Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-10
SIMULT4NE OUSLYI
Four Kentucky Murderers Drop
Into Eternity
On the Same Soaffold in the
Louisville Jail Yard.

Dennis McCarthy, Stephen IIite, Grant
Thomas and Nelson Lewis-The Two
Latter Negroe>- Histories OF the bloody
Crimes for Which the Quartette Paid
the Penalty with Their Lives.
LOUISVILLE. Dec, l0.-The four muir
derers in the county jail yard were
hung Friday morning at 1854 o'clock.
The execution was quietly and scientif-
cally conducted. Dennis Mccarthy
who killed his wife, and Stephen Hite,
who slew Albert Baurmann, were white:
Grant Thomas and Nelson Lewis were
colored.' Thomas killed Birdie Coleman,
and Lewis shot George Dean, both VIC
tins being negroes. The four were
hanged simultaneously and from the
same scaffold. Nearly 1000 people wit
messed the execution. The men were
game to the end. The necks of Hite and
Lewis were broken, but Thomas and
Mccarthy slowly strangled to death.
The two latter were not pronounced
dead for seventeen minutes.
Their Grimes.
Almost from infancy to the gallows
the life of Dennis Mccarthy was rec
ord of brutal crime But it seemed that
he reserved the most terrible act of his
wicked career to commit against the
woman whom he had vowed to protect
his wife. In her murder he committed
a double crime, for in very short time
the wife would have been the mother of
another child. The confession of
Mccarthy himself was that there was
not the slightest provocation for the
deed. About 1880 O'clock on the evening
Of Sept. Z, 1891, Mccarthy while intox-
icated, shot his wife, Ella Ell. Mccarthy,
three times, at his home ON Portland
avenue and Nineteenth street. Mccarthy
was thirty-four years of age.
Stephen Hite was sentenced to the
scatfOld for committing deliberate
murder. The murder was committed
at 2:30 O'Clock on Sunday morning Sept.
20, 1891. Saturday evening Hite and
Albert Baurmann started out together
''to have good night of it." Hite be-
gan drinking heavily early in the even
ing, while Baurmann was more temper
ate. During game of dice in saloon
the men became involved in quarrel.
They were elected from the house
when Hite renewed the quarrel, striking
over bH6 uedu WIFI IL
The men then clinched and Hite drew
a long sharp knife from his pocket,
placed the point against Baurmann's
abdomen and slowly pushed the blade
into his stomach. Baurnann died al
most instantly.
Nelson Lewis, colored, was hanged
for the murder of George Dean, also
colored, at dance near Middletown,
Ky. The tragedy occurred on the night
Of Nov. %, 1891. The negroes had been
to a dance which was given at the house
of Carrie Gibson, a negress. Lewis and
Dean began quarreling in the house and
Lewis left the premises. After short
time Dean walked out and Lewis shot
at him with pistol. The bali missed
its mark and Dean ran toward the door.
AS he reached it Lewis fired again.
This ball entered Deans back and
passed into his heart. Lewis said the
shooting was done in self-defense.
The crime for which Grant Thomas,
colored, paid the penalty with his life
was the murder of Birdie Coleman, a
colored WON n, eighteen years old. The
crime was committed between the hours
of Z and 8 o'clock on the morning of
Feb. 8, 1891. Thomas was convicted on
circumstantial evidence. He was seen
leaving the house of the dead woman
shortly after 7 o'clock and from certain
other disclosures made at the coroner's
inquest Thomas was arrested near the
scene of the murder. He had potifie'
the dead woman's husband of her deatl4
while the inquest was in progress, and
was arrested on his return. Thomas
was only nineteen years old.