End of Watch: Deputy Warden Joseph Clark

In 1864 a man called George Chase was in jail on Collins St in Joliet, Illinois for being a horse thief. It was believed that his name was George Chase, but it was not positive. He refused to talk about his loved ones or where he was from. George was about 30 and described as a stout and healthy man with blue eyes and sandy hair. 

On April 4th George would attempt to escape but failed. However, during his attempted escape, he would hit Deputy Warden Joseph Clark with a rock or club. This injury would cause the Deputy Warden to die weeks later. 

The following January he would be sentenced to death. He was to be the first man executed in Joilet. Because he refused to talk about family friends or even where he was from his only visitors were 3 ministers. On July 27, 1866, George was taken from his jail cell at about 2:30. The three ministers would follow him with their Bibles reading from them. 

He would be walked to a large hallway in the county jail. There was a gallows made specifically for George. There were two posts on each side of the hallway with a beam overhead. a noose would hang from the beam and the other went into a hole in the basement. It was tied with three heavy sandbags that were to bring him up. 

Several official witnesses and newspaper reporters watched the execution. George was tied with ropes and looked to have a dead expression as he was seated in a chair. The chair was under the noose. He would be asked if he had any final words and he did. 

“I don’t think I’m guilty,” he said. “I don’t see any proof that I murdered that man. I think I’ve got as good an explanation of that as you have.” Before he was done talking the Sheriff placed a white hood over his head. “I’m not ready for that yet,” he continued. “I’m as innocent a man as any of you. I am as innocent a man as any in the United States. I admit that hanging is justice. But hanging for a thing a man ain’t guilty of and can’t prove I am guilty of is another thing. It ain’t justice.” He then complained about how tight his bindings were. When the hood was completely placed he muttered, “Gentlemen, I am to be slaughtered.”

The noose would be placed around his neck over the hood. The sheriff would signal the deputy in the basement to drop the bags and they were. George would be pulled from his chair and hung 5 feet in the area. There was a little struggle. They would leave him to hang for 20 minutes. 

He was not taken to a funeral home or buried right after his death. Instead, his head was removed so that doctors could look at the brain attempting to see if there were any clues about his criminal behavior. However, there were no "signs of insanity" in his brain. 

The head was given to a phrenologist and used for lectures. His headless corpse was buried at the prison cemetery known as Monkey Hill. 

SOURCES:

Legal Executions in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri page 3

Will County, Illinois Genealogy 

Murders of Zofia , Antoni, Bronisława, and Stefan Dolińska

 

At the beginning of the winter of 1923 in Poland 32-year-old Marianna Dolińska and other Roma families living in the Roma community near Antoniówka were suffering from hunger. It was a hard winter for them and members of the community began to steal food and animals from nearby farms to prevent starvation. 

In reaction, the State Police decided to stop the Roma who were stealing. One of the Roma that was arrested was Marianna's husband. This would leave her and their four children without help. Soon after his arrest, the camp was dispersed. For unknown reasons, the Dolińska family was rejected by the community. 

 Marianna and her children were left to wander around the forest and starve. Marianna's mentality was getting worse and believed that she and the children would starve to death and that was a slow and painful death. Instead of watching her children waste away, she decided to take their fate into her own hands. 

On the night of December 11, 1923, would hang her four children  6-month-old Zofia, 3-year-old Antoni, 5-year-old Bronisława, and 7-year-old Stefan. She would then go to the Rodam police and admit her crime. She would bring them to her children. A police photographer would take photographs of the scene. (These photographs are seen in most mentions of this case.) There was a 6-month investigation into the case because of Marianne's mental health. 

Marianna was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She was suicidal at the time and planned to kill herself, but did not follow through. She was observed exhibiting frequent and violent mental changes. She had fits of rage and destructive behavior or would fall into a stupor for days. It was determined that she was a "neutral perpetrator" and had done it without awareness of the consequences at the time. By 1926 she suffered from manic-depressive disorder and was believed to have bipolar disorder.

She would die in 1928 and was buried in the hospital cemetery

Be aware that photos of the children are posted in each link below. It is a sad and horrible sight to see four children hanging from a tree. The photographs of the children are termed "Wreath of Children" and are falsely used to represent massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1943. Please be aware before looking up the case yourself and or clicking any of the links I've used.

SOURCES:
Wikipedia

Rzeczpospolita May 19, 2007

Interia Wydarzenia December 11, 2014

UNIDENTIFIED: September 21, 1914 Bronx, New York "German" John Doe

 On September 21, 1914, a man had committed suicide. He was found hanging at the Maple Grove Cemetary in Hart Island, Bronx, New York. It's believed that the John Doe may have been a German laborer. He was a white male between 39 to 45-years-old. he had a newspaper, a pair of spectacles, and a red handkerchief. 

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Unidentified Wiki

UNIDENTIFIED: July 5, Albert Lea, Minnesota John Doe

On July 5, 1938, a custodian of the Freeborn County Courthouse in Albert Lea, Minnesota found a man hanging in the clock tower of the building. He had unfortunately committed suicide and wasn't identified. 

He was a white male between 30 to 35-years-old. He was 5'7" and had long brown hair with a reddish tinge. He was wearing black oxford shoes, and a high-quality double-breasted grey suit with a light pinstripe, an almost new black raincoat. All laundry marks and manufacturer's labels on his clothing had been removed including his eyeglass case. 

SOURCES:

NamUs

The Minneapolis Star July 5, 1938

The Minneapolis Star July 12, 1938

The Lynching of Amy Spain

The Hanging of Amy Spain - contemporary engraving from Harper's Bazaar

17-year-old Amy Spain became a martyr for freedom in 1865. She was biracial of a white and a black parent. She was a slave and owned by Major Albertus C. Spain, a Mexican-American War veteran who owned a large property in Darlington, South Carolina.

In early 1865 a detachment of the Union Army arrived in Darlington as a part of the Carolinas Campaign. She expressed her excitement for her future freedom by exclaiming "Bless the Lord, the Yankees have come!". This was what sealed her fate.

At that time the town, many of the white residents (mostly men) deserted the town. It had turned out that her and others took what they wanted from empty homes and warehouses. Amy took things from her master. The Union was only there for a short time and the Confederate army re-occupied the town.

Amy was called a "ringleader" of the looting and accused her of guiding Union troops to places where valuables were hidden. She was arrested for treason and conduct unbecoming a slave by the Confederate Military. She would go to trial and Major Albertus C. Spain defended her.

Behind bars, Amy heroically heard her sentence to death and she declared she was prepared to die. On March 10, 1865 She defied her persecutors, and as she walked the scaffold towards her death she declared she was "going to a place where she would receive a crown of glory". She was interrupted by an oath by one of her executioners.

She was then hung from the sycamore tree in the Darlington town square.

SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Capital Punishment UK
Black History
Executed Today

The Borremose Man

In 1946 peat diggers in the southern Borremose, Himmerland, Denmark found a body in the peat bog.  His body was found a half a meter below a layer of birch sticks. The body was well preserved and mummified due to the peat bog.

He was 1.55 m (5'1") and carbon dating done on the body showed he had lived during the Nordic Bronze Age around 700 BCE. He had two sheepskin coats and a woven cap beside him. His stomach contents had various seeds of different kinds knotweed, common spurrey, sheep's sorrel, lambsquarters and animal hair and peat moss leaves (these two likely being containments). It's likely he had been murdered. He had a 36 cm (14") rope with a slipknot around his throat. It was revealed with further examination of the body that he had a crushing blow to the back of his skull and his right femur had been broken.

SOURCES:
Mummipedia Wiki
Wikipedia
Tollund Man Den