St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-01-03
GaECf:sn The ESstzssssa;aN.
DEATH OF THE MOST FAMOUS ENECU-
TONER OF TIE AGE.
HIS SKILL IN DRAWING THE BOLT AND
BOBBINCI FOR TROUT-A DISCIPLE
OF IZAAk WALTON AND
JACK KETCII.
Few York Herald.l

Few York Herald.l
LONDON, Dec. 15.-I'he noted excel
toner, Ltaafhtfsafft, ~s4e for fnrty=slX years
held the office Of hangman III England,
is dead.
There is a stream in the suburbs OF
london known to .iaunting clerks and
holiday making schoolboys rs the
River Lee, where cOchney youths take
their aquatic diversion on Saturday at
ternoons during the summer months.
On the days when the river was deser-
ted a lean, pensive and clerical person
would frequent the banks, a book III
one hand, fishing rod i'll the other.
1t was Caicraft, the hangman. Where
he came from, who he WAS, why he had
chosen his particular profession, no
body ever knew. Legend had it that
he was a convict, WHO had been par
doned on the condition that he would
adopt the executiuner's profession.
Others averred that he had embraced it
through certain morbid love of death.
Calcraft never betrayed bis secret, and
all biographies of the man are fictitious.
This alone is certain, that he has exc
cutcd, with punctuailty and dispatch,
some of the most noted criminals OF
tie country. He entered the business
in 1888, about fifty years after the ~
burn Tree had been removed, and the
gallows was set up almost every Mon
day morning in the narrow passage be
tween Fleet street and I.ud2atc HI,
known as the Old Bailey. He first
came into public notoriety at the hang
ing of James Greenacre, in 1887. This
man had murdered Hannah Brown, a
woman to whom he had been engaged
to be married, and then had cut the
body into pieces and hidden portions of
it in various parts OF London, the trunk
being placed under Il sack and con
ceaIed behind some tlagstones near the
Pineapple toll bar, in Edgeware road.
He confessed that Hannah Brown had
deceived him by pretending to have
some property, and that one night she
called at his lodgings and laughed at
her trick. In rage he struck her with
a silk roller, and, the blow proving
mortal, he formed the resolution Of cut
ting up and concealing the body. No
criminal case since the trial Of DIR.
Dodd had stirred so much excitement
in London. On the night of Green
acres execution, hundreds Of persons
slept Oh the steps of the prison and OF
st. sSepulchre's Church, and boys re-
manned all night clinging to the lamp
posts. The crowds in tie streets
whiled away the night in ribald jokes
and drunken brawls. Greenacre, when
he passed to the gall0Ws, Was totally
unnamed. He could not articu ate
tue responses to the ordinary and had
to be supported or he would have
fallen.
COCREOIsIER AND MULLER.
Grecnacre's execution brought fame
to Calcyaft. He did not rest long on
his laulels. Three years later he was
called to carry ont the sentence Of the
law on Francois BENJAMIN Courvolsier,
Swiss valet, found guilty of the muir
der of his master, Lord William RUS
sell. Lord Willilm, who was in his
house, IN Norfolk street, Park lane,
with his establishment OF two maids
and Of Couryoisier, the body servant.
On the morning of the murder the
housemaid found his study III disorder,
and. entering his bedroom with Cour-
voisier, sew that his head was nearly
severed from his body. Two bank
notes, supposed to have been taken
from Lord Williams body, were found
behind the skirting board OF the but
ler's pantry. Those notes convicted
Coursoisier. He Was hanged on July
6, 1910. Upward Of twenty thousand
people were present at the secure.
Most of them waited all night at the
debtors door OF the Old Bailey. High
fees were paid for house roofs and
windows were crowded. As the bell
began to toll at o'clock the multitude
uncovered, and at two minutes past the
hour Courvoisier assembled the steps
leading to the drop, followed by the
executioner aud ordinary OF the prison.
He died without a struggle. The ease
of his death was universally attributed
to Calcraft's skill. A new genius had
risen in the business. Jack ketch, OF
Tyburn, was outdones
For twepty-four years CaloFaf5 con-
tinued to win the applause OF press and
public. Not combining his exertions to
MeEgate, he travelled in the wake of
the Judges round their circuit He
never bungled. He has executed seven
pirates together, and performed his
work with entire satisfaction. He
hanged the three Fenians at Manches-
ter, and showed extreme contempt for
the anonymous threats that were made
against his life. In 1884 he hanged
Franz Miller, the young German tailor,
who, to pay his passage to America,
murdered Mr.. Briggs in a carriage on
the North London Railway. On the
night that Muller died there was dis
graceful scene around Newgate. The
house was filled with spectators, who
had paid more than a couple of guineas
apiece for place, and who spent the
night playing at cards and singing
choruses. When Muller set foot on TIE
scafold he looked up at the chains
with perfect self-possession. Then he
murmured a confession to the atten-
dant clergyman, and the drop fell in
stantly. These were the three great
criminals of Calcraft's career Green
acre, Courvoisier and Muller.
In 1863 public executions were abol-
ished, and. the hansman's glory was de-
parted. The gallows was henceforth
erected in the prison-yard of Newgate,
and only silence reigned on the spot
which had seen the executions of Gov.
Wall, who fiogged a man to death; of |
Bellingham, Mr.. Percival's assassin of
the Cato street conspirators, whose |
heads were cut off on the scaffold after
they were hanged of Fontleroy, the
banker, and Of Bishops and Williams,
he "burkers." Calcraft soon retired |
from a business which was rapidly |
falling. in popular esteem, and Mar
wood, his lieutenant, succeeded him.