Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-04-26
BLACK JACK" THE A|GWAYMAN,
HANGED FOR HIS MANY GRIMES
ROPE BROKE, BUT HIS HEAD WAS PULLED 0FF-N0T0RI0Us
BANDITS EsCAPADEs- WRIT Es LETTER Ex0NERATNG
OTHER SUSPECTS WHO ARE NOW IN THE PENITEN-
TIARY-HE TELLS THE WHOLE STORY.

Clayon, n NJ, April 26.-Thomas T..
Ketchum, alias BLACK jack the train
robber. was hanged at 1:21 D. m. today.
The rope broke. but his head was jerked
off.
The execution took place inside
stockade built for the occasion. The en-
closure was crowded. $50 spectators hav-
ing been admitted.
When ketchum mounted the platform
at LII his face was very pale, but his eye
swept over the crowd coldly and boldly,
as if he had no fear. A priest was soon
at his side as the rope was put around
his neck. The condemned man had con-
sented to this at the last moment.
ketchum declined to make a speech be-
fore the moose was put around his neck.
He merely muttered Good bye and
then said: please dig my grave very
deep" and finally IAN right, hurry up"
His legs trembled, but he kept his nerve.
When the body dropped through the trap
the half inch rope severed the head as
cleanly if a knife had cut it. The body
pitched forward with blood squirting from
| the headless trunk. The head remained
in the black cap and flew down in the pit.
| Some men groaned and others turned
| away unable to endure the sight.
! For q few seconds the body was al
| lowed to lie there half doubled up on
| it's right side with the blood issuing In
! an intermittent stream from the severed
| neck as the heart kept on with its me-
| chancal beating. Then, With cries of
| considerations the officers rushed down
from the scafold and lifted the body
| from the ground. 1t was only then ap~
parent exactly what happened. The
drop of the body was seven feet, and the
moose was made so it slipped easily
Ketcham was a heavy man, and the
weight of the body, with the easy-run~
ming moose, caused The rope to cut the
head cleanly Off
DIR. Slack pronounced life extinct in a
little over five minutes from the time the
body dropped through the trap.
1t is stated too much of a drop was
given for so heavy a man.
! Sheriff Salome Garcia superintendeG
the execution, and himself let the trap
drop.
Twenty armed deputies were on guard
all night at the Jail here in anticipa ton
of an attempt to rescue ketchum, but
| if any friends of the bandit We're here
they made no demonstration. Hundreds
of armed men, many of them cowboys
! from the surrounding country, thronged
the streets today.
Ketchum received the ministrations of
a priest this morning. He ate a hearty
breal L fast, took a bath and said he was
ready to die at any hour. At ll:3O a.
m he called for music. A violin and a
guitar were sent for. .Ketchum talked
for over an hour with visitors today
cooler than any who met him. He de-
clared death preferable to Imprisonment
,i.,l, l..
was concerned, but declared that he had
never killed a man and only shot three
He said that he was not BLACK Jack
and that that bandit Still lived. ket
chum refused to give the names o
friends still at liberty. Besides giving {
| full account of the STEMS pass rob
berry, generating the men who wer
convicted of that crime, ketchum sait
that Bud Upshaw was innocent of tn
murder of A. =. Powers i'm Texas. o
which he is accused. This killing. Ket
chum says, was the result of a con
spiracy to which he was party.
: His Letter to President.
Before going to the galows Ketchun
mailed the following letter to Presiden
, Mckinley this morning:
Clayton. NJ, April &c. 1901
2 ITO His Excellency, President of tn
: United States, Washington. d. c.:
"Sir-Reing now at the town of Gay
ton, n. NJ, awaiting my execution
! which is set for this day, and realizin
: the Importance to the liberty of othe
:. men and the duty which l conceive t
| be incumbent on myself, standing 1
the presence of death, where no huma
being can reach me, ! desire to com
municaate to you by means of this let
ter some facts which l deem would b
of interest to people through their preSi
dent and perhaps be the mears of y
Grating innocent men. There are no'
three men in the Santa Fe penitentiar
serving sentences for the robbery OF IN
United states mail at STEMS pass, Ar!z
in 1897. viz: Leonard Albertson, waite
Huffman ana Bill Waterman, and the
are as innocent of the crime as an un
Dor babe. The names of the men Wh
committed the crime are DAVIS Az
kins, Ed Fullin. VIII Carver. Sar
Ketchum, Broncho Bill and mvsel
Il have given to my attorney In Clay
ton, means by which articles taken !
said robbery may be found where W
hid them and also the names OF wi:
nesses who live in that vicinity who W
testify that myself and gang Were
that neighborhood both Immediately ht
fore and after the robbery. The fact the
these men are innocent and are suffe
ing impels me to make this cor.fessIo
While you cannot help me and Viii
realize that all efforts to secure
me a Communication of my sentence hay
signally failed, I wish to do this Inut