The Boy Nevada Killed
Page 16
Author with Mike Loveless. Photo by Deborah Carr Senger.
Taylor Hood Wines became the district attorney in Elko in 1945. Like Oliver Custer, he would forever remember Floyd Loveless. In 1948, while presiding over the case of David Blackwell, an eighteen-year-old who had shot and killed two Reno police officers, Judge Wines removed himself on moral grounds. He felt strongly that there should be no death penalty for youthful offenders. Blackwell was executed on April 22, 1949.
Former district attorney Wright, who fought to send Loveless to the gas chamber, went into private practice in Elko. In 1948, Wright’s client Laszlo Varga appeared before Judge Taylor Wines for the vicious murder and rape of a minister’s wife. Wright argued that since Lazlo was probably eighteen, not nineteen, his case should be heard in juvenile court. Wines disagreed. Lazlo was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 7, 1949.
Elko district attorney C.B. Tapscott, who convicted Loveless in 1942, went on to become a Nevada deputy attorney general. Governor Carville
resigned in 1945 and was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the death of James Scrugham. After serving two years, the former governor practiced law in Reno until his death in 1956. Taylor Wines retired to California, where he died in 1986.
On June 29, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court found the imposition of the death penalty to be cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments.
The landmark decision was decided on a vote of 5–4. The moratorium on the death penalty ended four years later with the Gregg v. Georgia decision, in which the court sided with Georgia, upholding new death penalty statutes; the death penalty did not violate the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments.
The re-implementation of capital punishment resumed with the execution of Gary Gilmore on January 17, 1977, in Utah. Gilmore died by firing squad.
In 1983, Nevada adopted lethal injection as its method of execution.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of eighteen.
Writing for the majority Justice Kennedy stated:
When a juvenile commits a heinous crime, the State can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the State cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity…
Retribution is not proportional if the law’s most severe penalty is imposed on one whose culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a substantial degree, by reason of youth and immaturity.
Bibliography
BOOKS
Beineke, John. Hoosier Public Enemy: A Life of John Dillinger. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 2014.
Bentley, Amy. Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity. Champaign: University of Illinois, 1998.
Capace, Nancy. Encyclopedia of Nevada a Volume of the Encyclopedia of the United States. Santa Barbara, CA: Somerset Publishers, 2001.
Carrillo, Juanita Karen. African American History Day by Day. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2012.
Cavinder, Fred D. The Indiana Book of Records, Firsts and Fascinating Facts. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Cohen, Stan. V for Victory: America’s Home Front During World War II. Missoula, MT: Pictorial House Publishing, 1991.
Emmons, Nuel (as told to). Manson in His Own Words. New York: Grove Press, 1986.
Hall, Shawn. Old Heart of Nevada: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Elko County. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1998.
Hegne, Barbara. The Hanging of Elizabeth Potts: The Only Woman Ever Legally Hanged in Nevada. N.p.: self-published, 2005.
James, Ronald M. County Courthouses of Nevada: Temples of Justice. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1994.
Lingenfelter Richard E., and Gash Karen Rix. The Newspapers of Nevada: A History and Bibliography 1854–1979. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1984.
Morgan Brooks, Thelma. Loveless Family: A Brooks Morgan Project. Stockwell, IN: privately published, 2001.
Palmer, Louis J., Jr. Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States. 2nd ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2008.
Patterson, Edna B., Louise A. Ulph and Victor Goodwin. Nevada’s Northeast Frontier. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1991.
Peckham, Howard H. Indiana: A History. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
Reid, John B., and Ronald M. James. Uncovering Nevada’s Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004.
Riddle, Jennifer C., Sena M. Loyd, Stacy L. Branham and Curt Thomas. Nevada State Prison. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.
Wines, Claudia, with the Northeastern Nevada Museum. Elko County, Nevada. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
MAGAZINES
Butterfield, Roger. “Elko County.” Life, April 18, 1949.
“The Cat with the Amber Ring.” Actual Detective, June 1943.
NEWSPAPERS
Carson City Chronicle, April 30, 1943; September 22, 1944.
Elko Daily Free Press, August 21, 1942; August 24, 1942; August 27, 1942; September 22, 1942; September 28, 1942; September 29, 1942; September 30, 1942; October 5, 1942; November 30, 1942; November 15, 1943; November 17, 1943; November 30, 1943; December 14, 1943; September 8, 1944; September 29, 1944.
Elko Independent, September 9, 1935; September 11, 1935; September 28, 1944.
Lafayette Journal Courier June 15, 1930; September 30, 1944.
Lafayette Leader, June 20, 1930.
Mulberry Reporter, October 6,1944.
Nevada State Journal, December 15, 1943; January 11, 1944; June 18, 1944; September 27, 1944; September 29, 1944; September 30, 1944.
Reno Evening Gazette August 22, 1942; September 27, 1944; September 30, 1944.
Reno Gazette Journal, April 21, 1943.
CORRESPONDENCE
The following letters, as well as various Western Union telegrams, were found in the Nevada State Library or Oliver Custer’s case files for the Floyd Loveless case.
Bible, Alan, attorney general of the State of Nevada, to George F. Wright, district attorney of Elko, Nevada, June 18, 1944.
Bible, Alan, deputy attorney general of the State of Nevada, to Oliver Custer, November 30, 1942.
Blakely, Mary Catherine, Nevada State Welfare Department Division of Child Welfare Services, to Oliver Custer, 1942.
Bottolfsen, C.A., governor of Idaho, to E.P. Carville, governor of Nevada, August 29, 1944.
Boucher, Milton, to E.P. Carville, September 23, 1944.
Brodigan, Margaret, clerk of the Supreme Court, to Mae E. Caine, county clerk of Elko, Nevada, September 1, 1944.
Brodigan, Margaret, to Oliver Custer, October 1, 1944.
Busher, Frederick H., reverend, to E.P. Carville, September 16, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to C.A. Bottolfsen, September 6, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to E.J. Flanagan, reverend, July 14, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to Frederick H. Busher, September 21, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to Lawrence W. Thompson, November 28, 1942.
Carville, E.P., to Milton Boucher, October 13, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to Mrs. Grace Taylor, October 14, 1942.
Carville, E.P., to Mrs. K.R. Whitney, January 2, 1944; October 2, 1944.
Carville, E.P., to Mrs. Len Loveless, various letters, 1942–44.
Carville, E.P., to Theodore E. Miller, reverend, October 15, 1942.
Custer, Oliver, to Mary Catherine Blakely, November 18, 1942.
Custer, Oliver, to Mrs. Ed White, November 9, 1944.
Custer, Oliver, to Ralph G. Wales, November 30, 1942.
Custer, Oliver, to Richard Sheehy, warden of Nevada State Prison, November 18, 1942.
Custer, Oliver, to Taylor H. Wines, various letters, 1943–44
Findley, Mrs. Laura Belle, Mrs. Mae Huddleston and Mrs. Len
Loveless to E.P. Carville, October 17, 1942.
Flanagan, E.J., to E.P. Carville, July 11, 1944.
Hawkins, L.O., telegram to E.P. Carville, chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, September 25, 1944.
Hawkins, L.O., to Board of Pardons and Paroles, September 18, 1944.
Hawkins, L.O., to E.P. Carville, September 18, 1944.
Hawkins, L.O., to Mrs. Ed White, July 21, 1944.
Hawkins, L.O., to Oliver Custer, November 27, 1942.
Keller, Harry, editor of Detective Stories Publishing Company, to Richard Sheehy, November 2, 1942.
Loveless, Floyd Burton, to Frank B. Robinson, August 18, 1944.
Loveless, Floyd Burton, to Mrs. Ed White, various letters, 1942–44.
Loveless, Floyd Burton, to Mrs. K.R. Whitney, various letters, 1943–44.
Loveless, Floyd Burton, to Oliver Custer, various letters, 1943–44.
Loveless, Mike, to the author, various letters, 2010–16.
Loveless, Mrs. Len, to E.P. Carville, various letters, 1942–44.
Loveless, Mrs. Len, to Oliver Custer, 1942.
Loveless, Mrs. Len, to Richard Sheehy, various letters, 1942–44
Loveless, R.C., telegram to Richard Sheehy September 30, 1944.
Loveless, R.C., telegram to Warden Carson City Penitentiary, September 29, 1944,
10:56 p.m. Loveless, Robert Kay, to the author, 1987. Loveless, Robert Kay, to the author, 1986. MacCaffrey, J.C., to Mrs. Len Loveless, October 9, 1942. McDonald, James, lieutenant of the Identification Bureau of the City of Lafayette,
Indiana Department of Police, to George F. Wright, September 18, 1944.
Miller, Theodore E., reverend to E.P. Carville, October 7, 1942.
Morgan, Thelma Brooks, to the author, 2002.
Parks, Lucille Snider, secretary to Oliver Custer, office memo to Governor Carville, n.d.
Parks, Lucille Snider, to Taylor Wines, 1944.
Robinson, Frank B., to E.P. Carville, August 28, 1944.
Rowe, E.R., to Richard Sheehy, October 9, 1942.
Sheehy, Richard, telegram to R.C. Loveless, September 29, 1944.
Sheehy, Richard, to Honorable James Dysart, October 7, 1942.
Sheehy, Richard, to Mrs. Len Loveless, various letters, 1942–44.
Sheehy, Richard, to Ray C. Loveless, October 2, 1944.
Taylor, Mrs. Grace, to E.P. Carville, October 6, 1942.
Taylor, Mrs. Grace, to Richard Sheehy, October 7, 1942.
Thompson, Lawrence W., to E.P. Carville, November 24, 1942.
Wainwright, J.W., U.S. probation officer, to Richard Sheehy, November 5, 1942.
Wales, Ralph G., National Probation Association 110, telegram to Oliver Custer,
November 17, 1942. White, Mrs. Ed, to L.O. Hawkins, July 12, 1944. White, Mrs. Ed, to Oliver Custer, January 2, 1946. White, Mrs. Ed, to Richard Sheehy, October 1, 1944. Whitney, Mrs. K.R., to E.P. Carville, December 30, 1943. Wines, Taylor H., telegram to Oliver C. Custer, September 18, 1944. Wines, Taylor H., to Lucille Snider Parks, 1944.
Wines, Taylor H., to Oliver Custer, various letters, 1943–44.
Wright, George F., to Honorable Supreme Court of the State of Nevada, July 6, 1944.
INTERVIEWS
Custer, Oliver C. Interview by Diane Carlson Grulke, 1985.
Loveless, Dorothy. Interview by the author, 1985.
Loveless, Mike. Interview by the author, 2016.
Loveless, Robert Kay. Interview by the author, 1985.
Morgan, Thelma Brooks. Interview by the author, 2002 and 2016.
Woods, Peggy. Interview by Lisa Seymour, Northeastern Nevada Museum, 1994.
OTHER
Bible, Allen. “Recollection of a Nevada Native Son: The Law, Politics, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, and the United States Senate.” Interview by Mary Ellen Glass, 1977–78. Oral History No. 95, E748.B49, 1982. University of Nevada Oral History Archive.
Court Order. July 10, 1942. Indiana Tippecanoe County Juvenile Court.
Court Order. Warrant of Execution, October 5, 1942, No. 1362, Fourth Judicial Court State of Nevada, Elko County.
Curtis R. Loveless–Hazel Belle Frey. Clinton County, Indiana Marriage records. Page 28 BK PG 16-592.
“The Evidence Will Not Support a Conviction of First Degree Murder.” Oliver Custer and Taylor Wines’s work notes. File containing Oliver Custer’s and Taylor Wines’s work pertaining to Floyd B. Loveless case. Among these items are notes and correspondence and several legal papers. Appellant’s Opening Brief Statement of Fact No. 3410 Nevada Supreme Court. Application for commutation of sentence to the Board of Pardons, Carson City, Nevada. Signed by Floyd Burton Loveless. September 11, 1944. Dr. G.H. Ross timeline record of the execution (death) of Floyd Burton Loveless. September 29, 1944. Receipt dated December 28, 1943. Signed by Oliver Custer, acknowledging cash donations from individuals, local unions and clubs (casinos) for representing Floyd Loveless in Supreme Court of Nevada.
Floyd Burton Loveless. Local Record of Birth Book S-9 Page No. 47. Tippecanoe County Department of Health, Lafayette, Indiana.
Floyd Burton Loveless confession. Dated July 6, 1942, Lafayette, Indiana.
Goldbeck, Willis, director. Johnny Holiday. United Artists, 1950.
Incoming/Outgoing Mail file 4606, 1943. Inmate file of Floyd Burton Loveless. Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records, Carson City.
“In the Matter of Application of Giro L. Mei, also known as Jerry May, by Josephine May, in his behalf for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.” Giro L Mei case. New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals. 186 A. 577, 121 N.J. Eq. 123.
Loveless, Floyd Burton. Prison Health Record. Floyd Burton Loveless inmate file at Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records Carson City, Nevada
Loveless v. State. 62, Nev. 17, 136 P. 2d, 236 (1943).
Loveless v. State. 62, Nev. 312, 130 P. 2d, 1015 (1944).
Nevada Capital Punishment History. cncpunishment.com.
Nevada State Prison Inmate Case Files: Floyd Burton Loveless. Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records, Carson City.
“Official Opinion of the Attorney General.” Nevada Office of the Attorney General (Alan Bible), 1944. Nevada Reports 1943–1945 (62 Nev.). Printed by the State of Nevada.
“100 Years of Indiana Boys’ School 1867–1967.” Souvenir book. Parole and Pardons Board Minutes, n.d.
Petition for withdrawal of money submitted by John Frey. Tippecanoe Circuit Court, January 1933.
“Proposed Draft for a Standard Juvenile Court Act with changes approved at the Committee meeting October 9, 1942 National Probation Association.” Petitioner Appellant Brief of Amici Curiae. Submitted October Term 1936. Charles E. Hughes Jr., president, National Probation Association.
Rocha, Guy. “An Outline of Capital Punishment in Nevada.” Article at Nevada
State Library, Archives and Public Records, Carson City.
“Seventy-Eighth Annual Report of the Indiana Boys’ School Plainfield.” June 30, 1944.
“Seventy-Fifth Annual Report of the Indiana Boys’ School Plainfield.” June 30, 1941.
“Seventy-Seventh Annual Report of the Indiana Boys’ School Plainfield.” June 30, 1943.
About the Author
Photo by Anne Leong.
Independent historian and true crime buff Janice Oberding lives in Reno, Nevada, with her husband and two cats. She enjoys travel, photography, reading and digging up little-known Nevada history facts, especially those that involve true crime, the weird and unusual.
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