Oakes weekly Republican. (Oakes, Dickey County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1898, 1891-05-15
HIS LAST DANCE.
Ford Spends his Last Night on Earth
Singing and Dancing Jigs.

records OF the law, suffered Its extreme
penalty at Ottawa, ILL.,, on the 9th
inst, for the crime OF murder. For
very shrewd reasons he, during life,
concealed his real name and nativity.
He pretended to be of irish anteced-
ents, when, in fact, both his parents
were German and his real name was
William Rudolph. The moJive for
this deception was based on the cir
cumstances that the Irish-American
element is unusually strong in the
population OF this country and that
a number of the officials whom
he encountered were OF that
extraction. With this knowledge
he hugged the delusion that by as
suming to be Irish he would have an
unconquerable ''pull' and thereby es.
cape punishment. The night before
his tragic death dramatic incident
occurred in the jail Office. Rudolph's
wife of a fortnight, Kate Weeneck,
alias Ford, was, at the condemned
mans request, brought into his pres
ence. She had but a few moments
previous pleaded guilty in court to
completely in Moore's murder and had
been sentenced to lmpris Jnment at
hard labor for fourteen years. The
meeting of the companions in crime,
whose brief conjugal union had
brought them only prison bars, was
genuinely affecting. Their fate, so
close at hand, seemed to draw to the
surfacein both some redeeming quail
ties OF human nature. For twenty
minutes the pair wept and talked to.
gether, and were then separated for
ever. During this interview the deprav-
ed wretch displayed the only sign
OF emotion which he had exhibited,
though for weeks he has been abso-
lutely without hope since the govern
or refused clemen;y and his attorneys
abandoned him, publicly announcing
a belief in his guilt. Rudolph was
baptized into the Catholic faith by
Dean Heating, of St. Columbo's
church, on the Sth inst.
"Rudolph reminds me strongly"
said Father Heating, afterward, "of
one OF the characters in Victor Hugo's
Les Miserables.' He was actually
surprised that any body should do
him kindness. Everyone's hand has
always been against him and his
against every one. pitied the boy,
and must say that in all my twenty
one years as a priest I never admins
tered sacrament to g. person who
showed deeper religious feeling. By
his wish l .christened him William
Amelia Rudolph, Amelia being the
name OF his mother whom he seemed
to know little, but yet spoke reverent-
ly Of
Until nearly midnight Rudolph pac
ed slowly back and forward in his lone
ly cell, with eyes closed, as if in a
dream. To ostop his monotonous walk
he deliberately danced a Jig before the
astonished eyes of the death watch.
So amazed was that individual that
Rudolph actually broke into hearty
laugh, but, with a sudden revulsion OF
feeling, stopped dancing, with the re.
mark: "It is too bad, isn't it, for a.
young feller like me to have to dle?"
Next morning found Rudolph, or
Ford, displaying the same wonderful
nurvelthat has characterized HIM from
the beginning. Father Heating was
with him at sunrise and remained by
his side, crucifx in hand, until the last
moment on the gallows.
Rudolph's avowed ambition was to
beat the record for gameness on the
scadold and he did it beyond adoubt.
The most extraordinary feature of the
affair coupled with the absence OF any
show OF fear on his part being his to-
tai abstention from the display OF the
slightest trace of bravado. Death
was apparently painless and the loss
OF consciousness instant, though the
mans neck was not broken.
On the morning OF June "a, last, the
body of David Moore, of Omaha, trav-
cling salesman for the T. B. Scott
Lumber company, of Merrill, Wis.,,
was discovered in Allen Park, the
head crushed in by repeated blows
from g. CAR coupling pin. Kate Ford,
her husband, Charles Ford, William
O'Brien and Minnie Winterling were
arrested for completely in the crime.
O'Brien was tried in August last and
sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Ford was tried in November, found
guilty and sentenced to death. Judge
Stipp, the Trial judge, was 80 unnamed
by overwork during the trial, that he
collapsed with nervous prostration
two days following the verdict, and
for time it was feared he never would
be able to listen to a motion for a new
trial. Six weeks spent at a private
sanltarium and the Judge returned
with his mind restored and his bodily
health improved sufficiently to admit
of his sitting on the motion for re.
hearing, which he denied. On the trial
of Ford it was shown that at his in
stigation his wife, Kate, decoyed
Moore to Allen Park, presumably tor
purposes of robbery or blackmail, as
the woman was of bad reputation
previous to her marriage to Ford.
O'Brien was Ford's accomplice. The
day before the murder Ford and his
wife quarreled, and in. the fear that
she would not keep the appoint
ment with Moore, Fcrd engaged a sim
ple.minded woman OF the townnamed
Minnie Wlnterling to entrap Moore.
But Mrs. Moore repented, consequent.
ly the four were present. The two wo.
men have not been tried. Ford's
father was hung at Sing Sing, his
mothers brother is doing time at the
same prison tor train wrecking, his
sister keeps a notorious house in Tor.
onto, and his mother was driven from
West Thirty. eighth street, New York,
where she kept q thieves paradise in
the seventies. She was also chased
out OF Chicago, and her second hus.
band, also named Ford, is In the In.
diapa state penitentiary. Charles
Illinois penitentiary and two terms in
the New York reform school. He was
born In the slums OF New York, and
has been o tramp since boyhood.