Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-08-02
sst DIR Rawlins at the Retreat for the Sick
until his return.
Mr.. II. A. Nightingale and wife left Tues
day for Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Ocean
View.
eoTcHWoRK BY A HANGMAN.
One of the Victims of a Double Execution
Hanged Twice.

A Louisville Ky } telegram says: A
double hanging took place here to-day for
two double murders. In each case there
was "a woman accOmplice, and both women
went free. Charles digger. an ex-pohce-
man and saloon tough. and Harry Smart,
once railroad brakeman. but of late a
professional criminal. were the men hanged.
The women. who were acquitted. were
Ollie Smart. wife of Smart, and Buggy ,
Burns, mistress of Dilger. They got on
merely because they are women.
The execution was AZ \. NJ. A great
crowd gathered. though admittance was
only by ticket. About two hundred bogus
tickos are known 20 have been issued.
At twelve minutes - 4. VI. the process
.ion WAS formed in the jail. Three min
utes later the two men, with the officers
and priests. ascended the scafold. Brief
religious exercises were held. Neither man
spoke from the sCalold, but both shook
hands with friends IN the crowd. Dilger
asked tine officers 10 change the position OF
the knot so II would break his neck.
sIcEENING MIsHAP.
The trap fell at three minutes past 6.
Smart neck snapped and he was dead at
once. The knot IN Dilger's moose slipped
and let him dangle breathing heavily and
STRUGGLING. He would have been several
hours dying He WAS hauled mp and re-
gained consciousness. Five minutes later
the trap was again sprung aud again the
knot slipped, but not SO much. and lhlger
in thirteen minutes had s;rangledto death.
Smart protested his innocence 70 the last.
THE MN AND TEETB CRIMES.
Dilrer WAS tough from his childhood,
and was frequently In ARRAYS, though he
never committed murder previous to the
one for which he suffered. 1t Is said that
when be- was ouly eleven years old he tired
10 Kill his sister, who was only two. HIS
fatuer, a respectable German butcher. died
while the son was awaiting trial, but had
long before disowned him. and refused
even TO send aim message from his dying
bed.
The crime that brought Dilger to the
gallows wa committed on Thursday, Au-
gust 16. 1899. Officers James W. Jones
and Joseph Rosenberg were startled at 2
o'clock in the morning by cries of Muir
der ;" and Help" in a female voice.
The cries came from the house No. - La
favette street. The officers ran IN and
found Charles Dilger in the act Of heating
Mary Burns, with whom he was. living.
The officers disappeared within the door
of the room.
4 few minutes later man hatless and
coatless ran down the street with blood
streaming from his head. 1t was Charles
Dilger. He was arrested two hours later:
In the hallway Of the landing on the second
floor was the dead body of Officer Jones.
He had been killed with knife. In the
room occupied by Digger and the woman
Officer Rosenberg was found lnsenslble
from q knife-wound on the right temple.
He died the next afternoon.
Harry Smart's crime was the murder on
the 5th of July. 1898, Of Meisner Green and
an abandoned woman named Belle Ward.
The murder was committed in row-boat
and the conviction was upon clrcumstan-
tial evidence.