Around midnight on March 27th, 1952, the sleepy and secluded sandhills of western Nebraska was awakened by the sound of a baby crying. Six hours later, when the sun finally came up on that Thursday morning, the entire region was paralyzed by the news of a triple homicide near the Niobrara River south of the little town of Merriman, Nebraska.
For the first six hours after sunrise, the entire community was put on the alert to be on the lookout for an unknown killer who had fled into the vast ocean of the sandhills. A make-shift posse was quickly formed and word eventually came that the suspected killer was held up in a garage deep in the sandhills.
Almost 12 hours after his first victim was killed, the wanted man was captured, wounded and confessed to the killing of a husband and wife and a neighbor who was simply responding to the cries of a fellow rancher and friend.
For decades the persistent question of "why" has been asked by everyone who has heard the story. In this short book, the author attempts to accurately retell the story and finally make a legitimate attempt to answer the nagging question of "why".