HANGINGS AND HANGMEN

INTERESTING RBHINISCENCESON A GRISLY SUBJECT

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TOM LONG

The days of Dennis Gunn, the Ponsonby murderer, are now ended, The man who dispatched Rottman and Eggers was again selected for the hanging of Gunn. "Truth" uses the word selected m its literal meaning, for although most workaday citizens might imagine that the office of public hangman is a position that would hardly be "rushed" by anxious applicants, it is a fact, strange, but nathless true, that the Justice Department of New Zealand has enough would-be hangmen on it 3 books that it is enabled to select an executioner, when required, wich a nice discrimination from quite a regular "waiting Hat." The fee Is £25, if it hasn't gone up owing to H.C.L., and there are various "perks" for the picking, not the least of which is the rope, which has been used for the hanging. Talking about hangmen and their perquisites prompts the office hangman to indulge m reminiscences. Nowadays, the hangman selected generally, and wisely so, hides his light under a bushel, but it was not so m the old days. In the eighties and nineties, when old Tom Long used to give condemned murderers the official despatch, he didn't mind a little publicity. Long was an Indian mutiny veteran, v/ho, when not engaged m a hanging capacity, used to live with the Maoris up the Wanganui River. He was a. bit of a character and would be described nowadays, as a hard case. One of his earliest "jobs" was the hanging of a murderer named Lewis, at Hokitlka, m the '80s. Immediately after the hanging was over, Long started on one of his customary drinking bouts and before the day was out the police had to rescue him from a bunch of irate Hokitikans, who complained that the object of their resentment had insulted one of the town's pet barmaids by offering her a piece of the hangman's rope wherewith TO MAKE A GARTER. On August 12, 1895, at Invercargill, Minnie Dean, the notorious baby farmer, was hung, she being the only woman m the history of New Zealand to suffer capital punishment, and Tom Long was engaged to carry out the grisly task. Feeling ran high m the country as to the propriety of hanging a woman, but 'every channel of reprieve v had failed — even that common circumstance of civilised law which refuses to put to death a creature who m dying would not die alone, who "bears within a second principle of "life." Minnie Dean's only hope was if she could plead she was "quick with child," and this she could not do. It was deemed advisable by the authorities to take certain precautions m regard to Long, the hangman, and he was smuggled into Jnvercargill gaol a. week before the date fixed for the hanging, and kept there. Everything- seemed to be going on all right. Long, by reason of his enforced incarceration, had been kept strictly sober, but on the fatal morning of August 12, when the head warder knocked Long up at an early hour, and reminded him that the time had arrived for him to enter the condemned cell and perform the awful preliminaries, Tom went on strike. The head gaoler was promptly, communicated with and an attempt was made to cajole Long into keeping the terms of his contract with the State. At last they found a weak spot m the recalcitrant hangman's armor and he announced

that he would "carry on," providing he was allowed to settle as much whisky as he felt constrained to drink. It was then discovered to the gaoler's horror that there wasn't a "spot" of whisky m the prison, and the predicament was explained to the hang-, nre hangman. Tom, with a " sly look at the gaoler and sheriff, folded his arms and said, "NO WHISKY, NO HANGING." The gaoler then recollected that a bottle of brandy, which was kept for medicinal purposes, was on the premises, andohe suggested to Thomas the .obdurate, that perhaps brandy would fill the bill. "Very well, bring out your brandy," said Long 1 . When it arrived, he helped himself to a "long beer" glass full of raw spirit This he gulped down, smacked his lips, and, turning to the sheriff, said, "Now, if you like, I will hang twenty women." The execution of Minnie Dean then proceeded without further hitch, but it is worthy of. note that when the unfortunate, standing on the fatal trapdoor, which .was so. soon to open under her and hurl her to her doom, said good-bye to the officiating clergyman and prison officials, Long stepped forvrard and said to her,- "Won't you shake hands with me, ma'am? I am the hangman, ma'am. I am only doing my duty!" The woman took the hangman's hand -m hers and pressed it. Then a short minute later, as she uttered the words, "O, God, let me not suffer," the self- same hand she had clasped m forgiveness withdrew the bolt, which launched her into the unknown. After it was all over, the police smuggled Tom Long aboard a northgoing train, but it hadn't stopped at many wayside stations ' before Long the hangman was very drunk. During the rest of the journey north he promenaded the train selling souvenirs of the woman lie had just hanged, m the shape of her alleged shoes. By the number of old shoes Long produced it would appear that the deceased woman either had a very extensive wardrobe, or that Long's souvenirs were spurious. ' Long met his death m a bush accident, by a tree falling on him. Although he can be said' to have "died m harness," so far as his little job of official hangman is concerned, it is a fact that his whims and caprices were getting him m bad odor with the authorities. It appears that he had come to regard himself as a "SPECIALIST" IN HIS GRUESOME PROFESSION, and began to give himself airs. It is on record that on the morning of one of the last executions at which, he officiated, he nearly upset the arrangements by demanding that he be paid his £25 fee immediately after the hanging. In vain it was explained by the sheriff that a voucher would have to be sent to Wellington and put through" the usual channel. Longwould have no red tape or Government circumlocution. It was a case of "cash down or no hanging," and m despair the sheriff appeased Long by paying the amount out of his own pocket and recovering it from the Government later. Many other curious matters could be written about the subject of hangmen and hangings, but the exigencies of space will i;ot permit. One grim coincidence perhaps deserves mention. It is that one of the individuals who had given his name, to the Government as a potential and willing hangman, if he should be favored with an enjrag-ement. later died on the scaffold himself." "Truth" refers to Arthur Rottman, the young German, who was hung at Wellington •Terrace Gaol m 1915 for brutally murdering a Ruahine settler and his wife and baby.