The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-22
SCOTT PAID THE PENALTY.
OVERCOME by FEAR AND WENT TO
DEATH IN AFFECT TERROR.

Was Adjusted and the Black Cap
slipped over His Head-FIrst OF
Many Negro Murderers Who show
I'd Any Sign of Fear-ExhortatiOns
OF Preachers Could Not Nerve Him
to Face Death CalmIy-The Drop
Fen at 1905 O'Clock and the Muir
derer's Neck Was Broken by the
Fail.
Isaiah Scott the murderer of his wife,
Marie Scott, was legally executed in Chat
ham county Jail yesterday morning. The
execution was in private and attended
only by the county officers by whom il
was conducted, the county physician. Dr.
T y. Chisholm, the negro preachers who
ministered to Scott during his last days
on earth and one or two others.
As was predicted in Yesterdays Morning
News the man was dead a few minutes
after the earliest hour fixed by law for
executions to take place. The drop fen
at 1905 and fifteen minutes later the heart
had ceased to beat and life was pronounced
extinct
The preachers, headed by Rev. Prince
Black and Rev. J. J. Jones, reached the
Jail at an early hour and went at once
to the cen of the condemned man. He had
passed a restless night and greeted them
with but little appearance of pleasure,
satisfaction or relief. The man had been
gradually losing his nerve for several
days and though in a half-hearted sort of
fashion he had received their teachings,
professed repentance and submitted to
baptism it was not with the fervor and
devotion that usually characterize the last
days of condemned negro murderers.
There had been little of loud complaint
and no noisy exhibition of terror, but he
seemed TO be dazed scarce capable of com
pretending the fate that was in store for
him and overcome by moody preoccupa-
ton He would not receive visitors Of any
kind ana even denied admission TO mem
bers of his family. He sat in his cell,
wrapped in guilty thought and probably
with the figure of his dead wife, brutally
and cruelty murdered, ever present before
his minds eye. He would make no state
ment of how the murder was committed
but refused absolutely and churlishly to
say anything about it, even to the preach
ers who We're endeavoring to soothe and
comfort him and fiji him for the entrance
into another world that he was soon to
make.
Such was his condition when the preach
ers came to his cell. He accepted their
presence as a necessary evil, permitted
them to pray for him, allowing them to
conduct the devotional exercises, but for
himself had nothing to say, that related
either 10 his crime or to his own belief in
/ the consultations of religion He gave 10
Rev. Black few words of farewell for
his mother and sister, forbidding them to
grieve for him. but that was all. He
would not move from his cell to greet
one of his knswomen who came to see
| him. He told the bailif that he would
/ see her if she would come TO his cell, but
/ that he was not we'll enough to get up.
| This permission, of course, could not be
| granted.
Al 9:55 the death warrant was read by
| Deputy Sheriff Sweeney. Scott received
| il with an impressive countenance, but
| scarcely had it been finished when he sank
/ back into his chair, quivering in every
| limb. Thereafter he appeared to have lost
/ his nerve completely, and though he man
| aged to walk TO the door of the execution
! cell, il was with convulsed and quivering
/ features and twitching limbs. To those
! who were close enough to see the agony
/ he endured, men who had watched the
| departure from the world under similar
! circumstances of many other negro muir
derers his actions were a revelation of
! the diverse character of his race. His
fellows had gone to their deaths gladly
ana without show of fear sustained and
/ upheld by their religious teachings ana
! buoyed by a spirit of fauatical belief;
Scott W0s trembling and afraid. II was
as though he thought his crime too hor-
| rible and cruel for pardon and that for
| him there was no balm in Giead.
| AT The door of the execution cell rho
last rites We're solemnized, Scott sitting
| in chair ana listening with passive in
4 difference and incredulity. After the war
rant had been read he spoke bur once.
| Then he requested Bailiff Simmons to re-
| move his shoes, probably on account OF
| the Old superstition held by many and
/ that he evidently credited that it is not
| TO well for a man to die with his boots
on He was hanged in his stocking feet.
The man coull nct stend 10 be bound, but
had to be he up while the ropes were
/ wound around and around his body. When
The last prayer had been said he had u
BE carried almost 10 TIE trap and sup
ported while the moose was adjusted
around his neck and The black cap slipped
| over his head. Two men had 10 rema n in
he cell whie the trap was sprung. He
was like a log of wood said the baiHffs
who attended 10 this part of the gruesome
business. and seemed without sensation
or Volition. Cold fear had congested his
nerves end his brain and Teft him almost
! unconscious of what was transp.nng about
him. While he was in this condition, the
words of solemn import We're spoken, the
trap fel., the murderer's neck was broken
and he was dead
The body was delivered to his mother.
Betsy Ma2ique. Under her direction and
| accompanied by a few of his relatives and
fewer of his former friends ii was taken
out 10 Ogeechee where il will be buried
this afternoon. Scott has never told the
true story OF The murder of his wife and
when requested 20 do so just before his ex-
ecuuon refused. positively and absolutely,
TO say anything about 1t.
rx1-o Nt,0N, .TTo1~CxS