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taken to the hole by Chief of Police Hunger. Mr. Doody was taken to his room and attended to. Mr. T. E. Slattery, for many years a prison official in this and Colorado and Wyoming prisons, and a brave man, took charge of the west cell house. The men were all curious to learn what had taken place. When told that the warden was killed they were grief-stricken. Many wept bitterly for the warden was beloved by all the boys. "Poor Jim," some of them said, "he was strictly on the square." I heard many of them express hopes that the murderers would be captured and hung. So intense was the feeling against the desperadoes by the other prisoners that many of them would be willing to start out and hunt them, put them to death and then return to their prison home.

Governor Aldrich was not in the city when I called the office but his private secretary, Mr. Fuller, got busy and located the governor at Auburn where he was

 
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snowbound, and told him of the trouble. It was fortunate that the governor was in Auburn and not in Lincoln, for down there he made arrangements with the Bell Telephone Company for the uninterrupted use of the line to Lincoln. He immediately got Adjutant General Phelps on the line and gave the general instructions as to what to do. The governor was grief-stricken over the murder and made preparations to get a special train to take him to Lincoln. In the meantime he instructed General Phelps to take charge and appointed Steward Mont Robb as Warden pro tem. He also instructed Mr. Maggi, chairman of the pardon board, to proceed to the prison and look after the boys. Mr. Maggi learned that there was to be no supper served that evening, but he proceeded to the kitchen and had supper prepared and served in the cells. Posses now left the prison and went in every direction; pictures were made of the murderers and sent broadcast; telegrams


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were sent to every officer in the state; and all the sheriffs in the eastern part of Nebraska immediately organized posses and took up the trail. At the prison telephone inquiries kept coming in till after midnight. At two o'clock I went to bed, but was too downhearted to sleep and several times I had to get up and walk the floor.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
OUR MARTYRED WARDEN

James Delahunty was born in Peoria, Illinois, March 14, 1857, and the tragic feature of the killing was the fact that the day was the fifty-fifth anniversary of his birth; and on the same hour of the day as occurred his birth also occurred his death. He came to Clay county, Nebraska, about twenty-eight years ago with his parents, settling on a farm now occupied by his family two miles northeast of Clay Center. Jim, as he was universally known, was an honorable, upright, good and true man and was respected and beloved by all with whom he came in contact. He was well educated, and was fitted for any position in life. For two years he served as deputy county clerk of Clay county, and about ten years at the prison in various positions. He served under five governors and rose from steward to deputy warden and afterwards to warden.