The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-30
FIVE MURDERERS HANGED
The Crowd Present Estimated at
from 5000 to 5000.

The Quintette Pronounced Dead
in 138 Minutes After the Drop
Fel-The Execution Accomplished
Without a Hitch Each of the
Murderers Confident of Going to
Heaven - The Story of their
Crimes.
Mt Verton, Ga. Sept. 29.-The hve
murderers, Lucien Manuel, Hyre Brew
tington, Hiram Jacobs, Weldon Gordon
and Purse Strickland, were hanged to-
day The drop fell at exactly 2:O2 o'clock.
At l2:30o'clock the sheriff took the five
condemned men from the Jail and placed
them in a three seated hack which was
slowly driven to the gallows, surrounded
by a guard armed with Winchesters
The gallows was about half mile from
the Jail. When the hack arrived at the
gibbet the condemned men dismounted
and ascended the steps with alacrity and
apparently without tremor.
ID. McEeachin read sketch of the life
and crimes of Weldon Gordon, which the
latter wrote while iucarcerated in prison
after his conviction. The most sensa-
tional feature of his statement, was that
Matt, j. o. McRae, and Mr. Fountain,
three of the jurors who tried him. The
reading OF his statement occupied ten
minutes.
ANOTHER STATEMENT.
Purse Strickland also had prepared
written statement which was read from
the gallows by Mr.. McEachin He was
loud in his praise of the sheriff for his
kind treatment to him and to his at
torneys for the faithful way in which
they represented him on his trial The
reading of his statement occupied three
minutes. A hymn was then sung, being
The hymn hymn was was "A '0'' charge ee'OieH, to-
keep l have" which was sung
with great deal Of fervor by the crimi-
nails and some of the audience. Rev
Ross offered a fervent prayer and the
condemned men joined him with great
earnestness and showed considerable ner-
vousness. Many of the large audience
were gre atty affected by this pathetic
hymn and shed tears freely.
MANUEL's STATEMENT.
Lucien Manuel made his statement in a
loud, clear voice. giving a short sketch of
his life and cOnfessing the crime for
which he was hung. He warned all man
kind, and especially the young, to avoid
whisky and all its concomitants His
statement occupied fourteen minutes
Hiram Jacobs made a statement in which
he confessed his crime. He implored
most feryently his fellow-men to flee the
wrath to come and join him in heaven.
The hymn There is a land of pure de-
light was lined by Rev. Mr.. Moore,
white, and sung by the condemned and
audience, after which Rev. Mr. Allison,
white offered a short and fervent prayer
DROPPED INTO ETERNITY.
The ropes and black caps were ad-
justed, and at 2 :02 o'clock the sheriff babe
them good-by, ierked the lever and five
souls were hurled into eternity During
the interval after Rev. Allison's prayer
the condemned men continued to pray in
an excited manner until the drop fell.
The estimates placed upon the crowd Of
people present varied from 1900 to 5000
The crowd was orderly and nothing oc-
curred in any way to hinder the execu-
tion.
The execution was most perfectly done
and Sheriff Dunham received compli-
ments on every hand for the perfect man
ner in which he did the work.
All of the condemned men expressed a
hope for their future, they claiming to
have been converted since they have been
incarcerated. They were all pronounced
dead by the physicians in l316 minutes.
The bodies of Weldon Gordon and Purse
Strickland were taken in charge by their
relatives and will be buried by them.
The bodies of the three Pearson mur-
derers were takemin charge by the At
lanta medical college TO be used for scien-
tiic purposes.
sTRIcKLAND's STORY OF THE CRIME.
Purse Strickland the youngest of the
five, was native of Robertson county,
North Carolina. He came to
4
worked for McNabb g. jenkins, naval
store manufacturers, doing business at
Vidalia, this county. He was a mongre.,
having descended from Crowatam In
dians, Caucasians and negroes. The eau
casian blood predominates, as his features
plainly showed. During the month of
July. he and one of his co-laborers by the
name of Jim LOchlear got into a dispute
about a dog Strickland "a dog frequented
Lochlear's shanty and cOmmittek depre-
dation by scratching out the hearth of his
chimney. When Lochlear returned from
the woods and discovered what he had
done he seized his pistol and shot at the
dog, al the same time making threats
that he would kill Strickland if he at
tempted to interfere When Strickland
returned to his shanty and learned what
had occurred, he loaded his gun heavily
and after supper walked over to LOchlear's
shanty, which was only short distance
away, and shot him in the back as he was
eating his supper, killing him instantly.
This was most atrOcious murder and the
jury found him guilty without recon-
mendation.
GORDoN's CRIME.
Weldon Gordon, the pal Of Nick Nut
ting, who was convicted at the April
term of Montgomery superior court, and
hangen on May 20, was a stout, muscular
fellow of purely African descent. He
was a native of Orangeburg. S. c., and !
came to Georgia several years ago for the |
purpose of working on the turpentine |
works Of south Georgia. He lived a dis |
solute life and spent, according to his /
own statement, the last few years of his |
life in gambling and robbing He leaves |
two children, boy IL years Of age and a I
girl T. On March q he in company with |
Nick Nutting, went TO the home of Bar |
ney Neal, for the purpose Of getting 50 |
from him, which he had won at a game Of /
cards, and which Neal refused TO deliver
at the time. They were armed with a
and a pistol, and made de-
mand for the money, with which
Neal was unable to comply |
After Neal had made futile
effort TO borrow the money they opened
fire on him as he entered his house,
which they kept up for some time. Neal,
al the same time they were shooting into
the house from without, was shooting q
through the wall Of the house
. hon Ho rtHF1fTa Tim a. l