The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-22
MCCLELLAN
 PAYS PENALTY Mobile Negro Dies on
 Gallows. HE C0NFESSES TO MURDER Slayer of Michael McGovern Tells
 of Crime. Legal Execution Tn Jail Yard And Few Persons Were Present In Early
 Hours Of The MOTH

Mobile. June 21.~(Special. )-After stoutly denying for fifteen months any knowledge of the murder of Michael McGovern, Willis Mcclellan, a negro, this morning few minutes before mounting the scaffold to pay the pen alty for the death of Mir. McGovern confessed to entering the home of the old man and when discovered of strik- ing or showing him down.
 Mcclellan was to be hanged at 4:30 o'clock and just a few minutes prior to the time for the hanging he asked to be left alone with a negro preacher and the jailer. When all had vacated his cell Mcclellan recited the history of the crime and said he had entered the home of MT. McGovern on April 29 and on being discovered by MT. Mo- Govern showed the old man down and as he was very feeble and sickly the shock caused his death.
 Mcclellan for the long fifteen months that he had been confined in the jail held out that he knew nothing what ever of the crime and declared he would die for the crime of some other person. This stout denial and his maner during his long jail term won him many friends and he was so convinc- ing when talking that he had led many people to believe that he was inno- CeuI IL lS tHOuknL VhCSiciidH ed working on the sympathies of every one connected with the jail and in this way to get some stay of execution or possibly a comutations of his sentence. When he saw that his death on the soaffold was a certainty he confessed to the crime.
 Speech on Gallows.
 At 4:50 o'clock the death warrant was read to the doomed man and lit tie after o'clock the march to the scaffold was begun. After the negro to Thee." and offered a prayer. Mo- Clellan climbed the steps of the scaf- fold. From the platform he made a short speech repeating what he had told in his cell. He said that he was accused of murder in the first degree for killing Michael McGovern on April 29; that he had gone into the house and had showed the old man down put did not strike him. He said he was ready and willing to suffer the penalty and felt that he was going to Jesus.
 As the rope YVES put over his head he said "Farewell' and as the black cap was pulled down he uttered "Goodbyo' and the trap was sprung.
 It was 5:15 o'clock when the body shot through the trap and fourteen minutes later County Physician Ward and Coroner Hirshfeld pronounced Mc- Clellan dead A negro undertaken took charge of the body and it was taken to his home at Warren and Augusta streets.
 A few newspaper men and physicians spent the night at the jail and there was only a small party present at the hanging Outside Sergeant Schreiner and a detail of policemen were sta- tioned to keep the crowd in order but the hundred or more curious ones who gathered around the jail were perfectly quiet.
 Negro Did Not Sleep.
 Mcclellan did not sleep any during the night but spent the hour in sing ing and praying with the two negro preachers, one of whom, Stewart, hap- tized him several weeks ago. From hearing the preachers read verses of the Bible the negro who could neither read nor write had memorized many of them and could repeat them giving the chapter and verse with remarkable accuracy. He kept a Bible close beside him throughout the death watch, seem- ing to derive comfort from nav!ng It near him.
 The crime for which the negro died was committed on the night of April 2s. 1906. Michael McGovern, a retired marine engineer, living at Hamilton and Elmira streets, was found on the floor of his granddaughter room with a mortal wound on his head. struck by some intruder who had frightened the girl into screaming for her grand father.