During May 1872, William Jackson "Jack" Marion and John Cameron, two friends from Kansas, left Liberty, Nebraska, and went to work by the railroad. When Cameron later disappeared, Marion was convicted of murdering him, which was disproved years afterward when Cameron reappeared.
Wrongful arrest, prosecution and execution of William Jackson Marion
On May 5, 1872, Marion returned to his mother-in-law's home near Liberty with Cameron's team of horses, but without Cameron. Marion's mother-in-law suspected that he had killed Cameron, and eventually Marion left Nebraska. In March 1873, a decomposing body was found in a riverbed in Gage County, Nebraska, wearing clothing that unidentified witnesses claimed to be John Cameron's. Marion was named a suspect, although he was not then located. During December 1882, Marion was located in a county jail cell at Sedan, Kansas, in Chautauqua County, awaiting trial on a charge of stealing. He was taken to Beatrice, Nebraska, where he was indicted for the murder of John Cameron. A jury convicted him, and the judge sentenced him to death. The trial took two months. On appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial, noting that by Nebraska law at the time of the murder, a death sentence had to be decided by a jury, not a judge. Upon his second conviction, Marion was again sentenced to death and, after losing a second appeal, was hanged in Beatrice, Nebraska, on March 25, 1887. An article in the Omaha Daily Bee on March 26, 1887 declared there to be "no doubt that he was guilty and also guilty of other murders in the Indian Territory".
Re-appearance of John Cameron
Four years after Marion was executed, in 1891, John Cameron was found alive and explained that he had, during the nearly twenty years since his "murder", traveled to Mexico, Alaska, and Colorado. In a written statement provided by Marion's uncle William Wymore, Cameron explained that he had fled due to fear of a paternity allegation. John Cameron said he had sold his team of horses to Marion and still had the note Marion had given him for payment of the remainder.
Pardon of William Jackson Marion
On March 25, 1987, Marion was pardoned posthumously by the State of Nebraska, on the 100th anniversary of his hanging.
In the news
A February 2013 documentary entitled "...until he is dead. A history of Nebraska's death penalty," discussed at length the hanging and later pardon of William Jackson Marion.
