A SCENE OF HORROR-TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE WITNESS AN EXECUTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 141, 13 February 1886, Page 4

A SCENE OF HORROR -T E N THOUSAND PEOPLE WITNESS AN EXECUTION.

Nevada (Mo.) January 15.— Henry S. Stair, who murdered the Sewalls, was hanged at 1.2S p.m. Large crowds of people surged through the streets all morning, tramping between the jail and gallows which were erocted in a ravino forming a natural ampitheatre about one mile from the jail. Stair spoke from the ecaffold for half an hour, protesting his innocence and the innocence of the woman implicated with him, saying they weie victims of circumstances. The drop fell at 1.28 o'clock, and in fifteen minutes tbe body was pronounced lifeless, and handed over to his father, who will take it to Marshall County, Indiana, for interment. Ten thousand people witnessed the execution, and srood order prevailed. St. Louis, January 15.... Charles Wilson (coloured) was hanged this morning foi having killed Wm. A. David, second mate of the steamer Fannie Tatum, July 31st, 1885, by hitting him on the head with a rock. Wilson had been discharged and ordered away from the steamer, and returned to get some money he claimed was due to him. After the trap had been sprung, the body for a moment remained motionless, and then was enacted a scene of horror which chilled the blood of all who witnessed it. Two doctors, one on either side, were each holding a wrist, when the violent contortions of the hanging figure shook them aside, and before they could regain their hold upon the man whose actions showed he was in full possession of his senses and conscious of all that was going on, made frantic struggles to release himself. His right hand shot, up clutched the rope and held it firmly. It seemed as if the man must die by slow degrees from strangulation, but one of the doctors succeeded in disengaging his hand and in a short time the body hung a lifeless corpse.