Past Pages for Saturday, Dec. 27, 2014

140 years ago

Murphy execution (continued from Friday; taken out of date from Dec. 30). The finale! John Murphy is hanged by the neck until dead! Dead! Dead! The wretch’s behavior — sane or insane! — The concourse — a gala day — conversation with Murphy in the dead wagon. One the gallows he breaks loose in a wild harangue — he quotes, blasphemes and jokes for a whole hour — he recites a biting satire on religion from Lizzie Doten, the spirit of Bobbie Burns. He takes his last drink of wine and last quid of tobacco! (Continued on Sunday).

130 years ago

On last Friday evening Mike Dovy, the shotgun messenger for Wells Fargo, was in Tubino’s saloon and remarked casually that he was the last man to get in a quarrel, but a good man when he got in one. Bill Withrow, an enemy of Dovy’s, walked up to him the other night and asked if he was, indeed, the last man to get in a quarrel and shot him twice in the groin.

100 years ago

Bert Lindsay, the local carpenter, while engaging in carrying ashes from his home in the northern section of the city this morning, slipped on the icy porch and suffered a severe fracture of his right arm.

Dr. Krebs reduced the fracture and states Mr. Lindsay is doing as well as can be expected.

70 years ago

University of Nevada’s football team reached a new peak in publicity and grid honors this season, climaxing with the United Press all-Pacific coast selections. Notables included Bob McClure, the Wolf Pack’s all-American tackle and Alf Sorensen.

60 years ago

An unofficial compilation showed today that Nevada’s highway death toll for 1954 has climbed within one fatality of 1953’s all-time record of 145.

50 years ago

Now showing at the Carson Theater: Flipper’s New Adventure. “Here comes Flipper, the fearless ...”

Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.