The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-04-30
ROPE BREAKS JERKING OFF
VICTIMS HEAD.
BLACK JACKS" LAST ACT
Writes to President Declaring In
nocent Certain Men In New
Mexico Prison.

E. Ketchum, alias "Black Jack" a no.
torious outlaw who has terrorized the
people of the southwest for the past
Is years, was hanged here this after
noon for train robbery anu his head
was severed from the body by the
rope as if by a guillotine. The head
less trunk pitched forward toward the
spectators and blood spattered upon
those nearest the scaffold.
The execution took place inside a
stockade built for the occasion. The
enclosure was crowded, $50 witnesses
having been admitted. When Ketchum
mounted the scaffold at 1:17 his face
was pale. but he showed no fear. A
priest stood at his side as the rope
was being put around his neck. The
condemned man had consented to this
at the last moment. Ketchum declined
to make a speech. He muttered
Good bye" then said, please dig my
grave very deep, and as the cap was
drawn w his face, shouted, Let
her 60"
His legs trembled but his nerve did
not fail. At 1:21 the drop was sprung,
the body shot through the trap and
the head was torn from the trunk by
the tremendous jerk. The head re-
NAMED in the sack and fell into the
pit. The body dropped to the ground
quivering and bleeding. Some men
groaned and others turned away I'M
able to endure the sight. For a few
seconds the body was allowed to lie
there half doubled up on it's right side
with blood issuing in intermittent
streams from the severed arteries, as
the heart kept on with it's mechanical
beating. Then officers rushed down
the tscaffold and lifted the body from
the ground. DR.. Slack pronounced life
extinct in five minutes from the time
the body dropped through the trap.
The result showed that a drop of
seven feet, with a running moose, was
too great for so heavy a man as Ketch-
um, who weighed about ITO pounds.
Ketchum mailed a letter. to Presi-
dent Mckinley this morning in which
he says: standing in the presence of
death, where no human aid can reach
me, l desire to communicate some
facts which may, perhaps, be the
means of l%iberating innocent men.
There are now three men in Santa Fee
penitentiary serving sentences for the
robbery of the United States mail at
Stems Pass, namely: Leonard Albert
son, Walther Huffman and Bill Water
man, and they are as innocent of the
crime as an unborn babe. The names
of the men who committed the crime
are Dave Atkins, Ed. Bullin, Will Car
yer, Sam Ketchum, Broncho Bill and
myself. have given to my attorney,
in Clayton, NEAR by which articles
taken in said robbery may be found
where we hid them and also the names
OF witnesses who live in that vicinity
who will testify that myself and gang
were in that n~eighborhood both i'm
mediately before and after the rob-
berry. e
THE fact that these men are inno-
cent and suffering, impels me to make
this confession. While you cannot help
me and while l realize that all effort
to secure me a Communication of my
sentence have signally failed, / wish
to do this much in the interest of
these innocent men, who, so far as I
know, never committed a crime in
their lives. l make this statement,
fully realizing that my end is fast ap-
preaching and that l must soon meet
my Maker
Thomas F. Ketchum has been the
noted desperate of the southwest
for many years, although, it is said,
he boosted of having taken the lives
of many fellow beings, his execution,
set Aor noon today, was for an at
tempted train robbery in which no.
body was killed. This crime was COM
mitted near FOLSOM, N. Al.,' August 16.
1899. Single handed, Ketchum held
up a Colorado & southern passenger
train. He ordered the engineer and
fireman to uncOuple the engine and
leave the train. The conductor and
mail agent opened fire. Ketchum re-
celved the contents of a double-Dar-
relied shot gun in his right arm. but
quickly changing his rife to his left
shoulder, he succeeded in w%Ounding
both the conductor and mail agent.
he was arrested the next day, tried
and given the extreme penalty.
Owing to rumors of organized bands
making preparations to rescue their
comrade, extreme precautions were
taken to hold the prisoner who was
removed from Folsom Jail to Clayton
this week by special train. under heavy
guard of deputies. BLACK JacA"" is
salu to have been the leader of a band
of outlaws who committed many train
robberies and other raids in Texas,
Mexico and Arizona. This band has