The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-08-04
AWALKING GALLONS
.,e,r HEPENSTALL WHO HUNG MEN
FROM HIS OWN NECK.

r,i. Notorious individual Was an
.nothecary in Dublin-A Nun of
Snlendid Physique, Six Feet and
Two Inches TalI-Died In 1904.
Among the examples and records of
nritish tyranny during the terrible
lar of 1898 there is none more extraor-
!sInary according to a writer in an
TnoIish magazine, than that OF Lieut..
rdWard Hepenstall. known by the
nickname of The Walking Gallows,"
sor such he certainly was, literally
and practically.
This notorious individual. who had
bsen brought up as an apothecary in
nublin obtained a commission in the
wicklow militia, in which he attained
tbe rank of lieutenant in 1895. He was
man Of splendid physique, about six
Saet two inches in height and strong
and broad in proportion. Referring to
his handsome but brutal giant, Sir
Tohn Darlington, in his Memoirs"
states;
81 know him well, and from his coun-
terance should never have suspected
him of cruelty. but so cold-blooded and
eccentric an eXecutioner of the human
race never yet existed"
"At the outbreak of the sanguinary
rebellion, when the common law was
suspended and the stern martial variety
aourished in its stead, Lieut.. Hepen-
stall hit upon the expedient of hang
ing on his own back persons whose
ha oIor
i,tic of seditiouS tenets. At the pres
ent day the story seems most incredi-
Bile. but it is a notorious fact, revealed
nv the journalism of the period, that
when rebels either suspected or caught
red-hsnded, were brought him, Hepen-
stall would order the cord of a drum
10 be taken off, and then rigging up a
running moose, would proceed to hang
each in turn across his athletic Shout
ders until the victim had been slowly
strangled to death, after which he
would throw down his load and take up
another.
The walking Gallows" was clearly
both new and simple plan and a
mode of execution not nearly so te-
dous or painful as a Tyburn or Old
Bailey hanging. 1t answered his ma
iesty's service as we'll as two posts and
a crowbar. When a rope was not at
hand, Hepenstall's own silk cravat, be-
ing softer than an ordinary halter, be-
came a merciful substitute.
In pursuance of these benevolent in
tentions. the lieutenant would frequent
" administer an anesthetic to his
trembling yictim-in other words he
would first knock him silly with a
blow. His garters then did the duty
as handouts, and the cravat would be
slipped over the condemned mans
neck.
Whenever he had an unusually pow
erful victim to do with Hepenstall took
a pride in showing his own strength.
With a dexterous lunge of his body the
lieutenant used to draw up the poor
devils head as high as his own, and
then. when both were cheek to cheek
by jowl, begin to trot about with his
burden like a jolting cart horse, until
the rebel had no further solicitude
about sublunary affairs It was after
one Of these trotting executions, which
had taken place in the barrack yard
adjoining Stephens Green, that Hepen-
stall acquired the surname of the
Walking GalloWs." He was invested
with it by the gallery of Crow Street
theater Dublin.
AT the trial of a rebel in that city
the lieutenant, undergoing cross-exam-
nation, admitted all the aforementioned
details of his method of hanging, and
Lord Norbury, the presiding Judge,
warmly complimented him on his 10y
atty and assured him that he had been
guilty Of no act which was not natural
to Jealous, loyal and efficient officer.
Lieut. Hepenstall, however, did not
long survive his hideous practice. He
died in 1904. Owing to the odium in
which he was universally held, the au-
thoritiSs arranged that his funeral
should take place secretly, while Dub
lin wit suggested that his tombstone
would be suitably inscribed by the fol-
lowing epitath:
Here lie the bones of Hepenstall,
Judge, jury, gallows. rope and all.
pa1tiponra Gun