The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1893-12-30
FRONTIER JUSTICE.
HOW VARIOUS BAD MEN DIED
IN THE FAR WESR
Ine Legal Killing OF an Eighteen.
tear.Old Boy-A Desperado's
Quick Punishment For
AN Awful Crime.
execution, legal or other
's wise, of any human beng is
certainly an interesting, al

certainly an interesting, al
though decidedly dolorous
subject" said an ex-United States
Deputy Marshal from Oklahoma. 'In
Western districts Government Marshals,
men who do not value their own or
Others lives at T. fsrtning when making
al arrest or trailing criminal, shrink
back appalled, at the bare idea Of having
10 pull trap alta legal execution. Jack
stillwei, the Oldest, most noted, and
dies perate officer on the border, with 4
record of over forty deaths to his &C
count, once said to me as we stood TO-
gether At the hanging of two Creek In
dian mDr,lerers at Wichita, Kan.
"'l have pulled the trap at seventeen
executions, and ! have never done so
without & feeling of horror and g de-
size 80 shirk my duty. would willingly
forfeit three months salary rather than
obey the mandate of the Court in this
particular
.'As it vas with Jack at this execu-
ton, SO it is with spectator, at least at
his first hanging. l remember distinctly
NY original experience in this line. 1t
was also at Wichita. An eighteen-year-
old boy, Lee Mosher, had been convict.
ed Of having deliberately planned and
carried out the plan to kill man when
only sixteen years of age. 4 large
stockade hfteen feet high had been
erected just outside the Jail, and on the
morning of the execution curious
crowd gathered there with the morbid
desire to see the condemned boy as he
passed from the Jail to the stocHade an
ne1. When the hour arrived for the
execution the prisoner was taken from
his cell into the Jail psrlor, aud there,
standing ghostly white but firm and
determined, the death war; o was read
to bim. The Marshal reading the paper
broke down and sobbed like child, the
prisoners lips qui7ered painfully for q
momeot. and all persons present brushed
the tears from their eyes as they followed
the officers and the boy from the build
ing aud through g lane Of anxious spec
tators into the door Of the stockade.
1.-The rabble saw the feeling that
animated the select few who followed the
boy and it was communicated to them.
Perhaps there was not one in hundred
but would have turned him free if they
could have done so. Numerous petitions
had been sent to President Cleveland,
but no reply had been received.
"Olce inside the stockade the door
was shut and barred The condemned
boy mounted the >catfoid with firm
step. The noose AMI black cap were ad-
justed aud the trap sprung. As the
body shot through the hole my knees
almost gave way under me, and I heard
a great sigh of pity 60 up from those
around. Before we could recover from
the shock thunderous rap came upon
the door aud thousand voices Oh the
outside shouted:
4 reprieve a reprle7s! Don't hang
that boy on your lives!
1.-The officers turned pale, and tie
spectators as they looked in fascinated
horror at the swayiug, shivering body at
the end of tne rope, gasped in horror.
Some one opened the gate 70 admit the
messenger, and the mob outside saw the
dangling body. Then assembled cry Of:
Lynch the officers. They hung
the boy after he had oeen reprieved.'
The message, however, did not
prove to DO reprieve, but was no.ice
that the President refused to interfere.
A border tragedy was thus narrowly
sverted. l have never forgotten my
feeling of utter weakness and knee snak.
ing as experienced it then.
Il The next timeI saw man hung
it wss not a~legal execution by any
means. l was doing newspaper work FOR
Eastern papers around the Oklahoma
country in 1888, and while at Purcell
had an experience that / don't care TO
repeat in kind.
The place was filed up with strang-
ers. Tie Santa Fe depot is down 10 the
valley near the South Caradan River,
and the town is perched high up on :
projecting spur Of the A?buck!e M9uN'
talns. During the months prior to the
opening of Oklahoma the river bottom
was one mass Of wagons, oxen, horses,
dogs, men, women, children aud side
shows. Here 5oa found tie Bueke7s