"He made the ropes with which Allison and Sarver were hanged in Indiana, and the inquisitive person can still have a look at their fatal strands by inquiring at the commissioner's office. Mr. Bupp received $25 for each rope."
*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*~"The Home News," The Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania), 1 March 1899, page 7
Joseph Sarver was in his later thirties and was married, although separated from his wife, who lived in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania with their five children. He was separated from her because he had been arrested for threatening to take her life and also failed to support them. The younger Sarver was known as a man with anger issues.
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| Joseph Sarver Source: "Dangled From Gibbets," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 23 September 1884, page 1; found on Newspapers.com |
The two men often argued, most often about money, as the elder Sarver didn't want to give his son a share of the farm to spend. Neighbors heard the younger Sarver yelling a great deal of the time at his old man and they were often fearful that the fights would come to blows. Even William expressed fear that Joseph would one day kill him.
On the night of 11 November 1883, William and Joseph Sarver had an argument over a cat. The old man wanted the cat to sleep locked up in the coal house, while the son wanted his cat to live in the house. When the elder Sarver picked up the cat and carried it to the coal house for the night, the younger Sarver chased after him and drew a revolver, shooting his father in the leg. William Sarver then began to run for the safety of the nearby Foster residence, but tripped and fell in the Fosters' yard. Joseph, catching his father, stepped on his father to pin him down and shot a bullet through his brain. Upon returning to the house, he then shot Belle Kelly twice after proclaiming he had just killed his father and would also kill her, and then fled the scene.
While he did indeed kill William Sarver, Joseph did not kill Belle Kelly. She had been rendered unconscious from his bullets but when she regained consciousness she managed to crawl to the Foster residence and sound the alarm. William Sarver's body had already been found when she sounded the alarm, but it was not known who had killed him until she managed to get help for herself.
Joseph Sarver was captured the next night trying to escape into the woods. He claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing, said he was coming home from visiting a lady friend, but also stated he would not have been captured had he had more bullets in his gun. He was taken to Indiana, Pennsylvania and placed in the same jail cell which had housed James G. Allison just a few years prior.
In March of 1884, Joseph Sarver was arraigned on the charge of murder, and his lawyers were A.W. Taylor, W.L. Stewart, and H.K. Sloan, all of who tried to argue in trial that their client was innocent due to reasons of insanity and weak mindedness due to the fact that he incredibly enraged over the fact that his father seemed to be wasting money. One of the chief witnesses for the prosecution was Belle Kelly, who had recovered form her injuries. Other witnesses testified to the explosive nature of Joseph Sarver and seemed to help the defense's case that he was prone to bouts of rage. However, the defense failed, and Joseph Sarver was found guilty of murder in the first degree on 8 March 1884.
A motion for a new trial was filed on the basis of 11 points, but was not granted, and Joseph Sarver was sentenced to death by hanging. He apparently boasted that he would not be hanged, but rather pardoned by Governor Pattison, since both of them were Democrats.
However, Pattison quashed that belief by signing the death warrant in August, and Sarver's counsel made one final push, this time to the Board of Pardons, hoping to commute their client's death sentence to a sentence of life in prison. However, this also failed.
During his imprisonment, Sarver was quarrelsome, arguing with his jailers over any perceived slight. When his death warrant was read to him, he claimed that he could not be hanged on a Tuesday because it did not suit him.
On 23 September 1884, Joseph Sarver was hanged in the county jail yard in Indiana, Pennsylvania. It was indeed a Tuesday that he was hanged. The same scaffold that hanged James G. Allison was erected to hang him (and he had some things to say about that), and Jacob Bupp again was commissioned to make his rope, which cost the usual $25. The condemned man's last words before his demise were "Jesus crucified, have mercy on my soul." He had been raised a Presbyterian, according to newspapers, but converted to Catholicism in jail.
Sources Used and Referenced:
"1884: Two Pennsylvania murderers," Executed Today, 23 September 2013 (http://www.executedtoday.com/ : accessed 24 June 2019).
"Dangled From Gibbets," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 23 September 1884, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 October 2017).
"Execution of Joe Sarver!," The Indiana Progress (Indiana, Pennsylvania), 25 September 1884, page 3; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 June 2019).
"The Home News," The Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania), 1 March 1899, page 7; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 September 2017).
"Joseph Sarver's Crime," The Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 13 November 1883, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accesssed 11 October 2017).
"The Trial of Joe Sarver," The Indiana Progress (Indiana, Pennsylvania), 13 March 1884, page 3; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 June 2019).
