§Crimes

Carter was born in County Mayo, Ireland as Patrick Murphy. At the beginning of February 1926 a mechanic was murdered with a .22 caliber pistol with a silencer attached. Soon after a doctor was murdered, and then a railroad detective was shot six times in neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. On February 15 Omaha's newspapers recommended the city blackout all lights after an expose on previous murders showed the victims were standing in their windows at home when they were shot. During daylight hours, the sniper shot another in the face and fired through more than a dozen lighted windows. Businesses in Omaha came to a standstill, streets emptied and the city's entertainment venues emptied for more than a week. Other crimes included shooting indiscriminately into a Downtown Omaha drug store.

More than two weeks after his first murder Carter was captured in Iowa, 30 miles south of Council Bluffs at Bartlett in Fremont County, Iowa. After readily admitting his crimes, he was convicted on two charges of murder, one for killing mechanic William McDevitt and the other for killing Dr. A.D. Searles. After his conviction Carter admitted to being a parole breaker. He was released from the Iowa State Penitentiary in 1925 after serving time for killing cattle.

After a month-long trial where Carter's lawyers plead insanity, Carter was found guilty. He was executed by electrocution on June 24, 1927 at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska. Carter was quoted as saying, "Let the juice flow" just before he died.

§See also

• Crime in Omaha
• History of Omaha

§References

[ Source: Wikipedia ]