He Lost a Son, But He Gained a Rope

Jim Garner was hanged by the townsfolk of Corpus Christi, Texas, shortly after shooting down shopkeeper Emanuel Scheuer.

On May 15, 1866, Garner tried on a pair of boots at Scheuer's and was about to leave without paying for them when Scheuer said he couldn't give him credit.

Garner was drunk and took offense. He shot the storekeeper through the heart, killing him instantly, then left with his boots.

Eli Merriman, longtime editor of the Caller, later wrote about Garner's hanging. Merriman wrote that the morning after the hanging, old man Garner, the hanged man's father, came to take away the body. He didn't seem to be upset, saying that he had gotten a good long stake rope by the operation. [Link]

Did Ellis Island Admit Dismembered Woman?

Dr. Hawley Crippen was hanged in England in 1910, having been found guilty of poisoning his wife and burying her dismembered body in his cellar. DNA tests now show that the remains were not those of his wife, Cora.

The team concede that they may never discover what happened to Mrs Crippen, but several intriguing clues emerged during the research. Cora sang on the British stage under the name of Belle Elmore. Ten years after the trial, a singer with a similar name was registered as living with Cora's sister in New York. Records show that the same woman entered the US through Ellis Island from Bermuda in 1910 shortly after Mrs Crippen disappeared.

"Are Belle Rose and Cora Crippen one and the same?" asked Mr [John] Trestrail. "We can't prove any of that - that is another investigation". [Link]

A Great Day to Hang in the Park

On Saturday, descendants of Alse Young, historians and onlookers gathered in a Hartford, Connecticut, park to mark the 360th anniversary of Young's hanging for witchcraft, and to remember Colonial Connecticut's ten other executed witches.

As each of the names of the nine women and two men was read, a bell was rung, and a white rose laid at the base of a tree, over which a hangman's noose dangled. A 12th rose was laid to remember the children of the executed.

"When's the hanging, yo?" asked one passer-by, a man astride a bicycle, prompting several of the assembled to walk over and explain why they were in the park. [Link]

He Was at the End of His Rope

The Toronto Star has an interesting profile of John Radclive—Canada's first professional hangman.

Quite apart from his profession, Radclive was a hard man to warm to. In 1892 he started a brawl in Hull after he announced in a bar that he had "come to hang a Frenchman, and hoped it would not be the last." He was badly beaten and had to be rescued by a wagonload of police.

A few years later in Vancouver, the Star reported, he proposed to cut off the queue (pigtail) of a condemned Chinese man "and divide it up as souvenirs of the occasion, and altogether expressed himself in ways that show him to be a person of coarse temperament."

He was also notorious for selling rope to the curious after hangings – that might or might not have actually been used.

Interviewed in the 1930s, [Arthur] English said a British Columbia sheriff once actually caught Radclive in a hardware store buying lengths of rope to sell. [Link]

Used Noose Makes News

A granddaughter of Illinois sheriff James Pritchard wants custody of a hangman's noose held by the Franklin County Historic Preservation Society. The noose was used in the 1928 hanging of gangster Charlie Birger, and was lent to the Society by one of Pritchard's daughters. Society president Robert S. Rea wants to make sure that, if the relic leaves his museum, it goes to the right party.

While the woman signed the agreement, her siblings through their descendants could stake a claim to the hangman's noose. The county could also have a valid claim, since the sheriff was on the county payroll and the county undertook the hanging of the Prohibition era bootlegger, arguably the most notorious criminal in Southern Illinois history.

"After the hanging, hangman Phil Hanna, presented the noose and a few feet of rope to Sheriff Pritchard. If he gave it to him in his role as sheriff, the county could have a claim since Pritchard was a county employee," Rea said. [Link]

Woman Hanged for Having Clean Shoes

Longtime friends Philip Reyer and Steve Latham of Limestone County, Alabama, have a bond that goes back more than three hundred years. Both are descended from women convicted of witchcraft in Salem.

“Our grandmothers rode the same wagon to be executed, up to Gallows Hill, and now how many hundreds of years later we meet," said Latham.

Reyer, who has worked at Limestone County Archives for more than 20 years, was a descendent of Susannah North Martin, as well as Edward Bishop and Sarah Wildes Bishop. The Bishops escaped hanging. Martin was not as fortunate. She was known for being a strong and independent woman, Reyer said. She was also a stickler for cleanliness.

“Susannah was a very liberated woman. Very clean,” said Reyer. "On a rainy day, she visited her neighbor and had no mud on her shoes when she arrived. Then they thought she had to be a witch." [Link]

The Wrong Forum For Genealogy?

A genealogy discussion forum has been added to craigslist. Something tells me the regulars aren't going to be helpful.

One heavily edited example:

Query
Looking for photos of Willie Ross, my great-grandfather. He was hung in Bottneau, ND, March 6, 1903, the last public hanging in North Dakota.

Response #1
One of my uncles was the last man hanged in California. I have been looking for his tree for several years.

Response #2
It was cut down about 1935.