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Thread: Notable Pennsylvania Executions

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Notable Pennsylvania Executions


    Fire gutted the farmhouse at the intersection of Limekiln Road and Oley Turnpike Road in Oley Township on Saturday night. The property is the site where Susanna Cox murdered her infant son in 1809..


    Fire destroys site of infamous 1809 killing

    Fire has destroyed an old eastern Pennsylvania farmhouse that officials say was the site of a murder that resulted in the last public execution of a woman in Pennsylvania history.

    The cause of the Oley Township fire on Saturday night, which killed three dogs, remains unknown. State police in Reading estimated damage at $250,000 or more and said the home appears to be a total loss, The Reading Eagle (http://bit.ly/1mUkzLn) reported.

    Berks County historian George Meiser said the structure was historically significant, but had never been open to the public. But he said an unwed domestic servant was convicted of having killed her newborn on the property in February 1809.

    Meiser said Susanna Cox, 24, hid her pregnancy from the family she was serving. A few days after she gave birth, a farmer found the infant's body in a small stone cabin on the property. Cox acknowledged that the child was hers but said he had been stillborn.

    But a 1900 account of the case posted on the Historical Society of Berks County website said a physician's examination of the body revealed "that the lower jaw had been broken, the tongue torn loose and thrust back, and strangulation evidently produced by a wad of tow or flax which had been forced into the throat."

    Convicted by a Berks County Court jury and sentenced to death, Cox "bowed her head and wept convulsively, still, however, maintaining her innocence," the account states. Denied clemency by the governor, the account says, she later signed a confession prepared for her that was read to the crowd before her execution.

    She was executed on June 10, 1809, on Gallows Hill, where the Berks County Vietnam Memorial now stands in City Park. By some estimates, as many as 20,000 people witnessed the hanging. Her story has been re-enacted at the Kutztown Folk Festival for years.

    http://www.wpxi.com/news/ap/pennsylv...killing/nfTNk/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    One of the Worst Serial Killers America has ever had.

    He may have killed as many as 200 people.

    Serial killer H H Holmes hanged for his many crimes (1896)

    Murderer Holmes’ career comes to an end on the gallows.

    Stubborn to the last, he died as if entirely indifferent to his awful fate

    Declaring his innocence.

    The execution passed off without any incidents of a sensational nature.

    Philadelphia, Pa., May 7 — Herman W Mudgett, alias H H Holmes, was hanged this morning in the County Prison for the killing of Benjamin F Pietzel.

    The drop fell at 10:12 o’clock, and twenty minutes later, he was pronounced dead by the prison officials, Dr Sharp and Dr Batcher.

    The execution was in every way entirely devoid of any sensational features. To the last, Holmes was self-possessed and cool, even to the extent of giving a word of advice to Assistant Superintendent Richardson as the latter was arranging the final details.

    He died as he had lived, unconcerned and thoughtless, apparently, of the future, even with the recollection still vividly before him of the recent confession in which he admitted the killing of a score of persons of both sexes in different parts of the country.

    Almost his last words were a point-blank denial of any crimes committed except the deaths of two women at his hands by malpractice. Of the murder of several members of the Pietzel family, he denied all complicity, particularly of the father, for whose death he stated he was unjustly suffering the penalty. With the prayer of the spiritual attendants still sounding in his ears and with a few low-spoken words to those about him, the trap was sprang.

    There were comparatively few persons gathered on the outside of the prison during the early part of the morning and the morbid throng which the prison officials expected would be drawn there by the execution was lacking. Access to the prison prior to the entrance of those permitted to witness the execution was not allowed.

    All the arrangements for the burial of Holmes were entrusted by the murderer to Mr Rotan. The place of interment has, it is understood, been selected, but those who are most likely to know where the grave is to be will not divulge the location.

    At 10 o’clock, the doors leading to the long corridor in which was placed the gallows were opened and, two by two, led by the Sheriff’s jury, the spectators passed down. The last man had just passed through the doors and the latter closed when from behind was heard the slow and measured tread of the death party.

    The suspense was almost painful, brief though it was, when, preceded by Sheriff Clements and Superintendent Perkins, Holmes appeared and stepped on the trap. On the right was Father Dailey, to the left Father McPake, and behind them Lawyer Rotan and Assistant Superintendent Richardson. The little party stood a moment looking down, and then, in response to a signal from one of those beside him, Holmes stepped forward. He spoke slowly and with measured attention to every word — a trifle low at first, but louder as he proceeded, until every word was distinctly audible.

    “Gentlemen,” he said, “I have very few words to say, in fact, I would make no statement at this time, except that by not speaking I may be made to acquiesce in my execution. I only want to say that the extent of my wrongdoings in the taking of human life consisted in the death of two women, they having died at my hands as the result of criminal operations. I wish to state also, however, so that there will be no misunderstanding hereafter, that I am not guilty of taking the lives of any of the Pietzel family, the three children or the father, Benjamin F Pietzel, of whose death I am now convicted, and for which I am today to be hanged. That is all.”

    Take your time; don’t bungle it,” Holmes remarked as the official exhibited some little haste, the outcome of nervousness. These were almost his last words. The cap was adjusted, a low-toned query, “Are you ready?” and an equally low-toned response, “Yes, good-bye,” and the trap was sprung.

    Holmes’ neck was not broken, and there were a few convulsive twitches of the limbs that continued for about ten minutes. “But he suffered none after the drop,” said Dr Scott, the prison physician. The trap was sprung precisely at 10:12-1/2, and fifteen minutes later Holmes was pronounced dead, though the body was not cut down until 10:45. When it was laid out on the stretcher occurred the only incident approaching the revolting in connection with the affair.

    http://clickamericana.com/media/news...ny-crimes-1896

    More on Holmes who is considered one of the first American Serial killers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Since the Maguires were are back in the news here is a story about them.

    2011

    Behind the Maker

    explorahistory

    On the wall of the old county jail in what was then Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania, is a handprint that, according to folklore, was made by Alex Campbell, one of four members of an Irish labor organization called the Molly Maguires, executed on June 21, 1877. Insisting he was innocent, Campbell declared that "this is proof of my words. That mark will never be wiped out." And it never has.

    Were the Mollies terrorists, working-class heroes, or something in between? To this day, the guilt of the twenty Mollies executed between 1877 and 1879 is hard to discover. Nearly all of the evidence that led to their convictions was provided by James McParland, a Pinkerton detective who infiltrated them. What is not in doubt, however, is the dangerous precedent in the history of Pennsylvania law enforcement that the convictions and execution of these Irish coal miners initiated

    Molly Maguire was, supposedly, the leader of riots in Ireland against exploitative English landowners during the 1840s. In the 1850s, Irish coal miners brought the organization with them when they crossed the ocean to work in the anthracite coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania. Conditions were terrible in the Pennsylvania mines - safety regulations were non-existent or neglected; breaker boys as young as six worked picking slate; families lived in poor company-owned houses, and were forced to shop at company stores; nothing except a few dollars compensated those injured or the families of those killed in this dangerous trade; and foremen frequently abused workers or undervalued the quantity of coal mined, which determined their wages.

    During the Civil War, Irish immigrant miners killed a number of mine supervisors and executives on local draft boards who attempted to induct them into the Union army. After the war, the violence and lawlessness continued. Northeastern Pennsylvania was in many ways like the Wild West. An isolated region with towns that had few, if any, police and constant conflict between the coal operators and their workers, disputes were settled by the men who took action.

    We may never know whether the Mollies carried out any murders, and what, if any, connections existed among the Mollies, the murders, the local Democratic Party, the Order of Ancient Hibernians, and the union formed in the coal regions in 1868. What we do know is that Frank Gowen, the ruthless president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, was secretly buying enough mines to gain control of the industry, and had starved miners into submission during the disastrous "Long Strike" of 1875 to break the back of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association. The Mollies, in league with the local Democrats, had their own political machine, which controlled a number of local governments in Schuylkill County.

    In the early 1870s, Gowen hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate the Molly Maguires and eliminate the last opposition to his control of the anthracite mines. For two and a half years, James McParland, an Irish Catholic from Ulster, worked under cover, working, fighting, and conspiring with his fellow countrymen. After McParland's cover was blown, Gowen himself, serving as the district attorney of Schuylkill County, led the prosecution of the Molly Maguires who were indicted and then convicted largely on McParland's testimony. On June 21, 1877, the last of the Molly Maguires were hanged in the Carbon County prison in Mauch Chunk.

    Despite all the confusion about the history of Molly Maguires, what is not at issue is what the trial of 1877 reveals about the domination of Pennsylvania business interests over the state's political and legal system. What took place, according to historian Harold Aurand, was "one of the most astounding surrenders of sovereignty in American history. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency; a private police force arrested the alleged offenders; the coal company attorneys prosecuted them. The state only provided the courtroom and hangman."

    In the decades that followed, railroads, coal companies, and steel companies continued to use Pinkerton agents, deputized under Coal and Iron Police commissions, to enforce their will upon workers and their families. Henry Frick, chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, used them in 1884 to guard his coal fields and strikebreakers, in 1891 to protect Italian strikebreakers, and again, with disastrous results during the Homestead Strike of 1892. Only then did the state of Pennsylvania become alarmed that private armies rather than public servants were wielding police powers in William Penn's Commonwealth, including the powers to enter private homes, disperse crowds, and arrest and imprison citizens.

    http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker....rkerId=1-A-3B9

    The marker that this story is about reads

    On June, 1877, the largest mass execution in Pennsylvania State History took place as ten alleged "Molly Maguires" were hanged in two PA locations, Mauch Chuck, Pottsville. The Molly Maguires were purported to be a secret Irish American with labor union roots, which sought violent retribution primary against the cola and railroad industries.


    http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker....rkerId=1-A-3B9

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Writer turns story of county's only hangings into book

    In 1857 in Danville, Catherine Ann Clark and David Twiggs died within 3 weeks of each other.

    The cause of death for both was determined to be arsenic poisoning. They and their respective spouses, William J. Clark and Mary Twiggs, all knew each other.

    Rumors swirled. William Clark and Mary Twiggs eventually were arrested and put on trial for Catherine's death. Both were convicted, and in 1858, they were hanged on separate dates in the Montour County Prison.

    That sounds like the end of the story, but questions still remain.

    That intrigued former radio newsman Terry Diener, who decided to dig deeper into the story. The result of that curiosity is Diener's new book, "A Deed Of The Foulest Kind."

    The ebook is available for purchase on amazon.com and a print copy will be available soon.

    Diener said he was intrigued by the story because, for one, Clark and Twiggs were the only 2 people ever hanged in Montour County, and 1 was a woman.

    "Once you delved into the story, there are twists and turns," Diener said. "Clark said he had enemies."

    Rumors were flying

    Catherine Ann Clark died on May 9, 1857. Mrs. Clark’s horrific illness also sickened her infant, whom she was nursing. The child also died a short time later.

    David Twiggs died just 3 weeks prior to Clark on April 19.

    "There were rumors flying around the community," Diener said. "Where Mr. Clark worked at the big mill, there were rumors."

    After it was determined Clark had died of arsenic poisoning, Twiggs' body was exhumed to find out if he had died of the same cause, Diener said.

    The spouses were arrested and charged with murder.

    "Neighbors said there was a strange familiarity between William Clark and Mary Twiggs," Diener said.

    According to information Diener provided, not everyone was so sure they were murderers, though. Public opinion was divided, according to newspaper accounts, though, Diener said, two store clerks testified they had sold arsenic to Clark. One later changed his testimony.

    Clark even tried to escape from prison on Sept. 5, 1857. The following February, he was convicted after a 2-day trial in February 1858, and Judge Alex Jordan imposed the death penalty. Twiggs went on trial in May. After a split first ballot, she also was found guilty of murdering Catherine Ann Clark. The same judge imposed the death penalty on Twiggs.

    Gov. William F. Packer signed death warrants for Clark and Twiggs on July 8, 1858. Clark’s hanging was set for Sept. 24, 1858 and Twiggs was scheduled to die in the same way on Oct. 22.

    Claimed innocence to the end

    In July, Clark issued a lengthy statement that was published in local newspapers. In it, he proclaimed his innocence and blamed others for his conviction. The Sunbury Gazette carried a portion of Clark’s letter in its July 31,1858 edition. Montour American newspaper editor D.H.B. Brower offered readers William Clark’s full statement in a pamphlet for 10 cents.

    Four days after Clark's execution, Twiggs attempted to escape from her prison cell, but Sheriff Edward Young thwarted the attempt.

    According to Diener's research, Twiggs' spiritual adviser, the Rev. J.W. Yeoman, the minister at Mahoning Presbyterian Church, asked Twiggs directly about her feelings for Clark.

    She said, “I did not like him altogether, not that I saw anything very ill about him, but he was light and trifling like, many times and acted foolish.”

    Diener also found a letter from Twiggs in the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. In the letter, she said she wasn't guilty and said she was worried for her two young children. During the trial, according to newspaper accounts Diener found, Twiggs said a neighbor hated her husband because of a barking dog and tried to kill David. She said David Twiggs and William Clark became ill after drinking punch at the neighbor's.

    "Clark and Mrs. Twiggs both maintained their innocence to the very end," Diener said.

    "The story has a number of twists and turns, a lot of questions to ask," Diener said.

    Let the reader decide

    Local historian and Montour County Historical Society member Helen "Sis" Hause, of Danville, said she read the manuscipt and loved it.

    "The detail that went into the writing," Hause said. "He made the mystery so interesting that you can't stop reading it."

    Hause said Diener was dedicated to doing the book and doing it right.

    "The story has been told before," she said. "The effort he went through made it something you want to read. The writing is just engaging and gets you totally involved."

    Diener, 67, a former board member and secretary of the Montour County Historical Society, portrays Civil War Union Army Col. Charles Eckman of the 93rd Infantry Regiment. Several years ago, he compiled a small book, "To See What I Have Seen: Montour County Men in the Civil War."

    He is a contributor to the Montour County Historical Society and the Genealogical Society newsletter.

    Diener said he is planning a book signing on Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bason Coffee Roasting in Danville.

    He said he has his own opinion about the pair's guilt or innocence, but he is not sharing it.

    "I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if one or both were guilty — or neither," he said.

    (source: The Danville News)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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