El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-29
One Week From Today Flo
res And Geronimo PARA
Will Be Hanged
EXECUTION TOBEIN JAIL
Few Witnesses Except Of
ficiaIs Will See the Fatal
Drop. The Men Will Die
In the Catholic Faith

just one week from today Ell Paso
will be the scene of a double hanging,
and two condemned criminals will give
up their lives on the scaffOld.
One is an old man, with wrinkled
face aud gray beard. He brutslly muir
dered the woman he loved. He is An
tonic Flores. TIE other is the noted
Geronimo PARA, who was an integral
part of one of the most notorious bands
of horse thieves and murderers that
ever infested the border. Both are
Mexicans.
They are condemned to die on next
Friday, January 5, 1900. The execu-
tion will take place in the county Jail,
and there will be no more witnesses
than are absolutely necessary. The
spectators will include the officers, one
or two witnesses aud the newspaper
man.
The gallows is in the northeast
This main room of the Jail has three
decks or floors of steel, and in the ex-
treme corner of the top floor is little
space fenced off by q railing of gas
pipe.
The space enclosed is about three
feet square, and the floor is composed
merely of two plates of steel on hinges.
steel box permanently affixed to the
wall, and in this is lever. Above the
enclosure in the corrugated iron cell
ing is an iron ring.
Late Friday afternoon when the men
are brought from the conde emned cell
they now occupy, the first tObe hanged
will take his place at the little en-
hanging from the iron ring above
will be tied around his neck, and the
sheriff will take his stand n ear the lit
tie steel box enclosing the lever.
- The black cap will be djusted, the
arms and legs of the man sentenced to
die will be TIED, and after Fsther Cor
dovs, the spiritual adviser of both men
shall have administered religious con.
ISOLATION, the sheriff, rasping the rope
in one hand to steady it, will with the
other. quickly pull the lever which
will send Flores and PARA into eter-
nifty.
County Jailer T. c. Lyons obligingly
showed this morning how all this
wouli be done. 1t is possible that
many of the prisoners will be able,
from their cells, to see the hanging.
The condemned men are outwsrdly
Indifferent to their fate. "The other
world is as good as this" said PARA,
land no doubt much bettsr. Who
knows? 1t will all be over in q moment.
Why should we grieve. "He has had his
beard shaved, and is much improved in
appearance. He recently had his pict-
ure taken with his family. He seems
not at sll uneasy, and
laughs and talks p'easan tly.
Flores too has hal his long beard
trimmed, and presents good sp-
pearance. He ia not SO sauguine as
his fellow prisoner, and evidently has
begun to fear the death which will
come to him so suddenly aud so awful
ly. He is a catholic, PARA, who has
been q member of a protestant church,
will like Flores, die in the catholic
faith.
The execution will take place in the
afternoon, and the lever is to be pulled
by Sheriff Boone. The two men now
occupy the condemned cell alone, and
no communication with them other
than verbal and in the presence of the
jailors will be allowed. Even their
meals are passed in to them through
an opening in the door of their cell
which can be reached only after a
thick steel ante-room door has been
opened.
The death watch will be put on next
Tuesday, three days before the execu-
tion, and after that day, every minute
and hour of the day will see the great
est vigilance exercised to prevent es-
cape or accident to the condemned
men.