THE DARK SIDE OF NEBRASKA
Charles Cox
photo courtesy Lincoln Evening Journal
Full Name: Charles Wesley Cox
County: Hall
City: Grand Island
Date of Crime: February 6, 1912
Victim: Goldie Williams
County: Hall
City: Grand Island
Date of Crime: February 6, 1912
Victim: Goldie Williams
Charles Wesley Cox, 61, arrested at Colorado Springs where police said he admitted the slaying of an 11-year old girl in Grand Island a quarter of a century ago, was apprehended on a tip supplied by a former Grand Island man, William Cunningham. William told police he recognized a man he saw on the street as one who disappeared from Grand Island after the body of Goldie Williams was found in 1912. He told officers he followed Charles to an apartment house where he was employed as a janitor, then notified police.
Charles related how he lured Goldie into a vacant house, assaulted her, then strangled her to death and hit her on the head with a hammer. Charles took the girl's body and admitted that he threw it into a box and covered it with mortar. He then went to his employer, collected wages due him, and left town immediately.
Police records show that Charles was using the name of Ellis Horn then, but had married in Norton, Kansas, a few years previously under the name of Charles Wesley Cox. He left his wife a short time before he took up residence in Grand Island. After leaving the city, he went to Denver and assumed the name of C.T. Finnerty.
Charles wants to plead guilty and get it over with. He faces a life term if he enters a plea of guilty. Newspaper accounts of the killing disclose how the crime shocked the entire state. Preachers thundered denouncements from their pulpits. Almost every town found its suspect. One innocent farmer was almost lynched at Bradshaw but the rope was taken from his neck in time to save his life.
The story as gleaned from the files of newspapers and from residents of Grand Island is this: Goldie, the daughter of a poor family in Grand Island, was on the way home from school and was shoe sliding on the ice in the gutters alongside the walks, with other boys and girls. She had no skates. The killer approached her and offered to obtain a pair of skates if she would accompany him. The last trace of them, found by the mother, was lost when the footprints of the man and girl left earthen paths and reached the cleaned up sidewalks in the northern part of the city. For two days, searchers canvassed every home in Grand Island.
Excitement reached a new pitch with the disclosure that on February 8, at Hastings, Margaret Lay, 13, was approached by a man who attempted to entice her into a buggy, promising to take her skating. She escaped, "only after a determined fight," one account said, but suffered a nervous breakdown later and was ill several days.
Finally, on February 8, Goldie's body was found in the empty house, buried in several sacks of lime. A stocking cap was thrust down the child's throat, and doctors said she died of strangulation.
Charles related how he lured Goldie into a vacant house, assaulted her, then strangled her to death and hit her on the head with a hammer. Charles took the girl's body and admitted that he threw it into a box and covered it with mortar. He then went to his employer, collected wages due him, and left town immediately.
Police records show that Charles was using the name of Ellis Horn then, but had married in Norton, Kansas, a few years previously under the name of Charles Wesley Cox. He left his wife a short time before he took up residence in Grand Island. After leaving the city, he went to Denver and assumed the name of C.T. Finnerty.
Charles wants to plead guilty and get it over with. He faces a life term if he enters a plea of guilty. Newspaper accounts of the killing disclose how the crime shocked the entire state. Preachers thundered denouncements from their pulpits. Almost every town found its suspect. One innocent farmer was almost lynched at Bradshaw but the rope was taken from his neck in time to save his life.
The story as gleaned from the files of newspapers and from residents of Grand Island is this: Goldie, the daughter of a poor family in Grand Island, was on the way home from school and was shoe sliding on the ice in the gutters alongside the walks, with other boys and girls. She had no skates. The killer approached her and offered to obtain a pair of skates if she would accompany him. The last trace of them, found by the mother, was lost when the footprints of the man and girl left earthen paths and reached the cleaned up sidewalks in the northern part of the city. For two days, searchers canvassed every home in Grand Island.
Excitement reached a new pitch with the disclosure that on February 8, at Hastings, Margaret Lay, 13, was approached by a man who attempted to entice her into a buggy, promising to take her skating. She escaped, "only after a determined fight," one account said, but suffered a nervous breakdown later and was ill several days.
Finally, on February 8, Goldie's body was found in the empty house, buried in several sacks of lime. A stocking cap was thrust down the child's throat, and doctors said she died of strangulation.
