Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-07-09

OF electricity was through him that sent
him into eternity.
Next, to follow was Wood the negro.
he had been worked up to a state OF reli.
gious enthusiasm. and II was while in this
frame of mind that he was fastened into
the chair and killed by the fatal stroke.
Jugiro was stubborn to the last. There
was the usually ferocious ugly look on his
face, He was closely guarded and short
work was made Of him.
There was no apparent hitch in the four
executions and they were pronounced
success. The death Of the four men APP
peared to the observers to be painless.
Death came like a flash, IL was an awful
shock and then oblivion.
The doctor took charge of the four bodies
Immediately after death and began an au-
topsy to discover, as far as possible how
rapid had been the killing and the precise
effect produced.
The witnesses were beseiged by reporters
IS soon n as ., they made their appearance
say anything. however, except that the
executions had passed off without any
hitch and had been success from q
scientific stand point. Warden Brown had
laid strict injunction of secrecy upon
them all and had evidently made such inn
preston on their minds that they would
not talk. All looked used up and ex-
hausted. They had been through a terri
BILE ordeal and the effects were visible upon
their faces.
CRIMES OF THE FOUR DEAD MEN.
Harris A. Smiler was at one time Sal
walton Army captain. He was a printer
by trade and had developed a rare faculty
for getting married. At the time the crime
was committed there were three women
living to whom he had been married and
none Of them had been divorced. The
last one to go through the ceremony with
him. Maggie Drainey, was his victim.
He had been living with her at No. 2s4
Seventh avenue, New York city. but on
account of his brutality she had deter
mined TO leave him. He came home
partly drunk on the night of April Sd,
1889. and when she refused to promise to
remain with him he shot her to death.
He was originally condemned to die in the
week beginning August 18th, 1890, but the
appeals taken had saved his life thus far.
James ]. Slocum lived at Cherry street,
New York, and had been baseball
| player and common laborer. He had
long been wife heater, but commonly
pounded his wife with his fists and kicked
her. On the night of December 3lst, 1889,
he came home and took an axe, which
had been used by his wife to break up
boards for fuel and beat the woman's
brains out with It. He was convicted in
March, 1890, before Judge MARITIME, and
| was originally sentenced to die during the
week beginning May 5th, Of that year.
Joseph Wood was one of the negroes EN-.
ployed in building the new aqueduct. One
pay day in May, 1889, he got into one OF
| the fights common among the gangs oil
laborers employed there. His opponent
was an Italian. Carlo Ruff, also an aque
duct laborer. Ruff was killed. Wood has
always asserted that he took Rufus life in
| self-defence. His case was taken to the
Supreme Court Of the United States on the
novel plea that Wood was not tried by
his peers, because no negroes were on the
| jury. The appeal served only to prolone
the prisoners. life. To-day his sentence
was committed
The last of the four was common spec
linen. neither better nor worse, of the
crews of the ships that now sail out of the
port of New York. His name Is Shibuyt
| Jugiro, and he is a native of Japan. II,
was living in one Of the James stree
sailors homes while awaiting the pleasur,
of the boarding house boss in the mattel
of putting him on board of ship oil
which he mad already signed articles Il
return to Japan. He got into a dispute
with countryman, Mura Canni, about {
berth in the forecastle Of the ship. Jugirt
got a carving knife and stabbed Canni L
death in the course of the fight that fol
lowed. His case was taken to the UNITED
States Supreme Court by Roger NJ. Sher
man, the plea being that Jugiro had hat
no legal defence, because his attorney
John K. Heinzelman, had not been ad
mitted to practice at the New York bar.