Sharp County record., 1882-08-03

gibbet they heard low moan. Look
! ing up they found it to proceed from
Roprecht. Robber and rascal though
he might be, they did not like to leave
him in such pitiable state. They cut
him down. put him into their cart, car
ried him to their home, revived him.
succored him and concealed him from
the authorities. Whatever virtues RO-
precht may have possessed. gratitude
was not one OF them, for we are told
that one. morning early, before the fam
ily were astir, he took Peters 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 hus-
band and son. These two mounted
spare horses, galloped after him, kept
him in sight, overlook him, seized him
after desperate struggle, dragged him
to the gibbet, and there hanged him
most ehectually.
His own rope was ready there;
To measure the length we took good care;
And the job which the bungling hangman be-
gan,
This time, think was properly done
By me and Piet PetezOon, my son.
Many instances-ho many we are
never likely to know-have occurred in
which the culprit and his friends make
arrangements beforehand to defeat the
hangman's endeavors. M. Vanderkiste,
in his "Six Years Mission Among the
Dens of London" mentions the case of
a woman who kept a house of call for
thieves, and who was condemned to
death for passing forged bank notes.
Her friends, with surgical aid, caused a
silver tube to be inserted in her throat
some short time before the rope was to
be placed around her neck. This pre-
vented strangulation. Her friends OBJ
tanned possession of the body, and re-
stored her, though with great difficulty.
She lived many years afterward. In
1896, Richard johnson, of Shrewsbury,
sentenced to death for some crime, per-
suaded the Sheriff to agree that his body,
after hanging, should be put in coffin
without being stripped. The Sheriff
may have been kind, but was certainly
weak, for cords had been twisted around
and under the body, connected with.a a
pair of hooks at the neck. and
all concealed under double
shirt and a 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 was e1ectually and finally
hanged on the following day. Whether
any tube was inserted we are not told,
but there was evident collusion in the
case of the man hanged at Cork in 1867.
His body was carried by his friends to
predetermined spot, where a surgeon
made an incison 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 the same evening.
The William DUEL who was hanged in
1740, and who came to himself again
when just about to be dissected at Sur
geon's Hall, may, like Ann Green, have
survived through some popularity i'll
the neck or some clumsinesS on the part
of the eXecutioner, without any collu-
sion or cunning among his friends. In
1887 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 a
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 accoutered, he pro-
ceeded to the place Of execution. 1t is
supposed that he had found means to
bribe the hangman, to whom he made a
request to draw up close to the pulley,
and lower him gently when dead. But
the crafty maneuver did not succeed.
Kelley had not allowed for the stretch
ing of the strips OF blanket by his own
weight, the point Of the hook fastened
into his windpipe, and gave him so
much pain that he struggled violently.
He was, however. allowed to hang until
he was really dead, when the sling ap-
paratus was discovered. A successful
attempt to cheat the gallows once
brought an Under Sheriff into trouble.
William Barrett, executed in Tyrone in
1859, contrived to wear some kind of
concealed collar, which prevented stran-
gulation; he was cut down, apparently
dead, but afterward recovered. Mr..
Annsley, Under Sheriff, as a punish
ment for allowing Barrett thus to evade
the law, was fined E100 and imprison-
ment for two years.
In former times the mode in which
the dismal operations OF the gallows
were conducted led occasionally to a
Illustration of the laws intention. The
unhappy culprit, after the halter was
adjusted round his neck was pushed so
as to slip or slide from a ladder. AS
phyxia was sometimes produced with
out any dislocation. Under the modern