Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-04
MURDERED A WHOLE FAMILY
Details Of the Affair for Which the Five
0ubans Were Garroted.
VICTIMS HACKED WITH MACHETES
Although Their Crime WAS Atrocious
the city Of Havana is Horror
stricken over Their hung
ling Execution.

HAVANA. April S.-The following is the
story Of the crime committed by the FIVE
negroes who were the victims Of the bung-
ling execution on Monday, the details OF
which were cabled on that day. Their names
were Zecharies Santa Cruz, Isidro Calderon,
Juan Bautista Gutierrez, alias Lummi, Ruffino
Oredenez and Marcelino Gonzales. The scene
of the bloody crime was a lonely house on
the road from San Jose to Tijiragua.
On the evening of July 12 Jose Castillo, tho
owner of the house, had just left It, his
wife, four daughters and three friends re-
naming there, when the galloping of several
horses approaching the house on the highway
aroused the inmates, as IL by a presentment
Of the wretched fate they were soon to meet.
Soon afterward five negroes dismounted be-
fore the house brandishing their machetes.
and ordered every one in 1t not to move.
They then demanded of Castillo's wife that
she should give them all the money In the
house. She gave them two gold pieces, as
sorting that was all they had, but some OF
the wretches in ransacking the house found
thirty-six more gold pieces, which wrought
the men up to a state or fury over the de-
ception played upon them. One of them
struck the poor woman with the keen edge
of his machete, decapitating her with a blow.
The negroes, seeing the blood of their first
NlClilh, DSCdlle transported WITH rage anu
put to death all but one of the inmates, the
exception being one of the visitors, who was
left so badly wounded that he died soon after
giving testimony of the affair.
Seven days after the commission of the
crime the civil guard succeeded in capturing
the five murderers, and they were lodged
in the dungeons Of the Cabanes fortress and
sentenced to die by the garrote on Monday
evening. The horrors of that execution are
still felt by the Havana public. Santa Cruz
was the first of the five to be executed, and
like all Of his fellows, he was perfectly cool.
He noticed that there was dampness on the
death bench, and he demanded that the exc
cutioner should wipe it off before he sat
down, which was done. AS the eXecutioner
was fixing the ring round his neck the re-
ligious brothers present intoned in chorus
the words: Ego, tie absolve." q forgive
thee) AS has already been related it was
not until the third turn Of the garrote that
he was killed.
Valentine Ruiz, the assistant executioner,
said the trouble was due to some of the
screws being badly fixed. The body of Santa
Cruz lay where it had fallen when Isidro
Calderon, the next to pay the penalty, was
brought forward and subjected to lingering
agony through the period of three attempts
by the eXecutioner to do his office. 1t was
Juan Bautista Gutierrez who sought to make
an address before he was executed, but he
was seized and the iron ring adjusted about
his neck, and while the executioner was still
engaged in pinioning his legs, the assistant
eXecutioner turned the lever. A murmur Of
Indignation and horror arose from the crowd
Ruffino OredeneZ was the fourth one exc
cuted, and the last was Marcelino Gonzales.