheedy contacted John
24:00
Fitzgerald, president of First National Bank.
24:03
Fitzgerald also was an influential railroad contractor,
24:07
real estate developer, prominent reformer in local politics, and,
24:11
from 1886 through 1890, the president of the Irish National
24:16
League. Dennis Sheedy knew Fitzgerald
24:19
through banking and railroad construction business, and
24:22
probably knew that Fitzgerald and his lawyer, Turner Marquette
24:26
of the firm Marquette de Wiesen Hall, were embroiled in a legal
24:29
struggle against Jay Gould, the notorious financier who
24:33
controlled and managed a vast system of Western railroads.
24:37
Dennis Sheedy probably believed he could count on Fitzgerald to
24:41
acquire the best legal counsel in Lincoln on his behalf.
24:45
It is less clear whether or not he knew that Fitzgerald and John
24:49
Sheedy had been long time adversaries in local politics
24:52
and the real estate business. Since the mid 1880's the two had
24:57
squared off on opposite sides in the struggle between the
25:00
reformers and the boosters. They had recently competed for
25:04
parcels of downtown real estate, and a month before the murder
25:08
Sheedy had filed a series of restraining orders to block the
25:11
construction of street railway tracks in front of his house by
25:15
a company in which John Fitzgerald was an officer.
25:19
Only 10 days before the murder, Sheedy had defended his
25:22
litigation against Fitzgerald in a letter to the Nebraska State
25:26
Journal, saying that he had sued the company without any previous
25:30
consultation with Fitzgerald. The motives of Dennis Sheedy and
25:34
John Fitzgerald seemed clear to some observers when it became
25:38
publicly known that John Sheedy, with an estate estimated at
25:43
100,000 to $200,000, had died without leaving a will.
25:48
Thus, under a state law enacted in 1889, Mary Sheedy would
25:53
automatically inherit half and the rest would go to siblings or
25:57
relatives. But it seemed ominous that only
26:00
9 days before the murder, the Nebraska Supreme Court had ruled
26:05
that a person, quote could not take by inheritance the estate
26:08
of a person he murders. End Quote.
26:11
Making it in Dennis Sheedy's financial interest to have Mary
26:14
convicted. And it seemed more than
26:17
coincidence that a week after the murder, Fitzgerald, John
26:21
Sheedy's former adversary, whose motives for wanting to control
26:25
Sheedy's estate were very different from Dennis Sheedy's,
26:28
who appointed by the county court along with Mary Sheedy as
26:33
the administrator of Sheedy's estate.
26:36
The influence of Fitzgerald and Dennis Sheedy on the case did
26:40
not stop there. As was the common practice of
26:44
the time, various lawyers, including, very briefly, William
26:47
Jennings Bryan, scrambled to carry out investigations of
26:51
their own, put together defense strategies, and offer their
26:55
services to the accused. Eventually, Mary hired Jesse C
27:00
Strode and Royal D Steams, John Sheedy's longtime lawyers who
27:05
had recently been involved in his fight against the street
27:08
railway. In April, 2 lawyers on the
27:11
reform side of city politics, LW Billingsley and JE Philpott,
27:16
were appointed to defend McFarland at his request.
27:21
Meanwhile, Dennis Sheedy, following a practice that was
27:24
still legal in the 1890s, hired 2 lawyers, Frank M Hall and
27:30
Genio M Lambertson, to assist County Attorney Novia Snell in
27:35
prosecuting the case. Snell was a reform politician
27:39
with close ties to Fitzgerald. Hall was a partner of
27:42
Fitzgerald's law firm, Turner Marquette, and a prominent
27:46
attorney for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, as well
27:50
as a criminal lawyer. Lambertson was city attorney and
27:54
an associate of Mcfarland's attorney LW Billingsley.
27:58
To many Lincolnites in 1891, such maneuvering in both the
28:02
prosecution and defense by prominent reform adversaries of
28:06
Sheedy indicated some kind of corruption.
28:10
Were Dennis Sheedy, Fitzgerald and their attorneys prosecuting
28:14
Mary in order to get a convection at any cost and thus
28:18
control the entire estate? Or, since Fitzgerald was already
28:22
an administer of the estate and its control was probably assured
28:26
anyway, was his involvement intended to cover a deeper
28:29
conspiracy by assuring Mary's conviction to obscure the truth
28:34
of Shady's murder as revenge against a long time adversary
28:38
and political act in the struggle between reform and
28:41
corruption? Such suspicions and fears of
28:44
conspiracy, the truth of which remains inaccessible behind a
28:48
fog of conflicting evidence, speculation, gossip, and
28:52
hearsay, reflect the intense concern at the time about how
28:56
deeply corruption had penetrated American life and affected
29:00
reformers, boosters, and the legal community as well.
29:04
The Sheedy case marks a moment in Lincoln's history when, as in
29:07
other cities in the period, reformers and boosters were
29:11
shocked to discover that their styles, strategies, and tactics
29:15
had become almost indistinguishable, and many
29:18
concluded that real change would occur only if modern reform
29:22
strategies were implemented. The journey to this moment in
29:26
Lincoln's history had begun in the 1870s when groups of
29:30
merchants, manufacturers, businessmen and lawyers
29:34
established the booster ethos most favored and orderly open
29:39
economic climate that provided opportunities to as many people
29:42
as possible. They speculated in real estate,
29:45
open businesses and professional offices, and built office
29:49
blocks, hotels and places of entertainment.
29:52
They also were active in city government as mayors, City
29:56
Councilman, sheriff's justices and judges.
29:59
In time, they founded the Lincoln Board of Trade for the
30:03
mutual benefit of all and the Lincoln Commercial Club to
30:06
promote economic development and infrastructure investment.
30:10
They petitioned the City Council to great streets, build cisterns
30:14
and drainage systems, install streetlights, establish a night
30:18
watch and regulate traffic, and replace those rudimentary
30:22
improvements with modern water and sewage systems, paved
30:26
streets, electricity, improved police and Fire Protection, and
30:30
a uniform system of addresses, streetcar service, public
30:34
schools and hospitals To finance improvements, boosters
30:39
campaigned for bond issues, higher city debt and higher
30:43
taxes. Annual budgets grew, hired
30:46
experts and bureaucrats replaced patronage politicians, and
30:50
Lincoln, it seemed, was on schedule to become a growing
30:53
modern metropolis. In the 1880's, the city's
30:57
economy continued to grow, but no manufacturing base developed.
31:02
Boosters, apparently failing to understand that the city's
31:05
location relative to regional and national markets, not a lack
31:09
of entrepreneurial activity, was responsible for the dearth of
31:13
manufacturing proposed initiatives to attract
31:16
manufacturers. When development grants,
31:19
stipends, subsidies, and grant abatement schemes failed, some
31:23
boosters shifted their attention to railroad rates, launching
31:27
investigations and filing lawsuits against Chicago,
31:30
Burlington, and Quincy in particular, and supported the
31:33
formation of a state transportation board.
31:37
But Lincoln had been a Burlington town since 1870, and
31:41
many manufacturers, merchants, and professionals were dependent
31:45
on CB&Q for their livelihoods. Thus, the new Bite the Hand that
31:51
Feeds You mentality opened a fissure in the unified booster
31:55
ethos that had prevailed for 15 years.
31:58
The attack on the railroads marked a shift in perspective
32:01
along some members of the business and political
32:04
community, who began to approach Lincoln's economic frustrations
32:09
by focusing on correcting perceived failures rather than
32:12
on using government to stimulate local development through
32:15
traditional means. The result was a factionalizing
32:19
of city politics and the emergence of two groups with
32:22
conflicting strategies for promoting development.
32:25
One group, relatively traditional boosters, sought to
32:29
maintain a tolerant, wide open economy with urban commercial
32:33
culture, using city government to stimulate development through
32:36
economic incentives and rewards. They remained untroubled by the
32:40
customary influence peddling and patronage systems that supported
32:45
certain developers and tolerated the mild lawlessness of P St.
32:49
salons and gambling halls. Subculture.
32:52
In opposition were the reformers, merchants, lawyers,
32:56
clergymen, and other professionals who launched
32:58
sporadic attacks against the disorderly, primarily male
33:02
subculture with its social evils of alcohol, gambling, and
33:06
prostitution that accompanied development in most railroad
33:09
towns and other new cities across the West in the 1870s.
33:14
As unity in the commercial and political community eroded, the
33:18
two factions became involved in a political struggle that,
33:21
because of the small size of the young city, became hopelessly
33:25
intertwined and corrupted. Policy development was thwarted,
33:29
and Lincoln was left ill prepared to respond to more
33:32
serious economic and social challenges of the next decade.
33:36
With the formation of the Prohibition Party in 1880, the
33:40
reform movement became organized.
33:42
Moving beyond simple demonstrations against salons,
33:46
they launched a series of regular temperance meetings and
33:49
formed a Red Ribbon Club that quickly gained 2000 members.
33:53
In doing so, they gained support for their political campaign to
33:57
increase saloon license fees, renewing an effort first
34:01
undertaken in 1877 by Mayor Harvey Wesley Hardy.
34:06
In 1880, the Prohibition Party ran a slate of reform candidates
34:10
for local offices. Significantly, following the
34:14
lead of reformers in other Western towns, but preceding
34:17
those in nearby Omaha by 20 years, they organized a quasi
34:22
vigilante political action organization called the Law and
34:26
Order League. In 1883, reform lawyer and
34:30
former police judge Robert E Moore was elected mayor and
34:34
launched a campaign to reform laws controlling liquor sales,
34:38
especially from bars and Taverns along O&P streets in the Uptown
34:42
district. Moore and the Law and Order
34:45
League were challenged by traditional boosters who argued
34:48
that a more open city was better for business and downtown
34:51
development. In 1885, Carlos C Burr, a real
34:56
estate developer, lawyer, and commercial booster, ran as the
34:59
Republican candidate in a three-way race for mayor against
35:03
Democrat reform booster John Fitzgerald and former Mayor
35:07
Hardy of the Prohibition Party. These first salvos in the
35:11
struggle between reform and commercial booster strategies
35:14
triggered a series of events that by 1892, would fragment the
35:18
boosters and expose the degree to which corruption and
35:22
compromise had blurred their differences.
35:26
The Law and Order League marked a new departure for the
35:28
reformers who would no longer seek to reform urban life
35:32
through moral suasion alone. In the tradition of citizen
35:36
vigilante movements that often emerged within or along the
35:40
booster ethos, the League organized a citizen directed
35:44
legislative and legal campaign to target offenders and put them
35:48
out of business and in jail. The League's legal and
35:52
legislative strategies threatened to undermine the
35:55
personalized regime of city life in which influential men,
35:59
including centrist commercial boosters such as Barr, merged
36:02
self-interest with the interests of the city in pursuit of
36:06
wealth. For Burr and other downtown
36:09
developers, business, whether legitimate or illegitimate,
36:13
provided revenues that enhanced the city tax base and generated
36:17
further growth and development. To Burr and his circle, insider
36:22
deals influence money and arrangements among real estate
36:27
developers, the City Council, the police, and entrepreneurs in
36:31
the P St. subculture, including monetary consideration,
36:36
kickbacks, rent taxes, and initiation fees to city
36:40
officials and the police in return for freedom from
36:43
prosecution was good business and good politics.
36:48
Sheedy had been a key figure in the business as usual realm.
36:53
A real estate developer and builder, he had purchased the
36:56
last open parcel of land in the business section at the
36:59
southwest corner of 12th and P streets and was commended by the
37:03
press for improving the city in the summer of 1885.
37:08
In June of 1887 he was praised for building a three story stone
37:12
faced hotel Mac AT932P St. constructed with innovative
37:17
deeper footings for increased wall support.
37:21
He made most of his money and exercised his power as a
37:25
sporting man and a common gambler with a reputation across
37:30
the West, enhanced by association with his cousin, the
37:34
famed Chicago gambler Pat Sheedy, and perhaps funded by
37:37
him as well. Sheedy had become a man of
37:40
wealth and large influence in the City Council.
37:44
Influence he enhanced by providing venues for the male
37:48
sporting subculture in which blacks and whites, workers,
37:52
laborers, sporting men, travelers, businessmen,
37:56
entertainers, and nymphs. Tupaev enjoyed relatively safely
38:01
a drink, a cigar, a game of cards, Faro or roulette, and
38:05
sex. By the late 1880s, Sheedy's
38:09
gambling establishment was at the center of the Uptown
38:12
district between 9th and 12th on P St.
38:15
The district held Taverns, salons, gambling halls,
38:19
clubhouses, Barber shops, one or two colored gambling dens, and a
38:23
few houses of prostitution, possibly after 1887, including
38:28
the Hotel Mac. Most of the 20 or so houses of
38:32
prostitution in Lincoln in the 1880s and 1890s were in boarding
38:37
houses down the hill from the Government Square on 9th and
38:40
10th Streets in a district called the Tenderloin.
38:45
Through his influence, Sheedy apparently protected
38:48
establishments in the district. To frustrate reform legislation,
38:52
he placed his own people in the City Council or controlled
38:56
council members with bribes. He evaded arrest and prosecution
39:01
by buying off the police and the police court judge.
39:05
He also influenced city policy and reformers believe that
39:09
Carlos Burr, mayor in 1885 and 1886, and others who turned a
39:14
blind eye to Sheedy's business practices and vice in general,
39:18
were influenced by Sheedy and others on the P St. and
39:22
Tenderloin subculture. Burr, they charged, was, quote,
39:27
a friend and associate of gamblers and thugs, End Quote,
39:31
and was accustomed to spending his time at Sheedy's gambling
39:34
hell, using it, as other politicians had, as an
39:38
unofficial headquarters. Indeed, so pervasive was
39:42
Sheedy's power that some desperate reformers began to
39:45
contemplate using their adversaries tactics to put him
39:49
out of business. The mayoral campaign of 1885 was
39:54
a confrontation between reform and the status quo.
39:58
Byrd defeated Reform Democrat Fitzgerald by only 30 votes,
40:02
with Prohibition candidate Hardy a distant third.
40:06
Fitzgerald filed A protest with the City Council and instructed
40:09
his lawyers, Co Whedon, Novia Z Snell and Andrew J Sawyer, all
40:15
ardent reformers and Law and Order League members.
40:18
Sawyer was president. To protest the council's planned
40:22
meeting to ratify the vote the following evening, Reform
40:26
Council members supported the objection, but the council met
40:30
and affirmed Burr's victory. Reformers were convinced Burr
40:34
had stolen the election. Mayor Burr focused his attention
40:39
on urgent infrastructure needs, however, and law and orderly
40:42
council members were able to pursue their reform agenda.
40:46
In November of 1885, they reorganized the Police
40:50
Department and established a new police code, increasing
40:54
enforcement in the Vice district through a system of beat
40:57
officers who were prohibited from entering Taverns, salons,
41:01
and gambling places, and from accepting drinks and cigars,
41:05
apparently a common practice previously.
41:08
The new code also made the acceptance of any fee, reward or
41:13
gift from any person arrested or from any person in this custody
41:17
immediate grounds for dismissal from the force.
41:20
Gave police night sticks and firearms and required them to
41:24
attain a search warrant before entering a place where they
41:26
suspected illegal activity was occurring.
41:29
The new code, in short, reduced influence by replacing personal
41:34
interaction between the police and business operators with
41:36
professional rules and procedures.
41:40
Harrison D Littlefield, a self styled law and order policeman,
41:44
began walking his beat on P St. on December 1st, 1885.
41:48
He observed that Sheedy's establishment above Quick's
41:52
Saloon was crowded at all hours by a clientele that included
41:56
Mayor Burr and prominent members of the town elite who were
42:01
drinking, smoking, playing stud horse poker, roulette and Faro
42:05
and consorted with prostitutes. Quick's Saloon, one of the
42:10
finest liquor and billiard establishments in the city, had
42:13
long been a focal point for reformers.
42:16
The Ladies Temperance Society had demonstrated in front of
42:19
quicks in February of 1874, and the next evening a group of
42:23
saloon patrons retaliated in the tradition of urban male
42:27
subcultures that cultivated sarcastic and ironic behavior to
42:30
vent social tensions by dressing in women's clothing and carrying
42:35
out mock raids on quicks and nearby salons.
42:39
The saloon also had been a quasi official headquarters for
42:42
political clubs. Fraternal orders.
42:45
Quick was a member of the Knights of Pythias sportsmen,
42:48
and, since Quick also raised livestock, Lincoln's cattlemen.
42:52
In the early 1870s Quick served as a City Councilman and from
42:57
1873 to 1887 as Fire Chief, and his saloon became the unofficial
43:02
clubhouse for politicians and firemen, enhancing its role as a
43:06
center of Lincoln's male subculture.
43:09
In the early 1880's the Law and Order League had twice tried to
43:13
close the place, but both cases were dismissed early in 1885,
43:18
with the cooperation of the police, the league initiated a
43:20
sweep of the vice district, and several operators, including
43:24
Sheedy, were arrested, but he evaded prosecution.
43:28
In November, the police received complaints about Sheedy's
43:31
casino, but the plaintiffs changed their story and refused
43:35
to give testimony of value and no charges were filed.
43:39
In early 1886, however, after a month of surveillance, League
43:43
President Sawyer and League's lawyer Frank Lewis and Officer
43:47
Littlefield were ready to take the battle against corruption
43:50
and vice to another level. On January 20th, Littlefield
43:55
filed a complaint in the County court of Judge Charles M Parker
43:59
charging Sheedy, August, Gus Sanders, and others with
44:03
operating an illegal gaming establishment.
44:06
Search and arrest warrants were issued and the police raided
44:10
Sheedy's establishment. Saunders was arrested, but
44:13
Sheedy again evaded arrest, this time because he was at home
44:17
recuperating from a stab wound inflicted by Jay Patterson,
44:21
another gambler, in a late night altercation on P St.
44:26
Released on bail, Saunders retaliated by suing the Law and
44:29
Order League for illegal entry. Judge Parker, unlike many judges
44:34
across the Midwest who took a dim view of the quasi vigilante
44:38
activities of groups like the League, threw out the suit and
44:42
summoned Saunders to appear on the gambling charge.
44:46
When Saunders failed to appear, Parker declared him in contempt
44:50
of court and issued a warrant for his arrest.
44:53
Meanwhile, the case against Sheedy and Saunders was sent to
44:57
District Court in response to the Law and Order League's
45:00
success in court. Mayor Burr and council members
45:04
who opposed the League's activities supported Judge
45:07
Parker's opponent in the April election.
45:09
Their candidate, Albert Parsons, was elected.
45:13
Parsons, a lawyer who had spent much of his previous four months
45:16
representing defendants in cases brought against them by the
45:19
League, did what he was expected to do.
45:23
He threw vice cases out of court, allowed Sheedy to reopen
45:27
his casino and resumed the monthly collection of fines from
45:31
gambling and prostitution establishments.
45:35
In fact, in order to avoid reporting funds received to the
45:38
city clerk, Parsons went door to door to collect the cash.
45:42
Most proprietors cooperated. It was just good business to
45:46
reduce the risk that one would be pulled in a police raid.
45:50
By fall 1886, Judge Parsons was ignoring most liquor and vice
45:55
arrests, including two more of John Sheedy.
45:58
In frustration, the Law and Order League targeted other
46:01
saloon keepers, gamblers and madams, in particular Myrtle
46:05
Stewart and Anne Tripp. The City Council passed stricter
46:09
liquor laws and ordinances against the desecration of the
46:14
Sabbath, hoping to trigger more prosecutions.
46:17
Significantly, police officers identified with the Law and
46:20
Order League grew more aggressive physically.
46:23
The League's legal defense of a police officer sued for assault
46:27
by a citizen suggests that the League and the Reformers were
46:31
beginning to believe that physical force could be useful
46:35
in establishing social order. In April of 1887, perhaps
46:40
encouraged by a growing National Law and Order League urban
46:43
reform movement, Lincoln voters elected a new Reform Council and
46:48
a new mayor, Andrew J Sawyer, who had been president of the
46:52
Lincoln Law and Order leak since 1885.
46:56
Sawyer increased police vice raids and through closer
46:59
scrutiny of the police court, pressured Judge Parsons to
47:03
follow through with the prosecution of vice cases.
47:07
Meanwhile, Sheedy and Saunders continued to pressure Parsons to
47:11
thwart police efforts and dismiss cases that they
47:14
continued to pay him fines. In May of 1887, Tunis Quick died
47:20
suddenly, and though it's unclear exactly how events are
47:24
related, only a little more than a month later, on June 21st,
47:29
Sheedy and Saunders were arrested for unlawfully keeping
47:33
in rooms located in the second story of Quick Saloon, certain
47:37
gaming apparatuses and devices for the purpose of playing games
47:41
of chance. Apparently Quick's considerable
47:44
influence had protected Sheedy from prosecution. 2 days later,
47:49
Sheedy and Saunders were fined in police court by Judge
47:52
Parsons. They appealed in District Court,
47:55
but lost. It was apparent that Parsons was
47:58
no longer able to stand up to the Law and Order League and was
48:02
indeed cheating Sheedy by accepting protection money from
48:06
him. Sheedy and Saunders said nothing
48:09
in response to the charges, but soon tried to replace their
48:12
former associate with a more effective police judge.
48:17
Neither John Sheedy Saunders nor fellow gambler AJ Hyatt could
48:22
have predicted the course of events that would result from
48:24
their cynical appearance before the City Council on August 1st,
48:28
1887, to file a citizen's petition presented by their
48:32
lawyers, Jesse C Strode, charging Police Judge Parsons
48:36
with blackmail and embezzlement. Parsons, they charged, assessed
48:41
fines against gamblers and pimps, then kept the money for
48:45
himself. Rather than questioning Sheedy
48:49
and Saunders motives, Law and Orderly Council members saw an
48:53
opportunity to pursue their own goals and formed a committee to
48:56
investigate the charges. On September 19th, the committee
49:01
delivered its report. Parsons had accepted money and
49:05
later estimated at $1430 from Saunders, Sheedy and other
49:10
gamblers as well as others like operators of houses of
49:14
prostitution. Parsons, through his lawyer LC
49:19
Burr, Carlos Burr's brother, and DG Courtney, charged that the
49:23
petition was brought forward to maintain the rule of bad
49:27
character in the city, called the evidence fraudulent and
49:30
questioned the council's authority to remove him from
49:33
office. The committee agreed to give
49:35
Parsons a public hearing in early October.
49:39
Anticipating the worst, however, Parsons sought to block the
49:43
process. The day before he was scheduled
49:45
to appear, his lawyers argued before Federal District Judge
49:49
David J Brewer in Saint Louis that his clients rights of due
49:53
process had been violated by a conspiracy of gamblers and
49:57
reformers in the City Council who wanted to remove him from
50:00
office. Brewer issued an injunction
50:04
forbidding the mayor and council to remove Parsons or take any
50:08
further evidence or vote upon the question of guilt.
50:12
Furious at this infringement on home rule, Mayor Sawyer and the
50:17
council met anyway, tried Parsons in absentia, found him
50:22
guilty of malfeasance in office, declared the office vacant, and
50:26
appointed a new police judge, Republican lawyer HJ Whitmore.
50:31
On November 17th, Judge Brewer declared the Mayor and City
50:35
Council in contempt of court, levied a fine, and ordered the
50:39
Federal Marshall to arrest them and bring them before him in
50:42
Omaha. On November 21st, the Mayor and
50:46
Council transformed their arrest, appearance before Judges
50:50
Brewer and Elmer S Dundee and six day incarceration in an
50:54
apartment in the Douglas County Jail into a mythic struggle
50:58
against unbridled power. With self consciously theatrical
51:03
rhetoric and behavior, they portrayed themselves as a band
51:07
of brothers comparable to the Irish rebels defending home rule
51:11
against federal power, a pervasive concern in the
51:15
political culture in the 1880s. When the counsel's lawyer, Gino
51:19
Lambertson, rushed to Washington, DC to appeal the
51:22
case before the United States Supreme Court, it received
51:26
national attention, including that of President Grover
51:29
Cleveland. The Supreme Court's decision a
51:32
month later declared that Brewer had overstepped his
51:35
jurisdiction, a great victory for the mayor and the council.
51:40
Briefly, Lincoln was in the national spotlight.
51:43
At home, the drama coalesced various reform factions into a
51:47
unified front against a common foe.
51:50
The triumph of the mayor and council actually strengthened
51:53
the Reform Party. The City Council soon launched A
51:58
reinvigorated police campaign, although it is not entirely
52:02
clear how the events related. Sheedy did not benefit from his
52:06
complaint against Judge Parsons. His gambling hell remained
52:10
closed for months, and when it reopened, he faced continual
52:14
harassment by two aggressive new Law and Order policeman, James
52:19
Malone, who joined the force in 1887, and Samuel Melek, who was
52:23
a Lancaster County Sheriff from 1884 through 1890 and the police
52:28
chief from 1890 through 1895. Malone was twice arrested for
52:33
assault in 1887. Melek was arrested for assault
52:36
several times between 1886 and 1890.
52:40
Although the evidence is circumstantial, it seems there
52:43
was a movement afoot involving the Law and Order League, Malone
52:46
and Melek, and perhaps some boosters and lawyers to get John
52:51
Sheedy apparently something of a marked man.
52:54
He was assaulted 3 times from 1888 through 1890, one attack
52:59
leaving him with a hole in the back of his skull.
53:02
Because of his crimes and his corrupting influence on city
53:05
life, many Lincolnites had decided that Sheedy had to go.
53:10
Apparently they were willing to look the other way, even if a
53:14
vigilante solution to the town's social evil problem risked
53:18
conflating reform with the corruption it sought to
53:22
eliminate. It is in this context of the
53:26
bitter 5 year struggle that Sheedy's murder and the trial of
53:29
Mary Sheedy and William McFarlane in 1891 acquired
53:33
deeper meaning. Whether or not there really was
53:37
a conspiracy against John Sheedy, he had become a critical
53:41
figure in town politics and the social and cultural tensions
53:46
those politics reflected. The possibility that his murder
53:50
was a political act politicized the trial of Mary Sheedy and
53:54
McFarland, making it another episode in the ongoing struggle
53:57
of reform against corruption in which Sheedy had played such a
54:01
prominent role. The trial began on May 4th, 1891
54:07
in the District Court of Judge Allen W Field at Lancaster
54:11
County Courthouse. Frank Hall opened for the
54:14
prosecution before a jammed courtroom.
54:17
The prosecution had accepted the defense request to try Mary
54:20
Sheedy and McFarland together. The defense obviously hoped that
54:25
if the case against either defendant was weak, both would
54:29
be acquitted. But Hall, Lambertson, and Snell
54:33
no doubt recognized that only by trying them together would they
54:37
be able to indirectly enter Mcfarland's confession against
54:41
Mary Sheedy in a separate trial. It would have been quickly
54:44
disallowed as hearsay, and even under these circumstances, it
54:48
was feared that Judge Field might not allow it to be
54:51
considered as evidence against Mary.
54:54
Hall argued that they intended to prove that Mary Sheedy and
54:58
McFarland were both guilty of murder and accessory to murder
55:02
based on Mcfarland's confession and supporting circumstantial
55:05
evidence. To corroborate a theory that
55:08
Mary Sheedy and McFarland had both murdered John Sheedy and to
55:12
establish Mary's motives, the prosecution attorneys presented
55:15
evidence gathered by Malone, Malik, and their own
55:19
investigators. The evidence was focused on her
55:23
relationship with Wahlstrom, her plan as evidenced by several
55:27
witnesses testifying that they saw Sheedy and McFarland
55:30
together near the Sheedy's house shortly before the murder and
55:34
her poisoning of her husband for several days.
55:38
The witnesses, directed by Lambertson, told a story quote
55:42
putrid with the odor of moral rottenness and quote a smutty
55:47
tale of adultery, miscegenation, bribery, extortion, and murder.
55:51
They also presented evidence of Mcfarland's activities that
55:55
corroborated his confession, his involvement in the plan, and his
55:59
purchase of the murder weapon. Hall, Lambertson and Snell
56:04
played on illicit sex and rising racial tensions, evidenced by
56:09
police crackdowns on black establishments and increased
56:12
complaints of racial incidents Uptown.
56:16
But in general, the case against both defendants was based on
56:19
Macfarlane's confession, the murder weapon, and corroborating
56:23
circumstantial evidence. Local newspapers declared it an
56:27
open and shut case against McFarland, but wondered if the
56:31
case was strong enough against Mary, since there was some
56:34
question whether or not Mcfarland's confession could be
56:37
used against her. Defense attorneys Jesse Strode,
56:42
Royal Steams, LW Billingsley and Judge HW Weir of Boise City,
56:47
Idaho, who joined the defense at the suggestion of Mary's uncle,
56:51
undermined every detail of the prosecution's case.
56:55
Mcfarland's confession was made under duress, though he did not
56:59
testify. He later said that he had
57:01
confessed falsely in the fear of being lynched.
57:04
The prosecution argued he confessed on three separate
57:06
occasions clear evidence of the truth of the confession.
57:10
The Sheedes weren't happily married.
57:12
Testimony placing Mary Sheedy and Wahlstrom together was
57:15
false. The idea of a relationship
57:18
between McFarland and Mary Sheedy was revolting, unnatural,
57:23
and absurd. The defense attacked the
57:26
prosecution's preposterous argument that a white woman's
57:29
alleged black lover would, with the promise of a bribe, murder
57:33
the husband so she could go off with another man.
57:37
Moreover, they produce several character witnesses who
57:40
testified that Mary was a proper moral woman and it was absurd to
57:45
imagine her as an adulteress or a murderer.
57:49
They also vigorously resisted all efforts by Lambertson and
57:52
Hall to introduce evidence of Mary's relationship with Sheedy
57:56
before they were married, her previous history and her alleged
58:00
relationship with Harry Wahlstrom, along with her
58:03
character, reinforcing the point, which was supported by
58:07
Victorian gender attitudes, that it was absurd to suppose that a
58:10
woman could commit such a crime. Evidence that Mary openly
58:15
mourned her husband and was not seen gaily playing the piano in
58:20
her parlor the afternoon of his death as testified by a
58:24
prosecution witness, strengthened the idea that she
58:27
was not a cold hearted murderer. Playing on the sympathy for Mary
58:32
Sheedy that Paul and Lambertson unrelentingly assault on her
58:36
character had elicited, Stearns and Strode had her present
58:39
herself in a court as a moral middle class widow dressed in
58:43
black and so emotionally wrought by her husband's death that she
58:47
barely acknowledged Mcfarland's presence, implying that the two
58:51
scarcely knew each other. Near the end of the trial, the
58:55
defense shifted tactics and filed a motion objecting to Hall
58:59
in Lambertson's participation in the prosecution on the grounds
59:03
that they had not been appointed by the court but had been hired
59:07
for fees by private parties. In the ensuing debate over the
59:12
motion, Stearns and Strode argued that Hall and Lambertson
59:15
were in the case to convict Mary at all costs to ensure that the
59:19
individuals who hired them, who most knew to be Dennis Sheedy
59:23
and John Fitzgerald, received most of John Sheedy's estate.
59:28
Although the motion failed, Steems and Strode had introduced
59:32
to the jury the idea of improper outside influence or even a
59:37
conspiracy of powerful men and reformers to frame and convict
59:41
Mary Sheedy. It was a suggestion made several
59:45
times in the press, that was sure to strike a nerve among the
59:49
growing number of Nebraskans, no doubt including members of the
59:52
jury, who believe that unbridled power of the railroads, with
59:56
their monopolistic shipping rates, was squeezing the income
1:00:00
of Nebraska farmers and businessmen.
1:00:02
Corrupting state and local government and undermining the
1:00:05
integrity of the judicial system and democracy in general, this
1:00:10
populist sensibility had provided fertile political
1:00:13
ground for the development of the Farmers Alliance, and the
1:00:16
following year would generate the founding of the Populist
1:00:20
Party in Omaha. In thus playing to the jurors
1:00:23
prejudices, as Hall later charged, Strode skillfully
1:00:27
undermined Mary's motive to acquire her husband's estate.
1:00:31
After all, since the estate already was controlled by
1:00:33
Sheedy's adversaries, she probably would not be given much
1:00:37
anyway, and it distracted the jury with the conspiracy theory.
1:00:42
When the defense rested its case, Novia Snell, in the best
1:00:46
effort of his life, followed by Judge Weir and then Frank Hall,
1:00:50
who spoke with unparalleled eloquence in the annals of the
1:00:54
Lincoln Bar, reasserted in their closing arguments the validity
1:00:59
of the confession and the other evidence, and the presence of
1:01:02
motive, opportunity, and ability of the defendants to commit
1:01:07
murder. Hall in particular reasserted
1:01:11
the soundness of the case and confronted the conspiracy theory
1:01:15
head on, discounting as absurd the idea that the prosecution
1:01:19
was in this solely for blood money and defending the right of
1:01:23
the citizen to support the prosecution and offer a reward.
1:01:28
In their closing, Stearns and Strode hammered away at the
1:01:32
confession, punched holes in the flimsy circumstantial evidence,
1:01:36
undermined the prosecution's evidence of motive, and played
1:01:40
upon sympathy for Mary Sheedy, whom they characterized as a
1:01:44
wronged woman. Then Strode again raised the
1:01:47
conspiracy issue, remarking that Mister Hall was a member of a
1:01:52
firm of railroad attorneys. Hall took the bait, angrily
1:01:57
denouncing Strode in open court as appealing in an
1:02:00
unprofessional and unmanly manner to the prejudices of the
1:02:04
jury, whom he suspected might all be members of the Farmers
1:02:08
Alliance. In doing so, he played into
1:02:12
Strode's hands by again distracting the jury from the
1:02:15
evidence of the case. In his instructions to the jury,
1:02:19
Judge Field reiterated that although the defendants were
1:02:22
being tried together, the case against each should be
1:02:25
considered separately. He also instructed the jury not
1:02:29
to consider Mcfarlane's confession as evidence against
1:02:33
Mary as he clarified the definition of circumstantial
1:02:37
evidence. Later, on May 28th, the jury
1:02:41
went into deliberation as local newspapers, expressing concern
1:02:45
that Mary Sheedy would probably get off, proclaimed the
1:02:48
defendants guilty. The following afternoon, the
1:02:52
jury returned with its verdict, not guilty on all counts for
1:02:56
both defendants. Spectators in the courtroom and
1:02:59
standing outside exploded into cheers, punctuated by some
1:03:03
hissing. The press proclaimed the
1:03:06
decision of miscarriage of justice and expressed concern
1:03:08
that even the legal system was corrupt.
1:03:12
But even as the shocks swept through Lincoln society and the
1:03:16
legal community, something in the response seemed amiss.
1:03:21
Not only was it unclear who had murdered Sheedy, it was also
1:03:25
quite unclear what had transpired in the prosecution,
1:03:29
and a pall of suspicion was cast over the actions of all
1:03:33
involved. Newspapers suspiciously
1:03:36
scrutinized the motives, tactics, strategies and
1:03:39
procedures of police, prosecutors, lawyers, the mayor
1:03:43
at the time of the murder, who was Robert B Gramp, whose term
1:03:46
ended in 1891 in April, and various groups of townspeople,
1:03:50
making it seem as if the truth were inaccessible.
1:03:54
Critics of Merrick Graham declared that he had, quote,
1:03:57
sought to close his term with a blaze of glory at the expense of
1:04:00
justice. End Quote.
1:04:02
Melek and Malone were accused of having been blinded by ambition
1:04:07
and willing to gather evidence at any cost.
1:04:10
Doctor Holyoke's unexplained closing of the inquest raised
1:04:14
the specter of a conspiracy to convict Mary Sheedy and
1:04:17
McFarland without due process. Dennis Sheedy's involvement also
1:04:22
drew comment. He had interfered in the local
1:04:25
investigation by bringing in Pinkerton detectives, had
1:04:28
offered a reward for information leading to the arrest for the
1:04:31
murderer, and had hired Frank Hall to back up the county
1:04:35
prosecutor, Novia Snell, an old friend of John Fitzgerald, whose
1:04:40
role was also questioned. Fitzgerald had been appointed an
1:04:44
administrator of John Sheedy's estate.
1:04:47
Even though he and Sheedy were adversaries.
1:04:49
It appeared that he and Dennis Sheedy were bent on convicting
1:04:53
Mary, guilty or not, so they could gain control of John
1:04:57
Sheedy's entire estate. Also questioned were the actions
1:05:01
of individuals who sought Mary Sheedy's conviction but then
1:05:05
seemed to side with her at critical moments in the case.
1:05:09
It was unclear, for example, why Chief of Police Malik allowed
1:05:13
himself to be befriended by Mary Sheedy while she was in custody
1:05:17
at his house. Even stranger was his
1:05:20
appointment by the court after the trial to replace Mary as an
1:05:23
administrator of John Sheedy's estate.
1:05:26
He and his old friend John Fitzgerald, both Reformers and
1:05:30
Law and Order men, had worked together for years to bring down
1:05:34
John Sheedy and upon Mary's acquittal, now controlled the
1:05:38
estate. This seemed to fit suspiciously
1:05:41
well with Fitzgerald's decision, apparently at Dennis Sheedy's
1:05:45
request, to hire Frank Hall, and it seemed to corroborate
1:05:49
suspicions of a plot against Mary.
1:05:53
Finally, when Mary was acquitted and the alleged plot backfired,
1:05:58
the very men who prosecuted her with such determination gained
1:06:02
control of the estate anyway. It's suggested to some that the
1:06:07
prosecutors had covered themselves for either outcome
1:06:10
and had achieved their goal. That scenario would explain the
1:06:14
presentation of what some believed was a weak case against
1:06:18
Mary. And it suggested an even deeper
1:06:21
conspiracy to sacrifice McFarland but acquit Mary and
1:06:25
thereby assure that all the lawyers involved would be paid.
1:06:29
If she were acquitted, she would have her share of the estate,
1:06:32
administered by Melek and Fitzgerald, from which to pay
1:06:36
Stearns, Strode and Weir the following year.
1:06:39
Melek and Fitzgerald, as estate administrators, along with
1:06:43
Dennis Sheedy, resisted Mary's efforts to acquire a larger
1:06:47
share of the estate. Meanwhile, newspapers seem more
1:06:50
interested in speculating about the lurid details of a noted
1:06:54
criminal case and pandering to a popular fascination with
1:06:57
malfeasance rather than digging for the truth.
1:07:01
A show trial. The case involved some of the
1:07:04
city's most prominent lawyers and deepened public concern
1:07:08
about the motives and impartiality of Lincoln's bar.
1:07:11
The trial seemed more important to lawyers as a career boosting,
1:07:15
indeed career defining opportunity.
1:07:18
JC Strode's obituary 30 years later made note of the case.
1:07:22
For example, various observers, while recognizing that the
1:07:25
lawyers pursued justice by working as hard as they could
1:07:29
for their clients, even if it meant true guilt or innocence
1:07:32
was not determined, question the motives, tactics, and the
1:07:36
actions of lawyers on both sides.
1:07:39
The motives of Frank Hall, a railroad lawyer for the
1:07:42
Burlington and Missouri Railroad Company and a partner of John
1:07:45
Fitzgerald's lawyer, Turner Marquette, were questioned from
1:07:48
the start. When Hall drew attention to the
1:07:51
issue of undue influence by apologizing to the jury for
1:07:55
being a railroad lawyer with no criminal law experience, and
1:07:59
then stepped easily into Strode's trap, further questions
1:08:03
arose. In fact, there was no death or
1:08:06
criminal law experience on the prosecution team.
1:08:09
In spite of his disclaimer, Hall did have some criminal law
1:08:13
experience, and Dennis Sheedy also had hired Jeannie O
1:08:17
Lambertson, who had been AUS attorney from 1878 to 1887 and
1:08:22
had secured the City Council's vindication in 1887 after
1:08:26
returning to private practice. Tactics such as the risky
1:08:30
decision to permit the defendants to be tried together
1:08:34
were questioned as well, though there were many that had no
1:08:37
other way to get Macfarlane's confession before Mary Sheedy's
1:08:40
jury. Risky too was their apparent
1:08:43
overconfidence, their overly formal rhetoric in the closing
1:08:47
arguments, and their surprising excitability at number of times
1:08:52
in the case. Which led some to wonder if,
1:08:54
rather than pursuing Mary's conviction, they had conspired
1:08:58
to sacrifice McFarland to make it seem that justice had been
1:09:03
served while purposefully offering a weak case against
1:09:06
Mary to assure her acquittal. Perhaps what appeared to be 1/2
1:09:12
hearted effort reflected a certain ambivalence about the
1:09:15
case. Perhaps they were unwilling to
1:09:18
press for a murder conviction and a possible death sentence.
1:09:22
But no woman, even to this day, has been executed in Nebraska,
1:09:25
and the sentence probably would have been life imprisonment.
1:09:29
Or perhaps they were inclined to exonerate her, seeing some
1:09:33
measure of self-defense in her act.
1:09:36
Perhaps they considered the murder to have done the city a
1:09:39
favor. As lawyers who had encountered
1:09:43
each other for years on opposing sides of the ongoing struggle
1:09:47
between the Law and Order League and John Sheedy, the prosecution
1:09:50
team had represented clients who, for a variety of reasons,
1:09:54
had long since lost patience with Sheedy and wanted to see
1:09:58
him brought down. They may have seen Sheedy as a
1:10:01
man whose departure from Lincoln or life would not be grieved.
1:10:06
Perhaps for the prosecution and defenders alike, justice had
1:10:10
already been done with Sheedy's death, even if his murderer was
1:10:15
never brought to justice. Who really murdered John Sheedy
1:10:19
and who else was involved seemed too many Lincolnites a question
1:10:24
that nobody really wanted to answer.
1:10:27
In the larger battle of good versus evil, they may have
1:10:30
concluded Sheedy had received his due and the end justified
1:10:34
the means. Though the defense attorneys
1:10:37
Stearns, Strode, and Weir were pleased with the outcome, and
1:10:41
the prosecutors seem to feel that they had done the best they
1:10:43
could, public opinion focused on the lawyer's efforts to acquire
1:10:48
large fees for the case of more than ordinary importance from
1:10:52
Sheedy's estate or from the District Court.
1:10:55
After perfunctory expressions of joy or disappointment over the
1:10:59
verdict, the prosecutor scrambled to recover costs and
1:11:03
fees from the court while the defense attorneys pursued their
1:11:06
fees. Indeed, the day of the verdict,
1:11:09
Charles Gates Dawes, a prominent lawyer and businessman, wrote to
1:11:13
his friend JD Cox, reporting not on the verdict, but on the
1:11:17
scramble for fees. He noted having heard that
1:11:21
Colonel HW Weir of Boise City, who has arrived late in the case
1:11:25
to back up Stearns and Strode, objected to the proposed fee of
1:11:29
$15,000 and lopped off $2500 to make it $12,500 for Strode and
1:11:37
Stearns, equivalent to over $200,000 today.
1:11:41
Dawes wrote that he got involved when we're counsel for Misses
1:11:45
Sheedy asked him to research Sheedy's real estate holdings
1:11:49
because we're expected he would have to take a mortgage for his
1:11:53
fee. Dawes wrote that he got involved
1:11:56
when we're counsel for Misses Sheedy asked him to research
1:12:01
Sheedy's real estate holdings because we're expected he would
1:12:04
have to take a mortgage for his fee.
1:12:08
Dawes thought we're an able and genial gentleman who has a tough
1:12:12
client and Misses Sheedy. Dawes gave we're the
1:12:16
disappointing news that Sheedy's estate was worth only $54,500,
1:12:21
consisting mostly of the Hotel Mac, the Sheedy residence,
1:12:25
another downtown lot and 80 acres in Clay County.
1:12:30
In any case, because the estate was controlled by John
1:12:32
Fitzgerald and indirectly by Dennis Sheedy, Mary Sheedy,
1:12:36
though acquitted eventually indirectly paid part of the
1:12:40
prosecuting attorney's fees as well.
1:12:43
Mcfarland's lawyers were renumerated by the court.
1:12:49
The day after his acquittal Monday, McFarland, dressed in a
1:12:52
new suit of clothes, left town to visit his mother in Kansas.
1:12:57
Mary Sheedy, after visiting her mother in Iowa, eventually
1:13:00
returned to Lincoln. She sold the shitty house later
1:13:04
in the year and the following spring was living in rooms at
1:13:08
1452 O Street, still listed as widow of John.
1:13:13
Later in 1892, she left Lincoln to marry Max Brust, a traveling
1:13:18
salesman for the American Tobacco Company in San
1:13:21
Francisco. On March 1st, 1893, using the
1:13:25
name Mary Brust and in need of money, she sued the estate for a
1:13:30
larger monthly allowance than the $83.33 that she was
1:13:34
receiving. The county court ruled against
1:13:37
her, but she appealed, and Dennis Sheedy brought in Frank
1:13:41
Hall to argue the case in District Court.
1:13:44
The judge dismissed the case, declaring that Mary had already
1:13:47
helped herself to the household furniture, a horse and buggy,
1:13:51
and $500 that she had therefore already received an amount to
1:13:55
which she was by law entitled. By 1900, Max Brust had settled
1:14:00
down as a storekeeper, and soon thereafter the couple apparently
1:14:04
left San Francisco. It is difficult to measure the
1:14:07
effect of the trial on Lincoln, though events had raised
1:14:10
questions about the similarities in the tactics of reformers and
1:14:14
the corrupt powers they aim to reform.
1:14:17
The outcome and the evasive responses to it seem to confirm
1:14:21
the faults of the existing judicial system, as well as the
1:14:24
gender and racial structures implicit in the booster ethos.
1:14:28
With Sheedy gone, the way was open for the Law and Order
1:14:31
League and other reformers. A month before Mary Sheedy's
1:14:35
acquittal, Austin H Weir, not to be confused with the defense
1:14:39
attorney, had been elected mayor on a Citizens Reform ticket,
1:14:43
which CG Dawes called a great triumph for honesty and reform.
1:14:49
The convoluted meccanations of the trial raised deep concerns
1:14:53
about the endemic corruption in public life and broaden the
1:14:56
constituency supporting reform. Meanwhile, emboldened reformers
1:15:00
broaden their cause to include social as well as political
1:15:04
reform and the elimination of vice.
1:15:08
Several progressive organizations were founded in
1:15:10
1892 and 93 and calls for reforms and and calls for
1:15:16
reforms in city and state governments and the railroads
1:15:19
highlighted the conflicts of interest and corruption at the
1:15:22
heart of the booster ethos. Then the crash of 1893 hit
1:15:27
Lincoln hard, forcing many companies into bankruptcy,
1:15:30
throwing thousands out of work, and leaving the street very
1:15:33
quiet. In the fall of 1893, as people
1:15:37
stepped back and considered the corruption of the system, a
1:15:40
great wave of reform in municipal and state governments
1:15:44
before notoriously corrupt swept across Lincoln, opening up a new
1:15:49
chapter in the city's history. Though the timing of Sheedy's
1:15:54
murder and resurgence reform may be merely historical
1:15:58
coincidence, it is striking nevertheless.
1:16:01
The advantage Sheedy's removal gave reformers, however, was
1:16:05
undermined during the recession that followed the crash of 1893.
1:16:10
Like other groups, the booster reforms faced crisis and
1:16:13
decline, and increasingly local initiatives failed, were cut
1:16:17
short, fell short of expectations, or drifted
1:16:19
aimlessly. In the mid 1890s, after years of
1:16:23
growth, the core groups of Lincoln's booster culture, the
1:16:27
Union Club and the Chamber of Commerce suffered a wave of
1:16:30
departures and resignations for 10 years or more.
1:16:34
Wholesale changes in city personnel and declines in
1:16:37
membership left the survivors struggling to pursue their
1:16:40
social agendas in a declining city.
1:16:44
The booster ethos had lost its dynamic force, leaving it
1:16:47
vulnerable to conservative reformers in pursuit.
1:16:51
A conservative ends Across the nation, the rising tide of
1:16:55
reform and the crash of 1893 spurred the rise of
1:16:59
progressivism and the conversion of boosterism into city planning
1:17:03
and scientific municipal administration.
1:17:06
In Lincoln, the same convergence, moving dynamically
1:17:09
along a different trajectory, shaped an increasingly
1:17:13
conservative urban culture. Instead of taming the metropolis
1:17:17
and serving as handmaiden of development, reform emerged as a
1:17:22
strategy to slow or control social modernization and
1:17:26
liberalism. After 1900 and even through the
1:17:29
1960s, conservative reformers and boosters continued
1:17:34
anachronistically to employ a closed, personalized style of
1:17:38
elite leadership. The legacy of the crisis of the
1:17:41
1890s would run deep in Lincoln's history.
1:17:46
Thank you for listening to the Nebraska History Podcast.
1:17:49
To learn more about the Nebraska History Magazine, to listen to
1:17:51
more podcasts, or to support our podcast by becoming a member of
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the Nebraska State Historical Society, go to
1:17:57
history.nebraska.gov/podcast. And don't forget to subscribe to
1:18:01
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your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, I'm Chris
1:18:09
Goforth.