Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-05-04
BANDITS EXECUTION
A SlCkEAING SIGHT
J. Black Jacks" Head Jerked OF
by Moose and Spectators
Blood Bespattered.
"LET HER 60" HIS LAST WORDS
Famous Southwestern Desperate Meets
Death with Reckless Bravado-
Practically Confessed Crime Be-
fore Put to Death.

Cloyton, N. NJ, April 29.-Thomas e.
Ketchum, alias BLACK Jack" the train
robber, was hanged at 1:21 this after
noon. The rope broke, but the fall
jerked his head off.
Ketchum was the most noted des-
perado in the southwest. Although
credited with having taken the lives
Of some of his fellow beings, yet he
finally paid the forfeit with his w
life for an attempted train robbery
near Folsom. N. M. August 16, 1899, In
which nobody was killed.
"Lct Her Co." He Said.
When Ketchum mounted the scaffolo
at ILL p. IN. his face was pale, but he
showed no fear. A priest stood at his
side as the rope was being put round
his neck. The condemned man had
consented to this at the last momenti
Ketchum declined to MAKE a speech.
He muttered. "Goodby," then said:
Please dig my grave very deep" and
as the cap was drawn over his face,
shouted: Let her 60" His less trem-
bled but his nerve did not fail.
At 1:2l p. IN. the drop was sprung,
the body shot through the trap and the
head was torn from the trunk by the
tremendous jerk.
The head remained In the sack and
fell into the pit. The body dropped to
the ground, quivering and bleeding.
Some men groaned, and others turned
away, unable to endure the sight. For
a few seconds the body was allowed to
lie there, half doubled up On it's right
side, with the blood issuing in an In
termittent stream from the several
arteries as the heart kept on with It's
mechanical beating. Then the officers
f1Ghad dawn tho Cpa fold anI Iiftal tha
body from the ground.
DR.. Slack pronounced life extinct in
hVe minutes from the time the body
dropped through the trap.
The result showed that the drop Of
seven feet, with the running moose, was
too great for so heavy a man as Ket-
chum, who weighed about 40 pounds.
Sheriff Salome Garcia superintendent
the execution, and himself let the trap
drop.
Last Hours Spent In Cursing.
Ketchum spent the greater part or
the morning in reviewing his past life,
during which time he displayed per-
feet control Of himself, frequently re-
ferring to his m~omentarily expected
death In q violent manner. He cursed
the railroad and express companies and
the officers who were instrumental In
his conviction, and the people of New
Mexico In general, and their laws. He
acknowledged that he planned and led
his gang in many robberies accredited
to him, including the robbery on the
Southern Pacific railroad at Stems
Pass in 1897, and hat on the Colorado
Southern, ear Folsom, in July, 1898.
He said he knew who killed Young
Herstein at Liberty, Tex, in 1895, but
would give no names, claiming the
guilty persons were alive. He also said
that he knew who killed A. B. Powers,
in Tom Green county. Tex, in 1896, and
that Bud Upshaw, who was accused,
had no knowledge of that crime. Ket-
chum declared hat he was not the or
iginal BLACK Jack" and said that
outlaw was still alive and enjoying his
liberty.
but he was the cause of my becom-
ing an outlaw" said Kctchum. Lee
Dow, the officer, saw Black Jack at
the Deer Creek tank affair, and in 1897
told mt that If / was ever tried for
Black Jacks crimes l would never
get free, for / looked too much like
him. l thought if l was going to be
hanged for another mans crimes !
might as we'll have some of my own,
The real Black Jack got the name
because he was very dark, and on the
Erie round up in Arizona there were
two Jacks. They called him Black
Jack TO distinguish him from the
other
KetChum said that Frank Herring
ton, the conductor who shot him, caus-
ing him to lose his right arm; l.. G.
Fort, Wells Fargo attorney, and w. II.
Reno, the Colorado n Southern rail-
way detective, who affected his cap
ture, will be killed within n year.
II smuggled a letter out of the prison
at Santa Fee" said Ketchum, land
those three men are marked"