THE INFLICTION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE TOMBS
Friday has always been known as hanging day at the Tombs. It was the day
set apart from time immemorial and the New World continued it in
deference to Old World customs. Friday with few exceptions had been
adhered to in New York County for over fifty years, and the spectacle
brought together a large concourse of people, largely of the noisy
class. In the early history of New York criminals were executed in
vacant lots north of Canal Street and also on Blackwells Island.
After the opening of the Tombs in 1838 it was ordered by the authorities
that all hangings should take place within the prison enclosure. As the
walls of the prison were from ten to twelve feet high, the people that
owned property around the Tombs took advantage of the occasion and
charged from one to five dollars for seats on the roof of the houses for
people who cared to see the hangings.
As we have intimated, the city on such occasions presented a holiday
appearance and brought together a large number of people from the
surrounding villages. They remained within sight of the building from
early morning till they saw the black flag hoisted, which announced that
the victim had been launched into eternity.
But the whole scene was such a gruesome spectacle that no refined person
cared to see it, and a large number of people considered it a godsend
when the hangman’s job was given to the State Electrician and the work
transferred to the death house at Sing Sing.
The first and earliest Tombs homicide that attracted much attention and
excited the people of this city, was that of John C. Colt, charged with
the murder of Samuel Adams. Colt was a professional penman and teacher
of bookkeeping; he had an office on the second floor of a building on
the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. Samuel Adams, a printer, was
in the same building. Colt had written a work on bookkeeping and Adams
had printed it.
On September 17th, 1841, Adams came into Colt’s office, where the two
men had a heated discussion over the printing bill which Adams was
trying to collect. Several hard words passed between the men, such as
liar, cheat and so forth. Then Colt up with a hammer which lay on the
table and rained several blows on Adams’ head. There was a brief
struggle after which the printer lay on the floor in a pool of blood.
In the next room a man named Wheeler was busy at work. He had heard the
loud words between the two men and the struggle; he was curious to know
what it all meant. In a few minutes he went to Colt’s door in the hall,
peeped through the key hole, and was startled with what he saw; he
returned to his room, but said nothing to any one. After a few days
Wheeler reported what he saw to the authorities and became an important
witness for the State. Next day Colt put Adams’ body in a box and
shipped it to New Orleans.
The vessel was delayed for a week by storms. Before the ship reached its
destination, passengers and crew were overcome by a terrible stench that
came from the hold of the vessel. After a thorough investigation, Adams’
body was found in a box among the freight. The authorities were notified
and the box traced back to where it came from. As a result Colt was
arrested and indicted for murder in the first degree. Colt, after he had
been in the Tombs for a few weeks, made a confession, saying the crime
was done in self defence. The trial lasted ten days. The jury brought in
a verdict of murder in the first degree, and Colt was sentenced to be
hanged November 18th, 1842.
On the day of his execution, when the Sheriff went to Colt’s cell to
prepare him for the last struggle, he was startled to find him dead.
Just then the cry of fire was raised, which caused intense excitement
among the officials and prisoners in their cells.
The lurid glare which came from the burning cupola and which cast a
shadow on all sides, attracted wide attention and a great crowd of
people. After the fire was extinguished and order once more restored,
Colt was found in his cell in a pool of blood. Many persons in the city
believed that the burning of the cupola was a well designed scheme to
save Colt from the gallows, and in the midst of the excitement Colt
escaped through one of the side doors by the aid of powerful friends and
a dead body from one of the hospitals was substituted in his place. A
few years ago Charles Wesley Smith, a resident of New York, informed the
writer that he was present at the burning of the Tombs cupola, November
18th, 1842. A great crowd came to witness the raising of the black flag
which was to be the final act in the hanging of Colt and which announced
to those on the outside that the sentence of the law had been carried
out, but it failed and the general opinion was that Colt escaped.
Mr. Smith says that he stood in front of a blacksmith’s shop, opposite
the prison, in Centre Street, with many others, when he saw dense smoke
coming from the Tombs cupola. In a few minutes there was great
excitement in and outside of the building. In the prison yard it is said
pandemonium reigned supreme, the shrieks and yells of the prisoners
begging to be taken out of the building could be heard a block away.
Soon after the firemen reached the prison they played a small stream of
water on the fire, which quickly extinguished the flames, and it was all
over in half an hour. The general prevailing opinion among the people of
the city at the time was that a scheme had been carried out successfully
which permitted Colt to go scot free. And that the cupola fire, which
was a put-up job, aided him greatly in his flight.
During all of these years the regular hangings took place in the Tombs
yard, and usually occurred between six a. m. and twelve noon. Hundreds
and sometimes thousands of people waited on the street, or squatted on
the roofs of buildings to see the sights, which were accompanied by
drunkenness and disorderly conduct. On the site of the present Criminal
Court Building, on Centre Street, was the Freight House of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, on the roof of which were often
gathered a hundred persons waiting to see the black flag rise as soon as
one was executed.
On August 21st, 1888, Dannie Lyons was executed. He had been a member of
the “Whyo Gang,” who hung out around Leonard and Centre Streets. They
had put up a strong fight to save their comrade, Dannie, but it failed.
The gang numbered about thirty or forty persons and was made up of some
of the worst desperadoes in the city. And when all their efforts failed
they had threatened to make trouble in the “Bloody Sixth Ward.” On the
night of August 20th, they spent the time in a low dive on Mulberry
Street near the Bend. They were in front of the Tombs early on the
morning of August 21st. Most of them had booze and were in a sullen
frame of mind and were ready for trouble. The presence of the Elizabeth
Street Police overawed them and everything passed off quietly. Dannie
Lyons’ father was at the prison and appealed to the Warden for the
privilege of seeing his son executed, but his appeal was denied.
On August 23rd, 1889, four men paid the death penalty, the largest
number ever hanged on one occasion. They were executed one after the
other in rapid succession. Their names were Ferdinand Caroline, Patrick
Packingham, James Nolan and Jack Lewis. Hangman Atkinson was on hand,
and it is said performed his duties with neatness and dispatch!
These Tombs hangings furnished a favorite pastime for the rougher
element of the lower East Side, including Mulberry Bend and Chinatown.
“How did the bloke take it?” was a common expression from one who had
not the pleasure of being a spectator. The reply usually given was, “It
was tame,” or “He was game,” or “I could do much better myself.”
The execution of these men was the talk of the city for weeks
beforehand. And although desperate efforts were made to save them, they
failed, as the Governor refused to interfere with the sentence of the
law.
The four men after being taken from their cells on “Murderer’s Row,”
were lined up in the Prison yard beside their spiritual advisers. The
first toward the gallows was Ferd. Caroline. As he was pinioned by the
sheriff’s men one could hear from the adjacent building crumbs of
comfort for poor Ferd, who was rather sad that morning. As he stood on
the scaffold some one cried, “Brace up Ferd, be a man.” After him came
Patrick Packingham, who was of a rather melancholy disposition and who
had to be helped on the scaffold. “Paddy,” said one of his companions,
“Cheer up, we’re coming after you.” Then came “Jimmie” Nolan and Jack
Lewis, jollying each other in the course of their preparation for death.
The last man who had the “honor” of being hanged in the yard of the
Tombs Prison was Harry Carlton, better known as “Handsome Harry,” which
took place December 5th, 1889. Carlton was said to be a daring criminal,
and had an exceedingly unsavory and nervy record for fifteen years
previous to his death. He was convicted of the murder of Policeman James
Brennan, whom he shot on the night of October 26th, 1888, in Fifty-ninth
Street near Second Avenue. On the morning of his execution, when they
awoke him out of a sound sleep, he asked the time of day. When they
informed him it was five o’clock, he replied, “Great Scott, my time is
getting short.”
Carlton’s father came to the Tombs that morning and begged Warden
Osborne to permit him to see his son pay the penalty of the law, but the
Warden denied his request. Shortly after seven, Carlton heard the Death
Warrant read. Soon after he was led to the scaffold, where Hangman
Atkinson adjusted the rope and put the black cape over his face, and at
seven twenty-nine a. m. the drop fell and he was launched into eternity.
In five minutes afterwards his lifeless body dangled on the scaffold. At
nine-thirty a hearse drove into the yard and his body was put in a
casket and taken to the cemetery, followed by another carriage, in which
were Carlton’s wife and child.
Up till last hanging in 1889, murder, riot and rowdyism were never more
common, showing clearly that the Tombs’ execution had no deterrent
effect whatever on the criminal classes of the city, but the opposite.
Murder went on just the same. From the time when Colt killed Adams in
August, 1841, till the present, the Tombs has not been without a score
of homicidal inmates and many of them of good standing in the comunity.
Carlyle Harris, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Meyer, Albert T. Patrick,
Harry K. Thaw and many others came from good families.
The following list of criminals executed from 1838 to 1889 is taken from
the official records of the Tombs:
Patrick Russell December 8th,
1841
James Eger May 9th, 1845
Charles Thomas November 20th,
1846
Matthew Wood June 2nd, 1849
Benson & July 25th, 1851
Douglass
Aaron Stokey September 19th,
1851
Otto Grunsig February 27th,
1852
Patrick April 19th,
Fitzgerald 1853
William Saul January 28th,
1853
Nicholas January 28th,
Howlett 1853
Joseph Clark February 11th,
1853
James L. Hoarr January 27th,
1854
John Dorsey July 17th, 1857
James Rodgers November 12th,
1858
James Stevens February 6th,
1860
John Crimmens March 30th,
1860
Albert Hicks, July 30th, 1860
alias Johnson
Nathan Gordon February 21st,
1862
William Hawkins June 27th, 1862
Bernard Friery August 17th,
1866
Frank Ferris October 19th,
1866
George Wagner March 1st, 1867
Jerry O’Brien August 2nd,
1867
John Reynolds April 8th, 1870
John Real August 5th,
1870
John Thomas March 10th,
1871
William Foster March 21st,
1873
Michael Nixon May 16th, 1873
William December 17th,
Thompson 1875
William Ellis December 17th,
1875
Charles Weston December 17th,
1875
John R. Dolan April 21st,
1876
Chastian Cox July 16th, 1880
Pietro Balbo August 6th,
1880
William April 21st,
Sindrain 1882
August D. May 19th, 1882
Leighton
Michael McGloin March 9th, 1883
Pasquale Majone March 9th, 1883
Edward Hovey October 19th,
1883
Miguiel Chacon July 9th, 1886
Peter Smith May 5th, 1887
Daniel Driscoll January 23rd,
1888
Daniel Lyons August 21st,
1888
Ferdinand August 23rd,
Caroline 1889
Patrick August 23rd,
Packingham 1889
James Nolan August 23rd,
1889
Jack Lewis August 23rd,
1889
Harry Carlton December 5th,
1889
[Illustration:
The front entrance to Sing Sing Prison.]
[Illustration:
The Protestant chapel. Sing Sing prison.]
[Illustration:
The electric chair in Sing Sing prison.]
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