The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-02-21
MURDERER'S AWFUL Death
James Fitzgerald Tortured on the
GallOwS.
THE PRISONER HANGED TWICE
Rope Breaks and Allows the Condemned
Man To Foil to tho Ground Alive.
lie Waits ON the Brink of EtcI.
nifty for Another Halter.

st. Louis. Mo. Feb. oO-Misman-
agement. incompetcncy and torture Of
iiciated ut the hanging of James Fitz-
gerald in the Four courts Jail yards
this morning. Two reprieVes had
heightened the misery of the con-
demned. At II o'clock midnight Gov
ernor stone telegraphed from Jeffer-
son city that the hanging should not
take place before 10 u. m. This gave
every one but Fitzgerald hope of COM
mutation. as the parents of the mur-
dered girl had wired strong pleas to the
governor for the condemned
The two hundred spectators in the
jail yard were far more impressed than
he as they counted the minutes of life
still remaining to him. When the
tower clock struck ten Sheriff Troll
still hcsitated. At this moment the
sheriff received the following telegram
Feb. 20, 9.+5 Il. m.
Henry Troll, Sheriff.
decline to further interfere i'm the case
of James Fitzgerald. You can, therefore,
only discharge your duty.
,SlgnedD W. j. Stone, Governor.
Then the solemn procession from the
condemned mans cell began. Father
McErlane, reading the prayers for the
dying supported Fitzgerald to the foot
of the scaffold. Sheriff Troll led him to
the trap and adjusted the rope and
hood and to the concealed hangman
said: An right" At exactly 1917
o'clock the trap was sprung. Fitzger-
AIDS body shot downward. Instead of
stopping when the ropes end was
reached. there was sharp snap, a wall
from the unfortunate wretch and Fitz-
serald's body lay wrthing on the
ground. The rope had broken.
Alive nud Conscious.
Officers at once rushed to the spot and
found that Fitzgerald was still alive
and conscious. My God, my God, my
throat he groaned. Before the horror
stricken watchers could touch him, ne
arose. Standing up with the black cap
over the face and the broken instru-
ment of death dangling from his neck.
he walked into the morgue where he
was given stimulants. He was more
anxious than his eXecutioners for death
and begged that the end come quickly.
When a second rope was called for,
none was to be had. and Fitzgerald lay
moaning on slab i'm the morgue. while
messenger was sent distance of nine
squares for a new rope. Father McEr-
lane bent over the body of Fitzgerald
and recited prayers. Once Fitzgerald
raised his hand pulled the head of the
fDriest to his face and whispered earn
1
communication was will never be
known, but the face of the priest, then
ashy pale, turned scarlet and tears fell
from his eyes.
At l0.45 the messenger arrived with a
new rope, which was quickly adjusted
and Fitzgerald was carried to the scat
fold. 1t was necessary for two deputy
sheriffs to hold him VI. while the moose
was placed. F'itZgerald's only words
We're pleas for haste.
At 1l.O2 the trap was again sprung
and at Ills the attending physicians
pronounced life extinct and the corpse
was given to relatives.
To say that the community is indig-
nant at the sheriff and his assistants is
putting II mildly. Sheriff Troll says all
the usual tests were applied to the death
apparatus before the hanging. and that
the horrible scene at the first attempt
was wholly due to some defect in the
rope that could not be foreseen.