Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-01-06
LOCAL.
A ?RA?!R!clDE HUNG.

Il i ataa i hdAUhDN hbIhYA y
EXECUTION OF WILLIAM FINCHUM AT
HARRIsoNBUKG FOR THE AssAssINA-
TION OF HIS BRoTHER-HIs STORY OF
THE CRIME-THE LAST NIGHT IN PRIs-
oN-Hls LAST LETTER TO HIS PARENTS
THE EXECUTION-A FRINEDL Ess
CRIMINAL.
&C., &C, sc.
Reported for the Staunton VINDIcAToR.
HARIsONBURG. FRIDAY, Dec 30sh.
"Have you ever been to SCHOOL,"
"No Sir.''
"Nor Sunday school?''
No Sir.'
Nor church,"
''No Sir. I've been around churches
but never was in one. I never heard a
sermon"
Nor praYer?"
Il never heard any one pray till came
here"
l was questioning young man appar-
emily about twenty -four years of age, OF
middle height. well built, his figure show
ing we'll in neat black cloth suit he had
just put on. His brown hair was neatly
brushed and his face was freshly shaved by
the barber, and in his hazsI eyes there was
look of perfect calmness. He was
standing by a bright burning stove, and
smoking cigar caught in his fist jn the
awkward way that told how rare that lux
ury was to him. La two hours he was to
die On the scaffold. HIS answers ale mat
ters for the grave consideration OF both
Church ard Stale. Not that either had neg
neglected him after he had called their
attention by the loud explosion Of
shocking crime. They both took hold
with a will then. The State secured his
person. gave him fair trial, with anoth-
er hearing in her highest court, attended
to his bodily comfort IN prison, and ended
its paternal care by furnishing him a
handsome burial suit and then hanging
him. The Church, when it's attention was
called, was not behind the State in prompt
ness. Its ministers attended him day and
night up to the last moment, and its
pious women visited him and sought the
salvation of his soul with earnestness and
devotion. And yet back of all that, here
stood an able bodied man, of good COM
mon sense, raised III two of the most pros
porous and religious counties IN the State,
who, with secular and religious schooling
might have made valuable Christian cit
iZen, but who up to his arrest for fearful
crime, had never been to school and never
heard a prayer
HISTORY OF TUE CRIME.
The crime, in its execution and sur
roundinss had every conceivable combina-
Finchum the murderer. who was born
near Sperryville in Rappahannock, came
to Rockingham ten years ago with his
elder brother, Preston Finchum a married
farm be had bought. mile from Ext on,
in Rockingham. He fell in love with his
brother g wife, his senior in age, and their
intimacy had gone so far that one day she
said to him, eff Pres. was not here how
happy We would be-" This bare suggestion
turned the young fellows thoughts on
marder. and ha laid his plans for it. Ga
cold Spring day in March, 1856, he was
ready for their execution. In a fat piece
of country mile from their home he laid
in wait for Lis brother coming from
the distillerY with bottle of whiskey.-
He got him, according 10 his own
narrative of the murder, to so Off the
road into some thick underground
They sat down together, and to get
up his courage Yoany Fincllum took
one drink and then another out of his
brothers bottle. His brother was sitting
on the ground With his hands up to his
face, Supplied from the effects of liquor,
when young Finchum stepped behind him
and fired the contents Of shot gun into
his head, killing him instantly. He then
took club and beat the dead man over
the bead to make sure of his death. He
then left the body in the thick under
growth away from the road, where he
thought it would never oe found, and
went home. So far all had gone we'll for
hiding the deed. But, as with every
crime, strange occurrence led to the dis
covery of the body. A little dog owned
by the dead man staid by his masters body
after the deed. That evening as some
colored children were passing some dis
lance from the spot, to field to get straw,
the little dog ran out at them. They
drove him back and went on. AS they
returned, he again ran at them and when
they drove him back into the underground
they saw what they thought was man
lying there asleep. The alarm was given,
and when the neighbors went there they
found the murdered man. They carried
murderer who showed great nervousness
declined to 60 after his brothers. body,
and asked tha5 neighbor be sent. That
night the body was carried home by the
neighbors. This was the murderer's story
of the deed and it was doubtless correct.
He did not tell his female partner in guilt
when he got home that he had killed her
husband. but said he had "seen him lying
in a field drunk" Later, however, when
the body was brought home, he whispered
it to her while the neighbors who had
brought the body were standing around
it. The woman on his trial, gliby pe.
jured herself to SHIELD him, and he, up to
the last moment of his life. said that she
knew nothing Of bis intention to commit
the deed, nor knew that it had been done
until he whispered it to her that night.
The trial in the county court resulted in
his conviction and sentence to death, but
his case was gotten before the Court of
nnoaJs and his ovooution dof~rrod