Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1886-03-06
GRAY"

The Fate of the Murderer Of N. III
Scott Near Paradise-rhe sheriff
Jury Disagree and the CuIprit Il
Hanged.
On Wednesday the jury subpenaed b.
Sheriff Fellows, Of Humboldt county. t,
inquire into the mental condition OF Clar
ence Gray, the murderer Of r. II. Scott q
Paradise on Christmas eve. 1884, and whit
was sentenced to be executed yesterday
failed to agree upon q verdict, the las
ballot of the body standing 9 for sanity,
for insanity and l blank. The most ex
hsustive inquiry possible was made. Fol
lowing is a special telegram received yes
terday afternoon by the SENTINEL from
| Winnemucca, which tells the fate OF the
unfortunate man, who, by the way, is said
to have belonged to q highly respected
family back East:
WINNEMUccA, March 5.-Clarence Gray
alias Isham Collins, was executed here to-
day. Gray, who bad been feigning insan-
| ity since January "a, recovered his reason
yesterday. uponbeing informed there was
no hope for him, as suddenly as he ap.
peared 10 lose it six weeks ago. He slept
we'll last night, ate breakfast and made his
toilet this morning, and walked to the
scsfold with a steady step. He made q
short speech, denying his guilt, but inn
plicsting no one else, though he said at
his trial he was not alone. The drop fell
at 11:15 A. NJ. Five minutes later DR..
Hanson pronounced life extinct, and in
twenty minutes from the time he was led
IN the scaffold the body was in q coffin.
His neck was broken by the fall.
A later account gives the following par
ticularR:
As public executions are prohibited in
Nevada q high Enclosure was built in the
Courthouse yard, within which the scat
fold was erected. At ii A. M. the doomed
man was conducted from the jail TO the
scaffold by Sheriff Fellows and his depu-
ties, his counsel, ]. II. Macmillan, accom-
panying him. AS he stood on the trap he
was asked by the Sheriff if he had any
thing to say. In q low tone he said he had
10 die for another's crime, thus contradict
ing the statement he made at the time of
his trial. The rope was then adjusted
around his neck. His arms and legs were
pinioned, a black cap drawn over his head,
and at Ills the drop fell. Five minutes
later Drs. Hanson and Kent pronounced
life extinct, and in 20 minutes from the
time he left the Jail his ~lifeless body was
placed in a coffin. The neck was broken
by the fall. and he died without q struggle.
Gray was executed for the murder of
Robert II. Scott, an old resident and Q re-
spected citizen, whose store Gray entered
for the purpose of robbery the night Of
December "a, 1884. Gray made his escape,
aud eluded his pursuers for q week, when
he was captured at Lone Station, about 20
miles from the scene of the murder, and
escaped l~ynching by being brought here
instead OF Paradise. Last March he was
convicted and sentenced to be hanged. In
May his counsel appealed to the Supreme
Court, which affirmed the Judgment in his
case last November, and January 20 was
fixed for his execution. On January "a
the Board OF Pardons, having refused to
commute his sentence, he feigned insanity,
and Acting Governor Laughton reprieved
him until March 5. Last week DR.. Daw-
son, the late Superintendent OF the State
Insane Asylum. employed by his counsel.
made an affidavit that he was insane. and
the Board of Pardons was again petitioned
to commute his sentence on the strength
Of Dawson's affidavit. A Sheriff's jury
then inquired into his mental condition,
and nine found him sane, she others find
ing him insane. The Board refused to
commute his sentence, and upon being in
formed OF the fact he said: "That settles
t." and Immediately began to converse
nationally with his brother-in-law, who is
here from Minnesota, where his mother
and brother reside.