Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-05-15
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PRESS DISPATCHES.
Execution of Negro Murderers.

WASHINGTON, May 15.-John Langster,
negro, ex-cayalryman, ex-lunatic, desperate,
thief and murderer, was hanged in the cor.
ridor of the city Jail at 9 o'clock this a. N.
The affair was as nearly commonplace as
such an event could be. Twenty or thirty
policemen, dozen newspaper men, and a
motley crowd of ticket holders, numbering
nearly two hundred, had assembled in the
rotunda of the Jail by eight o'clock. The
warden, Gen. Croker, entered the prisoners
cell and read the warrant for his execution.
The shacklcs were knocked off and the pro
cession to the scaffold was formed. The
warden and his deputy led the way, follow
ed by the prisoner and his religious advis-
ers, Reverend Fathers O'Sullivan and Sulli.
van, of st. Peters Roman Catholic Church:
and a small guard of Jail attendants brought
up the rear. The prisoner, a coffee-colored,
powerfully built man, walked steadily, his
elbows and wrists pinioned behind him.
His eyes were downcast and his face wore
such an expression as might be looked for
upon that of a man of retiring disposition
thrust for the first time into position of
prominence. He seemed entirely self-pos-
sessed and nothing in his carriage or demean.
or indicated that the occasion was an I'm.
welcome one to him. His responses as the
Litany was read were inaudible, except to
the priests, but were prompt, as if well con-
ned in advance. The prisoner mounted the
stairway leading to the scaffold unaided,
took his place upon the trap and faced
about He cast one furtive glance at the
crowd below him, but with this momentary
exception gave his entire attention to his
prestly attendants. During the reading of
the prayer for the dying his knees and
ankles were bound with ropes, the moose
was passed over his head and the knot ad-
justed to its place. His last voluntary act
was the kissing Of the image of the Saviour
upon cruciix held by the priest to his lips.
The black cap was drawn over his face,
gathered about his neck, and tied. A sound
like the violent drawing of iron bolts was
heard. The trap fell and the body of the
condemned hung below the scaffold. There
was no rebound or swinging, and for fully
half minute no motion whatever Then
tile lower limbs were twice drawn up and
relaxed; violent shivering succeeded but
soon again the body and limbs became mo-
t;onless. The father ofLangster was in the
crowd He is several shades blacker than
the prisoner, a holow-cheeked rudely-cad
person, with a scared look in his protruding
Hoods eyes, and a generally crushed
"low-down" aspect, who stood craning his
neck with the rest to see what he could
beyond the Gordon of policemen. At
twenty seven minutes after the drop fell
the body was lowered into its coffin. Then
The Gordon gave way. The scared looking
man scrambled onward with the rest, and
though pushed aside in the struggle reached
a place where he could see the face of his
dead son.
HUNTERS POINT, l.. l., May 15.-Charles
Henry Rugg, the negro who murdered old
Mrs. Lydia Maybee and her daughter Mary
at Oyster bay, Long Island, nearly two years
ago, was hanged in the Jail here at 7:45 this
morning. He died without struggle.