The age-herald., 1901-07-19
NASHVILLE HAS A
 TRIPLE HANGING Three Negroes Go By the Legal
 Hemp Route KILLED THEIR FELLOW MEN Execution Was Witnessed by Two Hundred People, and Three Thous- and Were cIamorlng for Ad-
 mission to the JalI Yard.
KILLED THEIR FELLOW MEN

Nashville, Tenn, July IS. = The first
 triple execution ever witnessed In this
 county took place this morning, when three negroes were suspended from the
 same scaffold The hanging took place in the jail yard and was witnessed by about 200 people.
 The condemned men were Babe Bat tise, Duser Thompson and Abe Petway, and they calmly mounted the steps and took their places on the trap without ex- hibiting the least evidence of trepidation. Thompson and Petway made short talks, in which they proclaimed their confidence in the pardon of their souls, and Battise spoke rather intelligently for over five minutes about his hopes of the hereafter, and admonished his hearers to eschew h1s example The caps were then adjusted and the trap was sprung at 1O:16 by sher- if Hurt.
 The drop was about five feet and the men were pronounced dead within thir- teen minutes. Petway and Battise hao their necks broken and Thompson suc- cumbed to strangulation. The bodies were delivered to the undertakers
 There were about 5000 persons outside the jail while the executions were peing conducted and the best of order preVaheo'
 The crime for which Petway paid the penalty was the murder of an old white man named Wrenne, on the night of May 31. 1900. The old man owned small grocery and was supposed to have accu- mulated considerable money, and the cupidity of Petway and his pals led to the murder Lewis Bridges and Ell Webb, who, with Petway, were tenants of old man Wrenne and occupied rooms in the rear of the grocery, were arrested as accessories, Petway confessed that Bridges and Webb killed Wrenne. while he kept watch on the outside, and that he was to receive $1O as his share of the | blood money.
 Petway and Bridges were sentenced to be hanged last November, but appealed to the Supreme Court The sentence or the former was affirmed and the latter was granted a new trial Petway was | resulted in order that he might testify against his accomplices but the attorney general did not use him for the reason | that he refused to talk ana oenieo ai' knowledge of the crime.
 The case against Bridges and Wepn will be tried at the next term Of count Battise and Thompson were hung TOT the brutal murder of Cain Miller, negro ,spotter for the police. Thompson was the l proprietor of the Bucket of Blood, 3 notorious dive in Black Bottom, and he was heard to say to Battise that he wouio fix Miller. The murder was committed on the night of the 9th of December, 1853 and Battise and Thompson were under duress within two hours after the com | mission of the deed.
 Thompson charged Battise with the crime and to the last affirmed his inno' cence. Battise at first proclaimed his guiltlessness, but finally admitted that ht killed miller and said 1t was done at the l instance of Thompson. under whose com
 plete domination he was. The evidence bore out the truth of Battise's statement | and showed him to have been the tool o
 Thompson who planned the whole affair.
 The men were sentenced to hang on tht | 7th of last May, but were respited twice once until June IS and the second tint until today