The Hanging of Kid Wade, from the Roundup, Virginia Faulkner, Bison Books, 1957

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Hanging of Kid Wade

1884 wasn’t a good year to be an outlaw in Nebraska for, like other states, it had its own vigilantes determined to rid their state of lawlessness. “I want to buy back the horse I just sold you,” Kid Wade told the farmer.

The surprised sodbuster agreed to the odd request. As Kid Wade and his accomplice left with their new purchase, the clod buster followed them a mile only to witness them shoot the animal then bury it. He went to authorities with the story. They dug up the horse and, by a split hoof, identified it as stolen.

The farmer’s description sounded like Kid Wade to the lawman.

1884 wasn’t a good year to be an outlaw in Nebraska for, like other states, it had its own vigilantes determined to rid their state of lawlessness. January 24, Kid was arrested and in custody of the Regulators. These self-appointed upholders of righteousness thought Kid was guilty, but had no way to be sure. Kid Wade assured his own undoing when he realized others in his gang were turning on him.

He squealed like a pig, implicating himself as well. Taken into custody by the Regulators, Kid thought he could wiggle his way out of this. Wrong. As the vigilantes stopped at a residence to eat, with their prisoner in tow, he showed no fear of what they were about to do to him. As his captors ate, like a child he played with a doorknob. He laughed and answered incriminating questions. Kid probably wouldn’t have been so jovial had he known his own father had just disappeared at the hands of the same people who held him. The following summer his dad’s body turned up.

Called the Kid because of age of less than 25 years, and slight build, Albert Wade stood medium height. Kid walked as if straddling something. His massive jaws, below his narrow forehead, couldn’t grow a beard, enhancing his young looks. People described his appearance as that of a bum or cat burglar, not a high-profile horse thief. Thirty horses weren’t any kind of theft record, but it would be enough to get a man, or a Kid, hung.

The Regulators brought Kid to a public meeting for the citizens to question the treatment he had received at the hands of the vigilantes. Regulators had a reputation for extorting confessions from men who already had a noose around their neck.

“I’ve been well treated”, Kid said. “I’m here of my own free will. I’ve not been threatened or offered leniency.” Kid denied knowledge of bands of horse stealers. He did insinuate that some local prominent citizens were guilty.

Kid was transferred a couple of times to other groups of vigilantes. In Basset, Nebraska, Kid slept on the floor, as was his preference. Twelve masked men burst into the room. “All hands up,” they shouted. His previous captors gave him up when they saw they were sorely outnumbered.

Kid quickly saw where this was headed. “Please don’t hang me,” he begged. “I’ll never steal another horse again!” His pleading fell on deaf ears.

The next morning, locals found the Kid swinging from a railroad whistling post, hanged by the neck until quite dead.

The Regulators had arrested Kid Wade on the pretense that he stole horses in Brown County. Legally, he should have stood trial in the county seat of Ainsworth. It is clear now that the vigilantes headed away from Ainsworth with the Kid. They had no intention of chancing that a judge or jury might find him not guilty.

Why did the upstanding citizens of Nebraska not call into question the devious tactics used to secure the Kid’s punishment? Probably coming from a family where his father had already fallen prey to the Regulators prejudiced some against him. Why would vigilantes take his dad if he didn’t deserve it? Many believed Kid’s own testimony that he was guilty. Some people then, like today, just didn’t want to get involved. Maybe it wasn’t stealing horseflesh that killed Kid Wade and his father.

Possibly, they knew too much about the Regulators, to be left alive.

Source: Roundup, Virginia Faulkner, Bison

Books, 1957