Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-07-16
HANGMAN's DAY.
Hall . Dozen Men Swung Into
Eternity Yesterday.

ACoJOluo1 wv AAOhS bOth OOtOAONi
were hung at Mariana, some twenty
miles west Of Helena on the rAnguille
river.
One was John Hardin, aged about
twenty, who killed William Brown
with briar scythe by splitting his
head open as he entered a house on
a farm back of Helena two years ago.
He claimed to have been instigated to
the deed by Mack Graves, his broth
er-in-law, who told him thrt Brown
was too intimate with his, (Hardin'S)
wife. The murderer was native of
Marshall county, Tenn. He confessed
on the scafold and asked forgiveness
of a half brother of Browns, in the
presence OF a large concourse assem-
bled to witness the execution. He
fell seven feet when the trap was
sprung and his neck broke, though
life was not extinct for eighteen min
utes.
The other hung at the Same time
and place was Ike Green, colored, who
killed John Richards, also colored, in
Council Bend, sixty miles be-
low this city last March.
The two lad quarreled about ginning
cotton. Some days after the fuss
Green killed Richards with mallet,
by striking him over the head. The
murderer was twenty. seven years old,
and native of Warren county, near
Vicksburg, Miss. Like the other, he
fell seven Ie't, the fall breaking his
neck, and h. vas dead eleven minutes
aiterwarJ. The bodies of both were
placed in neat collins, provided by
Sheriff Banks, who, with his deputies,
Foreman and Head, managed their
part of the programme very cleverly.
The public undertaken inferred the
bodies.
Another person iudicially hung yes
ter lay was Willis Reeves, colored, at
Van Buren,, aged about twenty years,
who killed colored lad few months
since in Van Buren, His execution
was a bungling job lie said he was
not religious nigg r, and when the
Sheriff attempted TO tie his hands and
arms he cut high shines, attempted to
jump FROM tbs sqlIows down on the
bay nets Of the guards below,
and Gus i The Sheriff in
his struggle to fall through
the trap to a. groull beneath.
Finally @hsn properly secured and
the trap w,s sprung he dropped to the
ground, the rop9 being too long He
was picked up in mangled condition,
carrie to the s:alfold and again let
down with satisfactory results, death
releasing him from further torture in
short time. The execution was one
of the worst ma naged affairs en-
record.
Two other mon were hung at New
Madrid, No beth white, one named
Frank Brown, the other jesse Myers
They were part ofthe gang who some
two months aso undertook to kill a
neighbor, and shot AMI wounded but
did not kill little girl named R)ys-
ter by mistake, the girl being at the
time in the arms of the man they
we're shooting at. While being pur-
sued by a posse, they killed a respect
able young man named Robert
LaFargue. In the pursuit one OF the
leaders Of the gang named James
Hamilton was killel, not, however,
until they had b IDLY wotn1ed Sheriff
DIvis and Collector IIatton, of
Wayne county, back Of New Madrid,
ne6r where they we're taken. Brown,
before he died, expressed hope Of
making his future home in heaven,
by the grace of God. This execution
was also bungled. Myers feet rested
on the ground after be fell through
the trap, and had to be lifted up SO a
reef could be taken in the rope. 4
large crowd, numbering perhaps alJ0
persons, witnessed the hanging.
Another culprit named Charles E.
Kring, was to have been hung at st.
Louis yesterday, but the aff,ir was
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