The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-04-27
THE GALLONS.
Hanging Of Charles M, Sterling at Youngs-
town, O%hio-Terrible Scene.

Hanging Of Charles M. Sterling at Youngs-
town, O%hio-Terrible Scene.
At ten o'clock Saturday morning, Rev.
E. T. Nicholson, pastor of the Baptist
church at Youngstown, Ohio, called on
Charles NJ. Sterling, the condemned MUIR
derer. They had a long talk, in which the
prisoner still claimed himself an innocent
man. He said that vindication must be at
a higher tribunal expressed no preference
in regard 10 religious faith, but trusted only
in the future. The last hour of the prison
err was spent in conversation and prayer
with his minister. The crowd in the halls
surging for admittance 10 the enclosure,
but until within a few minutes before the
hour none were admitted.
Sterling made a request to be taken up on
top of the Jail, where he could once more,
before death, see out upon the world. His
request was granted. A strong guard led
him up. AT 1916 p. M, after he came
down, he was once more led into his cell,
when the death warrant was read to him,
and after a few minutes he was led to the
scaffold. Everything was in readiness, and
at 1880 o'clock Sterling was led to thescaf-
fold, and after prayer, was handcuffed,
placed on the closed trap, and asked if he
mad anything to say. He made q few re-
marks, insisting that he was innocent, and
bid his attorney, who was greatly affected,
farewell. He also asked for the brother of
the murdered girl and shook hands with
him.
AT exactly 1915 o'clock the trap was
sprung the moose slipped under his chin,
and failed to break his neck. After few
minutes of silence he began to clap his hands,
kick his feet, and moan most pitifully. For
at least two minutes these motions and
groans were kept up, and it was thirteen
minutes before he was pronounced dead.
While this scene was transporting on the
scaffold, his attorney was being carried
into. the Jail, where he fell upon a bed and
wept in a most piteous manner. 1t took
three men to control him. Every few min
utes he exclaimed: "He's dead. He's
dead :" The body was taken down and will
be buried in Potter's Field.
HIS CRIME
Sterling's crime was the murder, two
years since, of a young German girl named
Lizzie Krumbacher, and at the time of its
commission created intense excitement
throughout the state. The victim was a
young lady Of considerable beauty, and
connected with one of the best families in
the county. While returning one evening
from a visit to a %neighbor, she was surprised
by Sterling, who was a tramp, and muir
dered.
The next morning her dead body was
found, and the trampled condition of the
ground gave evidence that a terrible strug-
gle had taken place. The whole country
was aroused, and q vigorous search was in
stituted for the murderer, which ended in
the arrest of Sterling. He should have
been hanged March 2S, but a couple of days
before the time appointed for his execution
parties claiming to be his mother and bro
ther arrived in Youngstown from Maxwell,
Ont. AT his second trial he asserted that
his relatives lived there, mentioning their
names, and speaking of them in the most
circumslantial manner, and Mrs. Sterling,
whose son, Charles M, had left home in
1870, and had not since been heard of, went
on to identify him. He coolly Tepulsed
y her, however, and, addressing her as "Ma-
dan" throughout the interview, declared
that he did not know her. had never seen
her, had never been IN Maxwell. In the
course of his ~wanderings, he said, he had
met the true Charles NJ. Sterling and asso-
ciated with him intimatly.
They were so alike in appearance as to be
frequently mistaken the one for the other,
and this had induced him to forge the story,
he having obtained the details from the true
Sterling, and his only object being to con-
ceal his own name. He persisted in this,
and the woman left him, calling him my
poor boy" and firmly convinced that he
was her own son. About three weeks ago,
however, she appears to have been con
WINGED of her error. "Sterling's" counse.
raised a rather curious point thereafter, thai
he was illegally detained, since the gov.
ernor's repreive had not been formally &C
cepted by the prisoner, and had therefore
operated as a pardon. This novel doctrine
was not, however, approved by the courts,
On the 10th the prisoner tried to commit
suicide by inhaling gas, and on Friday hi
made q desperate attempt, breaking bow
on the warden's head and smashing thu
ante-room door with a chair till he wal
was secured by overpowering numbers
When covered with revolvers and ordered
TO surrender or he would be shot, he folded
his arms and said that was what he wa
working for.