December 2025 • Nebraskaland 41
claimed, began crying and said, "They made me tell that story, and I'm afraid
to change it now for fear they'll hang me."
One witness said he'd overheard Sammons saying he didn't think Smith
"would squeal on me." Then it came out that Sammons' team had paid at
least one witness. Another defense witness was charged with perjury after
lying under oath about his criminal record. Sammons was even accused of
jury tampering.
The 10-day trial ended on Thanksgiving morning.
"I feel pretty good," Sammons said. The jury had deliberated only a few
hours; that probably meant acquittal. But he turned pale and gripped the
edges of a table when the verdict of "guilty" was read.
Smith had already pleaded guilty and said he was anxious to atone for his
part. Most Kearneyites believed his story. Smith was sentenced to six months
in jail and a $500 fine. Students at the Kearney teachers' college offered to
board with his wife to help her make a living while Smith was in prison. No
such offer was made for Sammons.
Sammons' request for a new trial was denied. Thanks to his status and
connections, he had been granted every presumption of innocence, along with
the sort of legal representation that ordinary defendants could only dream of.
Unlike the poor drifters he used to harass, he didn't look like a "bad man."
The former sheriff was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in the federal
penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. He died in California in 1942.
N
Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's website at history.nebraska.gov.
Kearney Post Office under construction in 1907. Today the building is home
to the Museum of Nebraska Art and is listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. Photo by Solomon D. Butcher. NSHS RG2608-0-2455
Omaha Daily Bee, Nov. 27, 1914.
