Evening star., 1898-08-01
THORN PUT TO DEATH
New York Murderer in Sing Sings
Electric Chair.
EXECUTION OCCURRED Al ll.l7 Am.
The Deadly Current Ended His
Life Within 55 Seconds.
NERVE NEVER FAILED HIM

NEW YORK, August MARTIN Thorn
the barber, was put to death in the prison
at Sing Sins at Hi o'clock today for the
nlIder of William Guldensuppe.
Thorn sat up later last night than was
his custom. He talked of his parents, his
boyhood days in Germany and his first ex
pcriences in this country. He showed no
nervousness, and when he threw himself
on his cot it was but few minutes until
he was sound asleep.
Warden Sage, who went to Thorn's cell
early today, said of him:
Thorn told me he was not nervous and
would die bravely. He said he was perfectly
recoIciled to his fate and that he had mad
peace with his God. He slept well and had
no fear of death. There is not the slightest
change in his actions. He is the same cool
Nan who came to the prison six months
ago. His nerve is stronger than that OF
any other murderer who has been in the
death house,
His Only Dread.
Thorn told one OF his keepers that his
only dread was the wait from the time he
awoke until he was summoned to the chair.
The condemned man received the last
sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church.
When summoned to the execution chair,
Thorn showed no emotion, and walked to
it quickly, repeating prayers, after the at
tending priest. There was no untoward in
cident in connection with the execution,
and after the current had been turned on
% seconds Thorn was dead.
The Crime.
The killing of William Guldensuppe,
bath rubber, and the subsequent mutilation
and distribution of the dismembered body
by Thorn and Augusta Mack, were cum
ningly planned and accomplished that the
crime stands alone as the most fiendish
murder in the criminal history of this or
any other section of the United States.
On Saturday afternoon, June %, of last
year, two youthful swimmers found a pc
culiar bundle floating in the last river and
they brought it ashore at the 11th street
dock policeman opened the package,
which was heavy and water soaked, and
found that it contained the upper portion
of a mans headless body, with the arms
folded across the breast, from which an
irregular piece of skin and flesh had been
cut, with the evident purpose of remov
ing some mark by which the part might
be identified. The wrapping around the
gruesome contents was made up of some
table oilcloth. cheese cloth and
brown paper, and tied with stout cords.
The discovery of the oilcloth bundles
containing parts of the victims body in
East river and other places is well remem-
bered, and also the pursuit Of various clues
leading to the arrest of Thorn and Mrs.
Mack.
Thorn was placed on trial before Justice
Wilmot NJ. Smith in the supreme court,
Long Island City, on November s, last
year. District Attorney Youngs, assisted
by several prominent lawyers. conducted
Tended by William F. Howe, one of the
oldest criminal lawers of the New York
bar, who was assigned by the court as
counsel, as the prisoner had no means to
retain a lawyer. The trial was a men,
orable one. The jury was secured on the
first day. and the trial proper began on the
morning of the 9th of November.
Betrayed by Mrs. Mack.
Lawyer Howe declared that the prosecu-
tion could not prove a corpus deficit as long
as the head had not been found, and in
sisted that the missing Guldensuppe was
alive and enjoying himself in Germany.
When court opened on Wednesday morn
ing the defendants lawyers We're very
much perturbed when they learned that
Mrs. Mack had turned states evidence, and
until the won an was called to the witness
chair Thorn refused to believe that she
would betraS him.
d For over seven hours Mrs. Mack sat there
and told in detail her relations with both
men and how she and Thorn had concocted
and executed the murder of the bath rub
her. All through the terrible recital Thorn
sat staring at the witness without showing
any outward signs of the passions which
must have been raging within. AT times he
smiled and evidently enjoyed the discomfit-
ure of the sef-confessed murderess while
his counsel had her under cross-examina-
tion.
In her direct testimony Mrs. Mack said
that on the morning of June % she in
duced Guldensuppe to accompany her to
Thnr
waiting to kill him, and that the parcels
which her dupe helped her to carry con-
tanned some of the cloths which a few
hours later were used as wrappings for his
dly-dismembered body. She told how
when they reached the cottage Guldensuppe
went ostair to examine the house think
ing IL vas to be used as a baby farm. the
profits from which he would divide with
his paramour.
she went out into the yard and STAYED
there until she heard a shot Then Thorn
came running down the stairs and said:
IL IS an over. He is dead. l shot him."
Mrs Mack returned to the CITY, leaving
morn to cut up the body and place the
parts IN four parcels. The details were
slckening, and when the woman had CON
cluded one of the jurors Magnus T.arSor,
was taken suddenly i'll The triai Va sen ea
Journed for two days. 1t was finally do
clded TO begin a new trial, as Larsen wss
700 Ill with appendicitis to continue the
Thorn's Evil Eye.
stories of Thorn's "evil eve" bavinc
an enect on any one whom he con-
centrated his gaze began to circulate when
IL was learned that Juror Larsen had TO
undergo an operation, but the talesman re-
covered rapidly ard was able to be out of
coors by the time the second trial began
On the morning of Monday, November %
the court house at Long Island Citv wos
I'M onged with a curious crowd of snecta :
tors and everything was in readiness for
the second trial to begin when a message
was received from Justice Smith saving he
was TOO Ill to preside. Again the theory
or the evil eye of the prisoner was ai
Vanced as the cause of the judges indls-
position and many were guessing as to
who would be the next victim. Some one
sent a charm" to District Attorney
foungs, which the sender assured the
prosecutor would protect him. against all
evil influences.
Lawyer Howe and his assistant. Toe
Moss, said they had no misgivings about
hoodoos," and were only interested in their
client, who, they said, would prove that
Mrs. Mack and not he was the guilty per
son.
Toward noon messenger arrived with
the information that Justice Samuel r
Maddox would try the case, and at l o'clock
the judge arrived. Early the following day
the jury was completed. The evidence pro
duced at the abortiye trial was renrod,Iced