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levser.percryHalas-fet;er;th;ert-tafftls-IonT HREE BROTHERS* vYr1-?. r'» i /. r - Vmm.-'.uvCHAIR OFndmmmElectrocuted. J v• v; * ■ ’I: -,in Quick Successik. 5Fifteen Minutes Sufficing toCarry Out Law s Sentence»■'*2.1.—rain’he %8t lngan edIner-ird[)0-ai-aedkale.reng’ortorks,.* DANNEMORA, N. Y., Oct.Cloudy skies and a drilling ____darkened the cell room at the nwak suing of the three Van Wormer brothers to their last day on earth.The condemned men did not sleep last night, until nearly 3 o'clock this morning, but tossed uneasily upon their cots, The last thing any of them said last night to Assistant Chief Keeper Nash was from the lips of Burton. He said: “I have no morefear of the electric chair than or this meat which we are about to oat, I would just as lief he the last one to I ordeal! go, for I know that I cun stand the!ordeal. I am not afraid.”This was not said boast fully, but very quietly.Keeper Murphy* whp was In the ceil room from midnight until 8 a. m., said when he came oft duty that he had never seen men better prepared for death or more fully in control of their“nerve.”“I tell you,” said he to the Associated Press representative, “they were a lot more self controlled than I.Leaving out any question of their guilt or whether or not they ought to die, I have come to like those three fellows, and it made me feel bad to say good bye to them,”\viliis Van Wormer said this morning to Keeper Murphy: I only wish there were three cbalra instead of one, so that we could all go together.The hardest part of it all is the bubcells this morning and closely their physical condition. In the w while Warden Deyo had decided u the order in which the men were to the chair, as follows:First, Willis, the oldest andImpressionable of the throe; se Frederick, the youngest, who seemed to be the most harden,third, Burton, the second In pointage. ”At 9:30 It was reported to the den that u*e men were in the condition and well nerved for tSi l* i';■» — * *--aV-~tV‘-I m V yElectrocuted In Turn.Willis Van Wormer entered death chamber at 11:34:30, the rent was turned into his body one _ ute later and at 11:37 he was decia dead.At 11:41:30 Frederick entered death chamber and at 11:42 the e rent was turned on and he was ded ed dead at U:*.:30.Burton entered the death charabe 11:47, the current was turned o 11:47:20 and ho was declared dea 11:48:30.The entire proceedings consumed teen and half minutes.During the first execution, Fat Charbonneau remained in the cor between the death ceils, reading era and invocations to the rpm„.Van Wormers. Every precautionbeen taken to prevent the remain!r *f]S’..**•Vi• * r-’• ~ ■MWP** 'i-m■i?pense, but we are ready. We are from hearing more of the deonnknyonso-gvUsirera-Pt-la-onofoneyism-f n-In*at-H,of-to-belier-grateful for the kindness which ev erybody about the prison has shown to us.”The Last Hours,Keeper Murphy awakened theyoung men shortly after 7 o’clock this morning. They were a little dazed at first, sound sleep In the later hours having followed the restlessness after midnight, but almost Immediately they were awake to a full realization of the fact that this was their last day i on earth. Tholr new clothing was ; ready for them and they clothed themselves In the garb they wore at the execution, a gray fiannel shirt and dark trousers, each with the leg «lit to the knee to, allow tho .attachmentof the lower electrode^They took no broakmst. in accordance with the Catholic requirement to come fasting to tholr communion, which Fathers BoMnger and Charbonneau administered to them later.They said, moreover, that they would not eat again, so that their meal at midnight was the last.Frederick, tho youngest, who has all along been the least depressed of the three, and at all times has shown more bravado than tho others, said to Keeper Murphy as he dressed himself: “Well, I suppose by this timetomorrow wo shall be In Kinderhook,” evidently intimating that the brothers expect their bodies will be taken for burial to their homo.To tho fullest extent, tho cqjremony was secret, all tho keepers except the inexorable death watch being excluded. The ancient ritual of tho Lord's supper, after tho manner of the Catholic church, was observe*!.A few feet away in his cell under Jlke condemnation of death sat AllenMooney, the only other prisoner in the cell room, listening to the ceremony, He stands convicted for tho murder of two women.Tho routine of tho prison was carried on without a break early today in contrast with tho former custom.of locking the men in their cells ou tho day of executions.Dr. ivansom. the prison physician,condemned men in theirrqm the ►added andure of their brother f The doors had been p ere vases stuffed with cotton, bo steps of those who removed th less body from the chamber morgue could not be heard. v- vThree’applications of tho and four minutes wort* required for execution of WIHIs, but only two plications of tho full current were deemed nt*lt; *8Bary In the case of F crick and two minutes from tho U ho Grossed the threshold of the d the doctors pronounced him dead, bodies were carried out into the prf morgue and the summons for tho brother was taken back by tho gua Father Uaianger went with them an wnen Burton Van Wormer was brouinto the presence of death'heeompanicd by * two j Hosts, Charbonneau having no further lj to remain 111 tho coll room.Either Burton was tailor than brothers or sat up stratghtor iq „ chair, for the strap which is intend to cover the eyes did not reach hi enough to blindfold him as the rent was switched on,■i .*■•/ •.. •T '-it,■SHistory of Crime*In almost all respect# the t which closed tho day at Clinton _ T. with the death in the ojeqtrlc,chair the three brothers, Van Wormer, w unique in modem criminal hiato Only once before in this atato Is recalled that three brothers hayc gc to their death together for a murde which they were jointly concerned Ou Christmas eve, 1901, with th cousin, Harvey Bruce, tho th brothers drove from their home Kinderhook, some fourteen miles, tho hamlet of Qreendals, in Qoliim._0 county, where lived Peter A. Hallefii the uncle of the Van Wormer■fvsf■i'ih-'«/ *A ;•rboys. On the way they atopped* the Oreendale church, where th stole from the vehicles of tho far ere robes and whips, •Thence they: went on to the Haile back house, where Mr, Halienbachis wife and aged mother wore sitting:nt in their living room.t«,in the lamplig(Continued on Eighth Page.)
Newspaper Details
Daily Californian
Bakersfield, California, US
Thu, Oct 01, 1903
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Kern C.
CA, USA 02 Oct 2020
Other Publications Near Bakersfield, California
The Berkshire County Eagle
Southern Californian and Kern Weekly Courier
The Weekly Californian
Kern County Californian
Daily Californian
