Legal troubles in the 1920's

Note: In a recent story of McCook's early lawyers it was mentioned that W.S. Morlan had mentored a number of outstanding attorneys who rose to prominence in McCook. One of these fellows was Charles David Ritchie, who in turn mentored another distinguished McCook attorney, Wade Stevens. This story covers a celebrated case in Furnas County, on which those two collaborated.

During the 1920s Wade Stevens, later an attorney in McCook, served for two terms as Furnas County Attorney. During this time of National Prohibition, a good deal of Stevens' time was taken up in dealing with bootleggers. Illegal "stills", producing varieties of "hootch" and "white-lightning" flourished in the county and Wade worked closely with Sheriff Warren E. (Cy) Bratt in locating these "stills" and bringing the bootleggers to justice. Wade and Cy Bratt became good friends and Wade came to appreciate Bratt's droll wit.

Bootleggers were a powerful force in the 20s, and law enforcement officers did their duty despite numerous threats on their lives. Usually, convictions of any kind caused hard feelings toward the sheriff and the prosecutor. Wade remembered one case where a conviction had a contrary effect.

A young man stole a load of hogs. He attempted to conceal his load by putting chicken crates on top of the hogs, but squealing hogs gave him away. He was sent to the penitentiary. After serving his sentence he returned to Beaver City, and immediately came to Wade Stevens' office, to thank him for sending him up. He told Wade, "For me, it was just a stepping stone to my success." He was not in trouble again.

Probably the most famous case that Stevens tried as County Attorney was that of "State vs. Bert Davis, in 1926. This was a murder case in which Davis was accused of poisoning his wife, as a result of his infatuation with a neighbor woman. The case was tried twice before going to the Supreme Court where his conviction was upheld.

The case caused a good bit of dissention in Beaver City. Belief of innocence and guilt was almost equally divided in town, and emotions ran high. There were threats against Wade Stevens and his family. There was an attempted kidnapping of the Stevens' three year old daughter, the disappearance of the family dog, and an attempt to burn down the family home. Finally a change of venue was granted by District Judge Eldridge---Bert Davis's trial to McCook; Kate Ressler to Elwood. Young Stevens gratefully accepted help from prominent McCook Attorney, Charles David Ritchie, one of the proteges famed Attorney, W. S. Morlan, had nurtured in his law office.

Blanche Davis, Bert Davis' wife of more than 25 years had died suddenly of mysterious causes. An autopsy was ordered by Furnas County Sheriff Cy Bratt, which revealed strychnine poison in Mrs. Davis' stomach. The first reaction was that Mrs. Davis had committed suicide, Her friends did not believe that this was the case, She had not been depressed or seriously ill. The alternative to the suicide theory was murder.

Murder, however, seemed out of order. Mr. Davis was a well-to-do stock-raiser, recently turned grocer in Beaver City. He and Mrs. Davis had four grown children and the couple had seemed to be entirely compatible.

Sheriff Bratt was suspicious, however, and when Davis and the widow Kate Ressler, his neighbor across the street, were married barely four months later and immediately moved to Lincoln, he began his investigation in earnest. With the help of a private detective, Bratt turned up enough evidence to warrant a charge of first degree murder against Mr. Davis. The arrest of Mrs. Ressler-Davis soon followed. Interest in the case was so high that the hearing had to be moved to the larger District Court room in McCook to accommodate the crowd.

Many witnesses were called to testify at the hearing and subsequent trial. Mrs. Beulah Kingman said that she had visited in Mrs. Ressler's home one day. When she opened a closet Bert Davis was hiding there. Witnesses testified that Davis had showered Kate Ressler with gifts. One person said that she had witnessed Davis going to the Ressler home where he had stayed for an hour or so.

Love letters were found in Mrs. Ressler's home, which Wade's father, John Stevens read to the courtroom in a dramatic fashion. Two ladies, who had roomed at Mrs. Ressler's home from the fall of 1924 to the spring of 1925 testified that they had read a letter from Mrs. Ressler addressed to Bert Davis advising him to "Treat her like a loving neighbor until sometime when they might become something sweeter". Davis' son, Glen, identified his father's hand writing of the letters.

These letters, along with the other testimony, convinced the jury of the illicit relationship between Davis and Mrs. Ressler. Glen also said that his father had bought a $275 ring and had given it to Mrs. Ressler before his mother's death.

Dr. Meyers of the Omaha Medical College had found strychnine in the dead woman's stomach. Furnas County Agent, W.R. Wicks testified that he had sold strychnine poison to Davis, "to kill gophers on Davis' farm", and identified a box of poison found in the house as like those from his office.

Yet the reputation of Bert Davis was so strong that a sizeable percentage of the area population, including a number of his wife's relatives, refused to believe that Davis could be involved in his wife's death. Defense attorneys were successful in arguing that the stomach containing strychnine was not necessarily Mrs. Davis stomach. When the case was sent to the jury, the result was a "hung jury".

At that point Judge Eldridge ordered Mrs. Davis's body to be exhumed. Bert Davis was heard to brag that "This is one casket that would never be opened". When the casket was brought to the surface it was found to have been welded shut. But with the aid of a blow torch, from Paul Strayers' garage, the casket was indeed opened. Dr. Meyers of Omaha removed the spleen and other organs, placed them in glass jars, and without them ever leaving his possession, took them to Omaha, analyzed them and brought them back to McCook for the resumption of the trial. The tissues from Mrs. Davis' organs were found to contain strychnine. This time the jury was out for some 50 hours. Bert Davis was convicted of murder and sent to Lincoln to serve a life sentence.

Mr. Davis came up for parole from the penitentiary regularly. Three times Wade Stevens journeyed to Lincoln to oppose his parole. On one of these visits the two men confronted each other across the barrier. Bert protested his innocence, "Wade, I'm not guilty". Wade looked him straight in the eye and replied, Bert, I still think you are!"

And Kate Ressler-Davis's trial in Elwood---The defense attorneys left no stone unturned in their attempts to sway the jury of Kate's innocence. They presented her as a most unattractive scrub woman, and had her dressed in a dowdy black dress and hat, wearing no makeup. At an appropriate moment her teenage children entered the courtroom sobbing. (The irony of this scene was that the children had not lived with their mother for years, and were being reared by a grandmother in Kansas.) It was also learned that Kate's two previous husbands had died suddenly and mysteriously. Yet, she was acquitted of all charges.

Bert Davis served just six years in the State Penitentiary for murdering his wife, Blanche. Soon after he was released he and his new wife, Kate Ressler-Davis, moved to California, where they spent their final years.

Source: Life and Times of Wade Stevens (1980), Bad Men and Bad Towns, by Wayne C. Lee (1993)