The Hangman's Ropemaker: Four Pennsylvania Hangings in One Day

"He has also received orders to make ropes to be used in all of the nine executions which are to take place on Wednesday of next week."

~ "Making Nine Ropes," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, page 2

*This blog post is one in a series of blogs on my famous ancestor, Jacob Bupp, the Hangman's Ropemaker- click the page tab above labeled "The Hangman's Ropemaker" for more information and the blog series*

While Jacob was still alderman of the Eleventh Ward in Allegheny City in 1890, his fame as a ropemaker was so great that he was asked to make ropes for at least eight hangings that were to take place throughout various counties of Pennsylvania on 9 April 1890.

Only four hangings were actually carried through.  Another blog post addresses what happened with the others who cheated the hangman that day.

As quoted in The Boston Globe on 9 April 1890 in an article with the gruesome moniker of "Quartet Hanged Today: Bopp, the Expert Choker-Maker, Provides the Hemp":

"Jacob Bopp of Allegheny City made all the ropes for the condemned men. Mr. Bopp can safely be styled an expert noose maker, having made no less that 88 ropes which were used in hanging murderers during the past 30 years."

The date of the hangings was not without controversy.  The Grand Army of the Republic in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was very upset of the date that was chosen by Governor Beaver for the hangings, as the date was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, and many of the veterans of the Civil War in Pennsylvania had made extraordinary plans to celebrate the date.  As the Pittsburgh Daily Post reported in an article from that day,   "It is generally supposed Governor Beaver had no ulterior motive in selecting the date he did, but it is argued he should not have been thoughtless."

It was then mentioned in the same article that James M. Lysle Post 128 held a celebration in the Carnegie Music Hall in Allegheny that entailed a guest speaker and a fine musical presentation.  It is not known if Bupp was active with the post in 1890, but it was the post that he was a member of.  It is very likely that since he had a good standing at this point in his ward as an alderman, he was a very active member of the post and the date of the hangings and its significance was not lost on him when he made the ropes.

Zacharias "Zach" Taylor - Waynesburg, Greene County
Zacharias Taylor was supposedly part of the outlaw gang who killed drover William McCausland on 10 September 1887.  My previous blog post covered that a bit more in depth, as George W. Clark was hanged first for that crime and Jacob had made his ropes.

Taylor was described as a man of spare build with a small head and a thin face, and his photograph certainly captures that description.  He had six children, four of who were living at the time of his trial and ultimate hanging.  His wife, Elizabeth Clark Taylor, had stayed in the jail with him the final three weeks of his life.  She was the sister of George Clark, who died on the very scaffold that was to take her husband's life as well.

Photograph of Zacharias Taylor [1851-1890] hanged for murder on 9 April 1890 at the Greene County Courthouse, item no. GCCH-AN001-0001, Greene County Courthouse Collection, Greene Connections Archives Project (www.GreeneConnections.com). Used with Permission.

On 9 April 1890, Zach Taylor was hanged in the Greene County Jail Yard at Waynesburg.  On the scaffold, he claimed his innocence, just as George Clark had done.  Twelve minutes after the drop was done, he was pronounced dead, making him the second of just three men hanged for murder in that particular county.  After his demise, he was buried in the Masontown Cemetery in Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

George Clark and Zach Taylor were the only two who paid the price for McCausland's murder, as the other men who were found guilty ultimately were acquitted, as their lawyer, Franklin Pierce Iams, was able to successfully defend them in appeals.

For more information on Zach Taylor (and on George W. Clark), visit the Greene County Archives and archivist Candice Buchanan's blog at Greene Connections.  Many thanks to Candice Buchanan for her assistance and encouragement on this portion of this post!

William Bartholomew - Easton, Northampton County
William Bartholomew was described in one article as a "slouchy, unkempt, repulsive looking man of about 50 years."  He was a widower and a farmer who lived outside Easton, Pennsylvania.  Very early in the morning the day of 6 September 1889, Bartholomew shot a nearby neighbor Aaron W. Dillard outside his home after creating a ruse with Dillard's wife in which he disturbed the Dillard farm disguised as a chicken thief.  He was arrested the next day after it came to light that for several years, he and Margaret Dillard, Aaron's wife, had been having an affair, and as a result, the Dillards had quarreled and even moved away from their previous home.

The couple were formerly charged with the murder on 16 September 1889, and Margaret was arrested.  She gave a full and complete confession to the murder upon being escorted to the jail, but later recanted it, stating she made it under duress to the lead detective, Detective Johnson.  For her part in the crime, Mrs. Dillard was sentenced to death by hanging, but that charge was later reduced to life in prison at Eastern State Penitentiary.

On 22 October 1889, William Bartholomew was found guilty of murder in the first degree.  He professed his innocence in trial.  He was sentenced to death by hanging.

In the weeks leading up to the hanging, Bartholomew threatened the sheriff with trouble should he be escorted to the scaffold, but ultimately he went without a fight.  His last words on the scaffold were a mixture of proclamations of innocence and demands that Detective Johnson and Mrs. Dillard also be hanged.  His neck was broken when he was hanged, resulting in a quick death.

Alfred Andrews - Bellefonte, Centre County
Alfred Andrews was a native of Ponsanooth, Cornwall, England, and had immigrated to the United States at the age of 17.  He worked as a miner in various districts in Pennsylvania before settling in Brisbin in Clearfield County, where he married and had at least one child.

In November of 1888, he left his wife and child and began to travel around the state, intent on a life of crime.  While in Centre County on 27 November 1888, he happened upon a young woman of sixteen (newspaper accounts have her as old as 18) by the name of Clara Price who was walking towards her home in Karthus along what is now Route 879.  He began to walk with her, talking to her until he came to a secluded spot on the road, where he attempted to "become familiar" with her, newspapers report (though whether or not this is truth will remain a mystery).  This caused her to scream, so he took out his revolver and shot her five times.

Andrews was arrested at his home in Brisbin on 2 December 1889 and was remanded to jail until the trial.  He insisted he was in the area the day of the murder and had spoken to the girl, but was not guilty of her death.

Andrews had a brief trial that began on 27 January 1890, and on the day he was found guilty, he confessed in full to the crime.  Whether or not this confession was made in hopes of getting out of hanging remains a mystery, as some supposed he was not guilty.

Andrews was hanged in the Centre County Jail Yard at Bellefontein front of an audience of over 500 people.  According to newspaper accounts, he made a short speech and expressed repentance for the murder of Clara Price before the drop, in which his neck was broken.

I stumbled across a wonderful blog post by The Pennsylvania Rambler on the subject called A Killing in Karthaus: The Murder of Clara Price that goes into more detail on this crime for those interested.  Pennsylvania Oddities blog written by Marlin Bressi also has a post dedicated to Clara Price and her murder.

Charles Carter - Ebensburg, Cambria County

Charles Carter was a black man and was known as a rough character, having had multiple run-ins with the law before.  According to newspaper accounts, he was the brother of Jesse Henry Carter, who was hanged in Pittsburgh for the murder of John Foster on 3 June 1884 with a rope that was also made by Jacob Bupp.

Charles Carter was friends with another black man by the name of John Matthews, and the men frequented a dive bar that was run in a house owned by John and Annie Roberts, a mixed race couple in the borough of Conemaugh.  On 8 October 1889, the two argued over the affections of a white girl by the name of Emma Dunn and Carter pulled a revolver and shot John Matthews to end the argument.  Matthews was eventually taken to the local hospital, where he died the next day.  Carter fled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested for train jumping.  He wrote to a friend for money for bail and the friend alerted authorities, who had him brought back to Ebensburg to stand trial.

After a very brief trial the first week of December 1889, in which Carter was not even given a lawyer who would defend him, he was found guilty of murder.  A week later, he was sentenced to death by hanging.  It was indicated that there were some strong endorsements for leniency because of the fact that he barely had a defense, but his bad reputation and the bad reputation of his family (besides Jesse's crimes, another brother had also murdered a man and was serving time in the pen) put a kibosh to those endorsements.

Carter's rope was specifically mentioned as being made by Jacob Bupp.  It cost Cambria County $25 for the 25 yard rope, which was the usual length and cost of one of Jacob's hangman's nooses.

Over 300 people were present at his execution in the Cambria County Jail Yard.  He met his death bravely, despite the circumstances, and according to the Altoona Times, "he presented a neat appearance and had taken much pride and care in preparing himself."  Unlike the others, his neck did not break, so he strangled to death

Sources Used and Referenced:
"A Murder Confessed," Lancaster Intelligencer (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 18 September 1889, page 6; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 12 July 2019).

"Another Murder," The Cambria Freeman (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania), 8 November 1889, page 3; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 12 July 2019).

"Arrested for Murder," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 3 December 1889, page 5; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 12 July 2019).

Bressi, Marlin. "April 9, 1890: The Day of the Hangman," Pennsylvania Oddities: Bizarre, odd, gruesome and totally weird stories from Pennsylvania's colorful past, 25 February 2017 (http://paoddities.blogspot.com/ : accessed 12 July 2019).

Bressi, Marlin. "The Clara Price Gravesite," Pennsylvania Oddities: Bizarre, odd, gruesome and totally weird stories from Pennsylvania's colorful past, 5 February 2017 (http://paoddities.blogspot.com/ : accessed 12 July 2019).

Buchanan, Candice."Zach Taylor, Hanged for Murder, 9 April 1890," Greene County Archives, Greene County Connections, 9 March 2019 (https://greeneconnections.com/blog/ : accessed 9 July 2019).

Cabinet card photograph: Zacharias Taylor, by Rogers Studio; Greene County Courthouse Collection; Greene County Archives, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. digital image (https://greeneconnections.pastperfectonline.com : accessed 9 July 2019); GCCH-AN001-0001.

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Gibb, Tom. "Cambria County Jail reopens as a museum," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 6 January 2002; online archives (https://www.post-gazette.com/ : accessed 12 July 2019).

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