JUSTICE IN AMERICA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18687, 22 April 1935, Page 7

JUSTICE IN AMERICA

MAN PUBLICLY HANGED LONG SPEECH TO CROWD NEW YORK, April 19. An instance of the shocking manner in which American justice is often administered is reported from Smithland, Kentucky, where, after he had harangued for 45 minutes 15C0 citizens of western Kentucky who had gathered to sec him die, William Deboe, 23, was hanged today in tho courthouse yard for attacking the wife of a shopkeeper during a robbery. Deboe, on the scaffold, denounced Mrs. Marjorie Johnson, the woman, he was accused of attacking, as a "cold-blooded murderer," owing to her activities as the chief witness for the prosecution. Nine separate* times the doomed man manacled hands at Mrs. Johnson, whose whereabouts in the crowd had been indicated to him, and he denounced her loudly: "Why don't you speak? Are you satisfied to stand there and say nothing and see me die? You should be here in my place." The woman's face remained expressionless until Deboe, in a final outburst, yelled : "If I had had 500 dollars I would not be on this scaffold. She would have taken the money and said nothing." The woman shrieked : "Not if you had offered me a thousand dollars."

A third of the crowd were women. In his rambling speech, Deboe criticised them for being present. He also denounced Randolph Johnson, the woman's husband, and tho State's Attorney, Mr. Disjnby, as parties to "a terrible miscarriage of justice." Deboe then went to his death calmly. Deboe's father and sister of 19 saw the hanging.