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Well Deserved Hanging

Well Deserved Hanging image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
May
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Chicago, May 14. - Zeph Davis, the negro brute who murdered Maggie Gaughan in February last, was hung in the jail in this city Saturday before a small and select audience. The prisoner had a shorter shrt than most nmrderers get in Chicago, and had theother distinetion of having been the first negro officially hung here. For some time after his convictíon he was moróse, dogged and dangerous, having assaulted one or two people who got in his reach, but for a week pjevious to his death he calmed down, and asked to see a elergyman. He professed penitence on the scaffold, and contessed his crime in a written statement which was read just before the drop was sprung. He died coolly,-and without any appearance of fear, declarine: that he believed his sins were forgiven. His death was instantaneous. An effort was made to have his sentence commuted on the ground of insanity, his mother, a respectable negro woman of thia city, visiting Governor Oglesby to plead her case, but the governor, was inexorable.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News