Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1873-02-06
Cheated the GalloWs.


VIM. Cluck, the wife murderer,
under sentence of death at Indian
apolis committed suicide, thus es-
Gaping the gallows. A local paper
says:
jim Taylor, fellow-p-isoner of
William Gluck, entered the latter's
cell a few minutes before two
o'clock and found the wretched
man in agonies of death by poison.
Taylor at once gave the alarm to
the Jail authorities, who called in
ply sicians. In order to give the
doctors opportunity to do the pa
tient justice in their treatm mt, be
was removed from thecell in which
he lay. When first brought out in
the passageway a stomach-pump
was broughtinto requisition, by
means of which it was hoped to
remove poison swallowed by the
dying man. Emetics were also
administered, but without effect,
and Cluck died in about half an
hour from the time he was first
seen under the influence of the
fatal drug. There were present
at the time a number of his fell
low prisoners, the jailor. and one
of the physicians. He died calm
ly and seemed during the last few
moments to be in but little pain.
The corpse was laid out and dress.
ed in a plain black suit, and in an
hour or two after it was placed in
a coffin by the undertaken An
inquest was held over the body Of
the suicide, but the evidence pro
duced merely showed that the
man died of poison-morphine.
The crime for which Cluch
was condemned to die was instiga
ted by jealt usy. Born in Eng
land in 1888, Cluck was a resi-
dent of East Tennessee at the
breaking outof thelate war-a wild
over with two children. Ht
went to Indiana and enlisted il
the Seventeenth Indiana Infantry
and while on duty as soldier a
Manchester, Tenn, in 1864, ht
married his victim, a Mrs. Glenn
entine West, the mother of one
child-a boy. The two he re
moved to Indianapolis, and th'
war being over rejoined then
and made the city the place of hi
permanent residence. A couple o
years later he learnt, to surprise
that his wife was not widow, a
he had supposed, but the ex mis-
! tressof Frank West, who was no
dead, as believed, but still ahv
and in correspondence with Gle
mentine. This knowledge, togeth
er with after suspicious of adul
terry on her part with two citizen
of Indianapolis, drove him to har
drinking, and when drunk h
would numerically abuse her an,
her son, and once he even attempt
ed to kill her. Unable to pu
, up with the hard treatment, sh
! at last left him and went to tn
house OF a Mrs Wright to live, az
plying to the courts on April q
1872, for a divorce. Cluck a
once heard of this application an
, became frantic, making man
threats against her life, gettin
drunken than ever, and then &C
ing to Mrs. Wright's, revolver il
hand, forced, and with man,
. blows, compelled his wife to star
with him for his home. On tn
way the woman tried to escape
when Chuck chased her and sho
her seven times, killing her
Some of the shots were fired int
> the body even after life had de
parted. Cluck then made veal
but unsuccessful attempt to com
NIT suicide by cutting his throa
with common pocket-knife. Ar
rested, imprisoned, and cured of
his wounds, he was tried for mur
der in the first degree, found gull
ty, and sentenced to be hung OF
Friday, December goth, and wa
subsequently, respited to January
Sd bv Gov. Baker.