The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-20
HANGING HORRORS.
Execution Of Four Negroes In VirginIa-Horri
BILE scenes at the scafiold--A Brutal Hang

man.
AS already announced by telegraph, Moses Newby,
Peter Newby, Jacob Wallace, and Henry CosteD,
negroes were hung at Isle OF Wight Court House,
Virginia, last Friday for the murder of Mr.. Joseph
Gray, OF that county, the 11th Of December last
The condemned men had been placed in the Nor
folk Jail for safe keeping and were sent up to the
Court House, under guard of fifteen men, on Fri
We take from the Norfolk Vrgintan the following
particulars of the horrid scene:-
The feet of the condemned having been pinioned
upon first taking their stand upon the scatfod,
each one ceased to.speak the black cap was drawn
over his head, and when all had finished the scaffod
cleared of all but the condemned and at exactly
O'Clock, at signal from Deputy Sheriff Eley, the
prop was jerked violently away and
DROP FELL.
Then ensued a scene the recital of which we
would willingly spare our readers, and repetition
of which earnestly hope it may never be our lot
to witness. AS the bodies fell in the drop the two
end men, Peter Newly and JACOB Wallace, both
large, athletic men, snapped the rope like pack
and h e heavily to ne n
one was hanging by only strand of the rope, the
other two having been broken in the fall. Moses
Henry Costen lived for nearly ten minutes, gasping
for breath and his limbs working convu-
s for f few mnues
to a sitting posture, and broke into prayers and
he aso sat but
extorted by pain. Their feet were then united,
the steps of the gaiows, while Wallace walked back
and forth praying intently. New ropes were pro-
cured and adjusted to the beam the two men hang
ing prevented the drop being raised. At the eXpra-
tion of seventeen minutes the physicians in attend
ance, Drs. Jordan and Chapman, examined the
bodies and pronounced them both dead, when
ANOTHER HORROR
was enacted, which made strong men shudder and
turn pale. Instead OF lowering the bodies as is
always customary the ropes were cut, allowing the
very feet of the two half hanged men standing be-
low. Not content with this, the
BRUTAL MONSTER
who oiiciated as hangman an occupation which he
dshOnOred, and who rejOiceS in the name of John
j. Murphy, descended from the scaffold, and taking
hold OF the rope attached to the neck Of of the
dead men, drew the body by it across the yard and
tumbled it into the coin, as if it had been dead
dog. He repeated the operation on the next one,
and seemed to think that by his disgueting bru-
talty he had done some meritorous action.
THE SECOND HANGING.
During the whole of the time this disgusting scene
was transpiring Wallace and Peter Newby, although
their necks, in their fall, betrayed emotion save
that Wallace used the time in praying loud and
Newly looking on apparently as unc0ncerned as II
he was not an actor in the dreadful drama.
THE NEW ROPES
which were of stout cotton cord, having been fixed.
the drop was replaced, and the miserable men
mounted the scaffold the second time-this time
never to return alive. The condemned both spoke
to the crowd around in the same strain before at
the conclusion of which the black caps were again
the drop again FELL and the ropes proving strong
enough they were left struggling In the air. Neither
of their necks were broken and for several minutes
they gave painfm evidence OF life by their forced
breathing and the convulsive jerking Of their legs.
They were allowed to hang for half an hour, when
they too were cut down, placed in their collins,
and taken to the Court House graveyard for inter-
ment