TWICE HANGED.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 54, 2 July 1887, Page 3 (Supplement)

TWICE HANGED.

How It Feels to be Swung From the

Gallows,

Theodore Baker, who was hanged at Springer, N. M., for the murder of Frank Unruh in Colfax county, wishes to be remembered as iihe one American who was hanged twice for a single crime. In conversation wibh bhe " Sun " correspondent a short bime afber he had received word from Governor Ross bhab there was no hope for him, Baker said : '' It is not bhe pain I fear ab all. I have been hanged, and I know whab I am talking aboub. Whab ails me is bhab I don'b wanb to die, and I don't think I ought to. Probably if you knew that in an instanb you were to be blown to nothingness, so bhab you would experience no suffering whatever, you would appreciate how I feel about ib. As for bhe mode of deabh, you can say ib is as good as any other, and ib don'b need bo be boo artistically done, either. Why, when bhey hanged me firsb down here by bho railroad brack I was scared half, to death. They had no modern appliances, and I made up my mind that bhey were going to give me a terrible struggle of it, bub ib was nobbing of bhe Sorb. The mob swung me off from a belegraph pole liko bhoy would a log, and then ono or bwo of bhem pulled my legs. Thab isn't so almighty nice, but still it don't hurt as you might think it would. I must have hung there ten or firtoen minubes before bho Sheriff and his posse found me and cub me down. Of course by bhab bime I was unconscious, bub I remembered enough of whab occurred bo banish any fear bhab I might have of death on the gallows. It's deabh in whatever form ib comes bhab I objecb to. If I liave gob bo go I had jusb as' soon go by bhe rope as by bhe buileb, and I had a good doal rather go by the rope than by bho knife or by poison. You can Say bhis much for bho information and comfort of all the poor fellows who will havo to swing whon lam gono. Tell them bo braco up and take it easy. They are going to dio easior deaths than threo-fourths of bhe fab old judges who sentence them and who expecb bo dio in bheir beds. There has been albogobhor boo much writing and balking on bhe subjecb of the barbarity of tho gallows. I'm in favour of abolishing capital punishment myself, but if a man must dio, what's the use of being too particular aboub bhe mode so long as you have gob a good enough scheme now ?" Baker had several warm friends here who laboured earnesbly in his bohalf, and who regard his punishment as unjustly severe. He wenb to bhe rope unflinchingly, and jusb before bhe brap was sprung, when bhe attendant shifted tho knot a little, he heard Baker say : " That's right; I havo boon in tho habit of having it a little higher up."