Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-05

The usual appeal to the Crown was made
for Communication of her sentence to life inn
prisonment. But His Majesty declined 10
intervene
II was her last legal hope but there re-
mains one possibility of at least a brief re-
prieve Hangman Pierrepont. vsibly nervous,
said he was thinking it over" which means
that at the last moment he may finch and
resign, rather than hang another woman
There are plenty of understudies ready to
take his place and $40 for only one
minutes work. But this is different The
Dreaded ordeal for new eXecutioner is his
first hanging and no novice ever began on
a woman
women are the nemesis OF British execu-
toners There is a general belief that the
man who hangs a woman thereby signs his
own death warrant Put II off though he
may the woman-hanger Is foreordained TO
suicide.
This may be superstition but it is sus-
tanned by facts.
Three predecessors of Mr.. Pierrepont=
Coleman Armstrong and John Ellis each
hanged a woman and each committed sui
cide
When Pierrcpont took over. he said.
Il am only the last cog in the machinery
Of justice which brings the murderer to his
death and ! have no responsibility. except
TO do II right. Judge, jury. witnesses, detec-
tives. prosecution and even the defense. may
err but not I shall not think about these
matters afterwards. except to improve my
workmanship"
At first Pierrepont went about his pro-
fession unhaunted by remose and then. six
years ago he hanged a woman. Mrs. LILY
Major. who had murdered her farmer hus-
band. with poison.
Lnly's case was much like that Of Flor
ence in that II almost perfect crime,
long planned. with the greatest ingenuity.
She had obtained the poison in way most
unlikely ever to be traced and administered
II in manner so unique that nobody would
suspect unless they first suspected her. This
nobody did at first as she went around weep
ing wrineing her hands and asking pitifully
What Will do?
II was not to Lilly's advantage financially
or sentimentally that the bread-winner should
die so il was only in hopes Of finding some
other person 10 pin IT on that sympathetic
policeman was questioning her. He was so
gentle about IT that Lillys mind must have
wandered because she remarked rrelevantly
L didn't know the poison was strychnin
Who said il was >" asked the policeman
with an expression that made Lilly turn pale
and faiter that she must have made mistake.
nv
truth discovered at the autopsy, but it had not
yet been given out
This slip turned the entire investigation
upon the weeping widow and eventually
proved her guilt The motive was hate, which
she hid all the time she plotting the muir
der by saying nice things behind her hus-
bands back"
She was sentenced TO the gallows.
VIII YOU go through with it?" Hangman
Pierrepont was asked and he replied, quoting
the words Of George B. Shaw on a previous
womanshanging
The galows has no sex. Why should
il make any difference that she is a woman ,"
But he found that it made a lot of diff
ference Pierrepont WAS surprised at his
own relief when the two prison chaplains
assured him that Mrs Major had made her
peace with God and in a calm resigned
frame of mind.
But at dawn when he came to invite her
for that eight-pace walk to eternity, all this
changed.
In an instant Lilly became a screaming,
scratching. biting wild animal. Her hands
were strapped behind her back but she had
to be carried to the seaffeldi-with its trap
door and dangling moose
Guards -her-sqhie he adjusted the
moose expertly with the knot behind one ear.
But the moment the guards released her,
The woman threw herself on the platform
displacing the knot in such way that the drop
would probably not break her neck and she
would slowly strange to death.
Finally she had to be bound to chair
and hanged chair and all!