Execution Tales Chapters 9-12
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Due to the positive & encouraging feedback I have received from those of you kind enough to respond to my work I have decided to increase the rate at which I post Execution Tales. Here are Chapters 9-12
09: Back Home & a News Catch Up
It is early 1867 by the time Jane & Josiah returned home to the Brownstone they have purchased in New York in which to start their married lives. One of the first things they did is head for the main post office to retrieve the several back copies of a monthly magazine they now subscribe to, “True Crime Monthly”. After dinner Mr & Mrs Edwards methodically worked their way through the lurid magazines for articles of especial interest describing cases they have missed when on their travels. Several items grabbed their attention.
Susan Eberhart
Susan Eberhart [White, aged between 17 & 21] had been hanged in Stewart County Georgia for assisting her employer, Ferdinand Spann, to kill his wife so that he could be with her. Mrs Spann had been strangled. They were arrested six days after the killing, & tried & sentenced less than a month after the murder. Susan went to the gallows in a new dress supplied by the Sheriff’s wife & with her hair neatly braided. She had to watch her lover kick his heels in the air on the scaffold while awaiting her turn to die. Like Mr Spann, & the victim, Miss Eberhart slowly strangled to death on the rope “Convulsing & kicking most vigorously before expiring”.
Alcee Harris
An African American 24 year old Alcee Harris was hanged in Ouachita, Lousiana for murder. She had persuaded her paramour, Tony Nellum, to kill her husband with an axe. Both confessed to their parts in the crime & they were executed side by side on a gallows set up outside the courthouse, in front of a crowd estimated at 5000. Alcee wore a white dress for the hanging. Both prisoners were given quite a short drop & while the much heavier Tony died fairly quickly the slim & slender Alcee writhed, twisted, jerked & struggled for some time after the trap fell at 10.30 am on that Friday morning
Priscilla Biggadyke
A 28 year old Boston housewife Priscilla Biggadyke had been hanged on a gallows adjoining the prison for killing another young woman, Abigail Spencer, who she believed, wrongly it turned out, had been having an affair with her husband. True Crime Monthly described it thus
Not surprisingly the prisoner had slept but little. On rising she dressed herself in what the magazine described as a “Narrow satin skirt, having a tight fitting basque. The hem of the skirt was ruffled & her blouse’s sleeves having ruching at the cuffs & neckline”. During the trial Priscilla had appeared calm & resigned to her fate however as she was led to the scaffold it was obvious to the official witnesses & the watching crowd that her composed demeanour had crumpled, tears ran down her cheeks & she trembled almost uncontrollably. At the top of the gallows steps, she paused, & as the priest uttered his final words of comfort, two deputies advanced, one of them swiftly slipping a black hood over her head. The hangman insisted on putting the noose under her chin claiming that this would cause instant unconsciousness. Muffled shrieks came from under the tightly drawn fabric as the rope was tightened around her slim neck.“True Crime Monthly” reported that in the event the executioner’s claims had proved to be false. “There was a rattle, a crash & a strangled cry. The struggles of the unhappy woman lasted at least three minutes until her lifeless body swayed from side to side in the wind, her skirt fluttering in the breeze”
Roxalana Druse
The execution that interested Jane & Josiah the most was that of 26 year old Roxalana Druse. She had been hanged in New York for the murder of her husband. She had beaten him to death with a poker & then chopped up the body, afterwards boiling down the remains. They lived in a frontier cabin in Little Falls in upstate New York & she was caught because her brother in law had reported Mr Druse missing to the police. The alleged motive for the crime was that her husband expected Roxalana to work too hard. What especially interested Mr & Mrs Edwards was the unusual method of hanging used.
The condemned woman was jerked upwards by a weighted rope, instead of being dropped through a trap door & this failed to break her neck. She took an agonising fifteen minutes to strangle to death on the noose.
The horror of Mrs Druse’s execution had led to some debate over this new method of hanging however to Jane & Josiah’s delight “True Crime Monthly” stated that the New York state authorities had decided to persevere with it for now
10: Bridget Durgan
Over the next couple of weeks Mr & Mrs Edwards avidly followed in the New York Daily News the details of the trial of a 22 year old servant girl of Irish descent, Bridget Durgan, for the murder of her mistress, a Mrs Coriell, whom it was alleged she had stabbed to death. Jane & Josiah were delighted when Bridget was convicted & sentenced to death. They were even more pleased when they learned that the Governor had refused to commute her sentence to life imprisonment
A week later they are in New Jersey, amongst a crowd of about 2000 waiting for Bridget to be brought to the gallows. Jane & Josiah arrived early to ensure that have a good close up view of the hanging & are standing less than fifteen yards from the gallows. They also have with them the opera glasses they obtained in London for the hanging of Marie Manning.
The doomed girl is led trembling with fear to the scaffold. She is wearing an ankle length brown skirt & bootees, white blouse with a lace collar, white gloves & matching stockings. On the gallows platform she is hooded, noosed & her hands are tied behind her. Jane & Josiah stare fascinated at the unusual execution mechanism. The hangman stands next to a lever. The Sheriff nods & the executioner pulls it towards him.
Instead of falling through a trap Bridget is jerked upwards to a height of about twelve feet, the other end of the rope being attached to a heavy weight that is released. The prisoner struggles, she convulses & kicks madly, her bound hands flex & writhe, her back arches pushing out her breasts as she desperately pants for breath. The girl dies hard, the agonies of slow strangulation continue for a full thirteen minutes before Bridget Durgan hangs dead on the rope
Mr & Mrs Edwards are not alone in thoroughly relishing the spectacle. Several other couples rub their bodies against each other as Bridget dances on the gallows. As she is a good twenty feet in the air above the crowd, Jane & Josiah & the others at the front of the crowd are treated to a highly stimulating “Upskirt” view of the dying girl. The Edwards both climax very satisfyingly as the struggles of the prisoner gradually slow & then cease
The next day Mr & Mrs Edwards are very disappointed to learn that due to the protracted suffering of Bridget Durgan during her hanging the authorities have decided to revert back to the traditional gallows for future executions
11: Mary Rogers
The next, & as it turned out final female public execution, attended by Jane & Josiah was that of Mary Rogers. Mary was a 21 year old Vermont housewife & she had been convicted of the murder of her husband Marcus. She had found another boyfriend, one Morris Knapp & was focussed by greed on Marcus’s $400.00 life insurance. The murder plot was bizarre. Mary persuaded her husband to go on a picnic & poisoned him with aconite, as he slipped into a coma Mary rolled his body into the Wallonsac River where he drowned. Unfortunately for Mary Marcus’s body was pulled from the river the next day & the subsequent post mortem identified the presence of the aconite. At that point Mary’s fate was effectively sealed. She was quickly tried, convicted & sentenced to death. The Governor turned down her final appeal & the 8th of December 1867 was set as the execution date.
As always Jane & Josiah arrive early at the gallows which has been assembled outside the state prison in Windsor Vermont. By the time the prisoner is led towards the scaffold a large crowd has gathered. Mary’s trim figure is well displayed by her tight fitting black silk dress. She is obviously petrified. The procession of death halts at the foot of the gallows steps, Mary has fainted.
The executioner revives the doomed woman with a shot of whisky & in another few seconds they are on their way up the steps leading to the scaffold platform. Mary’s face is ashen & there is a stricken haunted expression in her wide eyes. When she reaches the platform the guards usher her over to the trapdoor directly beneath the noose which dangles menacingly from the cross-beam. It takes them but a minute to tie her hands behind her, put the rope around her neck & slip the black cap over her face. Deputy Sheriff Romaine Spafford told her “I now proceed to execute the sentence of the law & may God have mercy on your soul”. The drop opens immediately & Mary falls down into the hole, but not to her death. The executioner had miscalculated the drop necessary to break the condemned woman’s neck
Mr & Mrs Edwards grip each other tightly, as usual Josiah is standing behind his wife, his erection pressing through his trousers & her skirt against Jane’s squirming buttocks. They have a good view under the gallows platform & can see Mrs Rogers struggling & kicking as she strangles on the rope. They can also clearly hear her gasping for breath, moaning & choking. Mary writhes & jerks for ten minutes before her struggles cease. This is more than enough time than Jane & Josiah need to reach their silent, but intense orgasms.
12: The Abolition of Public Executions & Mr & Mrs Edwards Plans
Over the next few months, much to Jane & Josiah’s disgust, the public mood in America turned against public executions, not least because of the horrifying scenes at some hangings such as those of Bridget Durgan & Mary Rogers. This sentiment wasn’t confined to the USA. It also held sway in the UK & in most other advanced European countries. While in the main they all retained capital punishment as a last resort for the courts the most advanced western societies unanimously decided that in future executions would take place only within the walls of their prisons
A germ of an idea begin to grow in Jane’s mind as she read about what the newspapers called “America’s first serial killer”. The man they were referring to was Doctor Henry Howard Holmes. Doctor Holmes had bought a medium sized hotel in Chicago & then proceeded to turn it into what was in effect a human abattoir. What had been his undoing had been the sheer number of the killings, which had finally led the police to his door as his hotel kept coming up in the dozens of missing person’s cases they were investigating.
At the trial, based on Doctor Holmes freely given confession & the amount of human remains found in the hotel basement, the final official estimate of the number of victims was given at approximately one hundred & fifty souls. Holmes had been engaged in his grisly activities for three years & as far as he could recall he had murdered his hotel’s guests at the rate of roughly one a week. He was totally indiscriminate in his selection of victims, men, women, young & old all met their ends at his hands. The only motive he gave was “That he killed people simply because he liked doing it”. Holmes plea of innocent by reason of insanity was rejected & he was hanged
When she broached the subject with Josiah, he if anything was even more enthusiastic than her
Step 1: Mr & Mrs Edwards sold the Brownstone & bought quite a large house in the country about half an hour by horse carriage from New York. It was in a secluded location & had a large empty wine cellar. Jane & Josiah set about refurbishing the property including some novel additions
Step 2: They began to research how best to get hold of the people they wanted. By mid-1869 they were ready to put their plans into place. They had established an employment agency specialising in finding work for newly arrived immigrants with offices in the port of New York. After three months, due to their network of contacts in both the legal, financial & medical worlds business was booming & they employed six office staff to assist them
Step 3: With the business now established they could now begin the real work. From the beginning either Jane or Josiah had sat in at the start of every initial interview with those seeking work via their agency. They had agreed, no matter how tempted they were, not to start selecting suitable candidates until the company was established & up & running.
If you want to find out what Jane & Josiah's plans are you will have to check the website tomorrow
09: Back Home & a News Catch Up
It is early 1867 by the time Jane & Josiah returned home to the Brownstone they have purchased in New York in which to start their married lives. One of the first things they did is head for the main post office to retrieve the several back copies of a monthly magazine they now subscribe to, “True Crime Monthly”. After dinner Mr & Mrs Edwards methodically worked their way through the lurid magazines for articles of especial interest describing cases they have missed when on their travels. Several items grabbed their attention.
Susan Eberhart
Susan Eberhart [White, aged between 17 & 21] had been hanged in Stewart County Georgia for assisting her employer, Ferdinand Spann, to kill his wife so that he could be with her. Mrs Spann had been strangled. They were arrested six days after the killing, & tried & sentenced less than a month after the murder. Susan went to the gallows in a new dress supplied by the Sheriff’s wife & with her hair neatly braided. She had to watch her lover kick his heels in the air on the scaffold while awaiting her turn to die. Like Mr Spann, & the victim, Miss Eberhart slowly strangled to death on the rope “Convulsing & kicking most vigorously before expiring”.
Alcee Harris
An African American 24 year old Alcee Harris was hanged in Ouachita, Lousiana for murder. She had persuaded her paramour, Tony Nellum, to kill her husband with an axe. Both confessed to their parts in the crime & they were executed side by side on a gallows set up outside the courthouse, in front of a crowd estimated at 5000. Alcee wore a white dress for the hanging. Both prisoners were given quite a short drop & while the much heavier Tony died fairly quickly the slim & slender Alcee writhed, twisted, jerked & struggled for some time after the trap fell at 10.30 am on that Friday morning
Priscilla Biggadyke
A 28 year old Boston housewife Priscilla Biggadyke had been hanged on a gallows adjoining the prison for killing another young woman, Abigail Spencer, who she believed, wrongly it turned out, had been having an affair with her husband. True Crime Monthly described it thus
Not surprisingly the prisoner had slept but little. On rising she dressed herself in what the magazine described as a “Narrow satin skirt, having a tight fitting basque. The hem of the skirt was ruffled & her blouse’s sleeves having ruching at the cuffs & neckline”. During the trial Priscilla had appeared calm & resigned to her fate however as she was led to the scaffold it was obvious to the official witnesses & the watching crowd that her composed demeanour had crumpled, tears ran down her cheeks & she trembled almost uncontrollably. At the top of the gallows steps, she paused, & as the priest uttered his final words of comfort, two deputies advanced, one of them swiftly slipping a black hood over her head. The hangman insisted on putting the noose under her chin claiming that this would cause instant unconsciousness. Muffled shrieks came from under the tightly drawn fabric as the rope was tightened around her slim neck.“True Crime Monthly” reported that in the event the executioner’s claims had proved to be false. “There was a rattle, a crash & a strangled cry. The struggles of the unhappy woman lasted at least three minutes until her lifeless body swayed from side to side in the wind, her skirt fluttering in the breeze”
Roxalana Druse
The execution that interested Jane & Josiah the most was that of 26 year old Roxalana Druse. She had been hanged in New York for the murder of her husband. She had beaten him to death with a poker & then chopped up the body, afterwards boiling down the remains. They lived in a frontier cabin in Little Falls in upstate New York & she was caught because her brother in law had reported Mr Druse missing to the police. The alleged motive for the crime was that her husband expected Roxalana to work too hard. What especially interested Mr & Mrs Edwards was the unusual method of hanging used.
The condemned woman was jerked upwards by a weighted rope, instead of being dropped through a trap door & this failed to break her neck. She took an agonising fifteen minutes to strangle to death on the noose.
The horror of Mrs Druse’s execution had led to some debate over this new method of hanging however to Jane & Josiah’s delight “True Crime Monthly” stated that the New York state authorities had decided to persevere with it for now
10: Bridget Durgan
Over the next couple of weeks Mr & Mrs Edwards avidly followed in the New York Daily News the details of the trial of a 22 year old servant girl of Irish descent, Bridget Durgan, for the murder of her mistress, a Mrs Coriell, whom it was alleged she had stabbed to death. Jane & Josiah were delighted when Bridget was convicted & sentenced to death. They were even more pleased when they learned that the Governor had refused to commute her sentence to life imprisonment
A week later they are in New Jersey, amongst a crowd of about 2000 waiting for Bridget to be brought to the gallows. Jane & Josiah arrived early to ensure that have a good close up view of the hanging & are standing less than fifteen yards from the gallows. They also have with them the opera glasses they obtained in London for the hanging of Marie Manning.
The doomed girl is led trembling with fear to the scaffold. She is wearing an ankle length brown skirt & bootees, white blouse with a lace collar, white gloves & matching stockings. On the gallows platform she is hooded, noosed & her hands are tied behind her. Jane & Josiah stare fascinated at the unusual execution mechanism. The hangman stands next to a lever. The Sheriff nods & the executioner pulls it towards him.
Instead of falling through a trap Bridget is jerked upwards to a height of about twelve feet, the other end of the rope being attached to a heavy weight that is released. The prisoner struggles, she convulses & kicks madly, her bound hands flex & writhe, her back arches pushing out her breasts as she desperately pants for breath. The girl dies hard, the agonies of slow strangulation continue for a full thirteen minutes before Bridget Durgan hangs dead on the rope
Mr & Mrs Edwards are not alone in thoroughly relishing the spectacle. Several other couples rub their bodies against each other as Bridget dances on the gallows. As she is a good twenty feet in the air above the crowd, Jane & Josiah & the others at the front of the crowd are treated to a highly stimulating “Upskirt” view of the dying girl. The Edwards both climax very satisfyingly as the struggles of the prisoner gradually slow & then cease
The next day Mr & Mrs Edwards are very disappointed to learn that due to the protracted suffering of Bridget Durgan during her hanging the authorities have decided to revert back to the traditional gallows for future executions
11: Mary Rogers
The next, & as it turned out final female public execution, attended by Jane & Josiah was that of Mary Rogers. Mary was a 21 year old Vermont housewife & she had been convicted of the murder of her husband Marcus. She had found another boyfriend, one Morris Knapp & was focussed by greed on Marcus’s $400.00 life insurance. The murder plot was bizarre. Mary persuaded her husband to go on a picnic & poisoned him with aconite, as he slipped into a coma Mary rolled his body into the Wallonsac River where he drowned. Unfortunately for Mary Marcus’s body was pulled from the river the next day & the subsequent post mortem identified the presence of the aconite. At that point Mary’s fate was effectively sealed. She was quickly tried, convicted & sentenced to death. The Governor turned down her final appeal & the 8th of December 1867 was set as the execution date.
As always Jane & Josiah arrive early at the gallows which has been assembled outside the state prison in Windsor Vermont. By the time the prisoner is led towards the scaffold a large crowd has gathered. Mary’s trim figure is well displayed by her tight fitting black silk dress. She is obviously petrified. The procession of death halts at the foot of the gallows steps, Mary has fainted.
The executioner revives the doomed woman with a shot of whisky & in another few seconds they are on their way up the steps leading to the scaffold platform. Mary’s face is ashen & there is a stricken haunted expression in her wide eyes. When she reaches the platform the guards usher her over to the trapdoor directly beneath the noose which dangles menacingly from the cross-beam. It takes them but a minute to tie her hands behind her, put the rope around her neck & slip the black cap over her face. Deputy Sheriff Romaine Spafford told her “I now proceed to execute the sentence of the law & may God have mercy on your soul”. The drop opens immediately & Mary falls down into the hole, but not to her death. The executioner had miscalculated the drop necessary to break the condemned woman’s neck
Mr & Mrs Edwards grip each other tightly, as usual Josiah is standing behind his wife, his erection pressing through his trousers & her skirt against Jane’s squirming buttocks. They have a good view under the gallows platform & can see Mrs Rogers struggling & kicking as she strangles on the rope. They can also clearly hear her gasping for breath, moaning & choking. Mary writhes & jerks for ten minutes before her struggles cease. This is more than enough time than Jane & Josiah need to reach their silent, but intense orgasms.
12: The Abolition of Public Executions & Mr & Mrs Edwards Plans
Over the next few months, much to Jane & Josiah’s disgust, the public mood in America turned against public executions, not least because of the horrifying scenes at some hangings such as those of Bridget Durgan & Mary Rogers. This sentiment wasn’t confined to the USA. It also held sway in the UK & in most other advanced European countries. While in the main they all retained capital punishment as a last resort for the courts the most advanced western societies unanimously decided that in future executions would take place only within the walls of their prisons
A germ of an idea begin to grow in Jane’s mind as she read about what the newspapers called “America’s first serial killer”. The man they were referring to was Doctor Henry Howard Holmes. Doctor Holmes had bought a medium sized hotel in Chicago & then proceeded to turn it into what was in effect a human abattoir. What had been his undoing had been the sheer number of the killings, which had finally led the police to his door as his hotel kept coming up in the dozens of missing person’s cases they were investigating.
At the trial, based on Doctor Holmes freely given confession & the amount of human remains found in the hotel basement, the final official estimate of the number of victims was given at approximately one hundred & fifty souls. Holmes had been engaged in his grisly activities for three years & as far as he could recall he had murdered his hotel’s guests at the rate of roughly one a week. He was totally indiscriminate in his selection of victims, men, women, young & old all met their ends at his hands. The only motive he gave was “That he killed people simply because he liked doing it”. Holmes plea of innocent by reason of insanity was rejected & he was hanged
When she broached the subject with Josiah, he if anything was even more enthusiastic than her
Step 1: Mr & Mrs Edwards sold the Brownstone & bought quite a large house in the country about half an hour by horse carriage from New York. It was in a secluded location & had a large empty wine cellar. Jane & Josiah set about refurbishing the property including some novel additions
Step 2: They began to research how best to get hold of the people they wanted. By mid-1869 they were ready to put their plans into place. They had established an employment agency specialising in finding work for newly arrived immigrants with offices in the port of New York. After three months, due to their network of contacts in both the legal, financial & medical worlds business was booming & they employed six office staff to assist them
Step 3: With the business now established they could now begin the real work. From the beginning either Jane or Josiah had sat in at the start of every initial interview with those seeking work via their agency. They had agreed, no matter how tempted they were, not to start selecting suitable candidates until the company was established & up & running.
If you want to find out what Jane & Josiah's plans are you will have to check the website tomorrow
>refurbishing the property including some novel additions
Hah!
I see what you did there...
Hah!
I see what you did there...
Alcee Harris died quickly Tony actually struggled a bit and some how he caught the rope on the way down. The Sheriff and jailor held down his arms and legs until he died.
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Forum > Public / Stories > Execution Tales Chapters 9-12