"Of the seven murderers whose execution was fixed for the 9th of April next, James H. Jacobs, of Lancaster, who murdered a relatives, has had his death penalty commuted to imprisonment for life, and William H. Smith, colored of Allegheny, who while drunk, killed his wife, and John W. Rudy, of Lancaster, who murdered his father, were yesterday respited until the 26th of June, to enable their cases to receive further consideration at the hands of the board of pardons."
*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*~ "Two Who May Not Hang," The Jeffersonian-Democrat (Brookville, Pennsylvania), 2 April 1890, page 1
In March, as it was stated previously in Jacob Bupp's alderman post from 1890, Jacob was interviewed as having made the ropes for nine hangings that were to take place on 9 April 1890. Now, research has been done, and while there were a number of hangings that day, it was only seven. Perhaps a reporter misheard, as seven hangings were supposed to be done on the NINTH.... or Jacob (or someone else) inflated the number to make himself look important.
Whatever the reason behind seven becoming nine, only four people ultimately were hanged in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 9 April 1890, which was researched in my previous blog. Three others who were supposed to hang that day ultimately cheated the hangman.
According to the same newspaper interviews, Jacob Bupp had either already made their ropes, or was in the process of making them ropes when they cheated the hangman's noose. Those three men were James H. Jacobs, John Rudy and William H.Smith.
James H. Jacobs
James H. "Reddy" Jacobs was a forty year old widower who lived at 413 Arch Alley in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his three young children. Elmer Ellsworth Quigley was twenty six years old and a neighbor. The two men were friends and may have been related (some newspapers give that they were friends... others state they were relatives). On the night of 11 December 1886, Quigley was walking by Jacobs' home and heard one of his children crying. Upon investigated, he was met by Jacobs, who became angry that he was discovered abusing his children. When Quigley tried to calm him down, Jacobs attacked him with a butcher knife, stabbing him in the stomach. Quigley fled from the house, alerting neighbors he had been stabbed. He was taken home and a doctor and an alderman were summoned, as his wounds were deemed to be fatal. He died the next day.
B. Frank Eshelman was the lawyer who defended Jacobs, and argued Jacobs was not in his right mind. The trial was held at the Lancaster County Courthouse in October 1887, and the jury found Jacobs guilty of first degree murder. The case made its way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, who upheld the verdict and the sentencing.
After a few respites, Jacobs was due to be hanged on April 1890, but in March 1890 the Board of Pardons commuted his sentence to life in prison and he was committed to an insane asylum. It was after examining him that six doctors, all heads of insane asylums in the state gave testimony that he was not sane, and the Board of Pardons recommended that he was not fit for the death penalty and recommended that he have his sentence commuted to life in prison.
James H. Jacobs died in the Eastern State Penitentiary on 24 February 1911 from pneumonia and influenza.
 |
| Tobacco trading card likeness and description for James H. Jacobs from 1887 N283 D. Buchner & Co."Offenders" Collection. Digital image created by Bill Cornell and used with permission |
James H. Jacobs likeness was put on to a trading card series called "Defenders & Offenders".... there is a wonderful description about this series at The Trader Speaks.
John W. Rudy
John W. Rudy was convicted of killing his father, Christian Rudy, on 4 December 1887. He had been discovered with his father's body on a farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His trial was held in June of 1888. His lawyers in his case were B. Frank Eshelman (who was Jacobs' lawyer as well) and John A. Coyle. The evidence in the trial was purely circumstantial, and no motive was ever given as to why Rudy would want his father dead, as the elder Rudy was poor and lived in an almshouse and had no quarrel with his son.
Like Jacobs, he was sentenced to death by hanging, and like with Jacobs, Eshelmen was not going to give up without a fight. A petition of over 8000 people of Lancaster County was presented to the Board of Pardons in May of 1890 by Eshelmen asking to the commutation of Rudy's sentence to life in prison. Even the jurors who convicted him for the crime asked for this commutation, but it was argued they were only doing this out of sympathy, as Jacobs had just received clemency himself.
On 15 July 1890, the Board of Pardons recommended that Rudy's sentence be commuted to life in prison due to the lack of strong evidence. Rudy was sent to Eastern State Penitentiary. In January of 1914, the Board of Pardons took another look at his case and recommended him for a full pardon, and it was granted. He spent 28 years in jail, and his wife divorced him while he was in prison and had remarried.
John W. Rudy sadly took his own life on Christmas Eve, 1916, as his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.
William H. Smith
William H. Smith came home on 4 September 1889 from an out of town trip to discover his wife had committed infidelity with another man, as there were letters revealing the act that had be written from the other man to his wife. He proceeded to drink himself into a blind stupor and shoot her in their home at 124 Fulton Street in Allegheny City while she was sleeping before turning the gun on himself. While he succeeded in killing her, he was not as successful in his suicide attempt and spent some time in the hospital.
William H. Smith was tried in November 1889 and was found guilty of murder in the first degree. he was sentenced to hang on 9 April 1890.
In the 31 March 1890 edition of The Pittsburgh Press came this little tidbit:
"Jacob Bupp to-day held a conference with Sheriff McCandless to determine upon what kind of rope he will make to swing Wife Murderer Smith out of existence, should Gov. Beaver not get back to Harrisburg in time to grant the respite recommended by the pardon board. Bupp has made the ropes for every execution which has taken place in this city for the past 20 years." ("Jacob Bupp Once More," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, page 4)However, on that same day, Smith was given a respite from being hanged with the other murderers on 9 April so that his case could be reviewed by the Pardon Board.
In May 1890, The Board of Pardons was asked to intercede and grant Smith another respite so that a commission could examine him as a patient. According to Smith's lawyers, he was haunted by the spirit of his dead wife at night and held conversations with her and the lawyers offered this as proof of his insanity. However, at that time, they decided not to intervene and his hanging date was set for 20 June 1890.
He was assigned a death watch in his cell on 16 June 1890, with Deputy Sheriff Charles Rice being a part of it. Charles Rice had previously been on several death watches of John Henry Carter, Babe Jones, Martin Weinberger, James McSteen, Frank Small, and Ward McConkey. However, that hanging was also respited pending a sanity hearing.
Eventually he was declared insane and sent to Dixmont Insane Asylum. He was the first colored man convicted of murder to escape execution in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
William Smith died from heart disease at the Allegheny County Home (later Woodville State Hospital) in Woodville, Pennsylvania on 24 April 1919.
Sources Used and Referenced
"A Cold Blooded Murder," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 8 June 1888, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 July 2019).
"Cannot Hang a Lunatic," Lebanon Daily News (Lebanon, Pennsylvania), 24 November 1890, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newpapers.com : accessed 28 October 2017).
"Fast Losing Hope," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 28 March 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 September 2017).
"I am Stabbed," Lancaster Intelligencer (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 15 December 1886, page 6; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 July 2019).
"Jacob Bupp Once More," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, Page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).
"James H. Jacobs Vs. The Commonwealth", I.C. Arnold and George C. Eshelman, The Lancaster Law Review, volume V (The Inquirer Printing and Pulishing Company, 1888), 116-118; online images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=9kCTAAAAIAAJ : accessed 16 July 2019.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: For the session begun at Harrisburg on the Fifth Day of January 1915, Part I (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Wm. Stanley Ray, 1916), 226-227; online images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=GHlDAQAAMAAJ : accessed 16 July 2019).
Loftquist, Bill. "William H. Smith," State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh, 7 February 2018 (https://state-killings-in-the-steel-city.org/ : accessed 14 July 2019).
"Making Nine Ropes," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 31 March 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).
"Neighborhood Notes," The Butler Citizen (Butler, Pennsylvania), 4 April 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 14 September 2017).
Official Documents, Comprising the Department and Other Reports Made to the Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, Volume 1 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Edwin K. Meyers, 1892), 106-11, 137-139; online images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=CXBDAQAAMAAJ : accessed 14 July 2019).
"Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 July 2019), Entry for James Hunter Jacobs, died 24 Feb 1911, cn 19187; citing Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
"Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 July 2019), Entry for John W. Rudy, died 24 Dec 1916, cn 125799; citing Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
"The Plea for Smith," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 21 May 1890, page 5; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 July 2019).
"Quartet Hanged Today: Bopp, the Expert Choker-Maker, Provides the Hemp," The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 9 April 1890, page 7; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 July 2019).
"Reddy' Jacobs Dead," Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 25 February 1911, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 July 2019).
"Rudy is Free," The Inquirer (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 31 January 1914, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 July 2019).
"Rudy Must Die," The Daily New Era (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 20 March 1890, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 July 2019).
"Shadow of the Scaffold," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 9 April 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 8 July 2019).
"Smith May Be Executed," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 16 August 1890, page 6; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 14 July 2019).
"Smith, the Wife Murderer," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 1 April 1890, page 7; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 14 October 2017).
"To Follow Jacobs," Lancaster Intelligencer (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), 16 July 1890, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 July 2019).
"Two Who May Not Hang," The Jeffersonian-Democrat (Brookville, Pennsylvania), 2 April 1890, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 July 2019).
Untitled opinion regarding Smith's respite, Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 1 April 1890, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 July 2019).
"With the Death Watch," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 16 June 1890, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 July 2019).
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are subject to deletion if they are inappropriate or deemed as spam. So please think carefully. I have the right to delete comments, as I am the owner of this blog.