Richards was regarded as handsome and charismatic by some contemporary chroniclers, who described his appearance and behavior as completely obscured his nature as a cold-blooded killer.

Richards has been featured in a handful of books and periodicals, including a posthumous biography, based on an interview conducted after his final arrest.

[18][19][23] At the age of 20, Richards met and became engaged to a young woman named Anna Millhorne, with whom he regularly corresponded during his later travels, up until his final arrest.

Richards also met men whom he described as being of "questionable occupation"; he began passing counterfeit bills he obtained from a man in New York City.

[28][26][29] Richards left the asylum in October of 1876, and began drifting around the Midwestern United States,[24][25][26] finding intermittent work and occasionally consorting with train robbers.

He stayed in Kansas City briefly before moving on to Nebraska, where he passed through Hastings before arriving in Kearney,[30] residing there for two to three weeks before leaving for Cheyenne County.

According to Richards, he met a man while traveling on horseback through the Nebraska countryside, and the pair decided to camp for the night near Dobytown.

[34] Several days later, as he continued his trek to Kearney, Richards encountered another man fifteen miles from an area called Walker's Ranch.

[31][32] After his stay, Richards traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he used counterfeit money to purchase a horse and buggy from an unidentified man.

[41] In March 1877, Richards and a young man with the surname Gemge left Grand Island, Nebraska, on horseback and headed towards Kearney.

During his stay, Richards reunited with several old acquaintances George "Dutch Henry" Johnson, and his companion Hurst, as well as a man who went by the name Mr. Burns.

Shortly before Richards' arrival, she had been arrested under suspicion of having aided the escape of her husband and another prisoner, named Underwood or Nixon, from the Kearney jail.

Richards found a spade and dug a hole, then sneaked back into the house and murdered Mary, Daisy, Mabel, and Jesse with an ax.

[55][56] A 21st-century account stated Richards had made claims of Harlson transferring the deed of the farm to him, and subsequently left with her children, to reunite with her husband.

As Anderson's neighbors entered the dwelling, Richards fled on horseback, riding to Bloomington[iv] He traveled east, by horse and train and on foot, passing through Omaha and Chicago.

[63] Most accounts state that on December 20th,[28] after Richards arrived in Mount Pleasant, he attended a ballroom dance, accompanied by two unidentified women.

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer said that, upon arriving in a town near Mount Pleasant, Richards was identified by a former acquaintance, who detained him with the help of another person.

[39] At the time of Richards' arrest, authorities suspected he was a member of a gang of outlaws who had plagued the state, or even the group's leader.

Law enforcement was able to definitively link Richards to the nine murders to which he had confessed, and suggested that he might have killed even more,[7][8][9] something The Nebraska State Journal expressed doubt on.

[76] The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo reported that, shortly after his conviction, Richards managed to smuggle a knife into his cell, to use it for killing himself, but the weapon was discovered by the authorities, and confiscated before he could use it.

When Richards was returned to Nebraska, the Omaha Herald wrote that he "manifested supreme indifference to his lot, was perfectly willing to be brought direct to Kearney Junction and said he had as soon died one way as another.

[37] As the crowd became increasingly agitated, the authorities pleaded with them to stay outside the enclosure, but guards were unable to prevent the spectators from destroying the barrier.

[20][22] He then said he had found the Lord, "made [his] peace with God",[28][22] and "had faith in Christ", and asked the crowd to join him in singing the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".

"[21][i] Reverend W. Sanford Gee, who presided over the execution, later told reporters he hoped Richards' professions of religious salvation were genuine, but allowed that they might not have been.

[17] Despite his gravesite being guarded,[40] his corpse was stolen the night after his execution—The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo suspected the doctors who had wanted to examine him[21]—but was returned to its resting place shortly thereafter.

[37][88] On November 1, 1882,[88] it was reported that Kearney County Gazette had obtained Richards' skull and placed it on display in the newspaper's office window.

After his arrest, many people described Richards as charismatic, commenting that he successfully concealed his dark nature under a polite, articulate, and handsome exterior.

[25][26] When The Nebraska State Journal questioned him about his lack of remorse for the heinous murders he had committed, particularly those of the Harlson family, Richards recounted an event from his childhood.

[2][69] The St. Louis Globe-Democrat (which doubted that he had committed nine murders) reported that Richards broke down during his final moments,[37] but this was contradicted by other newspaper accounts of his execution.

[101][102][103] Richards was featured in the 2021 novel The Scarlet Pen written by Jennifer Uhlarik, as a part of the historical crime series True Colors.