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Fire! Murder! Thieves! LbNA #11281 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Oct 1, 2004
Location:
City:Omaha
County:Douglas
State:Nebraska
Boxes:1
Found by: Rats and Turtle
Last found:Feb 25, 2005
Status:FFaaaaaa
Last edited:Oct 1, 2004
This letterbox looks back at Ottway G. Baker, Omaha’s first axe murderer.

It is November 21, 1866, and we will start our search at the site of a former grocery store, near the corner of 12th and Farnam streets. Baker was the store’s porter and a man named Woolsey D. Higgens was the bookkeeper. This November night was to be Higgens’ last. He had received $1,500 in cash, and Baker wanted that money.

Higgins always carried his keys, including the key to the store’s safe, on his person, so when Baker decided to steal the money, he also determined he would need to kill Higgins to gain possession of the keys.

Both men slept in the store. That night, Baker awoke, grabbed an axe and approached Higgins’ bed. He lifted the axe to Higgins and plunged it into the sleeping man’s body. Then, as though to insure the death of Higgins, Baker lifted the axe a second time and dealt another brutal blow.

Begin your search between 11th and 13th streets on Farnam. There you will find a group of five birds who, hearing the horrific sounds of the axe’s chopping, have taken flight.

Flee east from here to the intersection of 11th and Farnam, as Baker did when the ghastly deed was done. With Higgins dead and the keys in his hands, Baker robbed the safe. At some point the atrocity of his crime must have occurred to Baker, for he gathered the money in a can and hid it beneath the sidewalk on 11th Street.

No history of the story tells what Higgens did with the axe, but we believe we have found it. Look northward across the street. You will see a great stone arch, the last remains of the former United States National Bank that stood here. Cross the street to the arch, then turn left and into what is now the Gene Leahy mall, the former Central Park Mall. Follow the footpath west — you will pass a body of water and a small island to your right. Keep your eyes peeled for the very first sketch of this mall, for it is nearby that you will discover where Baker hid his axe.

Near the sketch of the mall is a monument to the mall’s designer, Omaha city planner Alden Franz Aust. Do not cross this span, but look underneath it on the east side. There, near the second metal support bar, you will find Baker’s axe, as well as the letterbox.

It is near here that Baker shot himself in the arm with a pistol and returned to the store to set fire to it, with the hope of destroying Higgins’ body and any evidence linking himself to the murder. As the building burned, Baker ran outside into the night screaming, “Fire! Murder! Thieves!” When fire trucks and police arrived, Baker fed them a story about armed robbers who had set fire to the building while he and Higgins slept.

Baker’s story didn’t quite wash with authorities, though. It was apparent to them that he had shot himself in the arm and police arrested Baker the next morning. A trial ensued, and a grand jury convicted Baker. He was sentenced to execution.

Baker motioned for a new trial, but the Supreme Court overruled that motion and the sentence stuck.

While awaiting execution, Baker sent for a priest and confessed the whole bloody deed, claiming it was “the devil’s work.” The priest accompanied police to recover the money Baker hid on the night he murdered Higgins.

Baker was hanged on Feb. 14, 1868.