The Hangman's Ropemaker: Patrick Fitzpatrick, the Last Hanging

"The County Controller yesterday issued a warrant for $25 to Alderman Jacob Bopp. It was in payment for the rope made with which to hang Patrick Fitzpatrick, the condemned murderer, who was to have been executed March 1. The Sheriff has not yet received official notice of the respite for 90 days granted Fitzpatrick."

~"Court Proceedings Condensed," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 26 February 1892, page 8

*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*

For the past five months, I have been researching every single hanging that Jacob Bupp was purported to have made the ropes for.  My research has taken me all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and even to Chicago and Washington, D.C. (figuratively).  I have spent hours pouring over news accounts and legal documents from various trials, and read countless stories about how murder affected the lives of so many in the nineteenth century.  This is the final hanging that Jacob Bupp made as a hangman's ropemaker.  (Don't worry though, there's still more blog posts to come, as he was alive until 1899 and still did a few things after this!)

A Fight Started It All

Samuel Early was a fifty year old roller employed at one of Carnegie's steel mills in Homestead. He had come into Pittsburgh and had spent the day of 2 September 1891 at  James Mulvihill's bar at the Phoenix Hotel on Eleventh Street in Downtown.  That night he had a quarrel with a man by the name of Patrick Fitzpatrick that he had never met before.  Witness could not say why the fight started, but it ended with the powerfully built native Englishman striking Fitzpatrick with his fist.  Fitzpatrick was escorted out of the bar by a couple of other patrons, and Early was handed his hat and ordered to leave by the barkeeper.  When he left the bar, Fitzpatrick was waiting in ambush and stabbed him in the groin with a knife.  The knife severed the femoral artery, which caused Early to bleed out in less than three minutes.

Patrick Fitzpatrick's likeness, as it appeared in the account of his hanging on the first page of the 24 May 1892 edition of  The Pittsburgh Press, found on Google News Archives

Fitzpatrick was immediately arrested.  He tried to assert it was self defense at first, but witnesses to the fight and aftermath later compelled him to admit that the self-defense story was a lie.  While Fitzpatrick had been drinking, police determined he was in full use of his senses.  He was described in papers as a medium sized Irishman of about 38 years old at the time of the incident and a known tramp.

His trial took place on 28 September 1891.  Eyewitnesses testified that they were present for the fight, and one saw Fitzpatrick strike Early but could not see the knife from his vantage point. Fitzpatrick's only defense was that he was too drunk to remember what had happened, but this was refuted by several eyewitnesses who stated he had his wits about him when he was apprehended.  Testimony was done by the end of the day and all that was left when court adjourned that night was for the jury to make their verdict, which they did the next morning.  Fitzpatrick was found guilty of second degree murder.

A motion for a new trial was made that day, but was overruled on 24 October 1891 and he was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Samuel Early.  On 4 January 1892, Governor Pattison signed the death warrant for Patrick Fitzpatrick, fixing the hanging date on 1 March 1892.

In early February 1892, Jacob Bupp was given the contact to make the rope for the hanging.  Even though he was no longer Alderman for the Eleventh Ward of Allegheny City, he was listed as such in an article giving details of Fitzpatrick's fate:

"The rope is being made by Alderman Bupp, of McClure avenue, Allegheny, who has been awarded contracts of the kind for many years, and is an adept in the manufacture of the hangman's rope." ("Fitzpatrick's Fate," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 18 February 1892, page 1)

Patrick Fitzpatrick's lawyers did not give up on the defense that he was too intoxicated to have committed first degree murder, so they appealed to the Pardon Board.  As a result, he was given a respite of ninety days so that the Pardon Board could have a hearing on the matter on 23 Feb 1892.  Even though he was respited, Allegheny County continued to make the arrangements for his hanging, and paid the $25 owed to Jacob for the rope.  It was his scaffold that was being erected that led the three Hungarian men, Andrew Toth, Michael Sabol and George Rusnock, to freak out while in jail in February 1892, thinking they were being hanged even as their sentences were being commuted.

While incarcerated and waiting for his death, Fitzpatrick suggested he was guilty of other crimes throughout the state. He also was reported to have stated that the fight started as a result of the old animosities between Ireland and England

On 14 May 1892, word was received by Fitzpatrick's lawyer that the Board of Pardons refused the application for commutation of the sentence, and an appeal was filed to the Supreme Court.  The Pittsburgh Dispatch reported that it was an "unusual move" since most cases appealed to the Supreme Court before the Board of Pardons.  The Supreme Court refused to intervene and the hanging was set for 24 May 1892.

Fitzpatrick was the first man to be hanged in the new city jail yard in Pittsburgh and the first man to be hanged in Allegheny County since Martin Weinberger eight years prior.  Very few people witnessed the execution, as Sheriff McCleary only issued about 45 passes. Fitzpatrick wore a suit of black, although he had requested a suit of Irish green, in honor of his native country.  At eleven in the morning he was escorted to the scaffold, and two priests prayed the litany of death for him.  It took eighteen minutes for Fitzpatrick to be pronounced dead.  He was buried afterwards in Calvary Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

This was Jacob Bupp's last hangman's rope, though he was listed as being occupied as a ropemaker in the 1893 directory for Pittsburgh and Allegheny City (which was beginning to be processed around the time of the hanging).  After Fitzpatrick's  hanging, Allegheny County decided to find a new ropemaker.  For the next hanging in the county, of Dennis Cloony in 1893,  they chose W. H. Robinson, the foreman for William Kerr's Sons, who constructed both the scaffold and the rope for the hanging.  In the same article that reported the new contract, this was stated:

"This is a departure from an old custom, 'Squire Jacob Bopp of Allegheny having made all the ropes for hanging people that have been used in this country for over 30 years. His last was that made for Patrick Fitzpatrick, who was hanged last summer. The change was made by Sheriff McCleary." ("Preparing the Scaffold," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 21 March 1893, page 2).

It was interesting to note that while hangings were still being used as a mode of execution as late as 1902 (keep in mind electrocution was beginning to come into use), the material used in them was changed from hemp to linen.  As The Pittsburgh Press reported in 1902 while discussing the hangings of Henry Taylor and Charles Davis:

"In this connection it is interesting to know that the ropes used in executions are not made of hemp. The old expression, "stretching hemp," is no longer literally correct. The old handspun hempen ropes are no longer manufactured in Allegheny county, and when Jacob Bopp, of McClure avenue, Allegheny, died, the use of that kind of ropes was done away with. Bopp was formerly a well known character. He made all the ropes used for executions in this and all other counties in Western Pennsylvania." ("Two Murderers Will Soon Hang," 22 June 1902, page 12)

Jacob Bupp's retirement marked an end of an era in ropemaking, and began a new chapter in his life.  Stay tuned for that!

Sources Used and Referenced
"A Murderous Knife," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 3 September 1891, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Another Hope Gone," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 15 May 1892, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Court Proceedings Condensed," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 26 February 1892, page 8; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 October 2017).

"Fitzpatrick Guilty," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 30 September 1891, page 10; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Fitzpatrick Respited," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1892, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Fitzpatrick's Fate," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 18 February 1892, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 31 July 2019).

"Fixed for March," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 5 January 1892, 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Four Very Happy Murderers," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 26 February 1892, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : 28 october 2017 ).

J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1893/1894 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1893), 190, "Bupp Jacob, rope mkr, Shady ay, 11th wd, A(llegheny)"; digital image, University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library, Historic Pittsburgh (www.historicpittsburgh.org : accessed 17 August 2016).

"Life for a Life," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 May 1892, page 1; online images, Google News (https://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 2 August 2019).

Loftquist, Bill. "Patrick Fitzpatrick," State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh, 12 January 2018 (https://state-killings-in-the-steel-city.org/ : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Murder by a Tramp," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 29 September 1891, page 8; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 2019).

"Murderer Sentences," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 October 1891, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 August 1892).

"Preparing the Scaffold," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 21 March 1893, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 October 2017).

"Two Murderers Will Soon Hang," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 22 June 1902, page 12; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 September 2017).