San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-08-23
EXPIATED
LAST OF McKINNEY'S SLAYERS

lie were spent WITH his lrlenus, Tela-
tives and spiritual advisers yesterday
and he was baptized in the religion of
the church of Rome by Rev. Father
Maloney. During the day he was
shaved and dressed and received his
friends in a very calm manner, and
took fond farewell of his wife in the
afternoon, she not being allowed to
remain in the Jail with HIM. His
final statement of the manner in
which he became involved in the MUIR
der of Sheriff Mckinney, which has
BEEN before published was reiterated.
The fourth man to expiate the crime
of murder from the gallows in the new
Bexar county Jail, was James Mccoy,
who was hung at 11:2o o'clock this
morning, in the county Jail, in the
presence of Justice of the Peace Nc
Allister, Drs. Braunnagle, city physi-
clan, Johns, county physician, Old
ham, and about 90 citizens, newspaper
men and policemen. The doomed man
spent the night in sleep and prayer,
and at 10 O'Clock this morning, after
slight breakfast, had his photograph
taken in order to send it to his rela-
tives and friends. At II O'clock, the
march to the scaffold began, Sheriff
Mccall leading, Rev. Father Maloney,
and then the prisoner, followed by
Deputy Sheriff Druse, who had
previously read the death wa
rant 10 him in his cell. Arrived at
the gallows' steps, Mccoy was
helped up the steps, he as
cending slowly and carefully with
his crutch and one leg. On the gal
lows he was prayed for by Father
MalOney, who also asked him to pray;
Mccoy mechanically repeated some
prayers after him. He then turned
to the sheriff anu asked, "How long
am 1 allowed to talk?" He was told
to 60 on and say all he had to say and
he was again taken in charge by the
priest who told him to pray. He said,
Yes, l know L ought to pray, but
am not much used to such things"
and he turned to Sheriff Mccall and
said: "rd like to say few things.
One thing is, Mckinney had great
many friends, and had no business
to put up a job and have me shot down.
We had never been very good friends,
but he had no business to get up lot
of outlaws and shoot my leg off, and
when L was in bed sick he made
talk that was a id s-b, and
thief. 1t wasn't right for him to make
that talk. A sheriff ought to behave
as well as anybody else. In re-
gard to that 1 don't think
he had any right to say
what he did. He did fix that plot.
The only man ever killed was with
Mckinney and his two deputies. We
killed a Mexican. After this was
done he tried to take advan tage of me
every way. He got the parties clear
who shot me and got his own deputy
on the jury that tried me, and the
man hung the jury for conviction for
two days. He gave Lawyer Swan
one hundred dollars to prosecute me.
Mckinney was killed about shutdown,
but they did not report it till next
morning"
Turning around he asked, "Is old
man LaXton thereof He was not,
and Mccoy continued: 81 got in bad
companywhen 1 got in with McKin-
ney and Edwards. Mckinney muir
dered a Mexican. They run me down
to the last notch. 1 know am a
id bad man, but 1 never did any
dirt" The priest murmured a prayer
which Mccoy repeated, and then pro-
ceeded: Zone witness swore threat
ened to kill Mckinney. That was
lie, as I have said before. The first
bad deed ever done was to kill two
men, but the first dirty deed was with
Mckinney and Edwards. That's all
L got to say"
He then babe goodbye to his ply
stefan, DR.. Johns, who has attended
him for the past s months, and babe
goodbye to others on the scaffold,
and called for Adolfo Vidal, the jail
er. re came and he shook hands
with him, and said, "You have
been as good as q brother to me.n He
then said he was ready, said a prayer,
stepped on the drop and Officer Jesse
Bennett and Deputy Hy. Krempkau
pinioned his arms and tied his hands.
Then the black cap was put over his
head, but he asked a moments res
pite and it was withdrawn and he
said to Sheriff Mccall:
"Tell my wife to take care of her.
self and the children and tell them
to always be good children"
The hood was then drawn over
his head, and Officer Bennett ad-
justed the moose. Sheriff Nc
Call gave the signal and at ll:20