The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-07-10
MET A PAINLESS DEATH.
ExE~UTION OF FOUR MURDBRERs
by ELECTRICITY.

soI EkECIkICIT1s
None OF the Victims weakened - The
Method Declared Success from .
scisatinc Point Of view-Interestiue
Story Of the Anair Furnishs. by One
Of the Witnesses.
SING SING, N. Y, July 8.-The four
condemned murderers-Harris A. Smiler,
Joseph Wood, James j. Slocunl and Shi-
kick Jugiro-yesterday paid the death
penalty BY being electrocuted In the elec-
trio chair. The four condemned men
went to their death without finching.
Jugiro. the eccentric Jap, who had pre-
v1ously given the keepers much trouble,
was expected to offer some resistance
when he was led to the fatal chair, but he
did not, and he died Is the others did
game
Warden Brown had arranged to convey
the Information to the newspaper men,
when each man had been executed, by q
code OF signals of flags. A black flag
would indicate that Wood had died in the
electric chair, while red flag would be
displayed to show that Jugiro had paid
the penalty of death. A white flag was to
be hoisted for Slocum and blue flag for
Smiler. The reporters impatiently waited
for the first flag to be run up on the pole
over the center of the warden's house.
Precisely at 4:48 a white flag was run up,
indicating that Slocum had been killed.
The flag remained up scarcely two minutes
when it was hauled down by person who
could not be seen.
Than fo11nvuo1 ~ h11c< In ND
hurry among the newspaper reporters. A
number OF the newspaper men had tele-
graph Instruments as near as possible to
the dead line. The news was flashed over
the WIRES and in few minutes it was
known many miles away that
Slocum Had Been Electrocuted.
Then there was another suspense and the
minutes seemed like hours At 5:19 blue
flag was run up the pole, indicating that
Smiler had been put to death. The news
paper men. hustled again and flashed this
news all over the country. By this time d
large number of villagers had considerably
swelled the crowd outside of the prison.
Then there was another wait until 5;431s,
when q HACK flag was displayed, which
intelY >hce that tho negro,
WoSsA r been tbs tbs third man tol die in
sts~-sf~s- S.~rr
counsel, who was standing within sight of
the signal of death. threw up his hands
and exclaimed: "My God, that means
poor Wood"
There was another time of suspense,
which lasted for about twenty minutes,
when the fourth flag, red one, was dis
played, showing that the Jap, Jugiro, had
met his fate in the chair. This flag was
q tod ha
ton, but the crowd still fingered about the
prison waiting for some of the persons
who had witnessed the execution to come
out. When Drs Rockwell and Mcdonald
and Deputy Attorney General Hogan came
out of the prison and got into a carriage
together, they were closely followed by a
little army of newspaper scribes. They re-
fused to give any information except to
say that the electrocution had passed off
The other witnesses, as they
came out from the chamber of death, were
equally reticent.
The Autopsy Oh the Bodies
lasted until well along in the afternoon.
Those who conducted the operations were
Drs. I Mcdonald, Rockwell, Southwick,
Daniels and Professor Laudy. The body
Of Jugiro was the first to be placed under
the dissecting knife. As to the result of
these examinations there appears to be
Inference of opinion among those who
took part in the autopsy. Some of the
physicians assert that no burns or marks
we're discovered, while others tell exactly |
IN opposite story. The physicians decline
20 speak freely on the matter, and freely |
admit that they are prevented from so do
ing by promise of secrecy, exacted from
hem by Warden Brown before the execu-
tions took place All express themselves,
however, as satisfied with the result of the
experiment., and pronounce the electric
hair used at Sing Sing to have been a
success.
If the bodies Of the four men are not
claimed by relatives they will be placed in
graves in the little prison cemetery and
destroyed in quick lime as required by the
lew law
Smiler's body was claimed by one of the
women who claimed to be his wife. I'm
tertaker Husbung OF New York arrived
1t the prison with a neat coffin and pre-
ented to Warden Brown an order signed
~ Smiler's wife, requesting the warden
o deliver the body to the undertaken Tor
'urlal. After the doctors had got through
With the autopsy, the body of Smiler was
to the undertaken. 1t is not
,nown at present what will become of the
'odies of the three other men.
Syndicate Represents S1O, 100000.
SPRINGFIELD, Ills, July 3.-The secre-
airy of state has issued orders to the North
lhcago Railway company, capital stock
lo000,OO0, to construct and operate ele-
'ated railways in Chicago to various sub