Evening star., 1894-02-16
LEONARD EXECUTED
Hanging the Murderer of Jesse
Anderson at Frederick.
IN INDIANA MURDERER ALSO DIES
The Worst Crime in the History
of the State.
COOL ON THE AFFOLD


Special Dispatch to The Evening Star.
FREDERICK, Nd, Feb. 1G.--Wm. Leon
ard. who murdered Jesse Anderson. was
hanged in the jail yard here this morning.
The drop fell at 11:17 and the man was
pronounced dead, at li:3l, of a broken
neck. The execution passed off without
flaw. The condemned man exhibited great
nerve and coolness. ascending the scaffold
alone without tremor and placing himself
in position On the trap.
Leonard spent the entire morning with
his spiritual advisers. Rev. Fathers Cole
man and Holm. and when not conversing
with them walked up and down the corri-
dor smoking. He said he was prepared to
die. and wanted the work done as soon after
10 o'clock as possible. He was dressed in
a neat suit of black.
The physicians, Drs. +. F. Smith, W. G.
McComas, r. *. Mudd and W. 4. Long,
pronounced the man dead and his body was
cut down and taken III Il caslIet to ST.
johns Catholic Church, where brief services
We're held and the body inferred in the ad-
joining graveyard.
Crime, Arrest and Trial of Leonard.
The crime for which Leonard suffered the
death penalty was the killing of Jesse An
derson with a rusket on September >. 1879,
at Lime Kiln, Frederick county. three miles
south of Frederick city. Anderson WAS a
Baltimore and Ohio track workman and
was ve"y popular in his neighborhood.
Leonard was an Englishman anl worked
up TO the time of the killing in a canning
factory at Buckeystown.
Leonard about the time of the murder was
drinking heavily. He repeatedly adrlItted
the killing and said in extenua ton that he
was crazed by drink at the time of what he
always spoke of as this sad affair
hP. wt,t t.f,. ,.l,tla
Leonard was in his drunken condition, he
was informed that Anderson had told Leon
ards brother-n-law. MIR. Grant Hardy, " no
Is a Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph operator,
that Leonard was on drunk. Leonard
did not know Anderson. but he was SO in
furiated by the information that he went
to Hardy's house, borrowed a musllet,
which. he said, he wanted to use to shoot
squirrel for his little daughter, ami went
to look for Anderson He found his victim
in ga1k- of nine men at work on the rail-
road. He asked which was Anderson, and
when he got the right man, said:
Anderson. are you arned?"
81 am not" replied Anderson.
Then 1 am sorry for you. You have lied
about me. and am. going TO kin you
The men then struggled for the gan. but
the load of shot fired into the track
workman lungs, and he died the same
day.
town and taken to Frederick The feeling
was so intense against him that his rial
was removed to Rockville, Montgomery
county. where, on November % he was
convicted of murder in the first degree. On
Decembe- Judge McSherry sentenced
Leonard to be hanged in Frederick
When asked If he had anything to say ne
arose and said: Il am nearly fifty wears
old. and up to the time of this sad affair l
have never been arrested. l did kill Ander-
son. but II was entirely accidental"
Leonard asserts that the name by which
he is known is not his right name. He gives
this account of his life: II was born near
Liverpool England. January 30, lSA Nv
parents were poor. When [ was six years
old my father moved to Ben Johnson street
in Liverpool. At the age of fourteen l went
to sea for two years and visited the United
States. the West Indies. and France Amer
lea and India. i was twice married legally
but the second marriage was not happy and
left my wife and lived with a gypsy queen
Three children were born to us | left her
also. While working in the Cornwall mines
in England had some trouble which aie
me again come TO the United States in 1850
when worked at Newark, y. j., and Pitts
burg. At Green Spring Run. W. Va. |
married Mrs. .Allenger, who, with me. worked
afterward in the mines a Connellsville Pa
This wife died on May |, 1888 leaving two
little girls. These are all with their grand
mother at Green Spring Run. | am the
father altogether of seventeen children"
The convicted man has given little trouble
to his jailors.
He wrote to Sir Julian Pauncefote. the
British ambassador some time ago, stating
titI He NdS II bTIJlSn SUBJECT, and asking
the ambassador to intercede for him with
President Cleveland, but no notice was TAX
en- OF the communication. Leonard claims
that he does not give his real name because
he does not wish to scandalze his relatives
and this fact, he says, has kept him from
obtaining that help he would have obtained
II his nativity could be proven by his family
name
He claims TO have relatives in Philadel-
pha
Jesse Anderson, who was killed by Leonard.
left wife and two small children.