Ways of our ancestors.

SHOOTS DOCTOR

The “unwritten law” has often been enforced in Nebraska, but never in a more spectacular way than in the case of the killing of one “Dr.” G. W. Randall at Hastings, Neb.

Early in 1886, a man named Randall, claiming to be an eye doctor, accompanied by his wife, moved to Hastings and opened an office. He readily built a profitable practice. At that time, Adams county didn’t have a courthouse, and several of the country officers had their offices in the historic “Stone Block” at Second and Denver, among them County Judge Fleming.

Among Randall’s patrons were Mr. and Mrs. Hart of Edgar. They took their 11-year-old daughter, Lora May, to be treated for an eye disease. Late in the spring of that year, the little girl told her parents a terrible story of mistreatmant at the hands of Randall and his alleged wife. The distracted parents went ot he county attorney and Randall was arrested and brought before County Judge Fleming for preliminary hearing. He was bound over to the district court on the charge of criminal assault and his bond filed at $5,000.

While Randall and his attorney were arranging the ball bond in the county judge’s office, the little girl’s brother, a lad of 20, stepped into the courtroom armed with a rifle. Randall was between the brother and a window. The brother took quick aim, pulled the trigger and Randall fell dead with a bullet through his brain. He was shot squarely between the eyes.

After the shooting, the brother quietly left the court room, got into a lumber wagon and drove back to his home near Edgar. A coroner’s jury returned a verdict of “Visitation of Providence” and the brother was never arrested.

Randall was buried in the Pottersfield. Later his wife was brought to trial as her husband’s accomplice, but was acquitted.

100 Years of Progress. A History of the First 100 Years of Edgar, Neb. c. 1972.