The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-16
CHAMPION AMONG nASGmEN.

Now Going to Retire.
 tFort Smith Correspondence Cincinnati En-
 quirer)
 George Maledon, who claims and is undoubtedly entitled to the distinction of being the champion hangmau of the country, and from which grewsome service he has accumulated a sufficient sum to buy fine farm in Kansas, has announced his retirement as an eXecu- tioner and expects to pass the rest of his days on his farm.
 He has lived in Fort Smith twenty years and during that time was the official hangman of the United States court here, and superintended every le- gal execution that took place in this Federal judicial district He has hanged eighty eight men, and has cer- tainly earned the title of "The Ameri- can Jack Ketch." It was his work on the scaffold here that gave to Fort Smith the name of the "GalloWs City" by which it is known all over Arkansas and the Indian territory. It will be a long time before the people of the coun- try will think of Fort Smith without associating the name of the town with four-line dispatch in daily paper telling of another border ruftian hanged by George Maledon.
 The gallows on which so many men "a at Iaat i- ma a f. fair It stands just south of the Uni ted States jail and about one hundred yards away. There is well-worn path running from the jail to the gallows, along which the men are led to eXecu- ton. The drop on this monstrous gall lows is twenty feet long, giving ample room for hanging ten men at time. Seven men have been hanged at once feat which broke all previous records, and has never been equaled since. Six men were hanged at another time, and there have been several quadruple and triple hangings. Nearly all the men who have been hanged here were des- peradoes from the Indian territory.
 George Maledon is a small man who talks with a German accent, and has a decided Teutonic cast of countenance. He takes the same pride in his work that a skillful carpenter would in a neat job he had done, and he loves to talk abut his work with strangers who visit Fort Smith He says that he had certain rule that he followed in hang ing men, and that it depended on the weight of a man how far he would let him fall
 Heavy men did not require the dis tance to dislocate their necks that a light man did He refused to say ex- actly what his rule, was, but declared that it was infallible. When he had a man to execute he ascertained his ex- act weight, either by questions or an estimate and then arranged his moose accordingly.
 hanging by George Maledon was worth going miles to see. It was a thing of scientific beauty. From the moment the subject began to prepare for the march to the scaffold the little Dutch hangman was at his heels. He had been up before daylight, greasna his ropes, oiling the hinges of the gal lows trap and adjusting and readjust- ing his moose. He followed the subject to the gallows, and when the foot of the steps leading up to it was reached the little hangman would trot around and trip jauntily up the stairway ahead of all the rest.
 From that moment Maledon's face was a study for physiognomist He needed not the spectators, nor any one on the scaffold, except the subject, and he moved around him with an air ot ownership. Sometimes if the subject was slow and backward Maledon would encourage him with few Well-choser words of impatient hurry. as: "Oh come on, now. it's nothing at all. You won't feel it, and I'll have it all over ir a jiffy"
 Maledon would stand the subject or the trap and then generally would take a chew of tobacco and stand with the moose ready in his hands while the clergyman prayed, After that it was not a minute till George had the moose firmly adjusted with one motion, the black cap over the head with another and the trap sprung with another. As the body hung limp and swayed gently back and forth the little hangmar would walk around the square hole ol the trap with his hands on his hips looking down at the swinging body ani surveying it critically from every point of view while he chewed tobacco anx. iously and vigorously and spat dowr through the hole past the body. Wher Maledon had from two to ten to hans at one time he attended to it all alone adjusting the nooses with his owr | hands.
 Maledon gained his proficiency as 2 ! hangman by experience He was no so successful with his first two jobs as he was with later subjects. The firs- man he hanged was a little fellow who weighed about ninety pounds He was not dropped far enough, and the moose slipped so that the knot was under hi. chin instead of the left ear As re. suit the man was strangled to death and, owing to the position of the rope i took a trifle over an hour to cause death When Maledon came to hang his second man the lesson learned 1T the other bungling job was remem. bered, and the doomed man was dropped about eight feet. He was z large man and the drop not only dislo cated the neck, but jerked the head al most off the body, and the scene re sembled slaughter pen when the exc