The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-07-21

and concealed him from the authorities.
Whatever virtues Roprecht may have
possessed, gratitude was not one of them,
for we are told that one morning early.
before the family was astir, he took Pc
ter's horse and PETS boots and spurs
and absconded. But Frau Suoye, who
had some little suspicion of the man,
overheard some of his movements and
aroused her husband and son. These
two mounted spare horses, galloped
after him, kept him in sight, overlook
him, seized him after desperate strug-
gle, dragged him to the gibbet and there
hanged him most effectually. sH
His own rope was ready there,
To measure the length We took good care
And the job which the bungling hangman began,
This time, think was properly done
By me and Pet Peterzoon, my'son. GofD
Many instances-how many we are
never likely to know-have occurred in
which the culprit and his friends made
arrangements beforehand 20 defeat the
hangman's endeavors. Nj. vanderkiste,
in his six Years Mission Among the
Dens of London" mentions a woman
who was condemned to death for passing
forged bank notes. Her friends, with
surgical aid, caused silver tube to be
inserted in her throat some short time
before the rope was placed around her
neck. This prevented strangulation.
Her friends obtained possession of the
great difficulty. She lived many years
afterward. In 1896, Richard johnson,
of Shrewsbury, sentenced to death for
some crime, persuaded the Sheriff to
agree that his body, after hanging,
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stripped. The Sheriff may have been
kind, but was certainly weak, for cords
had been twisted around and under the
body, connected with pair of hooks at
the neck, and all concealed under a
double shirt and flowing periwig. But
( the cunning was frustrated, despite the
weakness of the Sheriff, as Johnson
showed signs of life, even after hanging
half an hour. An examination was
made, the apparatus discovered, and the
man successfully and finally hanged on
the following day. Whether any tube
was inserted we are not told, but there
was evident collision in the case of the
man hanged at Cork III 1857. His body
was carried by his friends to prede-
termined spet, where surgeon made an
incision in the windpipe and resusci-
tated the man in six hours. Let us
hope that the rest of the story Is not
quite true, to the effect that the fellow
went to the theater the same evening.
The William Duell who was hanged
in 1740, who came to himself again when
just about to be dissected at Surgeons
Hall. may, like Ann Green, have sur
vived through ZONE popularity in the
neck or some clumsiness Oh the part of
the executioner, without any collision
or cunning among his friends. In 1887
a man named Kelly was sentenced to
execution at Trim, in Ireland. On the
early morning of the day intended to be
his last he contrived to cut his blanket
into strips about four inches wide, join
them together with strong wooden threads
and form double sling. This he passed
under his arms, fastened the ends at his
neck and there provided an iron hook to
receive the halter. Thus accoutred he
proceeded to the place of execution. It
is supposed that he found means to bride
the hangman, to whom he made a re-
quest to draw up close to the pully and
lower him gently when dead. But the
GRITTY maneuver did lot succeed. Kelly
he'd not allowed for the stretching OF the
strips of blanket by his own weight, the
point OF the hook fastened into his wind
pipe and gave him such pain that he
struggled violently. He was, however,
allowed to hane Until he was really dead,
when the sling apparatus wcc discovered.
A. successful attempt to cheat the gal
lows once brought an under-sherif into
trouble. William Barrett, executed in
Tyrone in 1859, contrived to wear some
kind of a concealed collar, which pre-
vented strangulation !; he was cut down
apparently dead, but afterward re-
covered. Mr.. Aunsley, under sheriff,
as punishment for allowing Bar
rett thus to evade the law, was fined
f100 and imprisoned for two years.
In former times the mode in which the
dismal operations of the gajlows were
conducted led occasionally to o frustra-
ton of the laws intention. The I'M
happy culprit, after the halter was adj
justed around his neck, was pushed so
as to slip or slide from a ladder. AS
phyxia was sometimes produced without
any dislocation. Under the modern ar
rangement trap door opens in a plat
form on which the culprit stands, occa-
sioning sudden and considerable fall,
from which recovery is much less prob
able. This change led to the frustra-
ton of plan that might possibly have
been successful under the old system.
William Brodie was executed in Edin-
burgh in 1893. His friends had prear-
ranged for his resuscitation, but the fall
of the drop was greater than had been
expected, and he was quite dead when
taken down. There is an old Scotch say
ing, Brodie's drap was too much for
Brodie, which, we believe, refers to the
case of this William Brodie. for the
"drap " or drop was too great for the
vital organism to resist.
A reprieve has sometimes arrived too
late TO save the poor wretch in whose
behalf it had been obtained. More fort
innate was a burglar who was hanged in
1705, for the reprieve arrived when life
was only half extinct. He was quickly
cut down, placed under medical care,
and restored. A reprieve of another
kind from the effects of foolhardy trick
came little too late. In 1906 youth
aged II, and named Matthew Watson,
resolved to make small attempt at
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