The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 15, 1901, Page 5

- hanging a2 man THE ‘SUNDAY CALL. ipped the noose core of Cali- ed at Napa, a vic- They his n the de- w ination of cir- & swor head by forces feve himself a bi revolutions One night on the eve of e n some very you run thin Hale ha in his ¢ & = a w — 2 out War- ¢ 1 kindly was sele nooses over trap is & by e s ble Thre w n » @ unknown s which is s actual hanging, was willing to place the noose about P ders necessary to explain th K e death machine. The s on the fourth g and oc te-chamber space, which = and is om an exterior the is rstitions and while will- refuses “hoodoo” had the is about three-quarters of an neter and looks much like or- only that upon feeling it is riy sc pliable, ft and of which it s catgut. fibers com- posed are as strc When a fresh coil comes from the rope- walk lengths are from it and rove through pulleys in the ceiling. One end is made fast and the other has a box at- tached to it which is filled with three hun- dred pounds of bric This heavy weight stretching the the scaffold present, as at all times, being stretched at San is kept rope until it is wanted &t There are at three ropes t! Quentin. As s00n 2s one is used another is put on the stretcher. So sure is the hangman of his game. Beware! men who'are planning crimes. The ropes are stretching in hangman's hall The assistant those ropes, wh hardening, just rel of L3 The test hangmen e tk rub and pat y are stretching and 2 hunter pats the bar- a rope when it is ready for is that it must have no more stretch it. It must be “dead,” as Lunt used to call it. Then the stretch is gone, the twist is gone, 2nd when the b drops it stays. It does not spring up and down, or turn round and round. It sta ill, which m easier on.the pectators, = is ve! nerves of the After g rooms comes the one in whic} the gallows is erected. A platform p: twelve feet square, Ly tle more than the height of a man’s head from the floor, toward the front of the platform, two traps, side by = side. Above them the stout beam from which two nooses are dangling. In the noose is a round cyl r of wood, three or four inches in dizmeter. *Just the size that & man's neck reduces to when hanged,” nlote hzngma painfully small, expla It looks painfully and makes one wi the head a bit just to feel the joys of freedom. Sus- pended to the block of wood is a weight box, with the weight in it equaling thst It is dropped just before the man is, to test ihin very At the back of the platform, on one side, comes up a flight of thirteen steps on the other side is the box in which the Invisible Three are hidden. The strands upon whicn the man's life rests pa through this box, but no one know which is which. ch of the cords a is cut allows a cannon ball to drop. One of the cannon balls jerks the bolts whicih holds the trap in place, and at the same time gives the trap a violent downward pull. The men ar¢ sent into this box be- fore any other persons are allowed in the room and do not leave until after they have all departed, so that they are for- ever unknown except to each other and to the one who drew their nam As it was in the hands of these three fates that Lunt left the life of a prisoner, after placing the noose, he always felt that he was morally free from any part in the actual taking off, any more than the Judge who tried or the Sheriff wio kept and conveyed them. His first experience was, for him, an easy one. American. Very much indeed an Ameri- can, for he was half American Indian, and faced his fate with the quiet u sumed stoicism which was bred bone. It made the work of the tyros simple fortunately The hangee was an s- in the and expeditious, s0 much so that the comments, as reported in a paper of the day, were: “A° perfect hanging.” very neat job.” *A splendid hanging. gy, ‘% niting of “Warden Hale executed the decree of the court expeditiously with much tact and in a most formal manner.” Contrary to the usual custom this In- dian refused to take any stimulant, and by special request was allowed to die and be buried with his boots on. What was s strange idea in this no one ever knew, his last ze Lunt dropped the noose over his head was down at his precious boots, and as the black cap slipped over his face they were the last sight of his life. “Perhaps,” said Lunt, “they reminded him of his first pair and the boyhood days associated with them.” The second was also easy. A Chinese highbihder, Ah Sing, one of the Suey Sing Tong, and a man who knew how to die. Besides he was yellow. Lunt said it was always hardest to hang a man who showed fair red blood in his cheeks. As he dropped the wide-open noose over Sing’s head that good-natured brown man called loudly to the guards around who had treated him so kindly: *“Good- Dby alla man; allee men good-by.” Sing's bones are now in China. Patrick Joseph Sullivan stabbed his wife until there were nine mortal wounds upon her body. A good subject for the hangman all would say. But Lunt thought not go. It was the first of his experiences which started him to thinking, kept him pondering as he sat up in his lonely tower against the sky watching the prisoners’ gate. Sullivan had worked steadily in the navy from the time he was a boy and v came out with $8900 in gold. Met Deanis Taylor, a dive’waitress, and married her to reform her, because he loved her. It worked the other way. She got him to start a saloon. Then she went wrong again. He took her out in the country and bought a farm where they could live happily, free from city wickedness. She got lonesome and he gave her a lot of money to come to the city for a visit. She came and staid with an old friend. Again he took her back and bought her a city house and furnished it. One night he came home, found the furniture sold, the wife gone with another and a note left saying that she had gotten every- thing that he had, that she had no more use for him, and for him to leave her alone. Fe found her and gave her nine fatal stabs¢ Because he loved her? Sullivan wanted to die gamely. He made a little speech before he died. Not to defend himself, but to say to others: “Leave women, wine and song alone. That is why I am here.” He then asked the privilege of being allowed to place the noose over his own head, but it was ‘whisperingly explained to him by Lunt that his arms would have.to be strapped. “Don’t draw them so tight, then,” he aid. “I will not kick.” The noose was put on his head and js the cap went on his face there came from beneath it, in muffied tones, ‘“What are you pulling that knot so tight for?"” but before he had finished the words the trap sprung -beneath him and the body snot through the black square. June 7, 1865, was a trying day for Lunt. There were three executions set for It. Three men to hang! Foftunately, they were not the kind of men about whom he need be squeamish. Emile Garcla had cit a Frenchman throat in San Bernardino. A. Azoff had killed Len Harris. P. J. Collins had mur- dered his janitor wife to get drink money. There were six men on the death watch over these prisoners, for it was known that Azoff had been boasting that he would cheat the gallows. The death chambers in which they were confited were wooden cages in the middle of an open room. Nothing in them but mattresses on the floor and bedding on that. A bright gas jet burned high near the eeiling. Outside two locomotive head- lights cast their powerful rays into the celis, so that they were brighter than @ay. Even with all this, one of the pris- oners managed to get his head under the blankets, tie a shoestring around his neck and nearly choke himself to death. Azoff was more carefully searched, and it was found that he had broken open one of his shoes from the inside, taken out the little steel spring which supports the instep, sharpened it like a razor and would have very successfully performed his own ex- ecution. * His shoes were taken from him and he marched to the gallows in slip- pers, which custom has been since fol. lowed. It seemed like a long day's work to hang three men, and lest something might happen, a trap break or unexpected troublds occur, an early start was made. At 6:%5 the procession came out of the door leading from the death chamber. Two priests chanted the service for the dead. Garcia when up on the platform nodded and smiled at the two prisoners who had been detailed as undertakers, spoke pleasantly to Lunt and laughed at the rest, who were showing nervousness. He had Castilian blgod and dared face death. No sooner was he in his coffin and idly staring at those on whom he had smiled but ten minutes before than a new rope was brought from the stretching room, tied in its place, tested by the dropping weight and all was ready for the next. Azoff and Collins had both heard the drop and 1n fact every little sound con- nected with Garcia's hanging, and Lunt was much pained whenever the least audible noise was made. It seemed to cut him like a knife, and he was flerce in his commands to those who were guilty of the least negligence, for there was nothing, but a board partition between the two rooms and he knew what suffer- ing it inflicted upon the remaining pris- oners, for he realized that even the dull- est and most insensible of men become keenly conscious in that supreme moment of their lives which precedes the close. “Didn’t I tell you I'd die game?” said Azoff, as the black cap and the tighten- ing noose cut off utterance. He was a giant in strength and the drop, although more than usual, did not kill him. For thirteen minutes he fought and struggled on the end of the rope like \a trout on a line and nearly burst loose the heavy har- ness strap which bound his arms. o, Y W54t Collins came third ana last, tor his had been the greater crime and it was fit that he should take the most punishment. He looked wanderingly, shiftingly about. Father Lagan, the Catholic priest of San Rafael, who had gone upon the plat= form with him, spoke the few words wkich Collins had not tongue to say, but had wished to appear As his death state- ment. Then the trap sprung again and Lunt walked away smoking a cigar. “Quite cool, isn't he?” said the ome lookers. Not so Warden, Hale. While Azoff was going through his ter- rible death struggle a cousin of Harriy gripped Hale warmly by the hand and thanked him for putting the slayer of his.tousin out of the way. It shocked Hale beyond measure to think how he was looked upon. Soon after the triple hanging of June 7 came that of Fredericks on the 2%th of June, 1895, which was a busy year for the San Quentin gallows. Fredericks had killed Cashier Herrick, quite bravely for a murderer, as it was done in broad day- ‘ight, but he lost his grit when he came to pay the penalty. Lunt helped him up eps, for he seemed to need the sup- port. The miserable man glanced fearfully up at the rope and then fastened his eyes upon it and became oblivious of every- thing He had.prepared his dying statement, but had not memorized it well enough to carry him through the terror of the occa- sion and became stage-struct He! simpered like a schoolboy and the quiet Father Lagan prompted him through his last speech, As Frederic shot out the last word, “amen,” Lunt dropped the noose over his head. ‘“Make it tight,” said Fredericks, and even as he said it his own weight did so. Freeman Smith, who was in the death cell waiting his turn, made many jokes before Fredericks’ hanging, but after it was so upset that he asked that none be permitted to come to his cel Smith’s own execution occurred August. He was much afraid that gallows would not be strong enough hold him, as he weighed pounds. When Lunt brought into the executing chamber he lool carefully at the apparatus and finally concluded that it was all right. But Smith had mis- calculated where weakness lay. It was in his own neck, which was completely sev- ered except for one small cord. Long confinement in jail and prison had made him soft and flabby and the rope cut through. This in spite of the fact that he was given but five feet of drop, while Fredericks had just had seven. A spectacular hanging was that of Han- sen and St. Clair, alleged mutineers of the crew of the Hesp They had been tried for an offense on the high seas in a United States court and were sentenced to be executed by the then Marshal, Barry Baldwin. Baldwin was a mild-mannered, tender- hearted man, and his nervousness and terror were so pitiable that even the pris- oners felt sorry for him and asked that he be not brought around le age should fail as well as On the morning of the execution Baldwin rein- forced his spirits until he was able to get to the condemned men’'s cell and read their death warrants, but he mumbled rather than spoke, and, partly supported by Hale, he was assisted up the stairs. Lunt and the man who helped him were not mated in speed, and for a full min- ute after Lunt’'s man was ready to be dropped the other was bungling with his noose. At last he was ready, but Bald- win was dazed and could not give the sig- nal. The muffled prisoners stood in ilence upon the traps. The wait seqmed erminable. The gallows frame began hudder from combined trembling weight upon it and the tense condition of all muscles. The gallows frame rattled, and there was every chance that the men would faint from the suspense and the choking of the rope about their necks. At last some ore out of pity for the men gave & signal and the traps fell together. Hansen’s body was taken and cared for by a Miss Peterson of San Jose, to whom he was engaged. Ten physiclans were present at this hanging—three for each man hanged, and it was sald that the other four were for the United States Marshal in case he suffered from heart failure. The hanging of Willlam Young on Oc- tober 25, 1895, closed what had been the busiest season that the prison had ever seen. Young was the weakest nerved of all. His head rolled and his knees stag- gered as he tried to go to his fate. After all these, the hanging of Chum Sing, a highbinder from up in the Sierras, was an easy matter, for he was sullen and morose and seemed unconcerned about his fate. F. C. Kloss, too, was easy, for he had killed a sleeping friend while under the influence of liquor. Harvey Allender of San Jose had mur- dered hig sweetheart because he saw her with another man, and had killed the other man, too. He tried to die game, but he was Lunt’s thirteenth man, and it _seemed a strain for both of them. Durrant’s execttion was an event. Spe- cial wires had Leen run to the prison, so that if a reprieve came there might be no delay in getting it there on time.” Men were stretched along the road to guard the wires lest they be cut or tampered with. Durrant had been reprieved again and again, and another might come. Lunt was the I man in the funeral procession when Durrant entered the exe- cution chamber. On the scaffold, just as the noose was being slipped over his head, Durrant gave a look at the executioner, which Lunt interpreted meant that from terror the words could not be spoken, but he wished for time. It was given. Dur- rant made his speech, repeating again and again his ocence. -After a dra- matic pause the noose dropped, followed by the black cap; a hand was raised, the body fell and hung motionless. “Very successful,” wrote the hangman in the little record book. George Clark of Santa Rosa, who killed s brother, was the last man that Lunt assisted in hanging, and it must have given him great satisfaction, if such a mild-mannered man could take satisfac- tion in hanging even the worst men. There is many a man in California who can show you a bit of rope an inch or so long which was taken from the necks of one of the hanged men above referred to, and those bits of rope will soon take an- other value in the eyes of their possessors, for Lunt himself wiil soon have passed away. in the to him t their cour-