GRUESOME SCENE AT EXECUTION OF SERBIAN BANDITS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6843, 22 February 1929, Page 7

GRUESOME SCENE AT EXECUTION OF SERBIAN BANDITS

Casual Condemned

EXECUTIONER FUMBLES WITH FOURTH VICTIM

MAN HANGS HIMSELF. United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received Thursday, 7 p.m. BELGRADE, Feb. 20.

Four Jugo-Slav bandits sentenced for murder and robbery, wore executed at Zagreb with a gruesomeness now rarely witnessed on this side of the Orient.

Separate gallows six feet high were erected for each in the courtyard overnight. They were executed one by one in the presence of one another, and each execution occupied 12 minutes. The indictment was read out by the president of the ZagTob Senate in a frock coat and high silk hat. Three acted stoically and one,, smok ing a cigarette, turned to tho journalists and said: “Send me a good report of the execution.” A second looked to the sky and said: “Farewell, beautiful day.” The fourth, while watching his companions, simulated insanity, prayed and shouted to tho assembled crowd. The executioner, unnerved by the ordeal of hanging the other three, failed thrice to adjust the rope, whereupon the bandit brushed him aside shouting: “Get out. Your hands and brains are frozen. Let me complete the job,” and calmly placed the rope round hm neck as though tying a tie on himself, then kicked the trap.