Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-15
HISTORIC HANGINGS
Scheming TO Escape the Dreaded Halter
Phenomena Connected with the
Hangman's Work.
0ld-Time Titled DANES and Modern Sen.
Observation-Disclosures Strangu-
latiOns of the Early Day.
Atlanta Constitution.

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neck and throat of the individual or a want
| OF tact IN the hangman. More than six CEN
| turtles ago-ifold records are truthful-Juetta
| de Balsham, convicted of harboring thieves
| was sentenced TO be executed. She hung for
| three days, revived, and was pardoned as a
| phenomenon who had somehow or other
| overmastered the galIows There is the
| authority OF Obadiah Walker master of New
| College, Oxford, for the story that a Swiss
| was hanged thirteen times over, every attempt
being frustrated by peculiarly in the wind
| pipe which prevented strangulatiOn. We are
| not told whether the thirteenth experiment
was successful or whether justice was
| merclful at last. Ann Green was
| hanged al Oxford for infanticide in 1850;
nay, her legs were pulled and her body
| struck with soldiers muskets, in accord
! ance with barbarous custom sometimes
adopted of making assurance doubly sure.
| Nevertheless she survived, after hanging
| some considerable time. Her body was given
up for dissection. The surgeon observed
| faint sns OF amin alton, tended her instead
| of anatomizing her, and in thirteen hours
she was able to speak. The crown pardoned
her; she married and became the mother Of
| family. The instances in this country IN
| which the infliction of capital punishment
| has been attended by circumstances more or
| less revolving have been so painfully numer-
Gus of late years that the sensitive newspaper
reader is naturally driven to wish, when such
| instances occur, that he could be provided
| with the services OF a professional execu-
| toner, like Calcraft or Marwood, whose
known experience, tact and sang froid could
| be relied on at all times to SUCCESS
fully perform a duty which, Of all
| duties, since it has 10 be done, "'twere
well, 'twere done quickly" and skillfully.
| At the worst, however, says the Brooklyn
| Eagle, there Is certainly reason for congratu-
i tlnN 81 s
the scene were no longer exhibited. The
yriter even yet recalls with feeling OF dis
| comfort the sensations of horror which
| thrilled him when, many years ago, he
| turned out with call London" TO witness the
execution OF the Flowery Land pirates; and
| he would almost soon be the victim him-
| self as 10 be present at such freezing spec
| tacle. \ terribly depraved condition OF
| society was denoted in the last century in
| England by the attendance of even "the
! quality" at executions in the Old Bailey.
| Rooms or windows were hired on the pre-
! ceding evening, the night was passed in
feastins and card playing, and at 5 o'clock
| in the morning the visitors-tited ladies al
| well as berutiied beaux-would take their
seats at Il window TO witness the execution of
some criminal, or, maybe, half dozen crim-
-iaeis IN one batch Yet most Of my readers
| will allow that such titled ladies were no
more TO be blamed in their generation than
| the republican soyereignesses who nowadays
| express their sympathy with such i'll
| conditioned monsters as Guiteau, Pomeroy,
| Cox, and many Of that stamp, showering flowers
| upon them and requesting the hideous favor
OF their autographs. Other examples of
more or less analogous kind are the follow
| ing; y woman-name <unrccorded-was
hanged in 1905. She came TO herself after
! suspension Tor the prescribed period, not by
! slow degrees, but suddenly: John Hayes ex-
perienced an ordeal something like that OF
Ann Green. Alter being hanged at Tyburn
his body was taken to Sir William Blizzard.
the celebrated surgeon and while laid out on
table IN the dssecting-roOm he displayed
signs OF life, and eventually recovered. A
female servant OF Mrs. Cope, OF Oxford, con-
victed OF some penal ofiense, was executed
in 1850 After hanging an unusually long
time she was cut down, and fell heavily to the
ground. The shock revived her, but the I'M
fortunate wretch was effectually hanged the
next day. Margaret Dickson, a century and
a half ago was convicted of concealment of
birth, and was subjected TO the last penalty
of the law. Her body, after hanging on the
gibbet al Edinburgh, was cut down and
given up to her friends They put
it into coffin, and drove off with it
in cart six miles to Mussellurgh. Some
apprentices rudely stopped the cart and
loosened the lid of the coffin. This let in the
air, and the air and the jolting together re-
vived her. She was carried indoors alive
but faint and barely conscious, and she ef-
fectually recovered Margaret lived many
year,, had other children born to her, and
was Familiarity known in Edinburgh, where
she sold salt, as "Half.hanged Maggie" A
disgraeeful scene took place at Edinburgh
in 1918. The rope with which a man was
hanged being too loose, his toes touched the
platform; the assembled mob got up n riot
on some pretext, the half-hanged man was
carried off, recaptured, and finally hanged
on the following day. A scene of a similar
deplorable nature had been witnessed at Jer-
sey a few years previously. Many instances
how many We are never likely TO know
have occurre in which the culprit and his
friends make arrangements beforehand to
defeat the hangman's endeavors. NJ. Van
derkiste, in his Sir Years Mission among the
Deas Of London, mentions the case of
woman who kept house of call for thieves,
and who was condemned 10 death for pass
ing forged bank notes. Her friends with
surgical aid, caused silver tube to be in
serted in her throat some short time before
the rope was to be placed around her neck
This prevented strangulation. Her friends
obtained possession of the body, and restored
her, though with great difficulty. She lived
many years afterward. In 1896, one Richard
johnson, of Shrewsbury, sentenced to death
for some crime, persuaded the sheriff to agree
that the body, after hanging, should BE- placed
in a coffin without being stripped. The |
sheriff may have been kind, but was certain.
ly weak. for cords had been twisted around |
and under the body, connecting with a 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 discov- |
araH and fl,a rna nm xra affsctnatlv 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 in 1867. His body was car
ried by his friends to a predetermined spot,
where surgeon made an incision
in the windpipe, and resuscitated 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 that
same evening. The William Duell who was
banged in 17i0 and who came to himself
again when Just about to be dissected at
Surgeons Hall, may, like Ann Green, have
survived through some PECULIARLY in the |
neck, or some clumsiness on the part of the
executioner, without any collision or cum
ming among his friends. In 1877 man
named Kelly was sentenced to execution at
Trim, ireland. On the early morning of the
lay intended TO be his last, he contriyed to
tut his blankets into strips about four inches
vide, join them together with strong wooden
breads and form a double sling. This he
passed under his arms, fastened the ends 10
MS neck, and there provided an iron hook
o receive the halter. Thus accoutered he
proceeded to the place of execution. 1t is
supposed that he had found means to bride
he hangmau, to whom he made a request 10
lraw him up close to the pulley, and lower
lin gently when dead. But the crafty ma
leuYer did not succeed. Kelly had not
IIlowed for the stretching OF the strips Of
,lanket by his own weight, the point OF the
look fastened into his windpipe, and gave
lin so much pain that he struggled yio-
emily. He was, however, allowed to hang
Until really dead, when his sling apparatus
vas discovered. A successful attempt to |
heat the gallows once brought an under |
herif into trouble. William Barrett, exc
uted in Tyrone in 1859, contrived to wear
ONE kind of concealed collar, which pre- |
ented strangUlation; he was cnt down, ap- !
'arently dead, but afterward recovered. Mr.. {
Annsly, under-sheriff, as a punishment Tor
flowing Barrett thus 10 evade the law, was
med el00 and imprisoned for two years. 4
eprieve has sometimes arrived too late to | .
ave the poor wretch in whose behalf it had !
zen obtained. More fortunate was bur- :
lar who was hanged in 17O5, for the re- |
rieve arrived when life was only half ex- 7
met. He was quickly cut down, placed I'M
er medical care, and restored. A question .
rises which very few living persons are in .
'osition 10 answer, viz: What are the sensa- !
ions experienced during hanging? Some of I
be few who have been able TO give any &C.