TO CHEAT THE GALLOWS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 46, 15 September 1900, Page 1

TO CHEAT THE GALLOWS.

There in a murderer of the name of William Humane] i, who is to be hanged at Williamsport, Pa., shortly for the 'brufcal murder of his wife and three children. Having been informed by his lawyers at the moment of his conviction that there was no escape from the gallows, he set to work to cheat the latter, not by means of suicide, but by acrobatic exercises. His entire time, from morning till night, has been spent in performing athletic feats in his cell, _ ; the prison authorities kindly furnishing him with the necessary appliances, such as horizontal and - parallel bars, trapeze;, atjd all other nec-essary paraph ernalik The feats which he now atfeomplisires are well mosfcjxtraordinary of all boing his f istenin'gTT"" ropß round M=s neck with a regular hangman's knot, and then jumping off from his wash-stand, the fall being about 3ft. . He can do this now a number of times ' in succession, and by a peculiar knack is not^only abieto ' avoid the breaking of His neck, \\xjs likewise strangulation. He has Dean" - informed by his lawyers -that' it once 'suspended 'to the gaUbwsioij . the normal lefigtrh 6f 'nlW^JS<f'|i}j(j down alive., < he! becomes fsreeman, and can '.never' "again Ib'tj punished. / - It is for this that he is praptisfng 1 , the prisQn authositiiee helping him and being- apparently as interested in this scheme as he is himself.— London paper.