The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-06-15


dent was too remarkable, however, to re
main concealed, and men of superior posi-.
ton took up the matter. Sir William Petty,
DR.. Wallis, and Dr. Clarke. who at that time
filed the three Offices Of Professor of Anat.
omy, President of Mogdalen College, and
Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, being
present at the intended dissection, per.
ceived that the heaving Of the bosom was
followed by n slight rattling in her throat.
4" llereupon," said DR.. Plot, desistng from
their former purpose, they presently used
means for her recovery by opening vein,
laying her in a waruA bed, and using divers
remedies respecting Der senslessness, head,
throat, and chest; insomuch that within
fourteen hours she began tc speak, and tho
next day talked and prayed heartily. Du-
ring the time OF her recovering, the officers
concerned in her execution, would needs
have had her away again to have it com.
pleted on her but by the meditation of
the worthy doctors and some other friends
with the then Governor of the city, Colonel
Kelsey, there was a guard set upon her to
hinder all further disturbance till he had
sned out her pardon from the powers then
in being thousands of people in the mean.
time coming to see her, aud magnifying the
Just providence of God in thus asserting
her innocence of murder"
1t is not stated by DR.. Plot whether the
medical men satisfied themselves concern.
ing the cause, anatomical or physiological,
of her preservation; but they sought to as
certain whether there were any peculiar
mental phenomena connected with her re-
covery. They found that the halfhour Of
hanging had left no special impression on
her memory. She came to herself as il she
had awakened out of a slecp--not recover.
ing the use of her speech by slow degrees
but in mauuer altogether, lall at oncel he
ginning TO speak where she left off Ion the
gallows." Among all the printed narratives
of this remarkable case there is mono that
offer a clear explanation; and we are left
to our surnises on the subject There was
strong religious bias in the public mind a.
that period and this feeling led to belief
in the direct .interposition of Heaven in
Anna Green's favor The undergraduates
of Oxford University viewed The matter in
another light; they sought to exercise their
wit and poetry on it aud there have been
preserved twenty or thirty epigrans writ
ten by Them aud signed with their names
one of which was Mr.. Christopher Wren
Anna Green having received a pardon after
this strange resusctation, retired with
friends to Steeple Barton, where she mar
red, had family, aud died in 1869.
Somewhat about the same period, one
Gordon, highwayman, was condemned for
execution. lie found means, when his
sentence was no longer doubtful, to obtain
the aid of young surgeon, who, shortly
before the execution, fixed a small tube
through al opening cut in the windpipe.
The arti6ce failed in its iutended effect in
this case; the culprii, being a heavy man.
drew with too much weight; he brcathed
for few minutes when removed after
hanging, but did not recover. In 1908, q
female servant was hanged for some crime
near Oxford sho was kept hanging longer
time than usual, probably on account of the
wonderful resuscitation of Anna Green few
years before. She was cut down, and the
body allowed to fall to the ground with
much violence; yet she lived; but the
severity of the law insisted upon her un-
dergoing a second and moro fatal hanging.
There has, it appears, been difference of
opinion among legal authorities concern
ing this double intlction of the sentence.
Some contend that if man is hanged, that
is enough; if the eXecutioners do their
work clnmsily, he ought not to bear the
consequences, but rather should be given
" the benefit Of the doubt" On the other
hand, it is contended that the sentence
meal execution, and that the execution
means hanging by the neck until the cul.
prit be dead so thatif the hanging fails
once it must be tried again.
In 1697, one Richmond Johnson, was
hanged at Shrewsbury for murder. For
"a purpose which he planned while in prison,
he obtained a promise that his dead body
should be laid in coffin without being
stripped His purpose was detected a
little too soon for life being observable in
him after he had hung half an hour, q man
was sent up the ladder to examine into the
probable cause of this prolonged vitality.
1t was found that johnson had twisted
cords around and under his body, connected
with two rings or hooks near his neck a
double shirt and a periwig with flowing
curls concealed these contrivances. The
apparatus, and hanged second time more
effecunaly. In 1905, burglar, named
John Smith, was hanged at Tyburn re-
priete came after he had been hanging
about fifteen minutes, he was Immediately
cut down, removed TO o neighboring house,
bled by a surgeon, aud restored to life.
The case of Margaret Dickson was one that
excited great interest at Elinburg in l724,
She was hanged for nfanticide 4; the body
was cut down, and placed in n coffin, and
removed in cart to Musselburgh by her
friends, with q view to interment in par
ish church.yard. The jolting of the cart,
and tile admission OF air through some in
Jury which the coffin sustained appear to
have combined in resuscitating the woman I;
for SHE showed evident signs of lite before
tile cart had proceeded onefonrth of
the distance. She was removed, revived,
prayed with by a minister, and received
back into the circle OF her friends. She
lived creditably many years afterwards
had a large family, and sold salt about the
streets Of Eduburg, where she was known
on account of her strange escape, as /" Half
hanged Maggie
William Duell was one of those who had
revived when almost under the dssecting
knife. This man was hanged for murder,
on gibbot put up at Action, in l749. After
hanging for twenty minutes. the iody was
cht down. and taken. to Surgeons Hall for
dissection. The attendants stripped and
washed the body. and the surgeons pre-.
pared for their labor. Just as they were
about to begin however, they perceived
faint signs of life in him T; he grpaned feebly,
and his breathing became gradually more
and more peroepiib'e. They bled him; and
IN the evening he was able TO sit up again.
In two days he recovered his health.
Feverand delirium had rendered his memory
a blank, and he had lost all recollection Of
the hanging. 1t was supposed by the sur
geons that full flow Of blood at the time
had enabled his system to resist the tight