An unprovoked murder occurred at a picnic on September 21, 1878, a few miles northeast of Warrensburg, Missouri. A young, single man named Frank Davidson had been drinking throughout the day, and he became very intoxicated and quarrelsome. About five or six p.m., he got into an argument with William Haggerty, a married man who, at 23 or 24 years of age, was about the same age as Davidson. The drunken man ended up drawing his navy revolver and shooting Haggerty. Before the victim fell, Davidson fired a couple of more bullets into his body, and Haggery was dead almost by the time he hit the ground. In the immediate wake of the murder, a report in the St. Louis Globe Democrat conjectured, "It is supposed that jealousy was the cause of the deed, as no other reason can be assigned."
What information the Globe Democrat had to go on in order to draw such a conclusion is not known, but the newspaper's speculation turned out to be right.
After shooting Haggerty, Davidson became frantic as several other men tried to apprehend him. He exchanged errant fire with one man and took a shot at a second man that also missed its mark before the men were able to close in, overpower him, and disarm him. He was taken into Warrensburg and placed in the Johnson County Jail. In the aftermath of his arrest, a dubious report circulated that he was a desperado who had recently moved to Johnson County from Kansas, where he was implicated in or suspected of other crimes. Sometime after his capture, Davidson was moved to the Pettis County Jail at Sedalia for safekeeping. He was indicted for murder at the December term of Johnson County Criminal Court.
At Davidson's trial in May of 1879, the murdered man's widow, nineteen-year-old Lydia Haggerty, testified that she had known Davidson four or five years, because he used live and work on her father's farm. Lydia had married Haggerty a year or so before he was killed, and they already had a baby at the time of the shooting.
At the fateful picnic, Lydia was helping her husband run a candy stand when Davidson approached near the end of the day and wanted to buy some candy for her. Lydia declined the offer, but he insisted. When she told him not to be spending his money on her, he leaned close to her and whispered that he was going to sleep with her that night.
"I guess not!" she exclaimed.
"By God, I will," he said.
Not unless he was a better man than her man, Lydia told him.
Davidson then wandered off, and Lydia went to her husband, who was standing some distance away, and told him what Davidson had said. Haggerty demanded to know where Davidson was, but Lydia said she didn't know. Haggerty went looking for Davidson and couldn't find him at first but then happened to meet him not far from the candy stand as he (Haggerty) was going to see about his horse, which had gotten loose. Lydia saw the two men arguing and saw Davidson pull out his pistol and start shooting at her husband, who was unarmed.
Davidson, who had known and been friends with Haggerty as well as Lydia before the couple was married, testified in his own defense. His testimony largely coincided with Lydia's, even admitting that he'd told her he was planning to sleep with her. Despite this admission, when Haggerty confronted him and demanded an apology, he told the other man that he did not realize he had insulted his wife. Haggerty starting pulling up his sleeves as if to fight and demanded that Davidson take back what he'd said or else he'd "beat his damned head off." Davidson pulled out his revolver, waved it over his head, and told Haggerty to go away or he'd shoot him. A man named Queener grabbed hold of Davidson's arm, but when Haggerty made some other angry remark, Davidson jerked away and shot him.
Davidson was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to hang on July 9, 1879. His father gathered the signatures of a large number of citizens petitioning the governor for clemency, but to no avail. The state supreme court also refused to grant a new trial. "Well, I'm not the first man ever hung," young Davidson said when given the news.
On June 14, the condemned man was baptized by the Rev. Isham Tanner, the man on whose farm he had been living and working at the time of the crime. Then, on July 9, the execution was carried out as scheduled before an estimated 10,000 people. Drawn by a morbid curiosity, they thronged to a site just outside Warrensburg, where a scaffold had been erected. and they took up positions on the surrounding hills as though for a picnic until the grounds were blanketed by a sea of humanity. Shortly before noon, Davidson was led up the steps of the scaffold. After a brief Bible reading and sermon by the condemned man's spiritual adviser, Davidson was led to the trap. The lever was sprung at exactly 12:00 o'clock, and Davidson fell through the trap into eternity.
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