Pueblo chieftain., 1922-02-10
OLD DEATH HOUSE GONE

penitentiary. in which a large number
of condemned prisoners in years gone
by have been hanged. Is being torn
down. The gloomy old structure
abuts upon the Main street wall of
the prison. about hundred feet east
of the Administration building and
fronts the penitentiary yard. 1t is two
stories in height and has frontage
of thirty feet. The outer walls are
of cut stone and are without windows.
The only light that can enter is thru
. couple of strongly grated doors.
Giving some description of tho aveng-
Ing legal process the Record says:
Inside the building are six cells
in two tiers. three on the first floor
and three above. They are dark at
all times. 1t is easy to change the
execution house into n dungeon as
black as Erebus.
More than score of condemned
men murderers, have been shut up in
the old execution house with no other
companions than Il self-accusing con-
science and the stoical and unsympa-
thetic guard in the corridor beside
him.
When the execution Is about to
take place. the murderer Is led, or.
rather dragged from his cell into a
room eight or ten feet square where
the black cap is placed on the head
of the murderer. the moose fixed
oTOuuQ HIS neck, Il prayer Is sdiu anu
the soul of the condemned man com.
mended to the God who made 1t. The
prisoner is then forced to step upon a
platform which opens valves that
cause a flow of water Into a reser-
voir, that at the proper time releases
the spring of the hydraulic mechan-
ism that automatically performs the
execution. The flow OF water sets off
tho trap. which permits a 300-pound
weight in adjoining room to drop a
distance Of about ton feet, jerking the
murderer up and breaking his neck
in doing so. This system of execu-
ton was invented by n prisoner in
tho penttentiary and is perhaps as In
genious. as well as humane. as that
employed in any penal institution In
the country.
The law requires that the execution
be witnessed by the warden of the
penitentiar9. its chief clerk. physician.
chaplain and other designated Off
cisls, as we'll as the sheriff Of the
county where the crime of the con-
demned prisoner was committed and
other representatives of the law.
After the prisoner has been pronounc-
cd dead by the attending physicians.
tho warden announces that the law
has been complied with and orders
tho body cut down and be prepared
for burial.
The exact scenes in the execution
house when n prisoner Is to be hung
are not known to the public in general
and perhaps. never will be. Those
who are spectators of such dramas.
furnish no details about them to the
press. They try to forget them ~
quickly as possible and they soon
pass into that same Oblivion tina,
swallows up tho prisoner and his
crime. 1t is to the credit of the pcni-
tentiary. here that there never has
been n scandal in connection with an
execution within its walls. as has &C.
casionally occurred in other sections
OF the country. Tho mechanism EN-
ployed there for the purpose of taking
life performs its work silently, effect
ively. relentlessIy. The last execu-
ton at the Colorado State peniten-
tiary was that Of George Bosco, for
killing two men on the Pueblo-Ryc
road.
1t appears conclusive that there will
not be another execution in tho pris-
on hero for at least "A year. perhaps
longer. A new execution house. more
modern in It's arrangement and de-
tall. It 10 expected will be built by that
time.
WESTERN CONVERSATIONS
That great American team Corn and
Hogs is prancing to tho front IN a
way that 10 causing moro thrills in tho