San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-30
CHAPTER II.
(continued from Last Sunday)

tc) H2s by American Weekly
LONDON, August %.
TrHE great day of my life finally came on New
Years Day of 1904 day had looked for
ward to with longing and eager ambition; the
day when myself should conduct an execution as
the head hangman.
Railroad employees look forward to being super
intendents day, bank clerks hope to be presi-
dent of the bank and l. too felt the urge of my
profession, and was ambitious to get'to the top.
For five years had acted as assistant execu-
TONER and such had witnessed the deaths of thr-
ty-two murderers. And now came the time when l
for the first time to pull that fatal lever and
accept senior responsibility for hanging condemned
criminal.
It has occurred to me that my readers might like
to know how felt on that occasion.
There is huge difference between the duties of
an assistant executioner and the senior It is upon
the latter that all the major work falls, and it is he
who has to shoulder full responsibility. He it is
who must calculate the length of drop required make
certain that the scaold is in order and all its xngs
complete, pinion the condemned man, blindfold him
with the white cap place the around his neck,
and-pull the lever, which, after all, is the most i'm
portant part of an execution
The assistant merey-assistsl The only task he
carries through alone is to strap the doomed mans
legs together the scaffold while the executoner
sees to the and the white cap; and even this
has on occasion been dispensed with
in no way mean to infer that assistant is I'M
necessary. Indeed, have always strongly advo-
Gated the appointment of an assistant, even when
others in authority were inclined to dispense with one
What wish to emphasize is the difference in the
work of the two, in order that you may appreciate
how felt when called upon for the first time to take
senior responsibility at an execution.
Almost exactly five years to the day from the
occasion of my first attendance at an execution had
been called upon to act as senior at hanging. Lest
there be who consider that rather long period
of probation, let point out that very few assist
ants rise to be senior eXecutioners Indeed, during
all the years of my professional career, only one
other man achieved that distinction, and the man
who assisted at my first execution senior still
an assistant
This reflects no discredit whatever on those who
remain assistants. 1t merely means that there is
rarely any necessity for than senior so long
as that man gives satisfaction. An opening senior
in fact, is very rare.
Ny first call to act as executioner-in-chef came
from Warwickshire, where man well known along
the Liverpool dockside had ruined himself by an
Illicit love affair.
He was silverer by trade and John Davis by
name For years he lived at Aston, Birmingham,
and then suddenly decided that his wife no longer
filled his heart. passionate longing TO possess an
other mans wife had no doubt originated this dis
taste for Mrs Davis
The woman he now wanted was a Mrs. Jane Har-
rison, whose husband had fallen under mental aflic
ton. She had two grown-up sons, who did their ut
most TO freeze out the interoper, John Davis, but
with Mrs Harrison herself encouraging her lover, the
young fellows were practically powerles.
Mrs. Davis was not ignorant Of what was going
on. On one occasion she even called upon Mrs Har-
rson presumably to beseech her not to lure her hus
band away from her, but her arguments in no way
affected the infatuated couple.
Then Davis left her. and went to Garston, and
here Mrs Davis drops out of the story