Allegheny County
Pennsylvania Genealogy Trails
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Executions
(Before Lethal
Injection)
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Allegheny County |
MOTHER FINDS SON DAY BEFORE HIS DOOM.
Special To The Inquirer.
PITTSBURG, Pa., Jan. 15.--William Patterson, colored, alias William Newman, will be hanged to-morrow for the murder of Alice Van Horn. Nothing could be learned by the authorities about Patterson's parentage until yesterday, when a letter was received from Mrs. P. Marie Patterson, of 136 Dodge street, Cleveland, stating that she believed herself to be his mother.Special To The Inquirer.
CLEVELAND, O., Jan. 15--Mrs. Marie Patterson, a domestic employed at No. 136 Dodge street, received this telegram from Pittsburg to day:"William Patterson, your son, will be hanged on Tuesday. Come at once." The heart-broken mother burst into a paroxysm of tears. Members of the family by whom she is employed assisted her to her room, where she has since remained almost completely helpless from grief.
Mrs. Patterson told this story: "The terrible telegram brought me the first tidings I have had from my son for nine years. Soon after my marriage my husband and I had trouble, and he left me, taking our 9 months-old boy with him. I did not see him again for six years.
"A detective returned William to me but it was only to have him taken again by his father four years later. From that time until I received the terrible news that he was to be executed on the gallows for the murder of Alice Van Horn I did not hear a word from him.
"I have always felt that my boy would come to some bad end. I have prayed for years that the Lord would take him from this wicked world, and my prayer has been answered. I knew the Lord, would sometime heed the prayer, although the terrible manner in which William is to die breaks my heart."
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, January 16, 1900, Transcribed by C. Anthony
A PITTSBURG HANGING.
A Colored Man Took The Life Of His Mistress And Suffered For It.Publishers' Press Dispatch to Times.
PITTSBURG, Pa., Jan. 16.--William Patterson, alias Newman, colored, was hanged in the county jail at 10:02 this morning. Jealousy was the motive which caused Patterson to take the life of Alice Van Horn, a comely mulatto woman on June 23 last year. The murdered woman was an inmate of a Grant street resort at which Patterson was a frequent visitor. Just previous to the tragedy a rival had supplanted Patterson in the woman's affections. The night of the murder Patterson and Alice quarreled. Patterson left the house greatly depressed. Patterson had threatened her life. Early in the morning Patterson returned, deliberately sealed himself beside his sleeping victim, remaining in silent contemplation several minutes. Then, leaning over the couch patterson fired two bullets through the woman's heart. The scream of three other women in the room, brought the murdered to a sense of his situation and he endeavored to escape. The proprietress of the place disarmed Patterson compelling him to remain until the arrival of the police. His trial and conviction soon followed. From the time when Patterson realized that he would have to give his life for the life he had taken he devoted himself assidously to the ministerings of Rev. J. W. Gasaway, a colored minister who has accompanied many colored men to the scaffold.Source: Wilkes-Barre Times, January 16, 1900, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
MURDERER GLAD TO DIE FOR HIS SWEETHEART.
Pittsburg Hungarian Is Hanged With Words Of Love On His Lips.Special To The Inquirer.
PITTSBURG, Jan. 9.--William Wasco, a Hungarian, was hanged in the yard of the county court house at 10:16 o'clock this morning. Wasco met his fate without flinching on the scaffold. He prayed and then said:"Good-bye, people. I gladly give my life for my sweetheart. I loved her."
The trap was then sprung and death resulted in a few minutes from strangulation.
The crime for which Wasco was executed was the murder of Annie Sestak, a comely young Hungarian girl who had refused to marry him. He shot himself at the same time, but soon recovered from his wounds.
After his conviction he again attempted suicide by trying to jump from a window in the "Bridge of Sighs."
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 1900, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
DABRYDINO HANGED.PITTSBURG, Oct. 27.--Albert Dabrydino was hanged in the Allegheny county jail yard at 10:03 this morning. He was pronounced dead at 10:23.
Source: Wilkes-Barre Times, October 27, 1904, Transcribed by C. Anthony
HANGED FOR MURDER OF SWEETHEART.
By Associated Press to The Patriot.
Pittsburg, Oct. 27.--Albert Dabrydino, and Italian, was hanged in the county jail yard to-day for the murder of his sweetheart, Mary Mucenska, on May 28, 1903. Dabrydino killed the girl because she refused to marry him, after he had paid her expenses from Poland to this county.Source: Patriot, October 28, 1904, Transcribed by C. Anthony
ROPE SLIPS AND BUNGLES HANGING.
Byers, Allegheny County Murderer, Sent Through Trap Twice Before Law Is Satisfied.PITTSBURG, Pa., March 23..--Two men were hanged here to-day and the first unsuccessful execution was recorded in Allegheny county.
Reno Dardaia went to the scaffold first and his neck was broken. William J. Byers followed him and when the trap was sprung the loop of the noose pulled away, precipitating him to the ground. For about one minute he staggered around under the scaffold and then Sheriff Dickson caught him and, removing the black cap, carried him into the jail. He was not badly hurt as the result of the fall. The rope was again adjusted and Byers, pale and trembling, was again placed on the scaffold and the trap sprung. This time there was no mishap and death resulted from strangulation.
Byers was convicted on his own confession of the killing of August J. Layton, at Turtle Creek, Pa., June 3, 1901. In the confession he implicated Layton's wife and John McWilliams. They were tried and acquitted. McWilliams afterward married Mrs. Layton.
Dardaia killed Thomas Sinclair at Imperial, Pa., September 26 1903, during a quarrel over a drink of whisky and a dollar. He claimed the killing was in self-defense.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1905, Transcribed by C. Anthony
THREE NEGROES HANGED FOR ONE MAN'S DEATH.PITTSBURG, Pa., April 27.--Three negroes, Walter Obey, Charles Jackson and Charles Miles, were hanged here to-day. Jackson and Obey went to the scaffold together. Both the men, after having mounted the steps, turned and said to over two hundred spectators:
"Good-by, gentlemen; meet me in heaven."
Miles followed soon after they were pronounced dead. It was the first time in the history of Allegheny county that three men had been hanged in one day.
The crime for which the three men were executed was the murder of Ivan Kluzor, of Leetsdale, Pa., on May 8, 1904. The negroes waylaid Kluzor and his brother and attempted to rob them. Kluzor resisted and was killed.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1905, Transcribed by C. Anthony
NEGROES HEAR OF FATE WITH INDIFFERENCE .PITTSBURG, March 8.--Sheriff James W. Dickson in the county jail to-day officially informed Cornelius Combs and John, alias Bud Williams, that they will die on April 24. Both men are negroes and characteristic of many other of their race, who have expiated their crimes upon the scaffold, they heard with apparent indifference the words of doom.
Combs killed Mrs. Dickerson, of Juniata street, McKeesport, last summer, after a dispute.
Williams is a young negro, large of stature and much darker in color than his fellow victim of the law. He was convicted of the murder of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Mal. Qunicy, last Fall.
Source: Patriot, March 9, 1906, Transcribed by C. Anthony
DOUBLE HANGING IN PITTSBURG.
PITTSBURG, Pa., Sept. 6.--Cornelius Coombs and John Williams, negroes, were executed by hanging in the jail yard here today. Williams shot and killed Mrs. Mary Quincey, his mother-in-law, at her home in this city on September 16, last year. Without any apparent provocation he fired five shots at the woman, each one of which inflicted a wound that would have been fatal. Coombs shot and killed Lizzie Dickerson, a woman with whom he boarded in McKeesport, February 8, 1905.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, September 7, 1906, Transcribed by C. Anthony
DOWLING GREEN HANGED .
Pittsburg Negro Pays Penalty For Murder Of Wife.PITTSBURG, Pa., July 23.--Dowling Green, a negro, was hanged here today for the murder of his wife, last August, whom he accused of infidelity.
Dowling was resigned and marched cheerfully to the scaffold, singing "In The Cross I Know I'm Anchored."
Death resulted almost instantly from a broken neck.
Another negro, Angelo Jackson, who was convicted of murder, was to have suffered the death penalty on the same scaffold with Green, but yesterday his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in the Western Penitentiary by Governor Stuart.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, July 24, 1907, Transcribed by C. Anthony
EXECUTION OF JOHN TIERNAN, For The Murder Of Patrick Campbell. Pittsburgh, (Penn. March 7.)The execution of John Tiernan took place on Wednesday last (as appointed by the governor) between the hours of twelve and one. As it was the first scene of the kind ever witnessed this part of the county, since civilized men have occupied the soil, it excited an attention incomparably greater than it otherwise would have probably done. About eight or ten thousand persons were present, and of those, a prinicipal part appeared to be from the country around, and from the neighbouring towns. Many of them, it is said, travelled thirty or forty miles for the purpose. No one exhibited any anxiety except in the vague, vulgar curiousity which urged them on to behold, not the victim of the laws, so much as the appearance and behaviour of the multitude which the catastrophe was sure to collect.
All doubts as to the atrocity of Tiernan's conduct, (if any exited) having been removed by his confession; which being in broad contradiction to all his previous contradiction to all his previous contradictory statements, left him without a single hold on public feeling, except what arose from the mere instinctive, animal sentiment of repugnance at the death of a fellow creature. The apathy which he had displayed at his trial--the contempt for the crowd around him,--for decency--for law--for death--as well as for every thing sacred or awful, which, until a short time before his execution, appeared amidst every change of his inconsistent behaviour, cut him off from all that natural sympathy which suffering alone, would always excite: while at the same time we saw not one human being joined to him in kindred or in friendship, or situate to share in the misery and degradation of his fate.
Under such circumstances, was that poor being called forth to undergo the sentence of the law and to meet the eye of the populace, whose cold look was little calculated to bring comfort to his deeply humbled spirit. He was placed in a small uncovered carriage--escorted from the prison by teh city-guards, and accompanied by the Rev. Mr. O'Brien and the Rev. Mr. O'Flinn. His hardihood, which was hitherto astonishing and savage, now entirely forsook him. We never before looked upon a countenance so haggard in health, so death-like pale and awestruck, yet still apparently devoid of sensibility. The sweat drops rolled down his face and spoke a mind stunned crushed by the horror of its condition, but not otherwise legible through the torpor of his features.
On the way to the place of execution, he seemed continually engaged in conversation or prayer with the attending priests, and apparently in great contrition. The gallows was erected in the precincts of the city, and guarded by a portion of the city militia, who were drawn up around it in a hollow square, ready to received the prisoner and his escort. At the foot of the gallows he remained about half an hour attending to prayer. He then ascended the scaffold with the sheriff and Mr. O'Brien; and, having seated himself remained there for a while employed in most fervent prayer. He appeared sunk to the lowest degree of despondency; but so strong or so callous, were his nerves, that not a finger trembled--not a feature showed even a momentary nervous agitation.
When the period for his exit arrived, the sheriff and Mr. O'Brien shook hands with him in the most kindly manner and with great emotion. The sheriff haveing followed the priest to the foot of the ladder he returned again and after reading the confession he covered the prisoner's face, and executed him with his own hands. It was said to have been in consequence of the very earnest request of Tiernan himself, that he performed that duty personally. The death scene was marked by no particularity that we could observe; the culprit struggled little, and in two or three minutes seemed to be relieved from all sensation. All who were present on the melancholy occasion had the opportunity of a full view of the execution, as the declivities around the gallows form nearly a perfect ampitheatre.
We saw no tokens of regret at the poor sufferer's fate; and, although one or two females fainted, there was little or no expression of commiseration, or feeling of any kind, to be observed amongst the mass of the people. There was, as a matter of course, much display of the cant and slang of affectation and morbid sensibility, but little that showed the impressions which the real awfulness of the scene should have produced. In this country, where situations of danger, and sights of punishment and wretchedness are rare, the sensations they produce belong rather to the nerves than to the mind.
Source: Franklin Gazette, April 6, 1818, Transcribed by C. Anthony
PENNSYLVANIA WILL SEARCH ITALY FOR REAL LEADER OF THE BLACK HAND;
Three Years' Reign of Terror in Western Part of State Broken by Hanging of Two Murderers and Capture of Many Members of Terrible Organization.PITTSBURG, Aug. 10.—When, in the county jail yard on Thursday Giovanna Graziano and Georgio Quagenti were hanged for murder, the law of Western Pennsylvania landed its first real blow against the Black Hand, which for three years has been terrorizing that district and Eastern Ohio.
Graziano and Quagenti were Italians brought specially from the slums of New York to murder at so much per job. Their price was $100 per victim for each, and when, after completing: their first job, their employers declined to pay the full scale price for murder, offering only $100 to be divided between the two, there was a fight of which the authorities took advantage to land the hired assassins.
Thousands of dollars were spent by the Black Hand in an effort to save Graziano and Quagenti, but it failed. The last plot was frustrated a few hours before the two assassins went to the gallows, when Frank Glanco and Nick Ferrolio were caught on their arrival from New York with data show ing that they had come for the purpose of blowing up the Allegheny County Jail here if necessary to liberate Graziano and Quagenti. This pair are in the jail now, and they saw the pair whom they had come to save march to their death.
The crime for which these two Italians were hanged was one of revolting cruelty, and was the first to show the authorities of Western Pennsylvania that there was a well-organized Black Hand Society here as well as in the vicinity of New Castle and other towns near the Ohio border. Antonio Cappibianci was a wealthy Italian merchant of Pittsburg, who had frequently had encounters with members of the secret society, and he gave much Information front time to time to the police.
For this he was marked for death by| the Black Hand. Cappibianci knew all, the leaders of the secret society, and there was little chance to do him harm. Graziano and Quagenti were therefore brought from New York and took employment with the merchant marked for death. They soon persuaded Cappibianci to go with them, for the ostensible purpose of buying out a store near Blair Station; twenty miles from Pittsburg, in. a lonely country.
They killed him in deep woods, stabbing him to death, and got from his body $300, which, by the agreement with Black Hand leaders, went to the assassins as well as the $100 apiece salary stipulated for the killing. Certain leaders it appears, according to the confession of Quagenti, refused to pay the full price of murder on account of the rich haul which the hired assassins had made from the corpse of Cappibianci and forced them to take $50 apiece for the Job,
And now the drag net which has been spread most carefully throughout all Western Pennsylvania within the past year is being drawn up and every county jail in that district has its Black Hand prisoners. The Secret Service Corps of the United States Steel Corporation has been at work night and day for months trying to run down this gang and have been assisted by the police of Pittsburg, Youngstown, Ohio; Sharon, Penn., and South Sharon.
The story of hold-ups and killings which have been uncovered by the Steel Corporation men; with Comity Detective Logan of Lawrence County, Detective S. B. Marshall, Detective Mehard, and Deputy Sheriff Frank Waddington of that county, reads like a chapter from the days of old brigands. It is shown by the detectives and borne out by the paymasters of the United States Steel Cprporation In Western Pennsylvania that the Black Hand leaders exacted monthly tribute from Italian workmen at the paymaster's window.
Bagnato himself collected in the vicinity of Hillsville, or from the big New Castle mill employes and quarrymen. His custom was to stand by the line of workmen as they got their pay and make each one open his envelope and pay the tribute at once. The money collected each pay day was understood to be the price of life and liberty until next pay day.
It was always noticeable that there were some among the workmen who were not assessed, and it came to be pretty well understood that these were members of the secret society which was exacting at least $25,000 monthly from foreign workmen at the Hillsville district. Then workmen began to dis appear. They were always workmen who had saved a considerable sum of money and had it on deposit in some of the banks. Frequently after the man would disappear there would come to the bank a draft for all his savings, a draft in which the signature was genuine and evidently drawn by the real depositor. However, the depositor rarely if ever appeared in person at the bank where he was known. He would show up looking scared some time after all his savings had been transferred to some distant bank.
Bank cashiers began to be suspicious and concluded that the workmen who disappeared were in many cases being held for ransom by the Black Hand. The authorities of every county in the southwestern part of the State were notified that there was on a wholesale stealing of foreign workmen with bank accounts and that they were being held for ransom until they gave up all the earnings of their life. Bagnato is accused of having kidnapped a Hillsville quarry workman and getting his entire $11,000 savings the last thing before he fled from America.
Angelo, the keen-eyed Italian detective from Pittsburg, was sent to mingle with the Italians of the Lawrence County district, and much that he learned there will never be revealed--it is too horrible. It was Bagnato who was wanted most of all, but he had about twenty-five fellow-Italians working with him in the game of graft in the Hillsville quarry district. It was arranged to arrest Bagnato and his gang red-handed in the game of hold up, but the wily Bagnato in some way heard of the plan and fled in the night.
The round-up of Italian suspects on this pay day was a red-letter event to the history of Lawrence County. Every man suspected of having anything to do with the Black Hand was under surveillance for days before, and it was ascertained that each went heavily armed.
It was July 13 that the round-up took place, and not a drop of blood was shed. The pay office at the Hillsville quarries is a lillte building with a narrow hall, through which but one man can pass at a time. This leads past the cashier's window. One of the Steel Corporation detectives who had had employment in the quarry stood near the window with a list of men. As certain names were called and the men paid, the detective spoke to him, saying there was something wrong with his pay envelope, and asked him to step into a back room to have it fixed up.
The moment the man entered this room he was covered with guns, handcuffed, and rushed into a third room. In this way eleven of the alleged leaders in secret society work were gotten before an alarm was raised. A woman friendly with Bagnato discovered that those who went into the back room did not come out, and raised an alarm. There were ten men yet wanted on that list and the detective knew where they could be gotten.
A few pistol shots were fired, and like a flash an engine and three boxcars which had been on a switch nearby backed up, shedding armed officers at every revolution of the wheels. A rush was made for a little house which had been known as headquarters for sympathizers of the Black Hand, and in this were found the ten men wanted. The twenty-one men were rushed to the boxcars and a dash made for new Castle, where they are yet in jail awaiting trial on several different charges.
Now that most of the "bad men" are in jail at New Castle, the long-suffering foreign residents of the valley are talking and they reveal a great system of persecution and hold-up practiced by the Black Hand. The superstitious Italian had no chance at all. The price of $7 per week has been exacted from some of the families in order that spirits might be kept away from the house. When they refused or were slow in paying, the most unearthly noises would be sounded round the house at night, and all sorts of mysterious lights would be flashed--the work of the angered spirits--and the terrorized and ignorant Italian was glad to pay to the bosses and be able to live in peace for another week.
That 50 per cent of the wages of most of the ignorant foreigners has been taken by the secret society people during the last year or so is alleged by those who should know. The assessment was always regulated by the size of the victim's pay envelope.
Matters have now reached such a stage that an outbreak is feared at any time on the part of friends of the accused foreigners. It was with feelings of great joy that the law-abiding element of Lawrence County heard that Capt. Robison of Troop D, State Constabulary, had been ordered to take his troop into Lawrence County at once to take a stand against the Black Hand there. Robison is an old regular army man and still holds the idea that in case of riot or fuss of any kind it is better to shoot first and ask questions afterward.
In other counties also the authorities have taken a firm stand against the Black Hand. A detachment of State police under Sergt. Prynn has just recently arrested fourteen men at Marion Heights, near Allentown. They were committed to jail without bail charged with conspiracy to murder, inciting to riot, and carrying concealed weapons.
Source: The New York Times, August 11, 1907, Submitted by Joan Quagenti, Transcribed by C. Anthony
HANGED WITH A SMILE ON HIS LIPS.
Holmes Walked To Scaffold Without Betraying Any Nervousness.PITTSBURG, Pa., March 13.--With a smile upon his lips and without betraying the least sign of nervousness, Norris B. Holmes, the younges murderer ever executed in Allegheny county, was handed here to-day for killing Nancy Miller, his sweetheart, March 27 last, with a butcher knife. The girl was literally whacked to pieces.
The trap was sprung at 10:02 and eleven minutes later he was pronounced dead. When the crime was committed Holmes was 19 years old. He walked to the scaffold without assistance. His neck was broken by the fall.
Source: Wilkes-Barre Times, March 12, 1908, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
HANGING AT PITTSBURG .
William McLeod McDonald Made Great Fight to Save Life.PITTSBURG, April 28.--William McLeod McDonald, alias Smith, of Gussport, Eng., was hanged here to-day for the murder of his common law wife, Mrs. Bessie Hyslop, whose throat he cut with a razor, September 18, 1907, upon discovering that she had been receiving letters from a man in England.
Considerable influence was brought forth in an effort to have the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The man was to have hanged March 24 last, but through a letter to Governor Stuart from Ambassador Bryce, of Great Britain, and the efforts of prominent Scotch and English business men of this city, McDonald was granted a stay until today. The pardon board refused to take action and an attempt to have a commission appointed to examine into McDonald's sanity also failed.
McDonald had a letter to his wife in England mailed to-day.
Source: Patriot, April 29, 1908, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
SANG ON WAY TO SCAFFOLD .
Steve Rusic Pays Penalty of Murdering Woman Who Spurned Him.PITTSBURG, Pa., March 21.--Singing the hymn of his childhood as he walked between two guards through the corridors of the Allegheny county jail today, Steve Rusic, a Russian, was hanged for the murder of Mrs. Beta Domboy, whom he shot January 15, 1910, as she lay beside her sleeping husband and babe, because she refused to accept his attentions.
The strong full notes of the son continued during the march to the gallows, and while the noose was being adjusted, and were only stopped when the trap was sprung.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 1911, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
MURDERER HANGED.
PITTSBURG, Pa., May 23.--The second murderer to pay the death penalty in Allegheny county within 60 days, John Tyrie, a negro who killed his common law wife in July, 1910, by clubbing her to death, was hanged here to-day. Two witnesses of the execution one a policeman fell in a faint when the trap was sprung.
Tyrie went to his death quietly.
Source: Wilkes-Barre Times, May 23, 1911, Transcribed by C. Anthony.
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