Obituary Record

Wilfred (Beaver) Nielsen
Died on 1/4/2007

None

This long obituary is taken from the collection in the Notebook of Long Obituaries. The original newspaper article can be found in the Blair Library, Genealogy Room.

Two newspaper articles

# 1 - - Published in Pilot-Tribune, January 23, 2007

(picture) caption: Washington County Sheriff Jim Kelley escorts Wilfred “Beaver” Nielsen to the courtroom on Nov. 22, 1977. Charged with murdering his in-laws, Ed and Opal Grabbe, Nielsen was sentenced to life in the state penitentiary in May 1978, where he died earlier this month.

DOUBLE MURDERER “BEAVER” NIELSEN DIES IN STATE PEN

BLAIR MAN WAS SERVING TWO LIFE TERMS FOR KILLING HIS IN-LAWS BY Jim Brazda, Reporter

Wilfred “Beaver” Nielsen, 68, died January 4, of natural causes in the Nebraska State Penitentiary after serving nearly 30 years of two concurrent life sentences for the murder of Ed and Opal Grabbe in 1977 in Washington County.

Nielsen was sentenced to life in prison for the two murders on May 26, 1978, following a jury trial in the District Court of Washington County.

On Nov. 19, 1977, Nielsen drove to the Grabbe’s home near Spiker after he had gotten into an argument with his wife and began drinking, according to a Nov. 12, 1977, Pilot-Tribune article.

There he got in an argument with his father-in-law, Ed Grabbe, which resulted in Grabbe being fatally shot in the head. As he left the home, Grabbe’s wife, Opal, saw her husband’s body and ran around the outside of the home where she was shot in the chest.

Following the shootings, Washington and Burt county authorities posted guards around the county in an attempt to find Nielsen. He was eventually arrested at his home at 21st and Nebraska streets in Blair. Jim Kelley, county sheriff at the time, said the murders were not a pretty picture.

“Those people were good, hard-working people,” Kelly said. “They didn’t have that coming.”

While Kelley said he was a friend of Nielsen – the two often hunted together - - their friendship ended that day. “At one time, he was a pretty good fella,” Kelley said.

It was their former friendship, however, which allowed Kelley to stroll up to Nielsen’s door while the police had his home surrounded and ask him to come out peacefully.

Prior to his arrest, Nielsen operated commercial waterfowl blinds on the Missouri River. Greg Drew, who was deputy county attorney at the time, headed Nielsen’s prosecution.

“Beaver had a reputation for a hot temper,” Drew said. “He had a lot of people half scared to death of him.” People kept Nielsen at arm’s length because “you didn’t really know what to expect from him,” Drew said.

To illustrate, Nielsen was also implicated, although not charged, with shooting the boat of an Omaha family picnicking on a sand bar on his property in the summer of 1977, according to a Dec. 5, 1977, Enterprise article.

Kelley said while he never saw the intimidating side of Nielsen, “he was just a little different.”

Nielsen had tried to use incompetence as a defense, Drew said. The county took the position he was coherent of what he was doing.

According to Nielsen’s testimony during his trial, he began drinking the day of the murders after not having drunk for some time following his enrollment in an alcohol treatment program.

He also claimed he felt “dejected” because of rebuffs from his wife the prior evening, which was the subject of their fighting that day. When he arrived home after purchasing whisky to find her gone, he assumed she went to her parents’ home near Spiker. He went there to confront her but found the Grabbes there and killed them, Kelley said.

In his testimony, however, Nielsen said he “blacked out,” and did not remember what happened at the home. Nielsen was found guilty without a murder weapon, which he claimed he threw over the Blair Bridge.

# 2 - - Omaha World-Herald, March 7, 2007

“JAILHOUSE LAWYER” DIES OF OVERDOSE AT STATE PRISON by Leslie Reed, World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN - - Inmate Wilfred Nielsen, a “jailhouse lawyer” who was found dead in his cell, appears to have overdosed on medications, authorities said Tuesday.

It is not yet clear whether the overdose was accidental or deliberate, said Robert Houston, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. He said the investigation of Nielsen’s death continued.

Nielsen, 68, from Blair, Neb., was a former hunting guide and Missouri River barge pilot.

He was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder in the 1977 slayings of his in-laws, Edward and Opal Grabbe.

Nielsen was found dead Jan. 4. Prison officials did not disclose his death until Tuesday.

When Nielsen was found unresponsive in his State penitentiary cell, prison officials initially thought he had died in his sleep of natural causes. The death was not publicly announced in January under a policy governing those who died of natural causes while in prison.

During nearly 30 years in prison, Nielsen was involved in, among other things, a ground-breaking case over male inmates’ privacy during showers and searches by female guards.

Nielsen had hoped that he could win a sentence commutation, but Nebraska officials stopped commuting life sentences more than 15 years ago.

Nielsen had suffered from several ailments and had been prescribed several medications by staff under the supervision of a facility physician.

Houston said he was notified Monday by a State Patrol investigator that an autopsy showed Nielsen had a sufficient amount of “a substance” in his system to kill. Houston said the substance had not been identified.

The autopsy was conducted in connection with Nebraska’s requirement that all deaths in police or state custody be investigated by a grand jury.

Houston said he did not believe medical mistake or foul play contributed to Nielsen’s death.

It is not known whether Nielsen had saved up prescribed medications to take a lethal dose or whether he obtained unauthorized medications.

“The State Patrol is still investigating,” Houston said. “We’re going to trace this down and have a good explanation as to what happened.”

Printed in the Washington County Pilot-Tribune on 1/23/2007


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