Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1908-01-16

Fredericksburg, and at night was kept in
The county jail This action was tax en- TO
prevent any overt act 90 the part Of certain
people in this-eity who were excited at the
time Of the murder.
EXECUTI0NSIN ALEXANDRIA
Some time during the first quarter of the
nineee. tn century. The vile Of Newton
keene, who lived in large brick house
whit b up 10 few years ago stood opposite
the cid Cotton Factor, on north Washington
street. was murdered by negro man. The
latter was captured, tried and hanged.
There have ben three hsngiugs IL
Alexandra during the pat half century.
in the early part Of the year 1858 q colsred
woman named Jennie was hanged in the Jail
yard in this city for the murder Of Mrs. Hall
in Alexandria county. The circumstances in
connection with the murder manifested q
peculiar ferocity on the part of the negroes.
4 he latter had been ia a sulky mood, and
when her mistress ordered her to cease piling
wood on a IRE in q freplsce, the woman
seized Mrs Hall, forced her into the FIRE and
held her there until she was fatally burned.
be murderess was later captured by Mrs.
HALLS husband and turned over to the au-
thOrties of this city. She was trisd and
sentesced 10 be hsnged.
The next execut'ol was thst of Charles
.
Of Msrch, 1873. Manley's trial took place in
the Corporation Court on the 18th Of Jsnu-
airy, 1873, when it was shown that ON the
night Of thu 9th of July, If the prece9-
ing year, John Monroe, an old ScotchmsD,
who travelled about this section Of the
country in the vocation of mendine clocks,
was sitting by the SIDE of the spring in
the valley which extends from st. Assph
street to Royal. ia the midst of the colored
suburb known rs Peters eurg." The night
was stlrlit ard sultry, and it is supposed
that Monroe, after refreshing his thirst at the
spring, had set down 10 rest aud fallen asleep
beside ii. He wore a plain silver watch and
carried small tin box containing the tools
used 10 his calling. The'shanty Of q colorcd
man named Payne, was but short distance
from the spring, and firm there three men
-Nanley and Samuel Payne and Lewis
Payne-came down upon Monroe, who vas
heard to cry that he had no money, and TO
beg them not to murder him. He was, how
ever, beaten most terribly, his head bruised,
and his abdomen SMASHED with largs stones,
and then, under the superstition that he was
dead, thrown into neighboring ditsh, from
which he managed to crawl during the night.
and on the edge Of which he was round in the
morning, and carried TO his boarding house on
Wet street. He fingered there in gre at pain,
but In full posss ssion of his senses, and able
to be give an account Of the assault upon
him, until the evening about O'Clock, when
he died. The two Paynes made off during
the night, and have never been heard from
since, but the father-ir law of ManIey, having
had his suspicious aroused. communicated
them to the Lieutenant of Police, John l..
Smith, who came upon Marley, while he was
asleep and found upon him the watch, hat
and boots Of Monroe, all Of which articles his
victim Unidentified before he breathed his last.
After his conviction and sentence Manley
continued long defiant, but later the minis
iratiOns of the late Rev. Fields Cook, Rev. =.
". Madden and other eolored mi listers sof'
ensd him and brought him under religious
influences. On the scaf Id the condemned
man attributed all his misfortunes to whisky
said he had no one 10 blame-the intoxi-
eating cup alone having brought him TO the
gallDws. He stood upright on the drop
without a sign Of emotion, ami when the late
Capt James NJ. Steuart, who was then City
Sergeant, placed the moose around bis neck.
said, like sooner this is over the BETTER" a
negro, who witnessed Manley's execution
went to Washington the same night and
killed Frank Hahn, q cattle drover, and was
hanged for the crime.
In June, 1873, q colored man named Jack
son was hanged in this city for the murder Of
his wife in Alexandria county. Jackson, it
was shown, killed the womsn and subse-
quently threw her body in the Alexandria
Canal.
in 1861 a soldier, who had killed woman
on Queen street, was hanged by the mil
itary on Seminary Hill, and several county
umreIs aud esertePs were shot to death
On the confnts OF this city during the civil