The evening bulletin. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1887-1905, 1896-04-18


fairly earned the title of tho american
Jack Kctch." From his grewsOme service
he has saved enough to buy a fine farm in
Kansas, and there he will pass his declin-
ing days in peace and quietness. He had
hoped to hang his one hundredth man be-
fore retiring, but subjects have been COM
ing in rather slowly in recent years, and
Maledon became discouraged. Then, too,
there is not so much money in hanging
men nowadays as there is in farming.
Maledon says he believes his record of So
hanged is safe anyway from being broken
by any other man, so he will have the con-
ISOLATION in his retirement of knowing that
he is champion of the world in his line.
He loves to talk about his work and took
as much pride in it as carpenter would
in a neat job he had done. He followed q
regular system and seldom had mishap.
A hanging by Malcdon was worth going
miles to see. 1t was n thing of scientific
beauty. From the moment tho subject be-
gan to prepare for the march TO the scat
fold the little Dutch hangman was at his
heels. He had been up before daylight,
greasing his ropes, oiling the hinges of the
gallows trap and adjusting ana 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 or any one on the
scaffold except the subject, and he moved
around him with an air of ownership.
Sometimes, if the subject was slow and
backward, Maledon would encourage him
l. off nV,s
hurry, as:
ooh, come on now; it's nothing at all.
You won't feel it, and III have it all over
in jitfy."
Maledon would stand the victim on 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 fairly adjusted, the
black cap over the head and the trap
sprung. AS the body hung limp and
swaycd gently back and forth the little
hangman would walk around the square
hole of the trap with his hands on his
hips, looking down at the swinging body
and surveying it critically from every
point of view, while he chewed tobacco
anxiously and vigorously and spat down
through the hole past the body. When
Malcdon had from two to ten to hang at
one time, he attended to it all alone, ad-
justing the nooses with his own hands.
Maledon gained his proficiency as a
hangman by experience. He was not so
successful with his first two or three jobs
as he was with later subjects.
Maledon's moose has fallen to George
Lawson, who tried his prentice hand on
the notorious Cherokee Bill the other day.
II 4 IL a. & =. II
was broken without an abrasion of the
skin For some time Lawson had been
employed as guard in tho Jail. AS an
executioner he works slower than Maledon
and lacks the easy movement on the gal
lows that the old hangman had. He is a
man about 10 years of age, feet inches
in height and will weigh $50 pounds. He
is married and lives in a little cottage in
side the old fort almost under tho caves Of
the Jail. His son Will, who has taken his
place as a Jail guard, tied the knot for
Cherokee Bill and assisted in the prelimi-
naries.
Lawson is not likely to become as ia
nous hanRman rs his predecessor but
he has many notorious cases on hand.
There are now ten prisoners in the jail
whose only hope to escape the gallows Is
pardon by the president. Among them
are tho members of the brutal Buck gang.
The gallows on which so many men
have met their death is q massive affair.
1t stands just south of tho United States
Jail and about 100 yards away. There is
we'll worn path running from tho Jail to
the gallows, along which the men are led
to execution. The drop on this monstrous
gallows is 90 feet long, giving ample room
for hanging ten men at one time.
Subscribe for the WEEKLY BULLETIN.