Past Pages for Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014

140 years ago

(Continued from Saturday.) Murphy’s case. If we held the power to do it, we should commute John Murphy’s sentence to imprisonment for life. The law told him, as it tells everyone, that if he killed a man and it was proven, he would be hanged. He accepted it and was ready and then the state interposed and said, “Wait.” Doomed men have rights which the law should respect. Murphy had a right to be hanged. That right was denied him. The fact is that he had already suffered the agonies of death — the mere killing of him was all that remained. (Continued on Tuesday.)

130 years ago

The big rabbit hunt. Yesterday was the day set for the big combination hunt of jack rabbits by the Sportsman’s Club of the state. Over 30 hunters were on the ground by 8 in the morning despite the weather. For a continuous hour there was the rolls of guns and the smoke that enveloped was so thick that hunters had to find fresh air. As darkness came on it was estimated there were several hundred rabbits northeast of Swift’s Springs worth 25 cents a piece for anyone that wants to gather them.

100 years ago

More than 90 percent of the world’s production of platinum comes from the Ural mountain region in Russia. There are two localities in Clark County, where platinum is known to occur and from one of these platinum ore is now being shipped. Platinum discovery in Nevada may prove to be a world beater.

70 years ago

Paul M. Skaug will die in the lethal gas chamber at the state prison the week of March 11-17, Warden Richard Sheehy announced today. Kaug was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Marie Voss of Reno.

60 years ago

A packed auditorium of Carson boys and girls aged 12 and under greeted Santa Claus last night on his annual visit to the capital city. Saint Nick arrived right on schedule aboard the Warren fire engine and handed out many hundred stockings to the children present.

50 years ago

Nevada’s 1964 highway fatality toll equalled the record of 203 set in 1961 Saturday when a New Mexico woman was killed in a bus-car crash near Henderson.

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