Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1936-03-13
Man Who Was
Hanged Tells the
Story of Death

ippi recently to describe how it feel
to "die."
William Isaac Purvis, of Purvis
Miss, was hanged Feb. 7, 1894, be
cause they said he shot and killet
Will Buckley. They led him to tn
steps of the yellow pine gallows
strapped his arms and legs ane
wrapped a thick silk bandag'
around his eyes.
"Have you anything to say?'
they asked. Purvis choked back tn
tears, because he was 10 and hae
much to live for, and answered:
Before God / am innocent"
They cut the rope which sprans
the trap door and Purvis plunged
down to what should have been hi!
death. But the knot slipped or un-
tied-no one remembers now-ane
Purvis crashed eight feet to thu
ground.
The tough hemp rope scared hi:
neck, tearing the flesh, and Purvi:
collapsed, unconscious. A prison
deputy scratched executed Feb. 7.
1894" after Purvis' name, but the
62-year-old Bayou farmer lives to-
day as the worlds only executed
prisoner who can discuss his own
death.
Will Buckley was killed from
ambush June p, 1898, while rid
ing back from Columbia, Miss,
with his brother Jim, where they
told a grand jury how the Ku Klux
Klan had beaten a Negro to death.
Purvis was a member of the
"White Caps and that same night
he was arrested at his home near the
town named after. his family. Jim
Buckley said he recognized a figure
through bushes as Purvis.
Purvis was found guilty of first
degree murder and sentenced to die
Sept. 6, but an appeal was carried
to the State Supreme Court and the
execution was delayed. Then the
court affirmed the verdict and the
execution was set for Feb. 7, 1894,
and the 19-year-old youth prepared
to die.
Purvis, a ruddy-faced man with
a barrel-sized chest, described it in
his slow hating speech.
"I had given up all hope" he
said. II really didn't see the
crowd. They were just a blur of
faces. Maybe l was sobbin', I
don't know. You see, l was so
young then. But they didn't have
to carry me up the steps like they
did some. I went myself.
"You can't explain the feeling a
man has, when he's about to die for
a crime he didn't do. l can't de-
scribe it, l just suddenly felt all
alone and cold, and a second later
my feet dropped from under me
and everything went black"
c.. C. McDavid, a friend of Pur-
Wis and publisher of the Percy
County Herald in New Augusta,
took up the story from there.
"When the crowd saw the rope
slip, some of the women tainted"
McDavid said. "a strange hush fell
owe the 1000 people. Then a
minister leaped forward and
screamed:
This is an act of God. 1t is a
sign of Providence that this man i,
innocent. Shall we let him die?:'"
"They all shouted: "No!" and
took Purvis away from the Sheriff.
Later he was returned because an
other appeal had been made to the
State Supreme court"
The court, however, refused to
admit that Purvis was legally exc
cuted, asserting hat he "did not
hang, by the neck until dead"
Purvis' second execution was set
for Dec. II, 1895, but a few weeks
before that date friends stormed
into the jail and rescued him.
For three months he remained in
hiding as A. ]. McC laurin, candi-
date for governor, %campaigned
across the flat water regions of
Mississippi with the communication
of Purvis' sentence as one of the
planks in his platform.
McClaurin won, and when he
took office the third week of 1896,
Purvis surrendered. McClaurin
who later became U. S. Senator.
committed the sentence, and after
!Purvis served p months on convict
farms, granted him a full pardon.
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