A mystery man, a beloved young police officer, an old fashioned gunfight and an angry mob a recipe for the one and only hanging in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Angry mob of 500 fails to lynch a cop killer in 1888, but he became the one and only person hanged in Clay County
A mystery man, a beloved young police officer, an old fashioned gunfight and an angry mob a recipe for the one and only hanging in Moorhead, Minnesota. 6:00 am, Jan. 13, 2021 ×
Clay County had its first and only hanging in 1888, when a mystery man shot and killed a beloved Moorhead police officer. Photos courtesy of the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County
HEAR TRACY BRIGGS NARRATE THIS STORY:
MOORHEAD We can’t know for sure, but the outrage on that fall day in 1888 in Fargo-Moorhead was most likely palpable. Citizens were up in arms when a beloved, young Moorhead police officer just 26 years old, a newlywed and father of a two-week old baby was gunned down on the streets of downtown.