The Washington times., 1935-12-17
BY D G. SMYTH
Copyright 1888, by international
News Service)

BY D G. SMYTH
Copyright. 1888. by international
News Serviee)
WOODSTOCK, Ontario, Dec. II
U.N.SO.-Said to have been
'brave to the last" although she
appeared visibly trembling when
saw her, Mrs. Elizabeth Tilford,
so, former Salvation Army worker,
died on the scaffold early today
for the poison murder of her third
husband, Tyrell, 36-year-old team.
Ster.
Reporters were barred at On
tario PROVINCES first hanging Of
q woman in 50 years, but by
climbing to the top Of the armory
across the street from the county
Jail courtyard, I was able to
watch the death march under the
falling snow, and to hear the
perceptible click Of the trap as
it sprung by the executioner at
1859 a. m. today.
Official silence cloaked the en-
tire proceedings, but it was said
Mrs. Tilford, mother Of nine chill
dren, SteadfaStly maintained her
innocence to the charges she fed
Tyrell Tilford poison so she would
be free to marry another.
Reported Near Collapse
Although the woman had held
her composure through the trial
and heard Stoically the rattle of
the scaffold being built almost be-
low her death cell Friday night,
she was reported in a state Of
Semicollapse in a corridor Of the
Jail about forty-five minutes be-
fore the nod of the executioner
summoned her to her doom.
It was said she tainted, although
this could not be confirmed. But
learned she was being famed
by q newspaper in the hands Of
an assistant matron.
Despite her emotional condition,
she refused the customary drug
offered the condemned before a
hanging. When I saw her, bare
headed, clad in somber black, un-
der the thin illumination Of lone
electric light bulb, she appeared
to be trembling, perhaps Sobbing
for the children she was leaving
behind.
Throughout, her few emotional
0utburStS have been precipitated
only by mention of the children,
two Of whom incidentally were
sent away to relatives in Detroit
. day or so before the execution.
The execution, under the super
vision OF Sam Edwards, veteran
Of 900 hangings, was held in
coal shed-20 PAGES from the door
Of the Jail from which the grim
procession emerged. I counted
the PAGES as she took them. 81
lently, head bowed low. Beside
her was her spiritual adviser, Rev.
Stanley Dixon.
SO short-and yet so long-was
the interval J. could not determine
the exact number in th4 process
sion, but counted 10 ircluding
the executiOaer, VINO LED the way,
jail and provincial officials.
Edwards. the executioner, has
said hanging is the most humane
form of carrying out the death
penalty because it is speedily
executed. Mrs, Tilford's was
speedy. Hardly had the party
entered the coal shed when the
click Of the death trap sounded,
barely audible, but nevertheless
significantly. './
1 climbed down from the ice
coated buildings.
Later, Mrs. Tilford's body was
claimed by relatives and spared
the traditional burial in the Jail
courtyard. Relatives buried her
in Baptist Cemetery. It was a
funeral Of 13 spectators, including
the Rev. and Mrs. Dixon, four re-
porters, q grave digger and the
Jail matron, who felt under news
papermen's DOTTED hats and
asked: ....
You Haven't Any KOdaks?'
"You haven't any kodaks?"
Assured no pictures would be
taken, the strange burial cere-
mony was performed quickly.
She was buried beside her Sec
ond husband, William Walker,
former Salvation Army official in
England, who died here in 1929 Of
q brain tumor. Walkers body
had been exhumed after Tyrell's
showed traces Of arsenic poison
ing last May, but nothing was
found.
Mrs. Tilford came here in 1928
from her native England where
she was active in church and
labor circles. AS chairman of a
labor meeting, she once intro
duced former Prime Minister
Ramsay Macdonald.
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